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To Vault Security: If any of our residents notice any unusual odor or faint taste to the air, please assure them that everything is okay. There was a slight irregularity in our filtration system but nothing to cause alarm; the systems have already been corrected and are 100% functional again. If you notice anyone acting out in a strange manner, please report the disturbance immediately so medical assistance can be sent.Vault 106 overseer

Vault 106 is a Vault-Tec Vault located in the Capital Wasteland in 2277. It is located within a large cavern southeast of Arefu, directly south of Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast, and a bit north of Jury Street Metro station.

Background[]

As part of the Vault Experiment, psychoactive drugs were released into the Vault 106 air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed. Information in the Vault's computer terminals reveals that the overseer was aware of the experiment, ordering personnel to lie to residents about it if they asked any questions, though he insisted the tests would be brief and nonlethal. The psychoactive drugs began causing many residents to grow disoriented, delirious, and eventually violent; the overseer ordered a lockdown, but eventually the Vault's security personnel were overrun.

By 2277, the Vault's interior is mostly destroyed and filled with insane survivors. The psychoactive drugs are still being pumped through the Vault's air filtration systems, as evidenced by the player character's vision suddenly being shaded blue at the same time that hallucinations appear. At the very end of the Vault is a cave-like area, where skeletons and other items are located, including a mini nuke, suggesting some of the Vault dwellers may have been trying to blow their way out.

Official Vault-Tec Info[1]
Vault number 106
Started construction March 2064
Ended construction December 2069
Occupants

95 subjects

12 researchers

Duration 147 months
Computer system Think Machine 2800x
Primary power supply Rok-Solid Brand Geo-Thermal
Secondary power supply General Atomics Nuclear power
Overseer Dr. Albert Leris

Enemies[]

  • Several insane survivors inhabit Vault 106. They wear Vault 106 jumpsuits and wield a variety of melee weapons, such as lead pipes, knives, baseball bats, pool cues, Chinese officer's swords, sledgehammers (at high levels), etc., Despite not wearing armor, the insane survivors are slightly tougher than the average raider.
  • A "survivor" (who has the same ambient/combat voice files as a raider) is on the lowest level, at the end of the science lab section, wearing a Vault lab uniform and wielding a baseball bat. When first encountered, the survivor will activate a Stealth Boy that will remain active until the survivor is killed. The player character then has a hallucination in which the Tunnel Snakes (Butch DeLoria, Wally Mack, and Paul Hannon) attempt to kill them. After the survivor sustains some damage, the Tunnel Snakes will use Stealth Boys and flee, and the player character will see as if in a hallucination (with the purple tint). This will end after killing the survivor. If the Tunnel Snakes are killed by the Lone Wanderer or if they use the Mesmetron on them in the hallucination, they just disappear without leaving a body behind. Both killing them and them fleeing ends the hallucination.

Notable loot[]

Entrance[]

  • The torn out journal entry can be found under a large ruined book on a table (with another large ruined book and a chemistry set) in one of the side rooms. Coming from the Vault door down the stairs to the right, first hallway one encounters, then the first room on the right.

Living quarters[]

Vault 106 living quarters map

Local map with notes, bobblehead and skill book

  • A copy of Nikola Tesla and You is inside the classroom in the living quarters. After first entering the top level of the living quarters (it's a two level hall), cross the short catwalk, and enter the door on the lefthand side of the hall. The book is hidden, together with two tin cans, in the bottom wooden box of those stacked (with a drinking glass at their top) on the teacher's desk.
  • The Science bobblehead is located left diagonally across from where the player character first enters. Cross the short catwalk on the left, turn right to a hallway next to the classroom. Open the door, turn right, open the second door, and follow the corridor to a room. The bobblehead is on a bookshelf against the back wall (third shelf).
  • A poem entitled "Scribbles" is found on a table with a monitor on it, near the entrance to the overseer's office.
  • Feel the love man - A note, downstairs in the leftmost room of the male dorms. It appears to have been written by one of the insane Vault residents.
  • To anyone who gets this - Another note, on the ground in front of the locked (average) door south in the local map. It is written by a non-insane Vault resident.

Science lab[]

(Note: There are two entrances to the science lab, and the notes below pertain to only one, for directions.)

Vault 106 science labs loc

Local map with TT, mini nuke and key location

  • A copy of Tumblers Today is on the science lab level. From the entrance, head straight down the corridor (passing an open doorway) and take the stairs to the right. It's the first door on the right after the stairs, in the large room with all the machines. Turn left and then immediately left again after entering and head to the back of the room - the book is on top of an overturned machine, near to the window (two bottles of milk are also on top).

If one enters from the living quarters/overseer's office into a large room with large machines, follow the right-hand wall (turning right twice) until coming to a door. Go through the door, keep following the right-hand wall — a left, quick right, right, right, down the stairs, left, right — until coming to a door. Go through the door, turn left and then immediately left again after entering and head to the back of the room - the book is on top of an overturned machine, near to the window (two bottles of milk are also on top).

  • A mini nuke is in the final room of the science lab area, just past the fight with the survivor.
  • There are two Vault 106 master keys (which can open the door to the overseer's office).
    • One can be found next to a functional computer terminal in the northwest corner of a room in the living quarters that is only accessible through the science labs. (The player character can see the room and the science lab's door through barred windows in the living quarters, but they have to go upstairs, through a door in a room with a reactor in the labs to get to it.)
    • There is another one at the bottom of a shelf in the storeroom, behind the one where you fight the survivor. Note: this "key" is actually a red passcard. Although it looks normal, one cannot see the message when hovering the mouse pointer over it, and thus cannot pick it up. It is probably a bug. The player may use the "tcl" command and go closer to reach the key.

Notes[]

  • The player character will see doubles or triples of their father, Amata and the overseer in two separate occasions, while they are affected by the drugs. Butch DeLoria and the Tunnel Snakes are also seen as an apparition while fighting the survivor. Killing the apparitions results in a loss of Karma. If the player character tries to talk to their dad as an apparition, he disappears.
    • The Amatas seen within Vault 106 are different than the actual Amata, with a different hairstyle and color.
    • The fathers seen in Vault 106 are always Caucasian even if you select African American, Hispanic, or Asian.
  • Behind a Very Easy-locked door on the Vault 106 entrance floor, a Hard-locked terminal contains a letter sent by the overseer to Vault 106 security, falsely stating that the unusual odor or faint taste in the air was due to a slight irregularity in the Vault air filtration system and instructing the security personnel to tell concerned residents this same lie.
  • One of the hallucination areas, walking down the hallways from the lower level of the atrium in the living quarters, resembles a server room with terminals that can be accessed to reveal an entry titled "A Note to Me". Several notes with this same name are distributed on multiple terminals in the area, and after reading a couple of them, they will all change to say "I have nothing more to say to you. We're through here."
  • In the room where the survivor is, the survivor and an insane survivor will often engage in a conversation about escaping the Vault. The player character can listen to it if they remain hidden. The evidence of escape is in the small cave, where there are a mini-nuke and skeletons, where it appears they were trying to blow their way out.
  • Upon entering the science labs from the lower floor of the living quarters, there is a window into the room on the left. Looking through the window shows the room upside down (the floor is the ceiling and the ceiling is the floor), but entering the room will turn it back to normal. This is the only hallucination in the Vault that does not turn the screen blue while it runs its course.
  • One can wait during the hallucinations.
  • Grenades, if thrown in a hallucination, will explode once the hallucination has ended, but the explosion will not be heard where the grenade was thrown and will be heard elsewhere.
  • If Fawkes is present for the Tunnel Snake hallucinations, he will see them as well and attack. The same is true for Star Paladin Cross, Charon, Jericho and Butch. Companion kills due to the hallucinations will not cause the player character to lose Karma.
  • The large, unreachable cavern the Vault has been built within is visible from windows in the room containing the Science bobblehead.
  • The male and female bathrooms are on the opposite sides of their respective dorms.
  • In the Museum of Technology, a Vault door is on display with the same number.

Appearances[]

Vault 106 appears in Fallout 3 and is mentioned in the Fallout Bible.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Level designer Philip Nelson worked on the creation of Vault 106.[Non-game 1]
  • Vault 106 was first mentioned in Fallout Bible 0 which explained that psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed. Fallout 3 expanded on this idea.
  • Several additional hallucinations were planned and partially implemented for Vault 106, including a room appearing upside-down for a short time, a hallway where the Lone Wanderer would gradually shrink as they progressed along with it, hallways appearing where blank walls had been before, and the "boss" survivor initially appearing identical to the Lone Wanderer's father.
  • In addition to the unused hallucinations, a special helmet called the makeshift gas mask was placed in two locations within Vault 106. Wearing the mask would have prevented any further hallucinations from happening. The mask was mostly implemented but suffered from a scripting flaw that permanently re-applied the blue tint whenever it was removed, even outside of Vault 106.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 The hallucinations of the player character's Dad that appear throughout Vault 106 are always the default Caucasian model, even if one chooses a different race for their player character (and thus also for their father). [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 The game sometimes defaults the player character's body (though not the head) model to the default Caucasian model, staying that way until one reloads the game. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 At higher levels when attacking the Vault 106 survivor, even though the survivor might be dead, the Tunnel Snakes will literally "float" into the room without the blue hallucination backdrop. Killing them grants experience points. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 If the player character shoot at Amata she will disappear, but if they kill her with one shot, they will receive negative Karma and her clones will turn hostile towards them but, upon reaching them, they will just stand next to the player character, giving them an angry look with their fists up. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Despite the insane survivor's natural hostility toward the player character, dropping a live grenade on them grants bad Karma. [verified]
  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Some hallucinations that are targeted in V.A.T.S. will cause the game to crash if they disappear while V.A.T.S is zooming in or the player character is taking out their weapon. [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 If one shuts the main Vault door (the round one) it will appear as if it is not shut all of the way. Another way to see this is to leave the door open and you will see that it is, in fact, pulled farther back than the rest of the Vault doors in the Capital Wasteland. [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 After having killed the "survivor," if the player character attacks their corpse the blue hallucination tint will appear. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes after killing the survivor, their eyes will blink even though they are dead. [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 If the player character goes into the overseer's office and jumps near the wall to the right, near the terminal station, they will fall out of the map. One way to get back is to step into the void, and one will teleport back into the hallway before the office. [verified]
    • The other is to land on the overseer's tunnel as soon as one jumps through the wall, face their office and move all the way to the right, and then jump out through the small gap in the map to land on a tunnel below (some health will be lost). From there, turn right and ascend the top of the stairs that are the furthest away, forward, from the player character. After one has reached the top of the stairs, continue heading forward until reaching an opened door, directly east of the door to the Vault entrance. If player character has not yet encountered this hallucination event, they will be teleported into the hall if they close the door and walk over it.
  • PCPC Sometimes the game will malfunction, causing the hallucination of Paul Hannon to become real. One can kill him and get a mint condition Tunnel Snake outfit off of his body. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 When entering the room in the living quarters with the master key and the security terminal, companions may be placed on the opposite side of the wall in an area that should be inaccessible from this room. [verified]

Gallery[]

References[]

Non-game

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