Constructed in secret by the Vault-Tec Corporation from 2072 onwards,[1] Vault 79 was built with no expenses spared for concealment; a different contractor to the other Appalachian Vaults was used to supply concrete,[2] and land was acquired from local farmers by government agents claiming the land was radioactive, offering large sums of money as compensation.[3]
Its stated capacity was 120 dwellers.[4] The number in Vault 79's designation was chosen in reference to the atomic number of gold, the precious resource that the Vault was designed to store and protect. All the gold from the bullion depository at Fort Knox was secretly transferred to Vault 79 by military forces (such as Captain Fields' team) to act as safe storage and to be used as the basis to rebuild the United States of America and the economy.[5]
Orders given to the soldiers watching over it included treating all intruders as hostile agents and to be dealt with as such, all shift logs were to be packaged and delivered to the officer of the watch, activate the contingency plan when ordered, not to smoke away from the designated smoking area and to stay out of sight.[6]
The secrecy of the Vault was put in jeopardy in July 2072 when a group of soldiers guarding the installation stole millions of dollars and went to gamble in Las Vegas. They were subsequently engaged in a shootout at the Ultra-Luxe casino by the local police forces in an attempt to silence them, and were all killed despite their attempts to surrender, with the sole survivor being Sergeant Kathryn Montgomery, who had been staying in the Lucky 38. Branded as a Chinese spy and dubbed "Shanghai Sally," she escaped the city but was killed trying to flee Galveston, Texas, her boat being destroyed by the USS Wade.
Montgomery was not the final witness to be silenced however, as her partner C. Rutkowski and others who remembered the group from bars around Berkeley Springs disappeared soon after. The dramatic shootout and cover-up attracted the attention of Flavia Stabo, who began investigating Montgomery and the other soldiers and found the Vault shortly before the Great War. Stabo was buried in a shallow grave near its entrance for her troubles, one of the last pre-War casualties of the Vault's need for secrecy.
As with the other Vaults, Vault 79 was sealed shut during the Great War in 2077 by the soldiers on shift, who had received word from the Air Force.[7]
Post-War
After the war, the Vault remained sealed, awaiting orders from the outside that the Vault’s gold deposits were needed. At an unknown point, there was a mutiny led by a Secret Service agent nicknamed "Shorty"[8] among the inhabitants, which killed many of them, and the numbers dwindled further over the years as at least three others took their own lives.[9]
By 2103, rumors of the Appalachian treasure drew people seeking it out to the region, and they enlisted the help of a Vault Dweller to obtain it. After they breached Vault 79, the remnants of the Vault's Secret Service detachment allowed them to leave with some of the gold.
Layout
The main entrance to Vault 79 is inside of the Mysterious Cave north of the Bailey family cabin. A keypad can be found on a wall inside the cave, which reveals an elevator. There are two ways to obtain the randomized code for the elevator:
Complete the quest Treasure Unknown in the Grafton Pawn Shop. Enter the six digits read (from the board in the pawnshop) from left to right; the first three digits being on the top row and the last three digits on the bottom row.
Start the quest Buried Treasure. One gets the code from the Raiders to enter Vault 79.
The elevator leads to the large cavern in front of the signature cogwheel door of Vault 79. Once inside the cavern, one will see a small trailer, a small warehouse section, a truck trailer with goods, and a platform including the Vault 79 entrance terminal. The Vault door could not be opened until the Wastelanders update when the interior became accessible.
Another entrance to Vault 79 is inside of a shack also north of the Bailey family cabin (but not as far north as the mysterious cave). A call button can be found on a wall inside the shack, but the laser grid cannot be opened until after completion of the main Vault 79 quest, Secrets Revealed, when you can pass through the laser grid and take the elevator to the gold storage Vault.
A wide variety of hostile robots and automated turrets inhabit the main areas of the Vault, while the reactor area contains feral ghouls and a single wendigo.
Vault 79 was first added in patch 14 on October 23, 2019.
The Vault elevator code is randomized for each character and may only be solved at the Grafton Pawn Shop by finding all the map fragments and placing them on the board in Flavia Stabo's apartment above the shop.
After completing the Secrets Revealed quest, the Vault's interior apart from the gold Vault operations becomes inaccessible. Any items the player character wishes to obtain must be acquired before entering the elevator, which will take one to Appalachia instead of the Vault after the quest is complete.
Appearances
Vault 79 appears only in Fallout 76. It was introduced in patch 14 and the interior was made accessible with the Wastelandersupdate.
Gallery
Current layout
The entrance to the mysterious cave
Elevator to the Vault
A code locked laser grid to the blast door
Elevator
Cavern
The Vault's external blast door
Settlers heist entry point using the Motherlode robot
The atrium
A Sentry bot pod rising up from under the pool table in the atrium
The sentry bot powering up
The diner in the atrium
The Vault's shooting range
A look down range
Barracks
A small workshop/storage area
The entrance to the Operations sector of the Vault
Reactor control room
A view into the reactor room
Reactor ventilation room
A view of the reactor ventilation system
The gold bullion counting room (Empty)
The gold storage vault
Bottom of the storage (not available in normal gameplay)
Here to Stay ·Hunter for Hire ·Overseer, Overseen ·Secrets Revealed ·Strange Bedfellows ·Strength in Numbers ·The Elusive Crane ·The New Arrivals ·Wayward Souls
Buried Treasure ·Cheating Death ·From Russia With Lev ·Fun and Games ·Siding with Crater ·The Ol' Weston Shuffle
Daily/Event
Photo Opportunity ·Radiation Rumble ·Retirement Plan ·Riding Shotgun ·The Importance of Communication ·Vital Equipment
Ally (Daguerre)
Access Denied ·Battery Included ·Boot Camp ·Breaking the Cycle ·Bring Home the Beacon ·Build Failure ·Calling Long Distance ·Close Encounter ·Constants ·Contractually Obfuscated ·Crash Landing ·Data Driven ·Expired Contract ·Faint Signal ·Glitchcraft ·Heavy Eyes ·Hope Remains ·In Case of Emergency ·Mission Out-of-Control ·No Brainer ·No Exceptions ·One Small Step ·Out of Bounds ·Overflow Error ·Past Expiration ·Patently False ·Privacy Violation ·Reset Variables ·Return Package ·Rogue Bot ·Run Time Execution ·Search and Destroy ·Space Limitations ·The Universe Conspires ·The Woman Who Fell to Earth ·Who Sat Down Beside Her
Ally (Beckett)
An Eagle Flies Free ·Bot of Gold ·Cropping Spree ·Dirty Little Secrets ·Exit Sage Left ·Eye for an Eye ·Lab Rat ·Loose Ends ·Narrow Escape ·Needs of the Many ·Out of Key ·Pet Peeve ·Saving Skin ·Shooting Star ·Sibling Piracy ·Spilling Blood ·Stalking Stuffer ·Supply and Demand ·Thicker Than Water ·Traitor's Demise
Other
A Call For Help ·Genetic Tracks ·Lucky Find ·Making Sacrifices ·Marked for Death ·Rescue Agency ·Search and Rescue ·Squash the Mothman ·Threat Assessment ·Time to Collect ·Treasure Unknown
Achievements
A Golden Future ·A Solid Foundation ·Behind the Curtain ·Friends in Low Places ·Go for the Gold ·Gold Rush ·Overdue Reunions ·The New Fort Knox ·Wayward Child ·Wish upon a Star
Black suit ·Black vest and slacks ·Blood Eagle leather jacket and jeans ·Blue Ridge Caravan outfit ·Blueridge Caravan gas mask ·Chinese stealth armor ·Duchess's outfit ·Dud explosive collar ·Emmett Mountain hazmat suit ·Fashionable raider outfit ·Ghillie suit ·Insurgent outfit ·Polly's old head ·Prototype steel mill paint ·Radicals face mask ·Raider culinarian outfit ·Raider scabber outfit ·Settler worker outfit ·Secret Service armor ·Secret Service underarmor ·T-65 power armor ·Treasure hunter outfit ·Wasteland trapper outfit
Consumables
Duchess's Dram ·Mole miner pail ·Nuclear Don's Custom Chem Blend ·Nuka-Cola Cranberry ·Nuka-Cola Vaccinated ·Owlet meat ·Owlet nuggets ·Pepperoni roll
Misc items
Altimeter chip ·Blue Ridge supplies ·Broken radio vacuum tube ·David's trophy ·Deactivated Liberator ·Doctor Dias's brain ·Experimental Pip-Boy schematic ·Eyebot sensor module ·Flight recorder ·Gina's brain ·Greg's brain ·Lou's remote detonator ·Mysterious map fragments ·Package for Sam Blackwell ·Package for Quinn Carter ·Package for Calvin van Lowe ·Package for Madeleine de Silva ·Package for Sheriff Darcy ·Pip-Boy 2000 Mark VI kit ·Pleasant Valley claim ticket ·Prepped Doctor Dias brain ·Prepped Gina brain ·Prepped Greg brain ·Radio vacuum tube ·Recalibrated Liberator ·RobCo tools ·Robobrain head dome ·Robobrain interpolator ·Scanner upgrade ·Treasury Note ·U.S.S.A. beacon ·U.S.S.A. crew dog tags ·Vault 79 plans
Junk items
Buffout supply ·Dubious gold bar ·Floater flamer pus sac ·Floater freezer pus sac ·Floater gnasher pus sac ·High Int rock ·Intrusion module ·Medical scanner ·Medium Int rock ·Multiscope ·Poison supply ·Questionable gold bar ·Suspicious gold bar ·Turret circuit board ·Water cooled bone saw ·Wendigo colossus vocal sac
Characters by faction
Blood Eagles
Frank the Butcher ·Frankie Beckett ·Jessi the Hook ·Line Chef Larry ·Star ·The Blood ·The Eye
