Vault 94

"The Vault’s door rolled open exactly one year after the bombs fell. Those who had been living safely within its confines found the Wasteland, and groups of other survivors on the outside, to be less than welcoming of their arrival. Vault 94 remains, though its inhabitants are long gone, and it has been completely overrun by nature. Yet, something within now threatens its destruction."

- Inside The Vault

Vault 94 is a Vault-Tec vault located on the border of the Savage Divide and the Mire regions of Appalachia in 2102.

After the release of Nuclear Winter content drop, the player is able to visit Vault 94 during Vault raids, in groups of 1-4. The vault was inaccessible before patch 1.2.2.9.

Background
As per its mission, the Vault 94 was tailored to the needs of a congregation and to respect the values and beliefs of Salavar's intentional community: With the exception of Tyrone Hayes, the Vault-Tec Maintenance Engineer, all invited residents of this Vault were members of her congregation (faith), no weapons or ammunition has been provided, nor have any turrets or other defensive systems been installed, while all robots have been locked to a nonviolent conflict resolution mode (non-violence), living quarters have been clustered to create communal residential spaces instead of individual residences with a community council model of government established to encourage dialogue and consensus-building among residents (communal life), and extensive agricultural facilities for the benefit of your community and any other survivors of a nuclear apocalypse (ecological harmony). Vault 94 has not been assigned an Overseer either, with the community council taking over their responsibilities. The council was encouraged to operate by consensus, and consensus was presumed unless otherwise indicated. Motions related to Vault security would require a formal vote, which was conducted by swiping Vault ID cards in the card readers located in the council chamber.

Most importantly, Vault-Tec assumed that in the event of global nuclear war, multiple mass extinction events would happen. The primary mission of Vault 94 was to monitor and stabilize the local ecosystem, and to assist survivors outside the Vault (if any) with their agricultural needs. Vault 94 has been equipped with a complete agricultural research facility on top of its hydroponic facilities, including experimental greenhouses, aquaculture labs, and a comprehensive seed bank containing all known plants suitable for edible or medicinal use. To prevent damage to the seed bank, the Vault door would automatically seal when external radiation reached unsafe levels. The Vault door was designed to be reopened after a mandatory minimum shelter period of one year. Finally, Vault 94 has also been selected to receive a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) module. In the event of catastrophic environmental devastation, the G.E.C.K. was thought to be the best hope for the survival of humanity. As a security precaution, and to prevent premature use or misuse, the G.E.C.K. has been sealed in a self-contained secure wing of the Vault. Access to the G.E.C.K. Wing required special authorization from the Vault 94 community council.

Two days before the Great War, Vault-Tec Corporation issued new orders for the staff maintaining the Vault, with most of the staff wrapping up their assignments and returning to Vault-Tec University. Tyrone Hayes was instructed to stay behind as the only Vault-Tec employee, to maintain the Vault and remain in touch with the invited residents - Pastor Gabriella Salavar and her congregation - in case of nuclear war. He did as instructed. When the Great War came, he even deliberately stalled the door to allow a second bus of residents to arrive and find safety inside the Vault. Under the pastor's leadership, the Vault embraced the founding principles, implementing an unique society fully based on the principles of "faith, nonviolence, and communal life in harmony with nature." Residents were not required to belong to a collective faith; each person was free to walk their own path. The Vault was supplied with an abundance of resources "to restore the bounty of the Earth." It was hoped that the residents would rebuild the belief that humanity is naturally good.

What they did not realize was that Vault-Tec was absolutely not the benefactor they thought it to be. Vault 94 was a social experiment like most other Vaults, and Tyrone Hayes was its special Overseer. Vault 94 was designed to test the adaptability of ideological groups to changing social contexts. The pastor's congregation was an agrarian pacifist religious community, expected to reinforce that identity during the one-year shelter period, enjoying Vault 94's high-value resources and no lethal tools of any kind. By encouraging contact with the outside in both the mission outline and through Hayes, Vault-Tec hoped to observe how the residents would modify their belief system, improvise, and adapt quickly in order to ensure their survival against armed, hostile people outside. Hayes was the only Vault-Tec official in the Vault in order to minimize disruptions to their social order and avoid contaminating the experiment, under cover as a Vault-Tec Maintenance Engineer. Furthermore, he was prohibited from taking a role in their decision-making process: He was to observe the ensuing conflicts and report findings using the secure channel provided.

While the congregation took to life in the Vault well, Hayes did not. He stalled the door as best he could, but it sealed, leaving the second bus of prospective dwellers pounding on the massive door. That experience, listening to their cries and pleas, broke something inside Hayes. He instantly regretted enrolling at the VTU. By November, he started adjusting, but remained an outsider. The congregation got along well, despite the shock of the nuclear war. Only Pastor Salavar gave him the cold shoulder, blaming Hayes for the people locked out of the Vault. The distrust lasted well into the new year, especially when Hayes and her daughter, Angelique, started spending time together. When they finally got engaged and announced it at the council meeting in August 2078, Salavar did not take it well either.

As the shelter period drew to an end, Hayes became convinced that he needed to protect the Vault from his former masters' plans, especially as the Pastor's ambassador program was formally presented to the council and would result in people being invited to the Vault. Despite Hayes' warnings and pleas, they refused to listen. Vault-Tec expected them to fight to survive and Hayes knew, as he was one of them by then, that they wouldn't do it under any circumstances. During the October 16 meeting, a week before the end of the mandatory shelter period, Hayes took to the council floor and came clean, explaining Vault-Tec's intentions and showing them his Instructions as proof. He sacrificed everything, his relationship with Angelique, his standing with the community, only to see the Ambassador program pass. The Vault reopened on the first anniversary of the Great War, with Ambassadors sent out after a short prayer for the victims of war. The dwellers prepared for the first visitors and even set up an experimental garden outside to see which crops, if any, could be reintroduced to the post-nuclear war. Everything was safe and secure for nearly a month as the Vault waited for the first Ambassadors to return. Hayes remained fearful of what would happen, while the entire community remained convinced that whoever was left out finally understood the futility of war, and was ready to listen, to live in peace.

Hayes was eventually proven right. Survivors were eager to listen, but not to the Good News, but the screams of the tortured: Many of the Vault ambassadors found a grisly end at the hands of the raiders of Pleasant Valley, tortured to death or outright killed, then propped up as decorations. The Ambassadors who did return didn't bring anything better: A group of survivors from Harpers Ferry, dispatched by its mayor to verify the Ambassador's claims, allowed curiosity to get the better of them and eventually reached the GECK in the secure wing. Already spooked by the dwellers' apparent docility, they assumed that it was a mind control device, responsible for the peculiar behavior of the congregation. The leader ordered his men to shoot up the GECK, resulting in Level-6 nuclear event and radiation surge measured at 7800 Rad/s. The resulting blast wave created The Mire almost instantly. The resulting explosion could be felt for miles around and preceded a mysterious fog that came rolling down the eastern slopes of the Appalachians, twisting the flora and fauna as it came into contact with them. Ella Ames, the Free States' resident scientist, couldn't even begin to theorize what effect it could have on an environment when "improperly utilized". The Mire was only too happy to demonstrate.

By 2102, the Vault 94 door was still sealed. Entrance required a vault access code, which only Vault ambassadors carried. The corpses of many of the Vault ambassadors are scattered across Appalachia, however none of them still seem to be carrying their access codes. However, the residents of Vault 76 later accessed the vault as "Vault-Tec maintenance engineers."

Vault 63, 96 and 94 are associated with vault raids, team quests where there is an emergency in the vault that must be fixed. Player characters are notified through an emergency radio beacon. These are instanced dungeons, where groups of 1-4 can enter and attempt to complete the raid for the chance at unique rewards.

Layout
The exterior of the vault features a small experimental garden that had been set up by Vault 94 resident Maria Collins to test what crops could still grow in the post-War environment. There is a shallow pool of water near the garden, along with some derelict vehicles, shacks, and crates. A cave leads into the Vault 94 entrance. There is a waist deep pool of water in the cave, which is covered from wall to wall with mutated vegetation endemic to the Mire.

Occupants
All of Vault 94's residents are deceased by 2102.

The corpses of 12 unnamed Vault dwellers wearing Vault 94 jumpsuits can be found scattered throughout Appalachia. These are the corpses of the Ambassadors that had been sent out by Gabriella Salavar.

Notable loot

 * Antonio's holotape
 * Vault 94 access code
 * Vault 94 G.E.C.K. recording
 * Vault 94 community council recording
 * Vault 94 community council recording key
 * Vault 94 ID card
 * Vault 94 maintenance engineer's ID card
 * Vault 94 maintenance key
 * Vault 94 nursery key
 * Vault 94 security ID card
 * Vault 94 storage room key
 * Vault 94 workroom key

Appearances
Vault 94 appears only in Fallout 76.