Vault 22

"The Vault of the Future"

Vault 22 is a Vault-Tec Vault constructed before the start of the Great War in 2077 in what became the Mojave Wasteland. The Vault door is open, with various kinds of plants around the exterior and creatures such as giant mantises. It is located, and can be approached from south-south-west of the Griffin Wares sacked caravan, east of Jacobstown and west from The Thorn. The entrance is at the bottom of the cliff.

Background
Vault 22 was a “green” vault, filled with scientists dedicated to their experiment: keeping the entire population of the vault alive with plants grown within its confines. Upon entering the vault scientists brought three live species with them to study; the common mantis, a plant similar to the Venus fly trap and the Beauveria mordicana fungus designed at Big MT to kill the most common pests. It was this fungus that would eventually lead to the demise of the vault as its spores proved toxic and mutagenic to humans, and turned the vault's inhabitants into spore carriers.

Many prospectors and mercenaries have attempted to locate the data the scientists left behind, but so far nobody has returned alive. The vault is open, but warning signs left outside the vault by people lucky enough to survive their initial encounter with the vault's inhabitants warn that "the plants kill" and one should not venture inside.

Leaving the Vault
At some stage after the mutagen began to infect other Vault dwellers, prior to 2096, a group of around 118 Vault 22 dwellers evacuated the vault and made their way to Zion Canyon on an expedition to explore the region as a possible area to settle. Many of these Vault dwellers had already been infected by the mutagen which killed off most of Vault 22, leaving many of these Vault dwellers suffering similar symptoms, most notably, according to Randall Clark's terminal entries, the racking cough. Several of them met their ends at the hands of the experimental mutagen, which eventually turned them into spore carriers; those that survived were systematically wiped out by Randall Clark due to their cannibalistic ways - many terminal entries by Clark claim that the Vault dwellers captured, murdered and then ate the flesh of a number of survivors residing in Zion.

After eleven months living in Zion, the remaining thirty-four Vault 22 dwellers elected J. Hendricks to be the Overseer. His first order as Overseer was to move out of Zion Canyon. On February 2096, they all moved south-east out of Zion. What happened to the survivors is unknown.

A single member of the expedition left the group as they evacuated Zion, eventually being caught in one of Randall Clark's many traps. Clark found and almost finished the injured Vault dweller off, only to find himself feeling sorry for her. He rescued and nursed the survivor, called Sylvie, back to health. They eventually became a couple and Sylvie wound up becoming pregnant. Sadly, however, Sylvie and the unborn child died during childbirth.

Layout
The entrance of this vault is quite unusual. It is advertised with a sign that reads "Welcome to Vault 22" covered by graffiti which says "Stay out! The plants kill!" The vault door leads directly outside, unlike most that have a natural rock formation or tunnel enclosing the entrance.

Once inside the Vault, the Courier will come to a door that leads to a room with an elevator and stairs. From here on out, the player will encounter spore carriers, spore plants, and giant mantises throughout the Vault. The vault is split into five levels, the different floors can be accessed by repairing the main elevator within the Vault (requires Repair skill of 50) or accessed by perpendicular staircases.

1st floor - Entrance Hall
Immediately upon entering the vault, turn to the left to find a usable mattress, a duffle bag with some supplies, and one of Keely's terminals with entries 1 and 2. Next to the mattress, hidden between two books, is a Programmer's Digest.

2nd floor - Oxygen Recycling
From the entrance of the lab take a right and continue to the room directly across the hall to find one of Keely's terminals with entries 3, 4, and 5 in the series.

3rd floor - Food Production
The keycard to access the cave tunnels on level 4 is located in the Common Quarters (the floor below). Once inside, an average locked door must be opened on the lower level in the northwestern corner of the room or you can go to the overseer's office, go onto the terminal and disengage the lock. Once inside, the first room on the left, on a shelving unit will have the Vault 22 cave door keycard. Note that the keycard does not open the cave door on level 3 directly, it instructs the terminal next to the cave door to unlock the door.

From the elevator, go down to the hallway and into the first room on the right to find one of Keely's terminals with entries 6 and 7 in the series.

For the quest Bleed Me Dry, the pile of giant mantis egg(s) will spawn in the caverns down a side tunnel guarded by a giant mantis female and several giant mantis nymphs.

4th floor - Common Areas
From the entrance to the Commons, take a right over the little bridge and straight back to the billiard room for one of Keely's terminals with entries 8 and 9 in the series. The keycard that unlocks the door to the tunnels on the Food production level is found in the lower level of the Common Areas in the Quarters section on a shelf in the first room to the left. If the keycard cannot be found, check the floor near the shelf, as it may have somehow fallen off. It is a darkish red/orange color. The stair between this level and the fifth level is blocked by debris. The tunnels on the third level or the elevator can be used to bypass it. A flamer and several cans of fuel can be found in the room across from the room with the terminal that talks about Dr.Peter's re-animation.

5th floor - Pest Control
This floor is filled with deadly "Savage" spore carriers. The large cavern contains many giant mantises and spore plants. Five mantis ootheca and Keely are located here, in an alcove on the far end of the cavern.

Related quests

 * Still in the Dark
 * There Stands the Grass
 * Bleed Me Dry
 * I Could Make You Care
 * Poor Meat Never Makes Good Soup
 * Suits You, Sarah

Appearances
Vault 22 appears in Fallout: New Vegas and is mentioned in the add-on Honest Hearts.

Behind the scenes

 * Vault 22 was designed by Jesse Farrell.
 * According to Joshua Sawyer in an interview with PC Gamer, Vault 22 was partially based off the Nursery that was meant to appear in Van Buren.

Bugs

 * In the top floor of the Commons Area, one of the rooms has a booth seat placed close to a wall that is only visible from certain angles, if the player sits in this boot they will glitch into the wall and upon getting up will be stuck inside the wall.
 * The key card from quarters (needed to enter the cave) can, on rare occasions, never appear and cannot be found.
 * With the PS3 system update 3.60, the "trigger" event to download the data from the terminal on Level 5 doesn't happen, preventing continuation of the storyline.
 * Use caution if you are to take ED-E on to the fifth floor and trigger the flames. Make sure ED-E is in a room where he is protected from the flames as he can be "killed" even if you are not in Hardcore mode and never register as being dead (in fact you will still see a marker indicating that he is at Vault 22) thus robbing you of having a second follower for the rest of the game. If you don't want to have to worry about this, just have him wait at the entrance or at your Lucky 38 suite. This can happen to Veronica too.
 * When inside the Vault, the door has another texture problem. You can still see the 92 but it also shows a 101 and an overwrite sign from the doors (you need to use the console to see this).
 * Many times while in Vault 22 your companions will sense enemies nearby, when in fact they are on another level of the Vault. This makes them run off to the corners of rooms, stairwells, etc. in search of their foe(s).
 * If entering the Vault for the HEPA 20 cartridge filters and obtaining them after first talking to Keely in the cave she may not appear in her lab and the door to exit the Vault will need her key to unlock it. Exiting the game and restarting from that point seems to fix this problem, however if the problem still persists she may be found stuck in a wall in Oxygen Recycling (identified by a non-hostile line on your radar). Use explosives on the wall where she is trapped; if she is damaged she will turn hostile and spawn again in the corridor. If you want to pursue the quest as usual, go to a different floor and wait an hour. When you return to Oxygen Recycling she will be found non-hostile in her correct place so the quest can be finished. To avoid this bug entirely, get the cartridges before you speak to her for the first time.
 * Sometimes, the giant mantises outside the Vault do not spawn. They are likely to spawn when you exit, though, so be prepared for five or so mantises on top of you if this happens.
 * Leaving companions outside of Vault 22 and then entering the Vault will cause a glitch where your companions disappear. They are noted on your world map as being at Vault 22, but they are not there.
 * If you complete the Quest There Stands the Grass before unlocking the door that leads to where Keely is and then rescue her, she will still attempt to have you do her portion of the quest which includes her locking the front door. Since you've already dealt with the data, you cannot do anything else for her after activating the gas on the 5th floor and remain locked in. (To get the code to unlock the doors, either pickpocket, or kill Keely after being asked to activate the gas. Once you have the password, use the terminal in the same room Keely is in to unlock doors.)  Should you return to Williams, and did not kill Keely to get the password, she'll pay you, and you will also gain XP for saving Keely as well.
 * ED-E appears upon entering level five via the elevator even though he is told to wait elsewhere, even if told to wait outside outside of Vault 22.
 * If you have a companion while looking for the AER14 Prototype,The companion might pick the gun up (to get the gun from a companion just go into their inventory).
 * If you have ED-E as a companion, and try to fix the broken elevator inside the Vault, the game will freeze and the last auto-save will corrupt, therefore you will have to restart the console and load from another saved game.
 * Occasionally all of the spore carriers will be found lying on the ground near their plant patches rather than crouching within them. They will still jump up to attack when you approach, though, and their prone state often makes them harder to detect and eliminate in advance.