Vault 87

Vault 87 is one of the Vault-Tec Vaults, located at the western edge of the Capital Wasteland. As part of the Vault Experiment, experimentation with the use of Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) was conducted on its inhabitants. As a result, Vault 87 is full of super mutants and centaurs, and is their only known source on the East Coast.

Background
In 2078, the original inhabitants of Vault 87 were taken to airtight chambers and exposed to a concentrated form of FEV. The Overseer and his security guards were not aware of what it was, but were simply following orders from Vault-Tec. When the first vault dwellers were turned into super mutants, they forcibly mutated the others, until the whole population was either mutated or dead.

The Vault 87 super mutants are obsessed with the preservation of their brand new species. Since they are all sterile, instead of reproducing in a natural way, they have been kidnapping humans from all over the Capital Wasteland and bringing them to the vault to mutate. They have been doing so for nearly 200 years, until their source of FEV started to dry out. Because of the shortage of the "green stuff" as the super mutants call it, there are now super mutant bands searching all over the Capital Wasteland for a new source of the virus.

The Vault entrance
Above ground, the radiation near the entrance to Vault 87 peaks at well over 3,000 rads/second, which is fatal in a third of a second. According to information obtained from the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the Overseer's terminal states, "I'm quite sad to report that due to a direct hit from what I presume to be a nuclear weapon on the entry area of Vault 87, we will be unable to provide the Scouting Reports as outlined in Vault-Tec's Operations Manual. The main door to Vault 87 is damaged beyond repair and we are detecting extremely high levels of lethal radiation outside and in the entry tunnel."

For players wishing to reach the entrance, it is possible to make it by getting your radiation resistance up to 85% and using a large amount of RadAway. A single dose of Rad-X and an Advanced Radiation Suit is usually enough to reach the 85% resistance. This will reduce the rads to around 550 rads/sec, meaning exposure will be fatal in around two seconds as opposed to a third of the total radiation. 70 or more Rad Away doses are required for the trip. The easiest way of obtaining this many Rad Away doses is trading technology at Fort Independence. Tying the Rad Away to a hot key is also recommended, as managing the doses from the Pip-Boy can be tedious. There are a couple ways to reach the door in a timely fashion. One is to drop down from the mountains above the door and then hop back up while using RadAway to prevent an untimely death. Alternatively, it is possible to approach from the south, which is nothing but flat land.

However, as the Overseer's message mentions, the door is inaccessible, making the Vault impossible to enter from above ground. The map marker will activate near the entrance. Dead scientists in radiation suits can be found near the Vault door, as can RadAway, presumably carried by the scientists but not enough to prevent their death by radiation poisoning.

You can also reach the Vault door from within Vault 87. It is in the test chambers, near the room with the fire alarm and terminal that you use to rescue Fawkes. However, when you open the Vault door you will only see a blank brown fog. When you try to walk into this fog you will teleport to the hall where Fawkes' cell is. This door is initially locked, but seems to be unlocked following the Lone Wanderer's capture by Colonel Autumn (see bugs and glitches below). This has been fixed by patch 1.5.

Accessing Vault 87
Vault 87 can only be accessed through Little Lamplight. At the appropriate time in the game, the player will have the option of questioning mayor MacCready about how to access Vault 87. The mayor will suggest taking Murder Pass. However, he will also inform the player that there is a broken computer terminal in Little Lamplight that will allow direct access to the Vault via a different, safer route.

To access the terminal, the player must speak to Joseph (as directed by the mayor). Joseph can fix the broken terminal, allowing it to be hacked, but he will only do so if the player has rescued Penny from Paradise Falls, if the player has a high enough science or persuasion skill, or through the Child at Heart perk. Joseph can be found in the Little Lamplight schoolhouse in the morning. The player must have a Science skill of 50 to actually hack the computer to get into the Vault.

If Penny is not rescued, or if Joseph becomes upset through dialogue, entrance through Murder Pass will be the only option to get to Vault 87. Located north of the souvenir building, Murder Pass houses several super mutants armed with heavy weaponry like missile launchers and miniguns. There are also a number of traps, so be careful. Mayor MacCready will open the gate for you if asked. Murder Pass is a good choice for earning experience. It also contains several medical cabinets, a decent amount of ammunition and a Nuka-Cola Quantum.

Traveling through the Vault
Vault 87 is very similar to all the other vaults a player may visit during the game, with narrow, confusing corridors, small rooms all connected by the main lobby, however, it is one of the most difficult missions if a player has Broken Steel installed, and players should level up before attempting it. The difficulty is due to the presence of Super Mutant Overlords, as you will frequently encounter pairs or groups of them, and the tight corridors provide little cover. Having a high level of stealth and a powerful weapon, such as The Terrible Shotgun, is almost a necessity.

The vault is dimly lit, and very dirty. The added super mutant element also means there are many skeletons and bags of gore to be found. Once inside the Vault, the player will encounter super mutants, Super Mutant Masters, Super Mutant Brutes, and Super Mutant Overlords (if Broken Steel is installed). The player can also find remains of failed FEV subjects.

Eventually, the player will encounter a friendly super mutant named Fawkes, who was sealed in a test chamber and left there decades before. Fawkes, via the intercom, will offer his services in acquiring the G.E.C.K in return for the player freeing him from his cell. Though the player need not free Fawkes, the super mutant (if freed) will indeed honor this bargain, and will help the player acquire the G.E.C.K. by serving as a guide, as well as attacking any future enemies encountered, and finally, retrieving the device itself from its highly irradiated resting place.

There are two methods to free Fawkes. In the room at the end of the right hallway, you can set off the fire alarm in a room inhabited by two Super Mutant variants, which will open all five isolation rooms, however this isn't recommended as in the process two Centaurs and a hostile NPC character are also let loose. It is advisable that the player should hack the average terminal located next to the fire alarm to unlock an individual chamber, of which Fawkes' cell is the fifth.

If you are stealthy, you can overhear a scripted conversation between the first two super mutants encountered in the facility.

Characters

 * Fawkes
 * Sid

Related Quests

 * Finding the Garden of Eden

Notable loot

 * A copy of Nikola Tesla and You can be found in a wooden box at the feet of a mannequin in the southwestern-most dead end tunnel of the Reactor Chamber. (From the Murder Pass entrance, turn left and go downstairs, turn left again, then through the door at the end of the corridor.)
 * A copy of Pugilism Illustrated is on a shelf in the storage room behind an average locked door on the west side catwalk level of the living quarters. There is also a Nuka-Cola Quantum, laser rifle, Micro Fusion cells and a safe with random loot in this room.

Appearances
only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * It is possible that companions following you through the Vault (other than Fawkes) will be killed or misplaced when you are arrested by the Enclave. (Xbox 360)
 * Sometimes when a companion is lost while you're arrested, when you go back inside the Vault with another companion they will disappear, and they will be found dead in the position that your lost companion was in, just to the north of the T-junction where you were captured. This companion will be lost and after a few days you will receive a message that they have died. If you leave your follower outside, you will find them teleported to the same room but alive. This may be related to having more than one follower at a time.
 * When a follower is dead in the room and the player walks up to him/her and looks at the body, it says the player can talk to them but all you do is search the followers body. Nothing they are wearing can be taken off the body. (Xbox 360).
 * If Dogmeat is waiting somewhere, he will appear next to the dead follower
 * If you shoot the dead follower, or obliterate the body you'll receive a message that he/she is dead. You can even target it in VATS. (Xbox 360)
 * When passing the cells containing centaurs, it is possible for the first centaur, in the cell on the left, to appear outside the cell as the player passes and being able to attack the player. Once it is killed, it's top half may appear back in the cell while it's bottom half is stretched across the ceiling of the corridor. The Centaur may also pass through the wall between its cell and Fawkes' cell, resulting in Fawkes killing it. (PC/Xbox 360)
 * If you go to the door in Little Lamplight that would normally require the broken terminal to be repaired, you may find it is already open and you can get into Vault 87 early. (PS3/Xbox 360)
 * It is actually possible to get 2 G.E.C.K's. When you tell Fawkes to get the G.E.C.K, go with him, and as soon as the capsule containing the G.E.C.K. starts to open, grab it as soon as Fawkes does.
 * In the test chambers, if you drag one of the Failed FEV Subjects, their body will stay where it is and you will be dragging an invisible one. Upon leaving and entering again it will be back in the same place it spawned.
 * The numberless doors in the atrium's upper level actually have a 101 on them. It can be found by looking very closely with brightness at max. Many doors throughout the Vault have a 101 on them, almost like a faint shadow. These are much harder to see than to ones on the aforementioned Atrium doors.

Videos
Video:Adding The Vault 87 Map Marker - Using All Rad Resistance Possible