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Fallout 3 locations project
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Vault 87 is one of the vault series of fallout shelters developed by Vault-Tec to the west of Washington, D.C. It is located northwest of Little Lamplight and southwest of Broadcast tower KT8. It's the place of origin for the super mutants and centaurs in the Capital Wasteland.
Background
In 2077, the original inhabitants of Vault 87 were taken to airtight chambers and exposed to a concentrated form of Forced Evolutionary Virus, (FEV).
The Overseer and his security guards were not aware of what it was, but were simply following orders from Vault-Tec. When the first vault dwellers were turned into super mutants, they forcibly mutated the others, until the remaining population were either mutated or killed.
The Vault 87 super mutants are obsessed with the preservation of their brand new species. Since they are all sterile, they kidnap humans from all over the Capital Wasteland and bring them to the vault to be mutated. They have been doing so for nearly 200 years, until their source of FEV started to run out. Because of the shortage of the "green stuff," there are now super mutant bands searching all over the Capital Wasteland for a new source of the virus.[1]
The Vault entrance
Above ground, the radiation near the entrance to Vault 87 is the highest in the game and peaks at well over 3,500 rads/second, which is fatal in a third of a second. According to information obtained from the G.E.C.K., the Overseer's terminal states, "I'm quite sad to report that due to a direct hit from what I presume to be a nuclear weapon on the entry area of Vault 87, we will be unable to provide the Scouting Reports as outlined in Vault-Tec's Operations Manual. The main door to Vault 87 is damaged beyond repair and we are detecting extremely high levels of lethal radiation outside and in the entry tunnel."
It is possible to reach the entrance through the extensive use of RadAway in combination with clothing providing radiation resistance and Rad-X. However, as the Overseer's message mentions, the door is inaccessible, making the Vault impossible to enter from above ground. The map marker will activate near the entrance. There is a dead scientist in a radiation suit that can be found near the Vault door, as can RadAway and Rad-X, presumably carried by the scientist but not enough to prevent his/her death by radiation poisoning.
Super mutants have built a barricade of broken girders and wrecked cars around the entrance. If you do decide to venture into this one-way death trap, be sure to defeat them before going in. Remember that super mutants can enter into a dense area of radiation without suffering any effects, like the possible companion Fawkes.
Strangely, you can fast travel from the vault's entrance despite the heavy radiation which normally prevents fast travel. Though, almost always, you will arrive dead.
An Enclave eyebot is usually seen patrolling south of the entrance.
Accessing Vault 87
Before you can access Vault 87, you must complete The Waters of Life, a part of the main quest line, by speaking with Scribe Rothchild in the Citadel. You will then be sent there to recover the Garden of Eden Creation Kit also known as the G.E.C.K.
Vault 87 can only be accessed through Little Lamplight. The player will have the option of questioning Mayor MacCready about how to access it. The mayor will suggest taking Murder Pass. However, he will also inform the player that there is a broken computer terminal in Little Lamplight that will allow direct access to the Vault via a different, safer route. If you have the ability to access this route, it is highly recommended to take it, as Murder Pass is difficult to traverse without injury and will result in significant ammunition usage.
To access the terminal, the player must speak to Joseph (as directed by MacCready). Joseph can fix the broken terminal, allowing it to be hacked, but he will only do so if the player has rescued Penny from Paradise Falls, if the player has a high enough science or speech skill, or through the Child at Heart perk. Joseph can be found in the Little Lamplight schoolhouse in the morning. The player must have a Science skill of 50 to actually hack the computer to get into the Vault.
If Penny is not rescued, or if Joseph becomes upset through dialogue, entrance through Murder Pass will be the only option to get to Vault 87. Located north of the souvenir building, Murder Pass houses several super mutants armed with heavy weaponry like missile launchers and miniguns. There are also a number of traps, so a careful approach is recommended. Mayor MacCready will open the gate for you if asked. Murder Pass is a good choice for earning experience. It also contains several medical cabinets, a decent amount of ammunition, and a Nuka-Cola Quantum.
Traveling through the Vault
Vault 87 is very similar to all the other vaults a player may visit during the game, with narrow, confusing corridors and small rooms connected by the main lobby. Once inside the dimly lit Vault, the player will encounter super mutants, centaurs, super mutant brutes, masters and super mutant mutant overlords (if Broken Steel is installed). Super mutants take pride in mutilating the corpses of humans they kill in combat, hence the many skeletons and gore bags found throughout the vault. The player can also find the remains of failed FEV subjects.
Eventually, the player will encounter a friendly super mutant named Fawkes, who was sealed in a test chamber and left there decades before. Fawkes, via the intercom, will offer his services in acquiring the G.E.C.K. in return for the player freeing him from his cell. Though the player need not free Fawkes, the super mutant (if freed) will indeed honor this bargain, and will help the player acquire the G.E.C.K. by serving as a guide, as well as attacking any future enemies encountered, and finally, retrieving the device itself from its highly irradiated resting place. Further, if the player has good Karma, Fawkes can be recruited as a follower later on. It's highly recommended to free him, because after the next quest (The American Dream) when you are in Raven Rock, he is practically invincible and wields a Gatling laser, not to mention that he will activate project purity in the final mission (Take it Back!) without suffering from the highly irradiated environment the control panel rests in. (He will only do this if Broken Steel is installed.)
There are two methods to free Fawkes. First, in the room at the end of the right hallway, you can set off the fire alarm in a room inhabited by two super mutant variants, which will open all five isolation rooms. However, this is not recommended, as in the process, two centaurs and a hostile non-player character will also be freed. It is advisable that the player instead should hack the average-rated terminal located next to the fire alarm to unlock an individual chamber, of which Fawkes' cell is the fifth.
Inhabitants
Notable loot
- This is the only time Fawkes' super sledge can be acquired; you must either kill Fawkes or trade weapons with him to get it.
- A copy of Nikola Tesla and You can be found in a wooden box at the feet of a mannequin in the southwestern-most dead-end tunnel of the Reactor Chamber, along with four bottles of whiskey (from the Murder Pass entrance, turn left and go downstairs, turn left again, then through the door at the end of the corridor).
- A copy of Pugilism Illustrated is on a shelf in the storage room behind an average locked door on the southwestern side of the catwalk level of the living quarters. There is also a Nuka-Cola Quantum, AER9 laser rifle, microfusion cells, and a safe with random loot in this room.
Related quests
Notes
- The highest rad detected when approaching the vault is 3616 rads per second, in the central area: if you get to to door then it will reduce to approximately 2100 rads per second.
- Fast-traveling to the Vault 87 map marker does not put you near the irradiated vault entrance; instead, it deposits you safely outside the south-by-southwest gate that's guarded by super mutants.
- An Outcast Patrol spawn point is located on the road due south of the Vault 87 map marker, near a ruined car.
- If you stand a step behind the door where the G.E.C.K. is, your Geiger counter will go silent and you will not receive any more rads until you move from that spot.
- It is possible to trigger the G.E.C.K by going into the chamber before Fawkes and selecting the right option. However, the activation will cause an explosion from the G.E.C.K., and will kill you.
- Although the maintenance tech's computer says his wife Mercia was taken by the EEP program and killed, her cause of death in the Medical Records computer is listed as 'Cancer Type I', as opposed to the 'unexplained' designation that victims of the EEP have.
- Ironically enough, while the outside of the vault has lethal amounts of radiation, sinks and toilets inside the vault have less rads than normal ones in the Capital Wasteland.
- Inside the vault, there are several locked doors that contain RadAway, ammunition, and other various things such as Rad-X and radiation suits.
- A complete list of all individuals in Vault 87 can be found on a terminal in the medical bay.
- On the way from Fawkes' isolation room to the G.E.C.K. storage room, there is a door that says "Requires Key," but the game designers did not intend for the player to be able to open it. Using console commands to either unlock or walk through this door leads to an empty room containing the closed main vault door for Vault 87, complete with an "87" logo on the outside. The player can "use" the door, and it will be opened/closed via a mechanical arm (just like in other vaults with working doors); however, there is nothing on the other side except for a small platform that opens into empty space. Walking off the edge of the platform into the empty space will cause the player character to be redeposited in front of Fawkes' isolation room.
- Also, when you inevitably get captured by the Enclave when you have the G.E.C.K, you can return to the vault finding the door marked "Requires Key" open. You can open the Vault 87 front door but there is just an out-of-area place that when walked to will put you back at the start of Vault 87.
- In the room where the G.E.C.K. is located, you can receive as much as 85 rads/second upon walking the first few steps. If you have enough items that prevent radiation and you can see where the G.E.C.K. is, take a right.
- In the main area, there are two locked doors requiring 100 Lockpick to open. They are nothing else but shortcuts.
- Before setting off the fire alarm, you can terminate your foes by hacking the terminal near the isolation room door. Same goes to Fawkes's room (75 Science skill points required).
- Retrieving the G.E.C.K. is possible by yourself, without the help of console commands. Since it will take you about 10–15 seconds to get killed by radiation poisoning, you should have enough rad-prevention items for 8 minutes at the most, along with a high Medicine skill, and some rad-friendly perks.
- The only entryways to the Vault 87 are through the main door and through the Murder Pass. Since the main door was directly hit by a nuclear weapon and rendered permanently damaged, and the Murder Pass was closed off by the time the player arrives at Little Lamplight, it is unknown how the super mutants go into and out of the vault.
- The number of undefined deaths on the medical terminal is 87.
Appearances
Vault 87 only appears in Fallout 3.
Bugs
It is possible that companions following you through the Vault (other than Fawkes) will be killed or misplaced when you are arrested by the Enclave.- Sometimes when a companion is lost while you're arrested, when you go back inside the Vault with another companion they will disappear, and they will be found dead in the position that your lost companion was in, just to the north of the T-junction where you were captured. This companion will be lost, and after a few days, you will receive a message that they have died.
- If you leave your follower outside, you will find them teleported to the same room, alive. This may be related to having more than one follower at a time.
- When passing the cells containing centaurs, it is possible for the first centaur, in the cell on the left, to appear outside the cell as the player passes and being able to attack the player. Once it is killed, it's top half may appear back in the cell while its bottom half is stretched across the ceiling of the corridor. The centaur may also pass through the wall between its cell and Fawkes' cell, resulting in Fawkes killing it.
- If you go to the door in Little Lamplight that requires the broken terminal to be repaired, you may find it is already open and you can get into Vault 87 with no problems.
- Upon re-entering the Vault with Fawkes after completing the quest, if you select the "Kill subject" option on the terminal outside of Fawkes' old cell, he will instantly die if he enters it, even if he is not in the room when the fire is released.
- If you have Dogmeat as a companion, and you go into the test labs, he will stand idle in front of the living quarters' door. Interacting with him will instantly put you on an empty item menu. Dogmeat will then be found back in the test labs, in the same position. This can be fixed by loading a previous save. Note: Loading the Auto-save that it defaults to will have him up for a split-second, but he'll just fall onto his side.
Gallery
References
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