Fallout Shelter

For the locations, see Fallout shelter.

Game
Fallout Shelter
Development information
Developer	Bethesda Game Studios Behaviour Interactive
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Release date	iOS: June 14, 2015 Android: August 13, 2015 PC: July 14, 2016 (Bethesda.net launcher) March 29, 2017 (Steam) Xbox One: February 7, 2017 PS4, Nintendo Switch: June 10, 2018 Tesla: May 20, 2020
Genre	Simulation, tycoon
Engine	Unity
Modes	Single player
Rating	ESRB: T OFLC: G PEGI: 12+
Platforms	iOS, Android, PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch
System requirements	iOS: iPhone 5, iPad 3 or iPad mini 2 or better Android: Android 4.1 or newer PC: 261,7 MB of free disk space Xbox One: 1.41 GB of free disk space
Availability
PC	Steam
Xbox	Xbox One Store
Banner for iOS release Banner for Android release

 

The following is based on information from Fallout Shelter or Fallout Shelter Online.

Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play installment in the Fallout series for iOS, Android, Xbox One, PS4 and Microsoft Windows which was announced at Bethesda's E3 2015 press conference on June 14, 2015. The game was released on the iOS App Store the same day, after the conference ended. The game allows the player to create their own vault and thereby become an overseer of its inhabitants. It is the seventh overall game to take place in the Fallout world. It is not considered canon.

It was announced at QuakeCon 2015 that the Android version would be released on August 13, 2015. It featured new game updates, including the Mister Handy robot as an all new premium reward. Mister Handy can collect resources, be sent into the wasteland to collect loot, and serve as a defender of the vault against creatures and disasters, including all new deathclaw and mole rat infestations.

The game was made available for PC on July 14, 2016, and at first required the Bethesda.net launcher to play. The game was also made available for Xbox One on February 7, 2017, with cross-platform compatibility between Windows 10 and Xbox One. The biggest new feature for the game was the introduction of achievements, which can be obtained through completing the requirements for the achievement.

The game was released on Steam on March 29, 2017, with the same achievements as the ones that can be found on the Xbox version. Fallout Shelter surpassed 100 million users across phones, tablets, PC and Xbox One on September 14, 2017.

Todd Howard announced at E3 on June 10, 2018, that the game had just been released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, making it available on all major consoles at the time.

As of June 2019, the game has grossed over $100,000,000.00 in revenue.

On June 11, 2018, Fallout Shelter was released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and on May 20, 2020, Fallout Shelter was released on Tesla in-car entertainment system.

Project history

Early development

According to lead developer Todd Howard, several early designs had been pitched and rejected.

On November 5, 2009, John Carmack of Id Software said that, while it was nothing official yet, he had an internal proof of concept made for a Fallout iPhone game. Both Carmack and Bethesda's Todd Howard are fans of the platform and any iPhone game based on Bethesda's IP will likely be made as a joint project between id and Bethesda. Carmack said that he will likely be personally involved in making the game, although currently he is too overloaded with work on other games. "At the very least I'm going to be providing code," he said.

Development

During development, the game was codenamed "Underground." Bethesda directed the design, mechanics, and look and feel of the game whilst Behaviour Interactive, a studio based in Montreal, was responsible for implementation.

The game was a surprise release on June 14, 2015, during Bethesda's first E3 conference.

Post-development and lawsuit

In 2018, Bethesda Softworks sued Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros for copyright infringement and breach of contract, claiming that Warner Bros had released a similar Westworld themed game based on pre-release Fallout Shelter code. This copyright infringement included the released Westworld product expressing bugs that were removed prior to Fallout Shelter's release and cite similarities in mechanics, animation and user design.

Future Plans

In 2019, Bethesda announced plans for a "Fallout Shelter Online," which went on a beta testing period limited only to China. The game is fairly similar to the original Fallout Shelter, with several different design aspects, and an entirely new online way of playing Fallout Shelter.

Gameplay

Fallout Shelter is a simulation game in which the player runs a Vault-Tec vault as the overseer. As the overseer, one controls all of the vault's functions including: power, food, water and the number of vault dwellers. To advance through the simulation one needs to increase the size of the vault by adding and upgrading new rooms, each with their own function and then adding dwellers to run each room.

Vault rooms

Main article: Fallout Shelter rooms

Fallout Shelter contains 23 buildable rooms that are unlocked by increasing the number of vault dwellers. All rooms can have a limited number of dwellers assigned to it and each production room requires at least one dweller to run it. Each room built begins at tier one and can be upgraded with caps as far as tier three.

Each room requires a specific SPECIAL skill to run at its maximum efficiency. With production rooms, such as a power generator, it will produce and hold more power when upgraded but will take longer to produce unless more efficient dwellers are assigned there. Rooms can also be merged by placing an identical room next to it.

Merged rooms are larger and take longer to produce supplies and cost more to upgrade, but are also more efficient. Rooms must also be of the same tier level to merge and will merge automatically when built next to each other.

Dwellers

Main article: Vault dwellers

Vault dwellers are an essential part of the game and are required for: operating production rooms, reproducing, protecting the vault from raider and deathclaw attacks and scavenging the wasteland. To increase the vault dweller population, one can wait for them to show up at random, mate two dwellers, get them from lunchboxes, or produce a radio studio.

Each dweller will spawn with only a vault jumpsuit and their fists for a weapon. Basic dwellers start at Level 1 and can be upgraded up to Level 50 through working, preventing hazards and scavenging. Whenever a dweller levels up a number of caps are gained equal to their new level. All dwellers have their own individual S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes and are most commonly set between 1 and 3. SPECIAL attributes can also be boosted with SPECIAL rooms such as classrooms or armories.

Vault dwellers can also be acquired with additional levels, attributes, outfits and weapons if acquired through lunchboxes or exploring the wasteland. Many of the dwellers, weapons, outfits, and pets are featured from other Fallout games, most noticeably Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

Incest is not allowed as putting two dwellers with the same surname in the living quarters or any of its upgrades will trigger a conversation between the characters citing "Nothing like hanging out at home with my family." Automated surnames of children are of their parent of the opposite gender, e.g. female offspring will follow the last name of the father, male offspring will follow the last name of the mother. This may not always happen though. First and last names, however, can be reassigned by players, but it will not let dwellers have incest due to background code.

Wasteland

One can send up to 25 dwellers to explore the wasteland to obtain extra armor, weapons, and caps. Dwellers will come across locations from Fallout 4 seen in the explorer's update logs. One can direct a dweller through the building to fight, explore and collect items to bring back to the vault. After returning, one can collect all the things discovered by the dweller in the wasteland. One can equip the dweller with stimpaks and RadAway from one's stock at the start of exploration. Also, a dweller will automatically return to the vault if they have collected 100 items.

Lunchboxes

Main article: Lunchbox

Lunchboxes are awarded upon completion of certain game objectives and are also available for purchase via micropayments. Each lunchbox allows the player to attain five cards, each card then allows players to attain either dwellers, weapons, outfits or resources. Though the in-game description states that "Each lunchbox is guaranteed to either have a dweller or a rare item and a guaranteed junk," +500 caps are also categorized as a rare item. Players could also obtain Common, Rare and/or Legendary dwellers through lunchboxes.

Item crafting

Junks and recipes can be collected from the wasteland or from lunchboxes, which can be used for crafting weapons via a weapon workshop and outfit workshop. By paying caps and junk, one can assemble items in the workshop. The duration of crafting varies. Some weapons and outfits can only be obtained via crafting. Each item will require different pieces of junk of varying rarity. Recipes may also need to be found to make certain items and better equipment requires rarer junk.

Mysterious Stranger

Occasionally the Fallout shelter version of the Mysterious Stranger jingle will play to signify that the Mysterious Stranger has appeared somewhere in the vault, clicking on him within the short amount of time he is visible for results in a random amount of caps being given, sometimes a very large amount (possibly up to 5286). The vanishing jingle plays when he leaves. If the sound is turned off but vibrations are left on, a double vibration will indicate his arrival and a single vibration will indicate his departure.

If the sound is on, the tone will increase in volume as the screen centers on the Mysterious Stranger. If during the jingle, the player scans across the vault, it's possible to home in on his location via 'sonar'. If the player zooms all the way out (requires HD Zoom Out to be turned off), all dwellers, pets, and the Mysterious Stranger will be in front of all walls and/or obstacles, making it much easier to find him.

Quotes

"I think that the world of Fallout is unique enough that it could work on any platform. I think some of the things we do like V.A.T.S., I think that could translate to any platform, particularly the iPhone. We've looked into those things, we just haven't found the thing that supports the brand well. I wouldn't be surprised if it does happen one day. The iPhone versions that we've designed and said 'Ehh, we don't think we're going to do that right now,' there are ... there are a lot of them."

Bugs

See: Fallout Shelter bugs

Reception

Fallout Shelter received "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 63/100 on PC, 61/100 on Nintendo Switch, and 71/100 on iOS.

Videos

Fallout Shelter - Announcement Trailer

Fallout Shelter - Update 1.2 Trailer

Fallout Shelter – Quests and PC Version Now Available

Fallout Shelter - Now Available on Xbox One and Windows 10

Gallery

The weapons tab of the survival guide in Fallout Shelter

A long queue of wastelanders hoping to become dwellers of a vault

Raiders attacking a vault's armory

A T-51f power armor being unlocked in a lunchbox

A section of a large vault

A level 1 dweller training in the armory

A vault classroom

Mister Handies, mole rats and deathclaws are added in the August update

The main menu of Fallout Shelter

Images released with Android version update

A Fat Man being used.

A lone deathclaw about to attack a vault

A Mr. Handy patrolling water treatment station

Bethesda.net laucher PC install screen for Fallout Shelter

3D Touch Launch From Home

Worldwide gameplay statistics, July 2016

Halloween

Halloween 2016 promo

100 million users celebrate promo

100 million users infographic

Update 1.4

Weapon workshop

Pets

Outfit workshop

Dusk setting

Barbershop

Crafting

Hero graphic

Update 1.6

Exploring

Ghouls

Quest

Quest log

Questing

Exploring

New outfits

Update 1.7

Bottle and Cappy

Banner

Update 1.8

New room themes

Halloween room

2016 Thanksgiving

Windows 10/Xbox Platform release

Update 1.10.1

St. Patricks Day icon

Update 1.11.1

Easter 2017 icon

Update 1.13.2

Halloween 2017 icon

Update 1.13.4

Thanksgiving 2017 icon

Living Quarters with Thanksgiving theme

Update 1.13.6

Christmas 2017 icon

Update 1.13.11

Constitution Day icon

Update 1.13.12

Reclamation Day icon

Steam release

Repopulate

Red Rocket

Exploring

Customize

Build

Intro slides

See also

• Fallout series
• Fallout Shelter portal
  • Fallout Shelter achievements
  • Fallout Shelter cards
  • Fallout Shelter characters
  • Fallout Shelter creatures
  • Fallout Shelter junk items
  • Fallout Shelter loading screens
  • Fallout Shelter objectives
  • Fallout Shelter outfits
  • Fallout Shelter pets
  • Fallout Shelter quests
  • Fallout Shelter rooms
  • Fallout Shelter resources
  • Fallout Shelter trailer
  • Fallout Shelter weapons
  • Survival mode
  • Vault dweller conversations

Official links

• Official site
• Fallout Shelter on the iTunes App Store
• Fallout Shelter on the Google Play Store
• Fallout Shelter on Steam
• Fallout Shelter on the PlayStation Store

References

Fallout series Fallout RPGs and add-ons Fallout · Fallout 2 · Fallout 3 (Operation: Anchorage · The Pitt · Broken Steel · Point Lookout · Mothership Zeta)  · Fallout: New Vegas (Dead Money · Honest Hearts · Old World Blues · Lonesome Road · Gun Runners' Arsenal · Courier's Stash) · Fallout 4 (Automatron · Wasteland Workshop · Far Harbor · Contraptions Workshop · Vault-Tec Workshop · Nuka-World) · Fallout 76 (List of updates) · Fallout 5 Spin-offs Video games Fallout Tactics · Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel · Fallout Shelter · Fallout Shelter Online Tabletop RPGs and scenarios Fallout: The Roleplaying Game (Fully Operational, Hunted!, Machine Frequency, Map Pack 1: Vault, NPC Pack 2 - Enclave Remnants, Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland, Orange Coloured Sky, Royal Flush, Settler's Guide Book, Showdown in Skull Canyon, Wanderer's Guide Book, Winter of Atom, With a Bang, or a Whimper) · Fallout: Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game (Machine Frequency) Wargaming and board games Fallout: Warfare · Fallout: Wasteland Warfare · Fallout: The Board Game (Fallout: New California) · Fallout Shelter: The Board Game Promotional games Fallout Tactics Simon Says  · Fallout: Tactics Concentration Game  · Vault Dash  · Fallout Free Style RPG Quest Other media One Man, and a Crate of Puppets (webcomic) · All Roads (graphic novel) · Fallout C.H.A.T. (emoji and gif app) · Fallout Pip-Boy (companion app) · Fallout (TV series) Compilations Fallout Trilogy · Fallout Anthology · Fallout Legacy Collection Canceled projects Fallout 3 (CN: Van Buren) · Fallout 4 (Black Isle Studios)  · Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2 · Fallout d20 · Fallout Extreme · Fallout Tactics 2 · Project V13 · Fallout movie Developers Bethesda Softworks · Black Isle Studios · Fantasy Flight Games · Interplay Entertainment · Masthead Studios · Modiphius · Obsidian Entertainment Related articles Fallout setting (Divergence) · Fallout: New Vegas 2 · Fonts · References in other media · Themes · SPECIAL · Source texts (all games)

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