Goodbye Vault 47

I'm not much of a mobile gamer.  Once in awhile I will pick up something that is timeless and it will live on my iPad--games like Plants vs. Zombies 2 or Bejeweled.  One of the newer games that I've been playing around with is Fallout Shelter.  In the wake of the epic Fallout 4 announcement a goofy mobile game was released.  Fallout Shelter gives fans of the Fallout series a chance to be the overseer of their own vault--in a completely mobile game type of way.  You manage your vault by gathering supplies like power, food, and water that are produced by different rooms you build in your vault.  Your goal is to keep your vault dwellers happy and alive...and to eventually train and arm them.  One of the major catches in Fallout Shelter is that your vault can only hold 200 dwellers.  Once you hit 200 there are no more random people showing up at your vault door asking for entry or vault babies.  So...what's the point?  That is exactly what I've been trying to figure out.  I have also learned some things about the way I managed my vault.  Maybe they should use how someone runs their Fallout Shelter as a sort of psychological test.

Here are some things I've learned about running a vault.  If the apocalypse actually happens I think my vault would be mostly successful.

Pregnant women must train too.  Having a baby is no excuse.  See tip #1.

1.) Be a slave driver!
Your vault dwellers are at their happiest when they are working.  Assigning your dwellers to rooms...even if that room is just in the barracks is much better than letting them wander around aimlessly.  So get to building those production rooms!  Build them even if you don't need them!  Keep the peeps working.

2.) Training is key.
Once you hit the point where you can build training rooms you should build them and use them with abandon.  Similar to not wandering aimlessly, vault dwellers would prefer being in a training room to being on coffee break.  Keep an eye on their SPECIAL levels and move them as needed.  Once they are maxed out I would move them back into a barracks until I had enough trained to build a new production room.

3.) Selective breeding is best.
Yes, it's fun to hook up your little vault people.  To feel a sense of accomplishment as you drag and drop a new couple into the barracks with the hope of them producing a new baby vault dweller.  I am not completely positive if the parental stats have much to do with the special stats of their erstwhile offspring but they do appear to play some part.  If you have a shortage of dwellers with the agility stat it is best to create a power couple with strong agility stats.  You also need to be mindful of inbreeding!  Although it is tempting to make a high charisma dweller your baby-maker this is a recipe for disaster.  Unless you want everyone in your vault to be related I would avoid this plan.

Towards the middle-end of my vault I had started treating my dwellers like Quakers.  Men and women lived completely separately and were only allowed to intermingle if they had desirable stats.  Yep, I had single-handedly re-birthed the eugenics movement in my vault.  Once I made the tragic mistake of accidentally depositing a high charisma male dweller into the ladies barracks.  Before I fully understood what had happened the three ladies in the bunk were all sporting a baby-bump courtesy of Mr. Smoothtalker.  So much for selective breeding....

4.) Experiment with explorers.
Although your wasteland explorers will generally gain levels much faster than your traditional vault dwellers it is best to make several different explorers.  I have a strong inkling that explorers with different SPECIAL stats discover a wider variety of items while wandering the wastes.  I do not really have any evidence to back this up but I've tried to keep a rotation to see if my theory holds up.

Now that my vault is at capacity I am finding that I have much less interest.  What do you do once you hit 200 dwellers?  Keep training the masses until they are maxed out in all the stats?  Send as many as you can to wander the wastes and hope that someone finds something unique (I haven't had any luck finding a Mr. Handy)?  I have read of several unique ways that others have treated their capacity vaults.  One guy sent the vast majority of his dwellers out into the wasteland to die.  This seems like a genius idea because it would allow you to start over without actually starting over.  I think I'm going to opt to just let my Vault 47 fade away into the sunset.

So goodbye guy with Power Armor.  You looked really badass working the power plant.
Goodbye my loyal door guards--lady with the Fat Man and lady with a sniper rifle.  You were great at killing raiders and deathclaws.
Goodbye Mr. Smoothtalker!  I hope you enjoyed your jaunt into the ladies dorms.
Goodbye lady stranded outside the entrance.  Sorry the vault was full when you showed up.

Goodbye Vault 47.