Vault 76

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

Background
Not all vaults were designed with experimental purposes. Vault 76 is one of seventeen known "control" vaults, meaning that it was used as a baseline to compare to experimental vaults. Vault 76 housed 500 occupants and was programmed to open to the wasteland outside 20 years after a nuclear war. However, the vault was opened 25 years after closing. By the time of opening, the vault was implied to be nearing maximum capacity. The occupants also were selected from every walk of life and have different races and religious beliefs. In particular though, the residents excluding vault staff were highly accomplished before the war and highly competitive.

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 when discussing Vault-Tec's plans to expand. Originally scheduled to reopen in 2097, Vault 76 eventually opened in 2102, twenty-five years after the Great War and 5 years after the intended date, in a much-celebrated event known as the "Reclamation Day."

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 2002 for the player character as they leave. Several Mister Handies throughout the vault. However, to prevent the dwellers from never leaving the vault, the vault’s main systems 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.

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.