Vault 21

"Vault 21 - Everything's better... when you experience it in a vault."

- Mr. New Vegas

 is a Vault-Tec Vault that was once hidden under Las Vegas, Nevada. It has since been converted into a hotel/casino and acts as one of many sources of income for Mr. House and his young New Vegas empire.

Background
Located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, Vault 21 was a unique Vault Experiment: everyone in the Vault was equal, it was created with a perfectly symmetrical layout, and all conflicts and problems were solved through gambling. Reliance on luck to solve problems created what might be considered the perfect realization of anarchy: a society in which everyone is equal and no one has an advantage over the others. Vault-Tec ensured that every person admitted to the Vault when it first sealed was a compulsive gambler, and were unable to decline when Vault-Tec personnel running the Vault informed them that this was how the Vault was to be run. The original Dwellers then passed on their lifestyle to their children and so on.

However, as with all utopias, the peace was not lasting. Sometime between 2271 and 2281, Robert House learned Vault 21's location. Resisting attempts to be assimilated into his empire, the inhabitants agreed on gambling to settle the issue. The game they played to settle the deal was Blackjack and almost the entire Vault was in attendance. In a risky bet, House won Vault 21 and stripped it of its bounty of useful electronics and equipment and filled it with concrete, forcing the dwellers to resettle in the wasteland and the Strip. At Sarah Weintraub's and Michael Angelo's (a.k.a. Sheldon Weintraub) insistence, he left the topmost level intact and allowed them to establish a hotel there, which became another source of income for his fledgling empire.

This is one of the extremely rare experimental Vaults which actually was successful. Its neighbor Vaults in the Mojave Wasteland (Vault 11, Vault 19, Vault 22 and Vault 34) were all experimental Vaults which failed. Another nearby vault, Vault 3, however, was not experimental in that it was meant to recolonize the surface after an extended period of time. However, when its door was opened, the Fiends slaughtered its residents and took control.

Layout
It is accessed by a small building which contains the Vault 21 gift shop, run by the only native resident (with her brother) to have remained, Sarah, with stairs down into the Vault in a back room. The Vault's main cog door was used as the sign for the vault with Vault 21 neon lights put over it.

The Vault has been converted into another casino and hotel. The Vault is actually advertised with a big sign, unlike all the rest. It is a large maze of tunnels built around a central atrium, seemingly lacking an Overseer's office. Its lower levels were filled with concrete by Mr. House and are inaccessible except for the maintenance level, where the Chairmen appear to have tried to break in from the basement of The Tops. This level consists of a long hallway with a few small rooms branching off of it. The elevator in Benny's suite leading to it is locked unless he is attacked in the Tops, and the tunnel ends in another locked door.

Notable loot

 * Snowglobe - The Strip behind an average locked door in the northeast-most room (Sarah's room). In the same room, there is a hard-locked dresser beside the bed with 270 caps and several clothes.
 * First aid box under a table in a dark room in the south-west of the vault.
 * A giant toy car, sensor module, and a shrunken paperweight can be found in the hotel lobby.
 * Strip letter 1 and Strip letter 2 can be found in guest rooms in the south-east. Strip letter 3 can be found in the guest room just west of the inaccessible door to the south.

Related quests

 * Bye Bye Love
 * The Finger of Suspicion
 * Suits You, Sarah
 * Tourist Traipse

Behind the scenes
Vault 21 was designed by Jorge Salgado. Vault 21 is a reference to the card game "Blackjack", where 21 is the highest sum and its limit.

Appearances
Vault 21 only appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * If you take the tour with Sarah Weintraub, your companions may disappear and not reappear when you exit the Vault.
 * In the dining area, a radio may be seen partially stuck in the central wall of this area.
 * Saving your game in here sometimes causes the save file to become corrupt. Upon attempting to load, it says the storage device is no longer valid and cancels the load
 * If you try to sit on one of the benches near a steel pillar, and sit on the side nearest to the pillar you will sit there and when you stand up you will be inside the pillar.
 * In the gift shop of vault 21 dropped items may disappear.
 * Sarah may not recognize Vault 21 jumpsuits as vault gear, but will trade for them normally at the usual price.
 * Sometimes when you take the tour with Sarah Weintraub, she will walk with you out of the gift shop and then stay still above the stairs leading to The hotel part of Vault 21 and will be unable to talk to.
 * Sometimes the container near the counter at the gift shop will often have an item that will always remain in the inventory, even if you use Take All.
 * If you walk into the right wall, before the toilet, of Sarah's bathroom you can see other parts of the vault.
 * In the guest bedroom that you can rent from Sarah Weintraub, next to the bed on the right, there is a Jet that you cannot pick up.
 * If you close your rented hotel room door from the outside, you will not be able to get back in. It will be red, and require a key.

Gallery
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