Scariest Vaults in the Fallout Series

Unlike most of the games that I play, Fallout is not an actual horror video game. It's a post-apocalyptic survival game with elements of horror, mystery, and science fiction. The nuclear bombs dropped centuries ago and now it's time to get into the horrific world that was left behind.

There are plenty of terrors in this new radioactive world, especially Deathclaws. But it always seems to eventually turn back to humans being the worst.

Vaults are where the video games start for the protagonist. There are over 100 vaults across the United States, and they seem like the perfect place for groups of people to survive nuclear annihiliation. The truth is, that the company Vault-Tec was setting up these vaults for experimentation.

With usually one person overseeing the experiment, the vault dwellers were at the mercy of whatever results the company was looking for. Some of these experiments were truly horrifying. They were doing the kind of thing that results in multiple ethic codes being violated.

So this article will be discussing the scariest vaults to end up in. The kind of vault that you'd rather risk the Wasteland than be stuck there any longer.

Vault 12

The door to this vault was specifically designed not to close. Vault-Tec was looking for more information about the effects of radiation on the human body. Considering that the bombs dropped in 2077, humanity already knew what the effects of high radiation were on the human body.

But in the game, this vault is a hotbed for ghouls. These are the humans that survived the radiation that came from the bombs. Some of them are aware and behave like regular humans, usually just missing a noise. Others have gone totally feral and behave much more like a zombie.

This vault isn't as terrifying in the long run, because most in the vault didn't survive to see the long run. But it's the promise of safety to civilians that really makes this an unsettling vault to be in.

Vault 51.

Unlike the other vaults, Vault 51 really didn't have a human overseer. Instead, they just had a supercomputer.

In order to try and find an overseer, they were given the chance to vote for someone. But, they weren't able to vote for one person because most of them voted for themselves. So, the ZAX took over.

ZAX was only able to understand humanity through a limited perspective, and only understood that a leader would come out of a crisis. So, the computer started to create crises in an attempt to have a leader come out. This resulted in the vault dwellers living in absolute hell, not only fighting with each other but competing for a computer.

Eventually an Overseer was declared, but there wasn't much of a vault to oversee. He was just the last person standing.

The experiment was just trying to get someone to be a leader, perhaps teaching a ZAX how to be one. But it just ended up in a lot of dramatic deaths. So, no thank you.

Vault 75

The location being in a Middle School basement would imply certain things, and that's mostly correct. But it gets so much worse once you get down into the vault and start poking around.

The experiment taking place underneath this school was essentially eugenics. Some of the brightest and smartest students that attended the school were brought down into the vault, their parents slaughtered, and that's when they began training.

They would procreate and the next generation of children would be there. Training, finding out who the best of the best are. Those that were going in the direction the vault wanted to go would be kept in the vault. The smart kids would end up becoming researchers. All those that didn't fall in those categories were killed.

Not a single person but the research team knew what happened to them.

Eventually, they rebelled but just having a eugenics vault leaves an icky feeling.

Vault 87

Originally, this vault was going to be used by General Atomics as a way to create a new world. But at some point, before the bombs fell, that idea was scrapped. And instead, a scientist became the overseer and he had specific plans to mess with humanity.

Those that were brought into the vault were unknowingly going to be experimented on to a degree unlike many of the other vaults. They were going to be mutated into being humans that could survive the nuclear Wasteland that was outside of their vault door.

This resulted in the Super Mutants that are throughout the Wasteland but also the Centaurs. They were infected with the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

Although Super Mutants can be found throughout the United States (or, at least, what is left of the United States), although Centaurs are focused in the Capitol Wasteland.

Vault 92

This vault was specifically designed for musicians, having recording studios and places for instruments. It was created under the guise of keeping American music on the record for future generations to enjoy.

The truth is, there was a white noise machine that was going to be used to control their minds. The professor running the test thought that they were just seeing what the effects of this machine would be. They weren't expecting the horrific violence that would eventually unfold. There were few people in the vault aware of what was really happening.

Most of the vault dwellers were driven insane by the white noise, the professor that was still unaware of the true experiment going on made the suggestion to leave. This was around the time that they realized that Vault-Tec really didn't do a good job setting this vault up. It was beginning to deteriorate.

It was a mixture of the vault dwellers increasing instability and the failing structure that led to the end of Vault 92.

Vault 95

Vault 95 was set up and advertised as a safe place for those with chem addictions to live and get better. There was a dependency program in place that helped the inhabitants and they worked together every year to vote for a new overseer. This would have been a really great place for these people to get better and create a new life inside of the vault.

And then they hit the five-year mark.

That's when an undercover Vault-Tec employee opened up a secret compartment that was filled with these addictive chems.

Some of the vault dwellers caved immediately upon seeing the chems. Others tried their best to avoid falling back into their addictions. Some of those that were avoiding the chems realized that they had been set up to fail by Vault-Tec. Realistically, a vault dedicated to those that had addictions would not have a secret room full of them.

This is frankly the cruelest vault to the inhabitants.

Vault 106

Another vault that had fun experimenting with drugs. This time, Vault-Tec was funneling psychoactive drugs throughout the air system. This caused psychosis and instability among the vault dwellers almost immediately after the drug was introduced.

It seems as though the vault dwellers were trying to blast their way out of the vault when they met their untimely demise.

Even when you're playing through the game, your character can start experiencing some of the effects of the drug. Specifically hallucinations. So the drug is still being pumped through the systems.

There are still people wandering around the vault, some of them wearing the blue suits.

Vault 112

This vault was specifically built for one person. The creator of the Garden of Eden Kits, Dr. Stanislaus Braun. But that doesn't mean he was the only person in the vault. There were quite a lot of people down there with him and in theory, thing should have been fine. Vault-Tec didn't seem to have a specific plan.

But Braun did, apparently. There were thirteen virtual reality pods set up in the vault. The reality that was programmed was Tranquility Lane, a simulation of a regular pre-war town. However, it is in this town that Braun is repeatedly murdering and wiping the memories of those that he is 'playing' with. They don't have an escape from this simulation.

There's no telling what happened to all the rest of the vault dwellers, altough there are Robobrains throughout the vault. In eleven of the pods, there are people trapped forever inside of the simulation. They are trapped in this simulation and aren't capable of escaping the pods.

All of these vaults are made so much creepier as your character is looking through the aftermath of what happened. It makes one very thankful that we’re not that close to a nuclear apocalypse.