There are few entities in the Fallout universe as diabolical as Vault-Tec Corporation. Though the company was supposed to build bunkers to protect Americans in the case of nuclear annihilation, it squandered its ample government-given resources to manufacture some of the most unhinged, human-rights-violating, mad-cap experiments ever featured in video game history.
We’ve scraped the internet to find the worst bunkers imaginable and Vault-Tec doesn’t disappoint. Our selection involves supplementary material and cannon vaults alike, so grab an ice-cold Nuka Cola and strap in for the top 10 Vault-Tec Vaults that make nuclear fallout look like a walk in the park.
The most inhumane Vault experiments in Fallout
We’ve scraped the internet to find the worst bunkers imaginable and Vault-Tec doesn’t disappoint. Our selection involves supplementary material and cannon vaults alike, so grab an ice-cold Nuka Cola and strap in for the top 10 Vault-Tec Vaults that make nuclear fallout look like a walk in the park.
10. Vault 70
Kicking things off on the light side of the horror spectrum, we have Vault 70. 70 hasn’t graced any games, but it was designed for Fallout 3. Located in Utah, the bunker was built for the Mormon church, which financed its building. There isn’t much known about how large the vault would be, but design notes show that Vault-Tec’s chief concern was pushing the highly religious inhabitants to the brink.
It wasn’t through violence or drugs, however, as Vault-Tec is so want to use. Instead, their jumpsuit extruders, aka the thing that manufactures the dweller’s clothes, was scheduled to break down in a matter of months. We’ll likely never know what the outcome of the social experiment was but it’s pretty hilarious to think about.
9. Vault 77
As described in the Fallout Bible, Vault 77 was designed to hold 1000 people, but only one man was ever let in. The lone Vault dweller spent more than a year in complete isolation before discovering Vault-Tec’s hidden surprise: a crate of “puppet friends.” Isolation can do terrible things to a person’s mind. It’s been linked to decreased white matter in the brain – specifically, those areas involved with critical thinking and emotional control – and our boy was no exception.
He was quickly beset by a litany of mental health issues, mostly centered around one Vault Boy hand puppet. Survivor 77 eventually left the Vault and lived a life full of adventure, misery, and a ton of murder. Though The Puppet Man never appears in game, you can read his adventure in comic form, and find evidence of him in the Capital Wasteland.
8. Vault 118
Nothing says apocalypse like strict social hierarchy, and Vault 118 leaned hard into the idea of “everything in its place.” Buried under a bougie hotel, the vast majority of the vault was designed for just 10 uber-wealthy patrons. A second, much more cramped living space was dedicated to 300 working-class locals and was only accessible by walking through the rich-exclusive area.
Except none of that ever came to pass. Instead, once the luxurious side was completed, the wealthy halted construction and funneled the funds into the Robobrain project. Replacing their living breathing bodies with robots, the dwellers sealed the vault with only themselves – and one hapless human Overseer – inside, leaving the town’s population to die in the war.
7. Vault 106
Vault 106 seemed perfect on paper. None of its systems were designed to shut down and there were no weird social requirements. Everything went smoothly until 10 days after the doors were sealed, at which point the Overseer released hallucinogenic gases into the air filtration system. Residents quickly started feeling the effects, which included disorientation, delirium, and eventually violent behaviors.
Like most of the Vault-Tec experiments, it ended in disaster after the enraged masses overwhelmed the overseer and their limited security personnel. The Vault’s systems are still very much intact meaning the damage is far from over. Anyone who dares enter the vault is almost immediately subjected to massive doses of the drug leaving it uninhabitable.
6. Vault 112
One of the smallest vaults on record, Vault 112 was only meant to house 85 dwellers. The bunker was outfitted with state-of-the-art Visitron Loungers, virtual reality chairs, that would allow residents to ostensibly live forever. The one caveat, the simulated utopias were under the complete control of the Overseer, who just so happened to be a megalomaniac psychopath with a penchant for torture.
The overseer trapped the inhabitants of Vault 112 in a simulated 1950’s suburban neighborhood where he twisted their minds while disguised as a prepubescent British girl named Betty. In the simulation, Betty was able to kill every inhabitant she wanted, then erase their memories, and the evidence, over and over again. Vault Tec’s failsafe for the program was just as sadistic. The only way to release the dwellers would kill them instantly, but hey, at least it was designed to leave the cruel Overseer trapped alone indefinitely.
5. Vault 12
While Vault 12’s experiments were horrific, they did lead to one of the finest Ghoul cities in the Fallout series, and most of the dwellers lived to tell their story. The vault was filled with some of the most nuclear war prepared minds California had to offer. When the bombs dropped, the population of the local city immediately rallied to the Vault, but little did they know Vault-Tec designed the doors to seal improperly. Residents were immediately dosed with radiation, and many were subjected to ghoulification.
Some of the would-be-inhabitants chose to leave the Vault after just 6 years, while others remained. Eventually, the Vault was overtaken by the brutish Ghoul leader, Set, who founded the Ghoul city of Necropolis.
4. Vault 68
Vault 68 doesn’t appear in any of the games, but it can be found in the Fallout Bible. We don’t need much more than one sentence to imagine just how horrific the bunker would be. One of the biggest vaults mentioned, 68 could hold 1000 people. But naturally, there was a catch, 999 of the dwellers were men. The last was the only woman.
The story of Higa Kazuko from the Japanese Island of Anatahan paints a grotesque picture of how that untenable situation might have gone. During World War 2, 31 men washed ashore after their ships were sunk off the coast of the island. After Kazuko’s farmhand, who had claimed to be her husband, was murdered in the night, things took a turn for the worse. Over the next few weeks, 11 men wound up dead, and Kazuko fled into the jungle to survive. With nowhere to run, the lone female vault dweller likely lived a horrible life with the few men who survived alongside her.
3. Vault 95
We’re all a little addicted to something. Whether it be your morning cup of joe, or something a little harder, we all know how challenging it can be to let go of the things you love. Vault 95 was specially designed for chem addicts and was set up like a sort of rehabilitation center with mandatory meetings for inhabitants. A Vault-Tec employee hidden amongst the group waited 5 years after the bomb dropped before opening a secret stash of chems hidden in the Vault.
The once close-knit group of Vault Dwellers fell into chaos, some gave into their addiction, others hid away and tried to stay clean, and the rest exploded at Vault-Tec for their manipulation. In the end, the residents ripped themselves apart. With the few who remained joining various bandit factions in the Commonwealth.
2. Vault 108
One of the Vaults that lives rent-free in many player’s minds is Vault 108. Built to hold just under 500 residents for 40 years, the social experiment in the Vault centered around leaving important positions vacant to stress inhabitants out. Even the Overseer’s time was short, with Vault-Tec purposefully selecting a man they knew would die of cancer within 4 years.
Add to the lack of leadership the planned failure of key equipment like water filtration and electric generators and it was a perfect mixture for failure. But it wasn’t the above that brought the Vault to its knees, no, it was science! Tests recorded in the Vault centered around cloning experiments. A man named Gary was cloned 54 times, with each rendition becoming more and more hostile towards non-clones. Somehow the clones organized an escape (amazing considering their ability to speak included only the work “Gary”), murdered the remaining inhabitants, and took the Vault for themselves.
1. Vault 87
There are few things worse than Super Mutants in the Fallout franchise. The big green meanies chow down on human flesh and keep herds of Centaurs on hand (at least in the Capital Wasteland). Vault 87 housed the first Vault-Tec experiments with the dangerous mutagen, and you’d better believe that civilians were the first test subjects.
After the vault was sealed, the Evolutionary Experimentation Program kicked off immediately. Men and women were infected, with each gender evolving into an androgynous, thick-skinned, super buff, and very angry super mutant. Vault-Tec scientists burned through civilian subjects for more than a year before the mutants managed to take over, and for the next 200 years, they captured and turned any humans they could find.
We look forward to seeing how the Fallout TV series, now steaming on Amazon Prime, adds to this list.