What makes a game released five years ago like Fallout Shelter still relevant today? Is it gameplay? Graphics? Levels of difficulty? All of the above? There seems to be a serious staying power embedded in the game’s codes, which makes this simulation games for mobile still relevant up to this day. In this article, we have listed known Fallout Shelter tips, tricks, and cheats designed to entice new and veteran players alike to come back for more of this game by Bethesda Softworks LLC.
After reading this article, you will be able to:
- Maximize the efficiency of your vaults and use of CAPS
- Understand timing in increasing the number of your dwellers
- Understand what each stat means
- Properly select dwellers for each vault
- Learn new cheats
What Is Fallout Shelter?
Fallout Shelter is a video simulation game set in an apocalyptic world. Hence, there’s a need to survive in an underground bunker called the Valt-Tec Corporation vault. The main objective of the game is simple: you as the overseer controls the functions of the vault, which include power, food, water, and even the number of dwellers inside the vault. Advancing through the simulation requires increasing the size of the vault by either adding or upgrading the size of the rooms. This also includes placing dwellers that match each room’s functionality.
Dwellers are the most important part of the game. They are responsible for taking care of the vault, operating each room, protecting the rooms from raiders who can attack the vault, and scavenging the wasteland. As an overseer, your goal is to ensure these dwellers are happy inside the vault and taken care of by placing them in rooms where they can function accordingly and upgrading their skills.
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Best Fallout Shelter Tips and Tricks
Developer updates that work and add value to the game are the reasons why this game has survived five years since it was released by Bethesda Softworks LLC. Over the years, the game has attracted gamers who have developed their own Fallout Shelter tips and tricks to make the most as an overseer of the game. After all, the outcome of a simulation game depends on the decisions made by the overseer.
1. Strategize Your Vault and Update
The game can get overwhelming especially for a starter on this game. For one, it is confusing what room or vault to build first. Deciding which one to build first is not that hard and boils down to asking what essential elements you would need to survive in an underground bunker or dwelling.
Once you have decided on this, the next best thing to do is merge one-room segments into one larger section. Take note that you can combine up to three rooms, which should all be of the same type. This can be done by building over time especially if you do not want to give a run for your bottle caps (in-game currency). Other players would opt to throw a big stash of caps in to make this possible right away.
Always keep in mind to build two identical rooms next to where you built a new room as this will result in a better workplace for your dwellers.
2. Invest in Power Plant and Expanding Sleeping Quarters and Cafeteria
Imagine living in a dystopian world where absolutely every facet of the human living conditions has been thrown in complete disarray. The only way to survive is by building a living-conducive environment that mimics the old normal living conditions. This is where the necessity to plan out the essentials comes in.
Building a new living environment needs a good power source to help the next section of this environment to function well. Your dwellers need a place to sleep and rest after a day’s worth of work so having well-kept living quarters will keep your dwellers thriving underground. And lastly, your dwellers are not robots and would need nourishing to keep everything functioning, hence the need for a cafeteria where food sources can be acquired.
3. Build First, Populate Later
Here’s a pro Fallout Shelter tip: society has failed by procreating without laying the groundwork for such an expansion. Hence, when you are playing this game, it is important to understand not to make a similar mistake – even though it is just a game.
Veteran players would advise new players to make sure your vaults are properly upgraded before planning to expand the population. Yes, you can populate your dwelling by getting the women inside your vault pregnant. You lose the game if half of your population is in labor and indisposed to help protect your vault in case of invasion.
In the Fallout Shelter post-apocalyptic world, pregnancies last for three hours. And then, children turn into grown-ups for another three hours.
So always upgrade and expand your vaults before growing your population.
4. Use Your Dweller’s Full Capacity
Each dweller comes with a skill they can use to survive inside the Vault and outside the wasteland. As the overseer, it is important to understand how you can use these stats, a.k.a. SPECIAL, in your favor. Here’s what each SPECIAL stat does for your dweller’s productivity.
Strength
You should consider putting dwellers with high strength amount in power generators and nuclear reactors as they have the ability to speed up and increase the power yielded for your vault. When outside, strength allows dwellers to carry more supplies and improves their damage when in the quest. You can increase this stat by allowing your dwellers to train in the weight room.
Perception
Dwellers with high perception are more reliable in water production as they speed up water treatment and purification. When in the wasteland, they are better as explorers, with its high rate of success in finding new locations and loots. The armory where you should let dwellers improve their perception.
Endurance
No one in isolation will survive without food – that’s where dwellers with high endurance will come to help. They are most efficient in Nuka-Cola bottler, the room that produces food and drinking water for your vault. This stat also gives dwellers more resistance in the outside environment that’s why it’s essential to improve your dwellers’ endurance when you plan to send them to the wasteland. You can let you dwellers train in the fitness room to improve their endurance.
Charisma
Charisma is responsible for growing the population in your vault. It speeds up baby-making in the living quarters and attracts more dwellers when used in radio studios. When in the wasteland, charisma makes dwellers be more street smart, basically. You can improve your dweller’s charisma by allowing them to spend time in the lounge area.
Intelligence
Dwellers with high intelligence are basically the scientists in your vault. This stat helps speed up the rate at which med bays and science labs produce Stimpaks and RadAways, the items that needed for your dwellers’ healing. For obvious reasons, you can improve your dwellers’ intelligence in classrooms.
Agility
Agility comes hand-in-hand with endurance as it increases the yields in diners and gardens needed for food production. In the wasteland, agility increases your dwellers’ survival against enemies. The more you spend in the Athletics room, the more your dwellers get agile.
Luck
Luck is responsible for increasing the chances of rush attempt success and increase caps earned as a result. In the wasteland, it increases the likelihood of finding rare objects. Allowing dwellers to play in the game room can improve their luck.
Understanding these skills will help you properly designate a dweller in the Vault. This is necessary for ensuring the Vault functions efficiently and secure satisfaction from dwellers.
One of the pro Fallout Shelter tips players disregard is to increase a dweller’s Endurance stat if you want it to survive. Increasing the Endurance stat increases your HP count on each level up.
5. Take Advantage of Mr. Handy
Mr. Handy is a snarky robot that can be accessed by completing objectives and effectively unlocking Mr. Handy boxes. This box is accessible in every storage you have in the Vault. Mr. Handy can also be bought for just under a dollar.
You can put Mr. Handy anywhere in the Vault. He can do many things including collect resources, put out fires, and fight off attackers. Speaking of attackers, Mr. Handy can take damages similar to dwellers. However, Mr. Handy can’t be healed; once he dies, he can only be revived by paying off 2,000 caps. Mr. Handy can also be used outside the Vault to collect caps in the wasteland.
6. Take Advantage of the Nuka-Cola Quantum
Here’s a Fallout Shelter tip that comes in handy – save yourself a bottle of Nuka-Cola for when you actually need it. Fallout Shelter update 1.6 introduces Nuka-Cola as a premium currency. Players have the option to use this feature when they want to shake up and speed things up by up to two hours.
Nuka-Cola Quantums are acquired by either playing the game and collecting them along the way or buying them in the shop using your caps.
Nuka-Cola Quantums can be used to speed training sessions of dwellers so they don’t have to be indisposed for a long time and can go back to work right away. They can also be used to expedite the travelers’ excursion to and from quests.
7. Complete the Four Lunchboxes
There are four lunchboxes in the game that an overseer has to complete. The first one is by rushing a room. Collecting a total of 50 water unlocks the second lunchbox. The third is by getting your dweller to level up. Equipping a dweller with an outfit completes the last lunchbox.
Pro fallout shelter tipMake your dwellers powerful on the wasteland by upgrading their skills up. Completing one of these lunchboxes will also award your dweller with ammunition, which he can use out on the wasteland.
Best Fallout Shelter Cheats
In this section, you will learn three basic Fallout Shelter tips and cheats, which we hope will give you a good time playing Fallout Shelter and a run for your caps.
1. Make Time Go Faster and Level Up Dwellers Quickly
We mentioned above that it takes three hours for pregnancy to last in Fallout Shelter and another three hours before an infant evolves into an adult. That six hours’ time seems long enough especially if your Vault is under siege by raiders with much of your population indisposed. Luckily, there is a way to speed things up in Fallout Shelter, giving you more time to do other important things to keep the Vault in full function. If you have not guessed how to do this yet, keep reading.
The best way to rush things up quickly is by saving your progress and exit the game. Navigate to your device’s settings and change the time on your phone (preferably to a time zone ahead of yours). Once you load the game again, the game will act as if you jumped hours ahead completing each mission, training sessions, and even leveling up in seconds instead of hours.
2. Make Your Dwellers Happy
The first dweller you will get in your Vault usually has a Strength stat. Eventually, you will get dwellers with Agility and Perception stats. Strength dwellers perform best at the Power Generation station and placing them here would result in happier dwellers. A dweller’s happiness decreases if placed in a post where their skills are not aligned. Something an overseer should avoid.
3. Increase Your Caps Stash
There is an obscured trick that can help players earn caps faster than sending dwellers out to the wasteland, although this can come off as challenging.
As a starting player, it is important to understand that laying the groundwork is very important. Expanding your boxes in the Vault comes next. Veteran players have a trick they call The Grid Technique. Basically, this technique would require an overseer to build a Power Generator Station as one room. Right next to that should be a Diner Station, which should also be adjacent to a Water Treatment Station. Keep repeating this installation for four rows down.
This technique not only distributes your resources evenly, this also serves as layers of protection for your Vault in case of an attack from raiders. This will also prove useful in the next step in earning caps.
There are other ways to earn caps…and earn them fast. Fallout Shelter rewards an overseer with caps for rushing rooms.
PRO fallout shelter TIPs- It does not matter if you have a big room with six dwellers inside to defend it. In case of an invasion from raiders, the effects that room and on its dwellers will be the same with a small room that only has two dwellers inside.
- All rooms are based on a percentage and size will not necessarily equate to an increase or a decrease in percentage.
Final Thoughts
There are certainly new tricks to try to make the most out of Fallout Shelter and it does not matter the game has been released five years ago and its gameplay remains the same. The game certainly proves to be a throve for both new and veteran players alike; there will always be something new to discover out of this game. After all, surviving an apocalyptic world remains to be an interesting theme for many game developers and players alike.
