Top 10 Fallout Vaults With The Creepiest Backstories

“Fallout” (1997) The vaults encountered in the first two games weren’t all that sinister – especially not by the standards of later entries in the franchise – but Vault 12 was certainly unpleasant when you dug into its past. You initially travel to Vault 12 to find a working water chip to replace Vault 13’s and find a huge city of ghouls built within it, now known as Necropolis and occupied by the Master’s super mutant army. Vault 12 and Necropolis are underneath the ruins of Bakersfield, and were, of course, part of an elaborate experiment on the part of Vault-Tec. It seems that this time, they wanted to see what would happen if they built a vault with a faulty door that would never quite close. The vault was filled with radiation and only 7 years after the war, most of the population had become ghouls.

“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010) The Powder Gangers are the first villainous faction encountered in “New Vegas”, but they’re not all that intimidating; while most of them are still holed up in the NCR Correctional Facility, some others have set up camp in Vault 19, a vault designed to study the effects of arbitrary segregation. Dwellers were randomly assigned a color, red or blue, and sent to live in either the Red Sector or Blue Sector. The two overseers were in on the scheme, and working for Vault-Tec they encouraged the dwellers to distrust their neighbors. The people became sickeningly paranoid and didn’t trust anybody around them – they could hardly even trust themselves. It’s not clear how many of them made it out, but hopefully, some did escape and find some peace.

“Fallout 4” (2015) We already saw one settlement inhabited by children in the series; but unlike Vault 75, Little Lamplight was born by total accident when a school field trip was trapped in the Lamplight Caves as the Great War began. Vault 75, on the other hand, was designed to indoctrinate children into becoming soldiers. Built underneath Maiden Middle School in Boston, the children’s parents were executed as the war began. The children were never meant to make it out, either; not unless they were talented enough to join the military behind the scenes. They were almost all periodically executed upon becoming adults. It’s not clear how long this horror continued until the inhabitants finally escaped, but it was certainly longer than anybody would have liked.

“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010) Though lots of Vault-Tec experiments were deeply cruel and sadistic, others made complete sense given the vaults’ purpose as fallout shelters. Vault 22 is one such case, designed to work out how to grow plants in the irradiated wasteland. And, in a lot of ways, it was a success; they did grow a whole lot of plants. Unfortunately, they also produced deadly, fungal spores that turned the vault dwellers into bright green “spore carriers”. You need to navigate the maze-like halls and decide what’s best for the Wasteland: destroy the vault and everything contained within, or take the science in case it’s useful for growing crops – but you have to give it to an untrustworthy member of the NCR. It’s one of “New Vegas’s” most unique locations and best-designed quests.

“Fallout 3” (2008) Perhaps “Fallout 3’s” most underrated vault, Vault 92 was built to house the US’s best and brightest musicians; the Lone Wanderer is sent there by Agatha, an elderly violinist who wants them to retrieve a pristine, Soil Stradivarius from inside. Once there, you’ll be mostly contending with mirelurks and trying to unravel the mystery of the vault. It turns out that Vault-Tec didn’t care all that much about music, because the vault’s experiment was to brainwash the inhabitants using subliminal, white noise so that they would become obedient and effective super soldiers. It worked a little too much, driving the dwellers to madness and causing them to kill each other.

“Fallout 4” (2015) While many of the vaults seemed to house only those rich enough to pay for a spot within, Vault 95 had a different audience in mind: recovering and former drug addicts. For five years, the residents were treated for addiction and supported – until the vault’s experiment kicked in and a secret chem supply was released to the inhabitants. With the stress of a nuclear war on top, the dwellers couldn’t cope and started to use chems again. The vault descended into chaos and very few made it out. It’s a truly evil twist of fate to spend five years helping people recover from an illness like addiction, only to throw that all away and encourage them to use again, which is what makes Vault 95 so sinister.

“Fallout 3” (2008) When “Fallout 3” moved the franchise to the east coast, Todd Howard needed to come up with a reason for there to be super mutants miles away from the Master. That reason was Vault 87, a vault used to infect people with the Forced Evolutionary Virus, or FEV. Vault 87 was also hit head-on by a nuke, rendering the main entrance the most irradiated spot in the Capital Wasteland. In fact, it’s almost impossible to reach the main entrance without using cheats, and the door is inaccessible to boot, so you’ve got to go the back way. These creepy caves – called “Murder Pass” – are also swarming with super mutants. The whole ordeal will take a lot of ammo and patience – and it’s difficult not to pity the super mutants when you find out how horrible the story of their creation is.

“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010) Maybe there’s such a thing as “too much” democracy? In Vault 11, the residents were tasked with regularly electing a new overseer, with one catch: whoever was chosen would be sentenced to death and executed. By the time the Courier reaches the vault, it’s empty, save for many sinister posters asking people to elect their least-favorite candidate for execution. If the dwellers clubbed together and refused to participate in the farcical elections, they would all be killed by the vault’s security systems. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. However, the story doesn’t end there; it turns out that this was a lie, Vault-Tec wanted them to refuse a sacrifice, and in doing so would congratulate them and end the experiment. Only a handful were still alive when this was discovered.

“Fallout 3” (2008) In one of “Fallout 3’s” most memorable quests, the Lone Wanderer reaches Vault 112 and finally reunites with their father, Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson is trapped in the vault’s Tranquility Lane simulation just like everybody else, forced to occupy a 1950’s cul-de-sac, living and dying according to the whims of the vault’s insane overseer, Dr. Braun. The vault has a good karma and bad karma way out; in the former, you’ll need to sneak into a spooky, abandoned house and activate the simulation’s failsafe, putting all the residents out of their misery. In the latter, you terrorize the neighborhood, becoming the “Pint-Sized Slasher” and murder the dwellers one-by-one. Having your life ended over and over again by some maniac is definitely an awful way to spend 200 years.