93 Fun Facts About Fallout

Behind the sales pitch, what were most of Fallout's Vaults secretly built to do?

Run experiments on residents: the Vaults were sold as nuclear shelters, but only 17 of the 122 were built to work as promised, and each of the rest tested a different ordeal on the people inside.

From which animal were Fallout's Deathclaws originally genetically engineered as a bioweapon before the Great War?

Jackson's chameleons were the base stock: pre-War military scientists spliced the chameleon's DNA with other species to create Deathclaws as replacements for human soldiers in close-combat missions.

Which casino boss ambushes the Courier and steals the Platinum Chip at the start of Fallout: New Vegas?

Benny runs The Tops and wears a checkered suit; his tribe, the Boot-Riders, were renamed the Chairmen when they took over the casino.

In Fallout 3, the player character begins their journey in which location?

Vault 101 teaches that no one ever enters or leaves, yet the player character was born outside: their father James brought them in as a newborn and later slips out, starting the story.

What is the wrist-worn computer that manages quests, inventory and stats in every mainline Fallout game?

Pip-Boy: the Pip stands for Personal Information Processor, and the cartoon mascot on the first two games' Pip-Boy was modelled on the Bob's Big Boy restaurant mascot and is a different character from Vault Boy.

Which heavy weapon in the Fallout games launches miniature nuclear warheads?

The M42 Fat Man was developed at Fort Strong near Boston, where early warheads were too heavy to clear the blast radius before going off.

At the start of Fallout: New Vegas, which robot digs the Courier out of a shallow grave in Goodsprings?

Victor, a one-wheeled robot with a cowboy drawl, digs the Courier out and gets them to Doc Mitchell; he was secretly a scout for the reclusive ruler of the Strip all along.

Which journalist and editor of the 'Publick Occurrences' newspaper can become a companion in Fallout 4?

Piper Wright prints the paper with her younger sister Nat; her article 'The Synthetic Truth' accused the mayor of being a synth, so he had her locked out of the city.

In Fallout, the Great War was a nuclear exchange between the United States and which country?

China's invasion of Alaska set off the war, and American troops in power armor won back Anchorage less than a year before the two sides destroyed each other.

In Fallout 4, which S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat sets how many settlers a settlement can hold?

Charisma: a settlement holds ten settlers plus one per point, and outfits or consumables that boost the stat raise the cap too; it also governs persuasion and the prices merchants offer.

On what morning did Fallout's two-hour Great War wipe out the old world?

October 23, 2077 fell on a Saturday in the games' timeline; Bethesda now treats October 23 as Fallout Day, marking it each year with a broadcast for fans.

What is the official title given to the player character in Fallout 3?

The Lone Wanderer sets out after their missing father James, a part Bethesda wrote with its eventual voice actor, Liam Neeson, in mind.

Which prominent Fallout faction zealously preserves pre-war technology?

The Brotherhood of Steel was founded by Roger Maxson, a U.S. Army captain who led his unit into desertion just before the bombs fell, after learning of the military's secret human experiments.

The Yao Guai that roam the Fallout wastelands are mutated descendants of which animal?

Black bear: the mutated bears were named by descendants of pre-War internment-camp prisoners, in whose language the words mean 'monster' or 'demon'.

In Fallout 4, which faction is dedicated to liberating and protecting sentient synths?

The Railroad borrows its name from the Underground Railroad and hides beneath Boston's Old North Church, at the end of the old Freedom Trail walking tour.

Which is one of the four main factions vying for the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas?

Caesar's Legion was founded by a former scholar of the Followers of the Apocalypse, who lifted its whole culture from books about ancient Rome and built an army of enslaved tribes.

What does the 'I' stand for in Fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. character stats?

Intelligence is the I in S.P.E.C.I.A.L.; the system was built in-house after a licence to use the GURPS tabletop rules fell through during the first game's development.

In the original Fallout, what item must the Vault Dweller find to save their vault?

The hero has 150 days to find a working water chip, which turns up beneath the ghoul city of Necropolis; the Overseer then exiles them, fearing others would follow them outside.

Which pre-War contractor built the first Power Armor in the Fallout universe?

West-Tek built the T-45, the first power armor deployed in battle, and the same contractor's virus research produced the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

In the Fallout TV series, Lucy MacLean leaves which shelter to find her kidnapped father?

Vault 33 is home to Ella Purnell's Lucy; the raiders who seize her father Hank arrive posing as neighbours from Vault 32, where everyone was already dead.

Fallout 4's Diamond City is built inside the ruins of which real baseball stadium?

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, becomes Diamond City: settlers sheltered behind the ballpark's high walls and built what they call the Great Green Jewel.

Which Fallout game is set earliest in the timeline, only 25 years after the bombs fell?

Fallout 76 opens in 2102 and launched without a single human character to talk to; Bethesda added them in the 2020 Wastelanders update.

Which Fallout: New Vegas companion is a Followers of the Apocalypse researcher with a medical background?

Arcade Gannon works as a researcher and doctor for the Followers of the Apocalypse at the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside, while hiding that he grew up among Enclave remnants.

In Fallout 3, which town can the player destroy for a reward from the wealthy Allistair Tenpenny?

Megaton is built around an unexploded atomic bomb that a local cult worships; the player can disarm it for the sheriff or detonate it for Tenpenny's agent, Mister Burke.

How is Fallout 2's Chosen One related to the protagonist of the original Fallout?

A direct descendant: the Chosen One is the grandchild of the first game's hero, sent out by Arroyo's elder, who is both their mother and the old hero's daughter.

The first season of the Fallout TV series is set in which ruined U.S. city?

Los Angeles: the heroine's home lies beneath Santa Monica, and the season ends by turning toward New Vegas, where the second season picks up the story.

Which Fallout 4 Luck perk gives a random chance to triple the experience earned from any action?

Idiot Savant fires more often the dumber your character is, and a laughing Vault Boy pops up whenever it does; a second rank raises the bonus to five times the experience.

In Fallout 3, Project Purity's giant water purifier is built inside which Washington landmark?

The Jefferson Memorial holds Project Purity, begun by the player's parents to clean the Tidal Basin; in the ending, someone must enter its lethally irradiated control room to start it.

In Fallout 4's Vault 81, a bite from which creature leaves the player with a lasting disease?

Mole Rat: Vault 81's hidden wing kept infected ones for its disease research, and one bite cuts the player's health for good unless they take the only cure, meant for a sick boy.

Which iconic location in Fallout: New Vegas features a massive dinosaur sculpture and a motel?

Novac took its name from a broken 'No Vacancy' motel sign; Dinky the T-Rex looms over the Dino Dee-lite Motel, and snipers Boone and Manny Vargas use its mouth as a nest.

In the Fallout TV series, which company's executives propose starting the nuclear war themselves?

Vault-Tec Corporation: in the season one finale, an executive assures rival company bosses that the firm can guarantee its investment by dropping the first bomb itself, while her husband listens in.

Fallout 3's slow-motion V.A.T.S. kills were inspired by crash replays from which racing series?

Burnout: Bethesda's designers cited the racing series' slow-motion crash replays as the model for V.A.T.S. kill cameras, which let Fallout 3 blend real-time action with the paused, targeted attacks of the earlier games.

What is the primary currency used in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout?

Bottle caps, mostly from Nuka-Cola, became the standard currency after the Hub's water merchants backed them: the means to press and paint new ones were lost, so fakes are hard to make.

In Fallout 4, what is the name of the protagonist's son, who is kidnapped from Vault 111?

Shaun turns out to be a man of sixty, not the baby his parent is searching for: raised by the Institute, he now leads it under the name Father.

In Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House rules the Strip with an army of which robots?

Securitrons get a wholesale upgrade from the Platinum Chip the Courier is carrying when shot in the head at the start of the game.

In Fallout 3's Broken Steel, the Tesla Cannon was built to knock which Enclave aircraft out of the sky?

Vertibirds: in Broken Steel, Scribe Vallincourt finishes the Tesla Cannon once the player retrieves a Tesla coil from the Olney Powerworks, and it is used to shoot down the Enclave's Vertibird gunships.

Which virtual reality simulation lurks inside Vault 112 in Fallout 3?

Tranquility Lane is a suburban street simulation run by Dr. Stanislaus Braun, who appears inside it as a little girl named Betty and sets the player cruel tasks against the residents.

In the 2018 online Fallout game, residents of Vault 76 leave their shelter on which named day?

Reclamation Day was the plan for Vault 76, a showpiece opened to mark America's 300th birthday: its hand-picked 'best and brightest' would walk out and rebuild.

What era heavily influenced the 'retrofuturistic' design aesthetic of the Fallout series?

1950s Atomic Age: the games picture the future as that decade imagined it, so nuclear-powered cars and household robots sit beside vacuum-tube computers and boxy old televisions.

What is the name of the aircraft carrier serving as a major settlement in Fallout 3?

Rivet City grew from a science outpost set up in the grounded carrier by Horace Pinkerton, who later fell out with its council and now lives forgotten in the ship's broken-off bow.

Which Fallout: New Vegas DLC takes the Courier to a pre-War casino resort known as the Sierra Madre?

Dead Money locks an explosive collar on the Courier and ends in a vault of gold bars far too heavy to carry out, fitting the story's refrain about letting go.

Which Fallout enemies owe their existence to the Forced Evolutionary Virus?

Super Mutants are humans transformed by the Forced Evolutionary Virus; in the first Fallout, captives dipped in FEV vats at the Mariposa Military Base emerged as the green-skinned giants.

Which actor narrated the 'War never changes' openings of the first three numbered Fallout games?

Ron Perlman voiced the narrator from 1997 on; Fallout 4 broke the habit by giving the opening monologue to its hero, with Perlman heard only as a television newsreader.

What is the name of the main radio station in Fallout 3, hosted by Three Dog?

Galaxy News Radio only reaches the whole wasteland once the player takes a dish from a museum's lunar lander and fits it to the top of the Washington Monument for Three Dog.

In Fallout 4, the companion Dogmeat is which breed of dog?

German Shepherd: Dogmeat's movements were captured from River, a developer's own dog, and unlike the dogs of earlier games he cannot be killed in Fallout 4.

In Fallout: New Vegas, which real hydroelectric dam is the prize the game's factions go to war over?

Hoover Dam survived the war largely intact and still supplies power to the region, which is why two great battles are fought over it, the second as the game's finale.

In Fallout 4, how does the Sole Survivor outlast the two centuries between the bombs and the story?

Frozen in a cryo pod: Vault 111 told its residents the pods were for decontamination, then kept them on ice, and the Sole Survivor thaws 210 years to the day after the bombs.

What is the name of the ghoul bounty hunter and former actor in the Fallout TV series?

Cooper Howard, played by Walton Goggins, was a Western film star who posed for pre-War adverts, and the show makes his thumbs-up the origin of the Vault Boy mascot.

In Fallout: New Vegas, what wiped out the scientists living in Vault 22?

A parasitic fungus bred in Vault 22 to kill crop pests infected the residents instead, turning them into the spore carriers that still roam its overgrown halls.

Which Fallout: New Vegas faction aims to restore pre-War America and is known for bureaucracy and expansionism?

The New California Republic grew out of Shady Sands, a small settlement founded by survivors from a Vault, and by New Vegas it is a nation of five states pushing east into the Mojave.

At which event did Bethesda first announce Fallout Shelter, releasing it on iOS the same night?

E3 2015: the free game was a surprise announcement, and in its first two weeks, on Apple devices alone, players spent an estimated $5.1 million in it.

Fallout Shelter was built with which game engine, unusual for a Bethesda title?

Unity: Bethesda Game Studios built the vault sim in the cross-platform Unity engine with Montreal's Behaviour Interactive, rather than the in-house Creation Engine that powers its main titles.

In Fallout Shelter, which robot collects resources from every room on its floor?

Mister Handy, the floating multi-armed robot, gathers the output of every production room on its floor and can also be sent out into the wasteland to scavenge on its own.

In Fallout Shelter, which S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat makes dwellers better at running power generators?

Strength runs the power generators: each production room favours one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat, and if the vault runs short of power, rooms start shutting down and leave dwellers in the dark.

Fallout Shelter's 2018 release made it the first Fallout game on which company's hardware?

Nintendo: the Switch port arrived on June 10, 2018, the same day as the PlayStation 4 version, making it the first Fallout title on any Nintendo console since the series began on PC in 1997.

In 2020 Fallout Shelter became playable on the built-in screen of which unexpected platform?

Tesla vehicles: the game joined the cars' built-in arcade in a May 2020 software update, a year after Todd Howard and Elon Musk announced the port together.

Which 2024 Bethesda mobile game is a fantasy spiritual successor to the vault-building Fallout Shelter?

The Elder Scrolls: Castles has players rule a dynasty instead of a vault: each real day is a year in the game, so rulers age and die and their heirs take the throne.

By its fifth anniversary in 2020, roughly how many players had Fallout Shelter reached?

170 million players by its fifth birthday, by Bethesda's count; within a day of launch it was already the third-highest-earning game on the App Store, ahead of Candy Crush Saga.

Fallout became a spiritual successor to Wasteland because which publisher held on to that game's rights?

Electronic Arts published Interplay's 1988 Wasteland and kept the rights, so a direct sequel was impossible and Tim Cain's team built a new post-apocalyptic world instead.

Which vocal group sang 'Maybe', the song heard over the opening of the first Fallout?

The Ink Spots' 'Maybe' was a fallback: the team wanted the group's 'I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire' but could not license it, and Bethesda later used that song in Fallout 3.

Which amalgamated creature leads the mutant army in the original 1997 Fallout?

The Master, once a doctor named Richard Grey, can be talked into destroying himself when the player proves that his new race is sterile and has no future.

In Fallout 2, the Enclave's main base sits on what kind of structure?

An offshore oil rig: the Enclave's Control Station sits on Poseidon Oil's old platform off the California coast; the Chosen One reaches it by restarting an ancient oil tanker's autopilot, then blows it up.

Which Star Trek actor voiced Frank Horrigan, the Enclave's cyborg brute in Fallout 2?

Michael Dorn, Star Trek's Worf, voiced Frank Horrigan and also the friendly sheriff Marcus, a role he returned to in Fallout: New Vegas.

Which device does Arroyo's village elder send the Chosen One to find in Fallout 2?

A Garden of Eden Creation Kit: Arroyo is dying in its worst drought on record, so the elder sends the Chosen One to find the G.E.C.K. she read about in her father's old holodisks.

Which studio, founded by former Black Isle staff, developed Fallout: New Vegas?

Obsidian Entertainment had only 18 months to build New Vegas, and its contract promised a bonus for an 85 average on Metacritic, which the game missed by a single point.

In Fallout Tactics, which enemy inside Vault Zero directs the robot army?

The Calculator, the supercomputer running Vault 0 beneath the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, commands the robot army; the finale lets you wire a human brain into it, with different endings depending on whose.

What was the codename of Black Isle's cancelled Fallout 3, shelved in December 2003?

Van Buren, named after the eighth U.S. president, was set across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah; it died when Interplay laid off the Black Isle team, and story ideas resurfaced in Fallout: New Vegas.

How much did Bethesda pay Interplay in 2007 to buy the entire Fallout franchise outright?

$5.75 million bought the whole series in 2007, three years after Bethesda first licensed it; Microsoft later agreed to pay $7.5 billion for Bethesda's parent company.

Which country's ratings board initially refused to classify Fallout 3 over drug use?

Australia: the OFLC refused classification in July 2008 over the use of real drug names, so Bethesda renamed morphine to Med-X and applied the change to every version of the game worldwide.

Which actor voiced Enclave President John Henry Eden in Fallout 3?

Malcolm McDowell voiced John Henry Eden, who turns out to be a supercomputer running Raven Rock; the player can talk him into destroying himself.

Late in Fallout 3's development, Bethesda found nobody had modelled which D.C. landmark?

The White House: with no time left to build it, the team dropped a giant radioactive crater on the site and explained it away in-game as a direct nuclear hit.

Which New Vegas option adds ammo weight, permanent companion death and a need to eat?

Hardcore Mode can be switched on or off at any time, but finishing the whole game with it enabled from start to end unlocks the 'Hardcore' achievement.

In Old World Blues, what are the Big MT's brain-in-a-jar scientists collectively called?

The Think Tank: Dr. Mobius hacked his fellow brains-in-jars' memories to trap them in a loop and built robotic scorpions to keep them busy at the Big MT.

In Lonesome Road, the Courier tracks which rival who refused to deliver the Platinum Chip?

Ulysses, the courier who turned down the Platinum Chip job, blames the Courier for the nuclear destruction of the Divide; Lonesome Road ties together threads from the three earlier story DLCs.

Which rogue elder collars the Courier and forces a heist on the Sierra Madre casino?

Father Elijah uses the nightkin Dog/God to abduct wanderers for his Sierra Madre heist; the player can end it by killing him or by sealing him inside the vault he coveted.

Which Las Vegas entertainer lends his voice to Fallout: New Vegas?

Wayne Newton, the singer known as Mr. Las Vegas, plays radio host Mr. New Vegas, who turns out to be a computer personality built by Mr. House before the war.

Which cheerfully reprogrammed robot lets the Courier claim New Vegas for themselves?

Yes Man was reprogrammed so that he cannot refuse an order, and he cannot be lost either: destroy his body and he simply returns in another one.

Which Fallout 4 companion is a prototype synth who works as a private detective?

Nick Valentine, a discarded Institute prototype, carries the memories of a pre-War Boston police detective of the same name and is voiced by Stephen Russell.

Fallout 4's Far Harbor expansion takes the Sole Survivor to an island off which state?

Maine: Far Harbor is set on a version of Mount Desert Island smothered in radioactive fog, where the townsfolk survive behind machines that condense the fog away.

Which mercenary murdered the Sole Survivor's spouse in Fallout 4?

Conrad Kellogg shot the Sole Survivor's spouse and took their baby; after his death, an implant from his brain lets Dr. Amari replay his memories and reveal how to reach the Institute.

The 2018 online Fallout game sends players into the hills of which U.S. state?

West Virginia: Bethesda commissioned a cover of John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' for the trailer, then sold it as a single to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

In the 2018 online Fallout game, what does the base-building acronym C.A.M.P. stand for?

Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform: the C.A.M.P. can be dropped almost anywhere and moved at any time, and if another player's base already occupies the spot on a server, yours is packed up.

In Appalachia, which numbered shelter secretly holds the U.S. gold reserve from Fort Knox?

Vault 79 shares its number with gold's atomic number: it secretly held the bullion moved from Fort Knox, and a raid on it lets players keep the gold or share it out.

The 2018 Power Armor Edition's promised canvas bag famously arrived made of what instead?

Nylon: the $200 Power Armor Edition shipped a cheap nylon bag instead of the advertised canvas one; Bethesda first offered 500 Atoms, then promised real canvas bags that shipped in 2019.

Who directed the first three episodes of the Fallout television series?

Jonathan Nolan, a long-time player of the games, directed the first three episodes; Bethesda had turned away screen offers for years before he approached with his own idea.

Interplay's cancelled Project V13, ended by a 2012 legal settlement, was planned as what kind of Fallout game?

A massively multiplayer online game: Interplay kept that one licence when it sold the series, but Bethesda sued over the slow progress and bought the rights back for $2 million.

Fallout's TV wasteland scenes were shot in the ghost town of Kolmanskop in which country?

Namibia: rather than fake a desert on a green-screen stage, the makers flew the cast out, and the real ruins needed almost no visual effects to pass for a world after the bombs.

Who plays Robert House in the second season of the Fallout series?

Justin Theroux plays Robert House in the second season, which moves the story to New Vegas; the House glimpsed in the first, played by Rafi Silver, turns out to be his body double.

Which Nuka-Cola flavour glows bright blue thanks to a radioactive isotope in the recipe?

Nuka-Cola Quantum gets its glow from a strontium isotope first developed for the military, and the best-known side effect is that it makes the drinker's urine glow too.

Vault Boy's perk pictures were drawn to feel like the cards of which board game?

Monopoly: Leonard Boyarsky wanted the perk pictures to recall the game's cards, and he based Vault Boy himself partly on its mascot, Rich Uncle Pennybags.

Fallout's Dogmeat was inspired by the hero's loyal dog in which post-apocalyptic film?

Mad Max 2 gave the series its lone hero with a dog, while the name comes from A Boy and His Dog, a 1975 film in which Vic calls his dog Blood 'dogmeat'.

What are the two-headed pack animals that haul caravans across the Fallout wasteland called?

Brahmin are the wasteland's main livestock, kept for milk, meat and leather, and without the two-headed cattle the trade caravans that link its towns could not move.

Which composer scored Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4 and the 2018 online game?

Inon Zur first scored the spin-off Fallout Tactics, then returned for the Bethesda games, building the wasteland's sound partly from tools and everyday objects played as instruments.