Vault 76

Vault 76 is a Vault-Tec vault located in the Forest region of Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Construction of Vault 76 began in 2065 and ended in 2069, under the supervision of Vault-Tec official Giles Wolstencroft. Vault 76 then debuted seven years later in 2076, in honor of the United States' tercentenary.

Vault 76 was one of two vaults that treated overseers as test subjects; the other was Vault 101. The Appalachia shelter's experiment was ordering the vault's overseer to secure three nuclear silos all on her own after Reclamation Day. Vault-Tec knew that the task was impossible for her to accomplish on her own, especially since they purposefully picked someone young and unexperienced for an overseer. The ultimate goal of Vault 76's experiment was to find out how the middle-upper class of brilliant civilians would use a nearly infinite atomic arsenal, as the area's silos were fully automated nuclear factories. Vault 76 housed 500 occupants and was originally programmed to open to the wasteland outside 20 years after a nuclear war. Vault 76 had a number of distinguishing characteristics. The occupants were a diverse group selected from every walk of life, and apart from the vault staff, all were highly accomplished before the war and possessed competitive personalities. The vault itself was also designed to cease functioning and be rendered inhospitable 24 hours after opening, a feature intended to force the residents to commit to reclaiming the outside world and prevent them from becoming dependent on the vault's amenities.

Vault 76 eventually opened in October 23, 2102, twenty-five years after the Great War and five years after the intended date, in a much-celebrated event known as the "Reclamation Day." By the time of opening, the vault was implied to be nearing maximum capacity.

Layout
A large atrium complete with tables, a diner and a soccer pitch in the middle. The upstairs levels of the atrium contain accommodation for the residents, complete with beds, color TVs and a wall-mounted Pip-Boy 2000 Mark VI for the player character to acquire as they leave. Several Mister Handies are positioned throughout the vault on the route to the exit and man stations at which the player character can acquire their C.A.M.P. and a few other basic necessities as they prepare to leave. The overseer's office is accessible via going slightly off route while following the trail of equipment stations.

To ensure that all dwellers leave the vault, the vault's main systems, including life support, were to be shut down shortly after Reclamation Day. Unlike other vaults which have a security checkpoint, blast door and elevator to head deeper into the vault, Vault 76 has its blast door level with many of the vault's more critical rooms. After leaving Vault 76, no one can return into it, however new characters created by players will always start in the Vault.

Occupants

 * Resident - the player character.

Mentioned

 * Vault 76 overseer - the vault's overseer, left the vault early on a secret mission from Vault-Tec.
 * Casey - security officer.
 * Jill - security officer.
 * Nakamura - security officer.
 * Sandy - security officer.
 * J. Daily - resident, filed complaint to security about their private stash of Nuka-Cherry being stolen from.
 * Jake - a lawyer before the War, Jake was considered a particularly annoying resident by security.
 * Professor Dayton - a professor in charge of the classroom.
 * E. Jefferson - accused by Jake of assault.
 * M. Thompson - arrested by security after stealing a six pack of alcohol from the reclamation day party stores.
 * T. Sullivan - soda jerk, wanted to be reassigned as a sanitation engineer before the vault opened.
 * R. Villanueva - vault barber.
 * A. Vince - security officer.
 * N. Volkmer - Chief maintenance technician.

Notable loot

 * Orders from Maria Chavez - Note, outside, on a Responder corpse down the stairs from the vault.
 * Overseer's log - Vault 76 - Holotape, inserted into the overseer's terminal in her office, or obtained from Pennington outside the vault.

The following loot cannot be obtained normally after leaving:
 * Nuka Tapper - Holotape game, inserted into the terminal in the player character's domicile.

Appearances
Vault 76 appears in Fallout 76. It is mentioned in a terminal entry found in the Citadel in Fallout 3, an alien log in the Mothership Zeta add-on, and by a newscaster at the start of Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes
When reaching the first checkpoint, the "celebration" music from Fallout Shelter plays.