How on Earth did the security ninjas at Bethesda keep Fallout Shelter a secret? That in itself would make for an interesting tale, but whatever the answer I'm sure glad they did, as it made the whole experience just that little bit sweeter. The surprise of the announcement at E3 that the iOS base-builder would be available at the end of the conference sent Fallout starved fans rushing to the App Store. Once downloaded, those same fans discovered a very nicely fleshed out and benevolently monetised package, with plenty of fan service trimmings to tide them over until the release of Fallout 4. 

Also Read: Fallout: Shelter Review - Mobile Hero or Just Another Ghoul From the F2P Wastelands?

Getting your Vault off to a healthy start is not easy though, and so we've put together some very basic tips that should at the very least set you off on the right path to wasteland survival. If you've got any insights you'd like to share, hit us up in the comments below or on our Facebook page, letting us know how you survived your first few hours. Good luck!

The Right Person for the Job

This will sound extremely obvious but it's absolutely essential for getting those power, food and water gauges into the green. 

The start of the game will present you with a small ragtag group of survivors standing outside your vault doors. My first instinct was to grab them and put them to work as soon as possible, worrying about any technicalities later. Try as I might I couldn't get my gauges to stay healthy for very long. There was never enough power, food was scarce, and the dwellers were thirsty and miserable. 

If you tap on the hammer icon in the top right corner of your screen, you'll bring up a list of rooms that can be built, with each specifying the personality trait that is best matched to that room. Perception matches to Water Treatment plants, Agility to Diners (for food production) and so on. Tapping on your individual dwellers will bring up their stats listed in an acronym as SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck).

Simply matching the dweller to the room their stats were highest for and bingo, my overall dweller happiness rocketed from 10% to over 60%, and productivity skyrocketed. Problem solved. 

Don't overpopulate or overbuild 

Dwellers seem to be obsessed with repopulating the planet, and if you leave a male and a female alone together in a living quarter, one thing will definitely lead to another. Now, if you've read that staple of good parenting - Where Did I Come From? - you'll know how babies are made, and man these dwellers are efficient. 

It's best to start off only with the amount of dwellers you need in order to populate and run the rooms you already have. Conversely, don't build more rooms than you need at the start. If you do, you'll find power in short supply very quickly. 

I keep my living quarters empty until I'm ready to up the numbers, at which point I'll send a couple of lucky candidates off to get busy. Funnily enough, sending dwellers to the living quarters who aren't all that happy with their lot in life, will soon turn their frowns upside down. 

Prepare for Raids

By the time your vault gets raided for the first time, chances are very good that you'll have scored yourself a couple of sets of armour and some weapons. Equip these to some dwellers so they're ready for action - these will be your go to guys in the event of attack. 

Secondly, by this stage you should have scraped together enough caps (the game's currency) to increase the security level of your vault door. Do this. 

When your first raid strikes, the strengthened door will give you some precious extra seconds to get your defence team up to meet the attackers, as they first have to beat down the door to get into your vault. It'll still take some fighting to get the job done, and you'll take a few licks, but at least you'll have that head start, with a team ready for action.

Also Read: Out There - Essential Survival Tips

So how did you survive your first few hours of Fallout Shelter? Did you catch your dwellers saying anything particularly amusing or find any fun easter eggs we should know about?

Feel free to share it with us below or on the various social feeds.

Good luck out there!

Grab Fallout Shelter for free right here and check out the trailer below. 

Writer:
Garry Balogh 

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