The new Fallout show begins in a Vault and has plenty of lore twists from there. What are all the Vault experiments? Vaults from Fallout 76, New Vegas, and more explained
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Fallout season 1, as well as information from the Fallout games.]
The Vault systems in the Fallout franchise are meant to be a utopia, a shelter away from the harsh apocalyptic Wasteland and nuclear fire.
Of course, nothing is ever as it seems, and a little bit of digging (Lucy’s journey in Fallout season 1 or playing to the end of Fallout 2) reveals that the Vault systems are actually a way to experiment on survivors. Some of the premises are so wild or impractical that it doesn’t seem like an experiment at all, and many failed spectacularly. (According to series creator Tim Cain, the purpose was to test humanity’s ability to travel through space, but this isn’t in any of the games so far.)
There are two experiments in the Prime Video show that we get to see: Vault 4 and the combined network of Vaults 31, 32, and 33. Something like Vault 4 is relatively straightforward: a society ruled by scientists. Unfortunately, the scientists’ experiments got out of hand, creating the monstrous gulpers and requiring a total restructuring of their society.
Vaults 31, 32, and 33 are a little more complex. These interlinked Vaults rely on each other, with the members of 33 and 32 arranging marriages in order to diversify their populations. Early on, it appears that 32 fell to raiders. However, Norm and Chet soon find that the inhabitants of 32 died long before raiders ever arrived due to a terrible famine. As for Vault 31, we learn that Vault-Tec executives are frozen in here, and thawed whenever a new Overseer must be installed.
If you’re curious as to the other Vaults scattered across Fallout’s vast canon, here is a list of the monstrous experiments that Vault-Tec carried out after the apocalypse.
Vault 4: Those poor, unfortunate scientists. Now populated with the survivors, combined with refugees from Shady Sands. Chris Parnell plays the good-spirited Overseer, with a slightly strange single eye.
Vault 8: A control Vault, which means there was no active experiment. After 10 years, the Vault opened and used its Garden of Eden Creation Kit to found the large and successful Vault City.
Vault 11: This Vault had a psychology test in which the occupants had to vote for one human sacrifice each year or else lose all life support. The cruel conclusion of the experiment is that if the Vault Dwellers did refuse to sacrifice one of their own, the Vault would open and allow them to leave unharmed. Unsurprisingly, this is not what happened, and the results were tragic.
Vault 12: What happens if the Vault door doesn’t seal quite right, and radiation filters in? The answer is Necropolis, a community of Ghouls.
Vault 13: The home of the original Fallout’s protagonist. Vault 13 was meant to stay closed for 200 years, but a faulty water chip led to one of their own trekking out into the world in search of a solution.
