Vault 11

Vault 11 is an empty Vault-Tec vault located in the Mojave Wasteland. It is west of Boulder City and southwest of the 188 Trading Post.

Background
Vault 11 was part of an experiment to determine inhabitants' willingness to sacrifice one individual each year to ensure the safety of the remaining population. Its overseer was told that the vault mainframe would kill everyone within if the sacrifice was not made. When he informed the dwellers of this, they elected him as the first sacrifice. Since then, overseer and sacrifice became synonymous. Each year, the dwellers chose a sacrifice via the overseer election, to be killed at the end of their term.

Several political groups known as voting blocs emerged to influence nomination and selection. The Coalition of Vault 11 Voting Blocs provided information and oversight of this process. Six main voting blocs included the Allied Service Workers Bloc, Divine Will Bloc, Human Dignity Bloc, Justice Bloc, United Vault Technicians Bloc, and the Utilitarian Bloc. Posters from these groups are found throughout the vault. As the blocs consolidated power, corruption began to fester as bribery, drug trafficking, and smuggling became commonplace.

The selection process devolved, resulting in manipulations perpetrated by bloc leaders. Prior to the final election, members of the most powerful group, the Justice Bloc, led by Roy Gottlieb, sexually coerced Katherine Stone with threats of nominating her husband, Nathan. She capitulated but the Justice Bloc members betrayed her, nominating her husband regardless.

Katherine Stone's first act as overseer, "Overseer Order 745," dissolved the election process entirely and decreed that moving forward, the position of overseer would be chosen at random using the vault's computer systems, which resulted in violence. In the end, only five individuals remained and discovered that choosing not to sacrifice one member resulted in the door opening and allowing them to exit.

Layout
Prior to entering the Vault, there is a hollowed-out rock to the right of the main door. The reactor and the water purification system of Vault 11 has been damaged and radioactivity and radioactive water are present. Since portions of the Vault are underwater, many sections can only be explored while wearing a rebreather. Enemies encountered inside the vault include giant mantises, giant rats, and bark scorpions.

The entire Vault has been plastered with propaganda for an election for a new overseer. Throughout the vault there are sandbag barricades, multiple traps, and several skeletons. At the entrance, there is a working terminal near the door, allowing the Courier to access more information regarding the fate of the vault. The next room has hallways to the vault clinic, classroom, and cigar lounge. To the right, a hallway with access to bathrooms and a staircase can be found.

The first audio log discovered by the player character as they enter the vault reveals details of the experiment. Four skeletons are found at the entrance of the vault. Past a classroom in the common areas in the first hallway to the left, just past the Vault entrance, an NCR trooper corpse can be found.

Living quarters
The stairs lead to a lab and a computer room. One of the computers is booby-trapped with explosives. A large common room connects hallways leading to the male and female dorms, as well as an exit labeled "Admin". This doorway leads to the security office, and to the levels containing the overseer's office and the utility room. The dorms are comprised of long, interconnected hallways and bedrooms. Several Vault 11 jumpsuits can be found here in lockers and dressers. Another audio log can be found on a locked terminal, with the password in a footlocker a short distance away.

There is a copy of Pugilism Illustrated in the female dorm, second door on the right, under the overturned dresser upon entering. A small cache of flamer fuel and 5.56 rounds is concealed under and behind a large immovable mop bucket in the male dorms.

Through the door marked "Admin," following the stairs and turning to the left is a Hard locked door, which can also be unlocked by the adjacent Very Hard locked terminal. This door leads to a storage room with an assortment of ammunition, including a mini nuke. The security office contains a terminal with Katherine Stone's deposition and more ammunition. At the opposite end of the hall are several flights of stairs leading down to the lower levels.

Lower level
The overseer's office is past a hallway on the right and has a rigged shotgun pointed at the entrance. The terminal here requires a password to access. Past the office is a blocked passage to the atrium. The hallway before the office leads to the utility room and another blocked passage to the atrium.

In the utility room, the differential pressure controller required for the Still in the Dark quest for the Brotherhood of Steel is located in a locker in the righthand side of the submerged room. The utility room provides access to the atrium via the flooded lower reactor level. Conversely, a set of Average locked doors can be picked one floor above to circumvent the flooded areas. In the atrium, the Vault 11 overseer's terminal password is found on the upper balcony terminal.

A holotape, Prepared speech of Gus Olson, ombudsman, for the annual overseer election, is found on the podium below. This level also features the Vault cafeteria, which has a large supply of food and a first aid box. The cafeteria's entrance is boobytrapped with explosives and a gas leak located here can cause a violent chain reaction.

Sacrificial chamber
Accessing the overseer's terminal with the aforementioned password can open a chamber under the desk. This opens into a long tunnel. At this point, a pre-programmed voice speaks as the Courier approaches a door illuminated by a bright light. At the end of the tunnel is a room with a single chair in the center, along with a projector. The voice instructs the player character to sit in the chair to start the presentation, which is entitled "Happy Trails." Delaying this will cause the recording to repeat, "you have no choice but to sit in the chair" until the Courier complies. The exit door locks as soon as the presentation starts.

At the conclusion of the presentation, wall panels on both sides of the room slide back, and four robots and eight turrets will simultaneously attack the player character. After destroying the robots, the player character can access a small room with the vault mainframe computer inside. There are 16 skeletons on the ground of the sacrificial chamber.

Loot

 * Mini nuke - Behind the Hard locked door in the living quarters within the security section.
 * Around 16 to 28 Vault 11 jumpsuits - In dressers and lockers in the dorms, which can be sold to Sarah Weintraub in Vault 21 as a part of the unmarked quest Suits You, Sarah.
 * Pugilism Illustrated - In the northwestern female dorm room, near the southern edge of the local map. It is leaning against the base of an overturned dresser.
 * System recording: Vault 11 solution and Automated solution response holotapes - Can be found on the mainframe terminal next to the sacrificial chamber.
 * Differential pressure controller - Found in one of the flooded rooms south in the lower level.
 * Justice Bloc HQ security tapes - Given after reading the personal terminal in the living quarters.
 * Vault 11 overseer's terminal password - On the atrium terminal in the Vault's lower level.
 * Prepared speech of Gus Olson, ombudsman, for the annual overseer election - On the podium stand in the atrium.
 * Roy Gottlieb's terminal password - In a footlocker near the terminal in the southwestern room of the male dorm area in the living quarters.
 * Up to 20 bottles of Nuka-Cola - Can be found inside a large metal crate in the kitchen area of the cafeteria.

Related quests

 * Still in the Dark
 * Democracy Inaction
 * Suits You, Sarah

Appearances
Vault 11 appears only

Behind the scenes
Vault 11 was designed and developed by Eric Fenstermaker, with the original idea created by Joshua Sawyer, based on the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.