Fallout is built around the existence of vaults – pre-war bunkers constructed by the mysterious Vault-Tec corporation. However, it’s often shocking to learn that these vaults were never destined to actually save anyone, with only a tiny percentage of these seemingly safe havens being used to live out the nuclear apocalypse. In Fallout, Vault-Tec designed these bunkers with a range of experiments in mind, all of which fell within the confines of the Societal Preservation Program.
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What better way to perform experiments on unsuspecting members of the public than to lock them in an inescapable underground vault at the height of a nuclear war? With the Societal Preservation Program, Vault-Tec created all manner of tests and studies, from the scientific to the downright bizarre. In Fallout, very few vault dwellers were safe, and many entered their respective bunkers completely unaware that they were walking into a nightmare.
Updated on April 20, 2024, By Benjamin Joe: Thanks to the release of the Fallout TV show, fans are opting to pick up their controllers and give certain Fallout games another play-through. There are lots of Vaults in the world of Fallout. However, almost all of them were designed to use human beings as lab rats. With 122 known Vaults, Vault-Tec has spent lots of time, resources, and money creating these large testing grounds where they can conduct all sorts of experiments on the Vault Dwellers without them knowing.
10 Vault 108: Gaaaaary
A Vauly Filled With Gary Clones
Fallout 3
- Released
- October 28, 2008
In Fallout 3, released in 2008, players stumble upon Vault 108, completely devoid of life except for a collection of clones, all named Gary. They’re an aggressive bunch, targeting the player from the moment they enter the vault, charging forth while crying out one word: “Gaaaary!”
If that wasn’t bad enough, the vault was left poorly staffed and badly organized from the start, with power systems being pre-arranged to fail after a twenty-year period. Following a string of medical experiments by the dwellers, a man named Gary was cloned over and over again, each time becoming more aggressive. Ultimately, it’s assumed that the Garys took over, as when the player arrives at Vault 108, all that remains is a collection of clones.
9 Vault 75: The Vault In The School
The Vault That Separates Families
Fallout 4
- Released
- November 10, 2015
Fallout 4 introduced players to Vault 75, one of the most bizarre and horrifying vaults in the history of the franchise. Hidden under a school, Vault-Tec’s ruse was that this vault would give children and their families a safe place to hide out from the impending nuclear apocalypse. However, the truth about Vault 75 couldn’t have been more gruesome.
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As the player explores Vault 75, they learn that families were split up when they entered the vault, with the parents being executed while the children were led deeper into the bunker. Following the slaughter, the children were told that they were being made strong enough to face the horrors above ground. In truth, children that didn’t perform as expected were ‘harvested’, and those that were a shining example simply joined the scientific team studying the children.
8 Vault 81: For Science
Sabotage From Within
In Fallout 4, the player will eventually find Vault 81, a unique vault in that it’s still perfectly operational, with many vault dwellers living safely inside. However, the survival of these vault dwellers is only due to the failure of the vault’s original experiment, which would have been the inhabitants exposed to all manner of infectious diseases, while Vault-Tec scientists watched on from a parallel observation vault.
Fortunately, the first overseer of Vault 81, a Dr. Olivette, refused to tow the line, ultimately sabotaging the entire experiment. As the observation vault was totally hidden, the real inhabitants of Vault 81 had no idea how close they had come to certain death. Even if they had carried out the experiment successfully and the vault dwellers had tried to escape, they would have been brutally incinerated by the Vault-Tec observers.
7 Vault 87: FEV Horrors
The Forced Evolutionary Virus Is Deadly
Vault 87 is a terrifying vault hidden deep within Fallout 3’s DC Wasteland. It’s the ‘birthplace’ of many of the region’s mutated creatures, from the Centaurs to the Super Mutants. As one of the most advanced Vault-Tec bunkers, Vault 87 was fully equipped to take control of the Forced Evolutionary Virus, using it to experiment on human and animal subjects. This virus was effectively responsible for the creation of some of the most iconic, horrifying creatures in the franchise.
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Unfortunately, the security systems within the vault failed after just one year, allowing the test subjects to escape from their holdings. They went on a rampage, with the Super Mutants bursting onto the surface and starting to kidnap as many explorers as possible, bringing them back to the vault to convert them into their kind. It’s an extremely tough vault to explore, and players that stumble upon it are often in for a nasty surprise.
6 Vault 114: The Wealth Experiment
Nobody is Too Rich To Suffer
At first, Vault 114’s experiment might seem petty, but it’s certainly a contender for the most bizarre Vault in Fallout history. Located in the Boston Commonwealth in Fallout 4, Vault 114 was created to test the behavior of wealthy inhabitants after they’ve been stripped of their status and belongings. In Vault 114, only the richest, most elite members of society would be granted access, and when the bombs fell, they’d find themselves living in absolute poverty.
To make matters worse, Vault-Tec intended to put in place as strange and incompetent an overseer as possible. They ultimately settled on ‘Soup Can Harry’, an eccentric vagrant with a delusional mindset. Fortunately for Boston’s elite, Vault 114 never entered service, and when the player finds it hundreds of years later, it’s occupied by a gang and relatively unfinished.
5 Vault 68 And 69: Outnumbered Inhabitants
Not A Good Ratio
Fallout 2
- Released
- October 29, 1998
- Developer(s)
- Black Isle Studios
Both Vault 68 and Vault 69 were cut content, stripped from showing up in Fallout 2 but still being documented. Had they been featured, they might have just taken the prize for being the most bizarre vaults in the Fallout franchise, boasting experiments that were unbelievably strange. In these vaults, there was a dramatic imbalance in the arrangement of the inhabitants that would have certainly caused countless issues.
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In Vault 68, one thousand occupants would enter – 999 men and one woman. In Vault 69, there would be 999 women and one man. While it isn’t known what happened in these near-conceptual vaults, it’s safe to assume that some horrible things may have taken place. Which vault was worse is up to the player’s own imagination.
4 Vault 11: The Ultimate Sacrifice
Those Who Don’t Sacrifice, Don’t Survive
Fallout: New Vegas
- Released
- October 19, 2010
Vault 11 can be found in Fallout: New Vegas, and it’s a bunker that contains a bizarre, twisted, and heartbreaking backstory. From the moment the inhabitants entered the vault, they were told that every year, they’d have to select one of their fellow vault dwellers and execute them. If they didn’t, they were led to believe that the entire vault would be incinerated, killing everyone inside.
However, the truth was something tragic, as in actual fact, if the occupants refused to make a sacrifice, the door to the vault would unlock, and they’d all be allowed to leave. In the climax to this backstory, it’s revealed that the occupants were whittled down to the final five, at which time they decided to stop making sacrifices. At that point, four of the five survivors settle on ending their own lives, but the last, lone dweller refuses to give up, opting instead to leave the vault, never to be seen again.
3 Vault 92
The Sonic Experiment
Vault 92 can be found in the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3. The whole purpose of this Vault was to find out if people could be controlled into committing acts of violence with the use of modulated ultra low frequency white noise. Vault Tec’s plan was to use the noise to create Super Soldiers.
It didn’t take long for things to fall apart. One of the Vault’s musicians, Subject V920717, lost his mind and murdered three other Vault dwellers. He was only stopped when the security team shot him multiple times. After a while, the whole Vault fell into a state of disrepair after the maintenance crew died. It wasn’t long after this that parts of the Vault became flooded and various mutated creatures took over.
2 Vault 106
A Psychedelic Nightmare
This Vault can be found southeast of Arefu in Fallout 3. This Vault’s purpose was to experiment on its inhabitants with psychoactive drugs. Just 10 days after the Vault door was sealed, the tests began.
The Overseer, Albert Leris, knew the dangers that came with these experiments but continued regardless. The psychoactive drugs made the dwellers delirious and violent. When the violence started, the Overseer tried his best to regain control of the situation, but to no avail. By the time The Lone Wanderer gets inside the Vault, all that’s left in the Vault are a bunch of insane survivors who do their utmost to kill The Lone Wanderer.
1 Vault 77
One Man And A Box of Puppets
Vault 77 can’t be visited in any of the Fallout games. Instead, it is mentioned a couple of times in Fallout 3. This Vault’s purpose was to test and break the will of an individual to see what would happen. One man was locked in Vault 77 alone. He is referred to as ‘Puppet Man’. The only thing he found to pass the time was a box of puppets.
Initially, the ‘Puppet Man’ thought this was a mistake, and there were more dwellers waiting to get in. However, over time, he began losing his mind. One day, he managed to escape the Vault, which remains uninhabited to this day. Nobody knows what happened to the ‘Puppet Man ‘, aside from a mention on a Holotape that can be found in Paradise Falls.
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