Fallout Shelter's new Survival Mode has been out for four days now, after debuting in the game's latest update, and we spent most of the weekend banging our heads against the latest addition to Besthesda's smash-hit mobile game. Unsurprisingly, Survival Mode can be a bit rough, especially for those of us who haven't been able to dedicate hours and hours of time to the game since launch. But we've found a few strategies for those still struggling to find any success in the harder version of Fallout Shelter.
Most of these strategies will apply to the early game, meaning vaults with up to 30 dwellers, but some of the concepts will continue to scale up. We'd have more for you but...Survival Mode is pretty damn hard, you guys. As always, feel free to share any of your own tips down in the comments section. And hopefully some combo of the tips in this article and the community input down below will help you find some success in the latest challenge to hit Fallout Shelter.
No Rushing Without A Med Bay
Bethesda isn't kidding when it says there are more disasters in Survival Mode. Rad roaches and vault fires are a common occurrence during the early stages of the game and both spread much quicker than players are probably accustomed to. That’s a rough combination to deal with, especially if you don't have consistent access to stimpaks. So don't bring any unnecessary hardship upon yourself until you’re absolutely certain a failure won't seriously impact your operations. Getting to
Micro-Manage Your Disasters
It's important to remember that your Vault dwellers can't be revived in Survival Mode. And stimpaks aren't exactly easy to come by during the early stages of vault construction. So you'll need to keep an eye on who's responding to the various disasters that occur throughout your facility. Make sure dwellers with low health don't run into burning/infested rooms and keep your strongest occupants deployed to rooms where they can quickly respond to nearby trouble. Double-check health levels after each fight. And make sure your using stimpaks on the least-healthy dwellers in your vault. Losing dwellers early on can be disastrous for a new vault.
(Floor) Plan Wisely
We’ve talked a bit about floor plans in previous Fallout Shelter articles. So you probably already know your first power generator should be situated across from the vault door and when to upgrade rooms in your vault. And you never want to build a new room if you don’t have a vault dweller available to staff it. But it’s imperative you put all that information to good use because resource costs are higher in Survival Mode and it can be difficult to recover from a major imbalance in your supplies. Expansion is a much slower process in Survival Mode but the most-effective strategies for building your vault remain largely unchanged. Start with the basics – a diner, living quarters, power generator and water plant – and get each fully expanded/upgraded before working on duplicates. And make sure you leave enough space to build three-room versions of each for maximum efficiency.
Spread Your Guns Out
Obviously, you always want to keep a few armed guards near your Vault door to fend off invaders. But, in an ideal world, players will have at least one decent firearm in each room of their vault. The increased damage will help deal with rad roach infestations quickly, minimizing the damage taken by your dwellers during the incursion and reducing the chance they spread to other rooms. A well-defended vault also saves you a bit of time because it means you won't constantly be pulling your strongest vault dwellers off the power generator to defend less-capable inhabitants. And if everyone in the vault is holding a mini-gun or nuke launcher, what can really go wrong?
Send One Special Character To The Wasteland
Thanks a recent update, Piper should join the ranks of your vault dwellers within the first few hours. If you're lucky, one or two of your free lunch boxes will include a special character, too. But you should never let more than one of these special characters venture outside the confines of your vault. At least not until you've managed to expand a bit and grow your ranks. Early on, special characters provide vital boosts to the resource-generating room that corresponds with their highest stat(s). And their higher experience levels tend to make them the most-capable defenders in the community. For now, try to outfit one dweller -- Piper has been my go-to so far -- for lengthy scavenging trips in the Wasteland.
Build A Med Bay ASAP
Seriously, the minute you get your fourteenth vault dweller, build a Med Bay and get it staffed. Make it a double if you've got the caps/staff to spare. In Survival Mode, Fallout Shelter is a never-ending stream of bullshit and you'll need lots of stimpaks to keep your dwellers alive. The sooner you begin stockpiling, the sooner you can confidently send explorers out into the Wasteland without worrying about supplies for the dwellers who stayed behind.
No Babies Without A Science Lab
Letting vault dwellers reproduce is an effective way to keep morale high while simultaneously providing a steady influx of new inhabitants. Unfortunately, in our experience, children are also a pretty consistent source of radiation poisoning. We’re not sure if kids are born irradiated, if children are more susceptible to radiation, if we just hit an unlucky streak or some combination of the three. But between the threat of radiation, and losing a valuable defender, it’s probably best to wait until your vault is manufacturing Radaways before adding newborns to the equation.
Build A Science Lab ASAP
Even if you don’t let your vault dwellers reproduce, there’s no guarantee radiation won’t creep into your vault through other means. Rad roaches and vault invaders both have a chance of irradiating members of your community. Radiation poisoning also becomes an issue if you let the food/water supplies in your vault get too low. And clearing your vault of radiation, once it’s had a chance to spread to a couple of vault dwellers, can be an incredibly costly project. Save yourself the trouble and build a science lab as quickly as possible. Then bank a few Radaways before you send explorers out into the Wasteland.
Play Towards Your Objectives
It can be easy to forget about the objectives players are given in Fallout Shelter, particularly if you don’t get many opportunities to play. But completed objectives are a vital source of new caps, especially for those unwilling to buy lunch boxes, and ignoring them makes the already difficult task of survival nearly impossible. Finishing objectives should always be your top priority in Fallout Shelter. The only exception being occasions when the game asks you to complete tasks you aren’t prepared for. Don’t impregnate a bunch of vault dwellers, if you don’t have a Med Bay, or send dwellers into the Wasteland without a Science Lab built. Just drop the problematic quest (if possible) or focus on another task in the interim.
Build A Radio Station
The sooner you build a Radio Station, the sooner you can stop relying on random luck and resource-draining children to increase the number of people living in your vault. Stragglers still won't be all that common, until you've got a fully-staffed/upgraded station, but anything is better than nothing during the early goings. No matter how hard you try, losing dwellers feels inevitable in Survival Mode. So it's always good to have more than one plan for replacing the fallen.
Go Back To Normal Fallout Shelter
In its current incarnation, Survival Mode essentially transforms Fallout Shelter into Vault Fire: The Game. Obviously, your mileage is going to vary a bit. But there’s not really much of a counter argument for the assertion that Survival Mode is basically just a more-frustrating version of Fallout Shelter. For the most part, your success/failure in Survival Mode is a matter of luck.
If your experience with Survival Mode turns out to be anything like ours, it’s mostly just going to be a parade of disasters that leave your dwellers unable to collect resources and you without much choice other than watching your vault’s community slowly fade into oblivion. The same can be said for anyone unfortunate enough to get invaded before they’ve recovered a few decent weapons. Don’t let Survival Mode sour your overall opinion of Fallout Shelter. Just load up another vault and enjoy a version of the game that won’t leave you wanting to throw your phone out a window.
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Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com for more Fallout Shelter coverage throughout 2015 and for however long Bethesda continues to support Fallout Shelter in the years to come.
