Trying to get ahead in Fallout Shelter but you can’t get rid of radiation, you have no idea what endurance is for, if you should make babies or send folks into the wilderness? If you need some tips and tricks for making it through Fallout Shelter without having to spend any money on lunchboxes and caps, then I’ve got several tips to help with that.
Looking for more advanced Fallout Shelter tips? Check out -->
Fallout Shelter Guide: Tips For Players Who Already Mastered The Basics
Fallout Shelter Tips: On Deathclaws - How To Defeat Them Quickly Without Losing A Single Dweller
Fallout Shelter Advanced Game Tips: On Nuclear Reactors, Wasteland Endurance, Mass Population Management And More
Fallout Shelter Tips & Tricks: Exploit These End Game Strategies For Moving Rooms, Upgrading, Surviving Days In Wastelands And More
While it’s been about a week since I started playing Fallout Shelter, I’m still completely, absolutely addicted. I’m on my 3rd vault now (first two were an absolutely disaster) and I feel like I’ve finally gotten the hang of this. Right now, my dwellers’ overall happiness is at 99%, we’re full up on food, water and power and no one is currently suffering from radiation poisoning or illness requiring a stimpack or radaway. I got a ton of pregnant ladies running around and have figured out some decent strategies for stopping raiders in their tracks. Right now, everything seems damned near Utopian. As a result, I decided I’d share a few of the insights and “aha” moments I’ve had along the way that have helped me to be successful so far in in Fallout Shelter. As I learn more I’ll add more tips, but hopefully these will be enough to get you headed in the right direction too.
Fallout Shelter Tips and Strategy Guide
Tip #1: Mind You Specials and Assign Dwellers Appropriately
Ok, so in the beginning of setting up your vault this tip was kind of quickly eluded to, but some of you may not have been paying attention. I have to reiterate though, please do pay attention to you vault dweller specials and assign them to the best possible room for the specials they have. By assigning dwellers to the right rooms, they will not only be happier, but you will also produce a LOT more stuff a lot faster. I experimented with pulling different people in and out of rooms and watched as their happiness percentages and production fell. It really does make a difference so be careful in how you assign those dwellers!
Tip #2: Don’t Build Too Quick And Upgrade Rooms Where You Can
So, at first, I found myself building rooms a little too quickly. As I got caps, I would add rooms I thought would be useful. What I found though is too many rooms run your dwellers ragged and suck up energy. The best strategy is to fill each room you build to capacity with workers that have the right specials so that production is speedy. This makes more efficient use of personnel and energy resources. I suspect too, your workers don’t get worn out as quickly or sick as often if you place plenty of people in each workroom. I have only had to use stimpacks a couple of times in this vault and so I think the two may be correlated. They also seem happier when they have others around. If you find your supply levels are getting lower than you like, upgrade rooms once before adding on. Also, if you can plan rooms like the power, water and diners with enough space on each side to add one or two more of the same room next to it that’s better. You end up with bigger rooms that are more efficient than individual ones. Stacking two or three together is great. A good floorplan or layout for under 30 dwellers would be something like this:
- 3-room water treatment plant
- 3-room power generator
- 3-room diner
- 3-room living quarters
Strive for that in your early planning.
Tip #3: Outfits Increase Specials So Use Them
There are various achievements along the way that call for selling outfits, but I’ve found I like to keep as many of mine as I can and place them on different dwellers to accentuate their specials. To check if a particular outfit will help your dweller, you can tap on the dweller. In the bottom left hand corner of their stats screen you’ll see what outfit they are wearing. Tap on it, and you can see what outfits you have available for wearing – along with the special skill they raise. I try to put outfits on anyone I can – particularly dwellers that have low level specials (like 3 areas with just a level 2 and everything else a level 1). You can see a list of which outfits raise which Special in Fallout Shelter, at the Fallout Shelter Wiki, here.
Tip #3: Arm As Many Dwellers With Weapons As You Can – Especially Those Near The Vault Door
Ok, so anytime I get a weapon I immediately equip a dweller with it rather than storing it. Weapons are the best way to keep the raiders from doing too much damage to your vault dwellers or worse, killing them off. If you have limited weapons, you should definitely equip you dwellers nearest the vault door as they will be the first to be attacked. In a situation where I have limited weapons, I also discovered a good strategy is to hand off the weapon to the dwellers in the next room when the raiders move through. It’s a little tedious but will, again keep them from getting killed and you having to spend your hard earned caps to revive them.
Weapons are also useful for killing rad roaches when they invade living quarters or other rooms and are a must have when you send someone out into the wasteland, so definitely hang on to any weapons you get and arm your dwellers as you get new weapons.
Tip #4 Your Dwellers Need To Get Out Of The Vault – Send Dwellers Who Have The Most Endurance And Luck First
Ok, so most vault dwellers need to get out now and then. Sending a vault dweller out into the wilderness increases you chance of gaining valuable goodies like caps, weapons and outfits, while also increasing the experience of your vault dweller for leveling up. I am not certain, but it seems to me that getting the dwellers out of the vault also seems to reduce their chances of getting sick or radiation poisoning but I could be wrong. While it’s best to send dwellers out to the wilderness after you’ve built labs and science centers for producing radaway and stimpacks (they should ideally carry one of each with them) it isn’t absolutely vital. Making sure the dweller has good gear such as a suitable outfit and weapon however is essential. Now, if you are all about profit, the best thing to do is send out your luckiest dwellers or those with most endurance. Up to this point a lot of people have wondered what endurance does exactly other than letting someone stand around in the supply room all day. Endurance is great for people going into the wilderness because they can last longer while looking for loot. On the flipside, a dweller with a lot of luck will always come back with tons of stuff you can use, so you decide what you want to do there. For exploring outside the vault though, endurance and luck can go a long way.
As a last word on going into the wilderness. Not everyone would agree I’m sure, but I’ve actually found I don’t mind letting my dwellers die in the wilderness – as long as I revive them later. The reason is, in letting them die, I know they’ve gone as far as they can and gained as much stuff as they can. Now if I can remember to check on them frequently enough, I of course don’t let them die, but if they do occasionally it’s not so bad. Just remember you do need to revive them to get the stuff. Also, I’ve found the best stuff usually isn’t found till they’ve been in the wilderness at least an hour, so don’t bring them in too soon, unless it’s one of your first trips out there.
Tip #5 Make Some Babies (Responsibly)
Ok, so I would highly recommend getting your dwellers to make some babies pretty early on – though keep in mind when the babies are born more food is needed. It is hands down, one of the best ways to cheer up dwellers who aren’t sick or don’t have radiation poisoning. I have right now 5 pregnant ladies and a bunch of smiling dudes running around and, like I said, my dwellers are on average at 99% happiness. One thing I didn’t realize is, once the lady is pregnant, she can go back out and work. She doesn’t have to stay in the living quarters. Same goes for the fellow. So basically production doesn’t have to slow too much if you let a pair of ladies and gents slip out every now and again for a little happy smiley time. One thing the pregnant ladies can’t do is fight raiders or help with infestations, but other than that, she’s a trooper!
Tip #6 Build Science Lab And Medbay Early To Keep Sickness And Radiation At Bay
So, you can’t build science labs and medbays until you have at least 14 dwellers, but as soon as you can, get it built and try to put a couple of dwellers in each to get them producing stimpacks and radaways. Radiation poisoning and sickness are bound to hit your vault at some point – particularly if food or other supplies get low. If you notice certain dwellers’ happiness levels are falling zoom in to where they are and notice the things they are saying. If they talk about needing a radaway, hands growing out of their stomach, or fingernails falling off, they need a radaway to get rid of radiation poisoning. If they talk about needing to lie down, a sick day or other feeling like their coming down with something, give them a stimpack. Being sick or having radiation poisoning brings down happiness levels quickly so you want to have plenty of these on hand. Even if you think you’ve produced tons of them, don’t stop! You never know when the whole vault might need one!
So this is all for now, but as I continue my quest, I’ll be sure to add more tips and trick for getting ahead in Fallout Shelter without having to spend real money. If you have a killer tip to share, post it in the comments below. We’d love to hear it!
UPDATE: Here's a new Fallout Shelter guide for players who've already mastered the basics and another for Advanced Vault Management of 80+ Dwellers Check them out!
