Vault 111

Vaults & Shelters · Source: Fallout 4 (2015), Bethesda Game Studios — in-game world, terminals, and dialogue

Overview

Vault 111 is a cryogenic research vault in the Commonwealth, featured in Fallout 4, and the starting point of the game. Its dwellers were frozen in cryo-pods to be studied over decades.

History & Background

Claiming to offer shelter from the bombs, Vault 111 instead ran an experiment in cryogenic preservation, freezing its residents for observation. On the day the Sole Survivor and family entered, the Institute — seeking pre-war DNA — kidnapped their infant son Shaun, killed their spouse, and left them frozen. The Sole Survivor awakens 210 years later in 2287 and emerges into the Commonwealth to begin the game's story.

Geography & Layout

The vault is a compact facility of cryo-pods, a reactor room, and a small command center, hidden in the hills near Sanctuary. It is visited early and can be revisited to uncover more of the Institute's involvement.

Wasteland Significance

Vault 111 sets up the entire narrative of Fallout 4, and the mystery of what happened to the vault's frozen dwellers — and the Institute's raid — drives the game's central conflict.

Notable Appearances

Fallout 4 (2015).

Tags: vault-111, cryogenic, fallout-4, sole-survivor, shaun, institute, pre-war-dna, sanctuary, starting-location, cryo-pods