Best Fallout Shelter layout tips & room order

Aakrit Sharma
Vault with all electricity producing rooms in the right column

Having the best Vault layout in Fallout Shelter not only makes a huge impact on Dwellers’ happiness but also their productivity. As you progress in the game, your Vault’s layout will evolve and expand due to the increased number of rooms and Dwellers to manage.

Since the main goal of the game is to construct and manage a Vault for your Dwellers, the Vault’s design significantly influences how fast you progress. So, here we have some tips for you to follow to create the best Vault possible at every stage of the game.

Best Fallout Shelter Vault layout

Top Layer:Populated rooms with high Endurance and Agility needs like Diners and the Nuca-Cola Bottler.
Middle Layer:Power Generators, Diners, Storage Rooms, The Overseer’s Office, Training Rooms, Crafting Rooms.
Bottom Layer:Medbays, Science Labs, and Radio Stations.

How to make the perfect Vault in Fallout Shelter

The perfect Vault in Fallout Shelter has a high happiness rating, an optimal placement of rooms, and can sustain raids in the late game.

Protect your Vault from raids

  • Have Dwellers in your entry rooms equipped with the best armor and weapons.
  • Place Dwellers with high Endurance and Agility in your entry rooms.
  • Train all your Dwellers to have high Endurance.
  • Keep pregnant Dwellers away from entry rooms, as they do not fight enemies.
Molerat Infestation in Fallout Shelter
The best armor and weapons will help clear raids quickly.

There are a few different types of raids in Fallout Shelter. Raiders, Deathclaws, and Feral Ghouls come from outside to steal your resources and hurt your Dwellers. They’ll work from the first rooms down unless you kill them quickly.

So, the best way to prevent these Raids and end them quickly is to have your Dwellers in your entry rooms equipped with the best weapons and armor. This way, they’ll kill the creatures off quickly, and the Raid will end fast.

Then you get raids like Molerat infestations, fire, Radroach infestations, and Radscorpion attacks. Fire can start in any room, while the rest usually start in rooms that are touching dirt. The best way to deal with these is to have your Dwellers kill them before they can spread to other rooms.

Place your rooms in optimal tiles

Power rooms like Power Generators and Nuclear Reactors are the most important in your Vault, as without them nothing would work.

If your Power rooms are not producing enough, then other rooms the furthest from them will start losing power. So, to try and work around this, you can spread Power rooms around your Vault equally. This will also help with production and storage.

It’s also really important to make sure that any rooms touching dirt have Dwellers in them to better deal with the raids we mentioned above. Especially in the later stages of the game, as it can get really easy for raids to spread quickly across the Vault. Having Dwellers ready to deal with them can stop this.

Vault layout in Fallout Shelter
Power generators should be all around your Vault.

Place elevators on the sides

Elevators can be tricky to place, but the best way to do it is to keep them on the sides of your Vault.

Some rooms require two or three tiles to be built, so you can quickly run out of space if you don’t place your elevators correctly. Alternatively, you can place them in two lines down the middle of your Vault.

Make your Vault a well-oiled machine

The best way to make your Vault run well is to ensure that your Luck stat is the highest and that Dwellers assigned to rooms have high SPECIAL stats relevant to that room.

High Luck means that every time you collect resources from a room, you have a good chance of earning some Bottle Caps too. This means you’ll have a steady source of income.

Making sure that your Dwellers assigned to specific rooms have high SPECIAL stat relevant to that room increases the rate of production, meaning you are less likely to run out of food, water, and power. You’ll also craft items like Stimpaks and RadAway much faster.

Game Room in Fallout Shelter
Training your Dweller’s Luck will increase your chances of earning Caps.

SPECIAL stats for each room in Fallout Shelter

  • Power Generator: Strength
  • Diner: Agility
  • Water Treatment: Perception
  • Medbay: Intelligence
  • Science Lab: Intelligence
  • Radio Station: Charisma
  • Barbershop: Charisma
  • Nuclear Reactor: Strength
  • Garden: Agility
  • Water Purification: Perception
  • Nuka-Cola Bottler: Endurance

The Weapon Workshop and Outfit Workshop SPECIAL stats will change depending on the kinds of weapons and armor you craft. So, it’s best to assign all-rounder Dwellers to these rooms, because the stats will change periodically.

You can assign Dwellers with high Endurance to the Storage Room, but they do not affect this room when they’re in it. They won’t gain levels, either, so it’s best to leave these rooms empty.

Can you move rooms in Fallout Shelter?

No, you can’t move rooms in Fallout Shelter, so if you miss a spot, or wrongfully place a room where it wasn’t intended, your only choice is to destroy it.

How to destroy rooms

To destroy a room in Fallout Shelter, players simply need to place themselves on the room they want to destroy, click, touch, or access the room Upgrade menu, and select destroy.

Destroying rooms only gives you a small portion of Caps back compared to what you originally spent. Normal rooms will give back 20 Caps, while upgraded rooms can only give back around 500 Caps depending on the room.

The best way to deal with misplacing a room is to have it in the right place before you merge them because this will cost you fewer Caps in the long run. Otherwise, as you build your Vault, it’s also important to remember what music cues mean and how you can heal your Dwellers after incidents.