Vault 87

Vault 87 is one of the Vault-Tec Vaults, located at the western edge of the Capital Wasteland. As part of the Vault Experiment, experimentation with the use of Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) was conducted on its inhabitants. As a result, Vault is full of super mutants and centaurs, and is their only known source on the East Coast.

Background
In 2078, the original inhabitants of Vault 87 were forcefully taken to airtight chambers and exposed to a concentrated form of FEV. Even the Overseer and his security guards were not aware of what it was, but were simply following orders from Vault-Tec. When the first vault dwellers were turned into super mutants, they ended up forcefully mutating the others, until the whole population was either mutated or dead.

The Vault 87 super mutants are obsessed with the preservation of their brand new species. Since they are all sterile, instead of reproducing in a natural way, they have been kidnapping humans from all over the Capital Wasteland and bringing them to the vault to mutate. They have been doing so for nearly 200 years, until their source of FEV started to dry out. Because of the shortage of the "green stuff", super mutant bands are now searching all over the Capital Wasteland for a new source of the virus.

The Vault entrance


Above ground, the radiation near the entrance to Vault 87 peaks at about 3,360 rads/second. According to information obtained from the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the Overseer's terminal states, "I'm quite sad to report that due to a direct hit from what I presume to be a nuclear weapon on the entry area of Vault 87, we will be unable to provide the Scouting Reports as outlined in Vault-Tec's Operations Manual. The main door to Vault 87 is damaged beyond repair and we are detecting extremely high levels of lethal radiation outside and in the entry tunnel."

Despite the high levels of radiation, the Lone Wanderer may be able to reach the front door using several methods, including increasing their rad resistance as high as possible with Rad-X and the Advanced Radiation Suit or using the console. However, as the Overseer's message mentioned, the door is inaccessible, making the Vault impossible to enter from above ground. The area directly surrounding the door has base radiation levels higher then 3,000 rads per second (which are fatal in a third of a second). Dead scientists in radiation suits can be found near the Vault door, as can RadAway, presumably carried by the scientists but not enough to prevent their death by radiation poisoning. The exact reasoning for the high radiation is left unexplained, as the White House, which also appeared to suffer a direct nuclear blast, has a much lower radiation level. It is possible that the Overseer was covering for something related to the FEV or super mutants. If you simply must have the map marker, being the completionist that you are, get rad resistance up to 85 percent (to stifle the rads at around 350/sec) and at least 130 RadAway, drop down from the mountains above the door and then hop your way back up all the while using RadAway to prevent an untimely death. Teleporting will only kill your character.

You can also reach the Vault door from within Vault 87. It is in the test chambers, near the room with the fire alarm and terminal that you use to rescue Fawkes. However, when you open the Vault door you will only see a blank brown fog. When you try to walk into this fog you will teleport to the hall where Fawkes cell is. This door is initially locked, but seems to be unlocked following the Lone Wanderer's capture by Colonel Autumn (see bugs and glitches below). This has been fixed by patch 1.5.



Accessing Vault 87
Vault 87 can only be accessed through Little Lamplight. At the appropriate time in the game, the player will have the option of questioning mayor MacCready about how to access Vault 87. The mayor will suggest taking Murder Pass. However, he will also inform the player that there is a broken computer terminal in Little Lamplight that will allow direct access to the Vault via a different, safer route.

To access the terminal, the player must speak to Joseph, (as directed by the mayor). Joseph can fix the broken terminal, allowing it to be hacked, but he will only do so if the player has rescued Penny from Paradise Falls, if the player has a high enough science or persuasion skill, or through the Child at Heart perk. Joseph can be found in the Little Lamplight schoolhouse in the morning. The player must have 50 (average) Science skill to actually hack the computer to get into the Vault.

If Penny is not rescued, or if Joseph becomes upset through dialogue, entrance through Murder Pass will be the only option to get to Vault 87. Located north of the souvenir building, Murder Pass houses several super mutants armed with heavy weaponry like missile launchers and miniguns. There are also a number of traps, so be careful. Mayor MacCready will open the gate for you if asked. Murder Pass is a good choice for earning experience. It also contains a several medical cabinets, a decent amount of ammunition and a Nuka-Cola Quantum.

Traveling through the Vault
Once inside the Vault, the player will encounter super mutants, Super Mutant Masters, Super Mutant Brute, and Super Mutant Overlords (if Broken Steel is downloaded). The player can also see the remains of failed FEV subjects.

Eventually, the player will encounter a friendly super mutant named Fawkes, who was sealed in a test chamber and left there decades before. Fawkes, via the intercom, will offer his services in acquiring the G.E.C.K in return for freedom. The player need not free Fawkes, but the super mutant will indeed honor this bargain, and will help the player acquire the G.E.C.K., serving as a guide, pulverizing any enemies in the meantime, and finally, retrieving the device itself from its highly irradiated resting place.

If you are stealthy, you can overhear a scripted conversation between the first two super mutants encountered in the facility.

Characters

 * Fawkes
 * Sid

Related Quests

 * Finding the Garden of Eden

Notable Loot

 * A copy of Nikola Tesla and You can be found in a wooden box at the feet of a mannequin in the southwestern-most dead end tunnel of the Reactor Chamber. (From the Murder Pass entrance, turn left and go downstairs, turn left again, then through the door at the end of the corridor.)


 * A copy of Pugilism Illustrated is on a shelf in the storage room behind an average locked door on the west side catwalk level of the living quarters. There is also a Nuka-Cola Quantum, laser rifle, Micro Fusion cells and a safe with random loot in this room.


 * The Advanced Radiation Suit can be found in a room with only entrance from the room with the stairs leading to the room next to the reactor.

Appearances in games
This Vault was first mentioned in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * It is possible that companions following you through the Vault (other than Fawkes) will be killed or misplaced when you are arrested by the Enclave. (unconfirmed)
 * Sometimes when a companion is lost while you're arrested, when you go back inside the Vault with another companion they will disappear, and they will be found dead in the position that your lost companion was in, just to the north of the T-junction where you were captured. This companion will be lost and after a few days you will receive a message that they have died. If you leave your follower outside, you will find him teleported to the same room but alive. This may be related to having more than one follower at a time. (confirmed)


 * When a follower is dead in the room and the player walks up to him/her and looks at the body, it says the player can talk to them but all you do is search the followers body. The thing is that anything he/she is wearing can not be taken off the body. The body of the follower will follow you after any time you go through a door but not when fast traveling.(confirmed XBox360).
 * Sometimes, when having a companion wait somewhere outside the Vault, they will spawn around you after you fall on the ground from the flash bang. (unconfirmed)
 * When passing the cells containing centaurs, it is possible for the first centaur, in the cell on the left, to appear outside the cell as the player passes and being able to attack the player. Once it is killed, it's top half may appear back in the cell while it's bottom half was stretched across the ceiling of the corridor. The Centaur may also pass through the wall between its cell and Fawkes cell, resulting in Fawkes killing it. (confirmed 360)
 * There is a bug if you go to the door in Little Lamplight that would normally require the broken terminal to be repaired to open where the door is already open and you can get into Vault 87 early. (confirmed PS3 and XBox 360)
 * After finishing the Finding the Garden of Eden quest, and travel back to Vault 87 with followers and enter through Little Lamplight and tell them to wait just inside the entrance, you may find them dead in the doorway near the locked door that requires a key in the Test Labs. (Xbox 360)

YouTube Videos
The entrance of Vault 87 on surface: KRKBXcLY1bI