Fallout Shelter Online

Fallout Shelter Online (辐射避难所Online) is a free-to-play mobile game developed by Chinese studio Shengqu Games, published by Bethesda Softworks, and currently distributed by Gaea Mobile. It is the sequel to Fallout Shelter^[1] and also serves as a prequel to Fallout 4 as well as a sequel to Fallout 3.

It was announced at the end of May 2019, and was first made available to China, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.^[2] It became available to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan under Gaea Mobile on June 1, 2020.^[3] The game has been translated into English and is available for download online, although it has not been officially released in Western markets. The game has a Chinese version and an Oceania/"SEA" version with several language settings including English.

Bethesda has not said whether or not Shelter Online is canon. This wiki considers Shelter Online a dependent source as result, neither entirely canon or non-canon. Shelter Online sometimes gives lore details to the Fallout universe. For example, it suggests the Lone Wanderer was male, that Harold is still alive after the events of Fallout 3, and that the Enclave is still present in the Capital Wasteland.

Gameplay[]

Changes from Fallout Shelter[]

The concept and style of the game are similar to Fallout Shelter, although with added features that resemble a gacha game. The player still plays the role of the overseer of the Vault and takes care of its prosperity, but unlike the original game, a plot, online battles, and an overhaul of the dwellers system were added to Fallout Shelter Online.

One major change is that the player does not need to feel as if they are babysitting their dwellers as much; gone are the happiness, thirst and food meters. The ability for dwellers to reproduce has been removed. There is no longer a daily "evaluation" system. Unlike in Shelter where room output was boosted by a dweller's SPECIAL (e.g. high Agility dwellers should be in the diner), Shelter Online completely gets rid of this idea; there is instead only a benefit if a dweller has a room-based perk. Shelter Online does not require the player to watch short ads like the mobile version of Shelter. The chance for raiders to invade the Vault has been removed entirely. In Shelter, when going on quests, players would have to wait for the dwellers to go and come back; this is instantaneous in Shelter Online.

Residents and upgrades[]

New residents can now only be obtained by collecting poster items, obtained from various sources. Progressing through Hard mode on the world map is a major source of posters.

Every resident can be used in combat and is divided into one of four classes: Attacker, Support, Healer and Tank. Every resident has two weapons and armor which can be changed, but they can be upgraded using materials. They have "Tools" that are also upgradable and help farm resources and "Attachments" which take the role of customizable accessories with bonuses. Stronger attachments are designated by the color of the background behind them. Attachments can be upgraded using materials commonly found while ascending the Trinity Tower on the "Path of Conquest" option. The player can also participate in "crisis challenges" and sweep them three times each day in order to make character progression in the research room which is important to boost the team's power.

Residents also have skins which must be unlocked through events and other methods. Moira Brown and Sarah Lyons are easy to obtain dwellers as both can be obtained by a full week of simply logging in and redeeming their posters.

Vaults[]

Construction is not instantaneous as in Fallout Shelter, but it takes a certain amount of time, which can be accelerated. Resources are mainly used for the development of residents. In this case, for each useful action, the superintendent receives points from the Vault experience. Pets return to increase efficiency.

• Electricity is used to build and upgrade rooms.
• Water is used to increase a resident's perk level.
• Food is used to increase a resident's main level.
• Caps are used to buy materials at vendors.

The player can improve their residents by sending them to a training room, though this requires food points that can be obtained by the diner. Resources are farmed by the hour even when the game is not being played, incentivizing players to take breaks and return.

Exploration and combat[]

The player has access to a world map full of locations to explore, though players must upgrade their radio station and spend Rad-X to allow zones to be explored. The party explores buildings, collects master keys to unlock rooms, and fights enemies within. Hazards like fire and radiation exist in some rooms. Some rooms may have unique people in them such as merchants, or a quiz master who will reward the player if they can answer trivia questions about Fallout.

Combat is largely automated, though the player has control over when to use their party's skill which can affect the outcome of battles. During some missions, an additional guest party member may help the team. The story is told in a linear fashion without branching dialogue.

In order to finish the main Commonwealth campaign, the player will need a battle power of around 250,000. In order to reach chapter 9 of the Capital Wasteland campaign, which is where the SEA version currently stops, a battle power of around 550,000 is expected to win.

Online elements[]

There are some light online elements. There is a chat room, players can add friends and join guilds for benefits. Players can also visit a friend's Vault to see what it looks like and gather resources from it, although there is no interaction between the players beyond this. There is also a PvP arena where players can fight each other, although the opposing player is not present so it is only their build that is fought.

Hero Biographies[]

The Hero Biography is a system which, through extensive grinding or the gacha system, allows the player to learn more about the lore of various characters.

Plot[]

The Commonwealth[]

The main story takes place across 11 chapters. The game takes place in the Commonwealth not too long before the events of Fallout 4. The protagonist is the future successor to the overseer of the unnamed Vault.

The overseer Jacob March leaves the Vault for an unknown reason, taking with him the device for distributing the resources of the Vault. The player, his successor, assisted by secretary Jenny, became the new overseer. The Vault logged Preston Garvey and Sturges who helped improve the Vault and expressed their interest to help in the search for the ex-overseer. The purpose of the plot is to find the ex-overseer and help the moment-minded people to revive their combat power. Allie Filmore, Robert MacCready and Dogmeat help the heroes in the early game.

The heroes eventually make it to Boston and come across the Brotherhood of Steel and Danse. Allie encounters Conrad Kellogg during the search for Jacob, and he tells them they should seek out Nick Valentine in Diamond City. Although he is not there due to being trapped in a building with ghouls, Piper Wright informs the group where to find Nick. Later, the group encounters a "synth" named Glory, though they do not initially know she is a synth at the time, and meet the pro-synth organization The Railroad, led by Desdemona.

While on a mission with Nick, the group discovers a conspiracy involving their Vault through a holotape left by Jacob. It is revealed he left the Vault because a strange liquid (FEV) leaked out of the Resource Purifier. He found in documents that this was part of a conspiracy to inject the FEV into the resource purifier, and that when the pre-programmed time came, the purifier would release the virus. The purpose of this was to research the effect FEV has on people living in a confined space for over 200 years. The day Jacob left, he was unable to find something to contain the virus, so he took the purifier, left the Vault and came to Boston for help. He went to Diamond City and met a mechanic named Vera. Vera needed tools to separate the virus from the purifier. His holotape mentions he feels some side effects from carrying the resource purifier, making the team worry the FEV affected his psychological thinking.

The group crosses paths with X6-88 who invites the gang to the Institute where they meet Father. Father claims the Brotherhood and the Railroad are too focused on the present gains and losses, and have no sight of the future. He claims the Institute is building a new world they are unable to comprehend. Father insists the team travel with coursers to help gain a better understanding of their runaway synth problem, and help them see that the malfunctioning synths really are an unintended accident; a courser shows the synths are programmed to attack super mutants to make the Commonwealth a better place, but poor programming has resulted in them attacking humans.

Eventually, the group invites Moira Brown into their Vault after one of the mirelurk taming sessions goes awry. Kellogg then comes to the Vault and says he is representing the Institute, which is aware the team is looking for an identification signal for FEV. The Institute offers this in exchange for data: the Institute intends to collect data on survivors under extreme circumstances, so Kellogg monitors the group as they fight their way through the Parsons State Insane Asylum.

After some time, including meeting Strong and Curie, Nick finishes a tracker and arrives at the Vault which suggests Jacob is at the South Boston military checkpoint. They find the place overrun with Triggermen. With Nick's help, they find a holotape from Jacob saying there's been an accident separating the FEV container. Jacob also mentions searching for Virgil at the Glowing Sea and something indecipherable about Vault 95. Nick tells Jenny to send a widespread radio message that they need help crossing the Glowing Sea. Kellogg arrives and says the Institute is willing to help, and that he also needs to deal with Virgil. Nick agrees to collaborate. At the General Atomics Factory, Kellogg says they should be able to find protection suits to wear to cross the Glowing Sea. There, Kellogg betrays the group by stealing the suits, leading to a confrontation. The group fights Kellogg who requests death upon defeat, admitting he is probably just a tool being used by by Institute. Instead, Nick tells Kellogg that he should live in order to find meaning in the wasteland.

Eventually, Father comes to the group while they are in the wasteland and he says that the Institute has been keeping track of their activities all along. Father reveals he knows about their conflict with Kellogg, that they know Jacob has been infected with FEV and that he is dying. Father admits he does not really care whether Kellogg wins, but offers to give them a portable teleporter to help locate Virgil. He also mentions the teleporter will collect Jacob's FEV data. After a brief encounter with Lorenzo Cabot, the group activates the portal to find Jacob. Along the way, they find Mother Isolde who mentions a mutant full of anger and fear passed through the area. They then find Virgil, who mentions he saw Jacob severely infected with FEV. Virgil also reveals more of his own backstory, saying he was an FEV expert but fled because he was tired of conducting inhumane experiments.

They find Jacob mutated, but Jacob says he cannot control himself and tells the group to stay away. They fight him and try to inject Virgil's serum in an attempt to save Jacob. He regains his human mind, but then decides to destroy the nearby resource purifier. Jacob says if he has learned anything, it is that the wasteland never needs their rescue. Despite this, he tells them that as long as they work together, the wasteland will never lose hope. Jacob says the resource purifier is corrupted by those in power from 200 years ago, and all the wastelanders really need is to trust each other to work together to survive, rather than relying heavily on the technology of the past. Jacob then destroys the purifier but dies when it creates a fire, and he smiles before he passes away. Nick comments he respects Jacob and that his efforts will not be in vain. The group decides to take Jacob's Pip-Boy which has information on the Capital Wasteland. Suspecting they might find information on how to reverse FEV, they decide to go there.

Capital Wasteland[]

Arriving in the northeast part of the Capital Wasteland, the group immediately meets Dave who offers them a temporary visa on his land, the Republic of Dave. During Dave's re-election ceremony, a deathclaw comes, but during the skirmish, Dave lies and claims he defeated it himself when it was really the player's group. Dave's residents find out and deem him a liar. Jessica implores the team to check out Vault 92.

At the Vault, the group finds the Enclave trying to find data. After a skirmish, Hannibal Hamlin comes to help the dwellers, claiming he's been following them and tells them to seek the Temple of the Union. There, Hannibal informs them his group, the Abolitionists, are fighting to prevent their own slavery. The Roach King comes to harass so the group defeats him, earning the group the support of the Abolitionists. Hannibal implores the group to find Oasis and encounter a talking tree who is very knowledgeable about the wasteland. Before that, the group sneaks into Paradise Falls to pose as slave buyers in order to help out captive Abolitionists. They soon discover the Enclave has made an agreement with slavers where the Enclave is giving slavers high-tech arms, in exchange for safe passage to recover "assets".

At Oasis, Hannibal introduces the group to a tree-like being known as Harold. Harold believes the Enclave are interested in him. Harold reveals he was once a regular wasteland merchant long ago, but in the middle of an adventure, he became severely infected with FEV due to a small sapling on his head. The sapling then grew bigger and merged with him, becoming what he is now. Harold reveals the Enclave is behind FEV, hence their interest in him. Harold gives the group intel about finding the Enclave's headquarters further west.

The group encounters strange larger-than-usual centaurs, as well as an Enclave terminal mentioning something about "Project Skyfire" and "The Castle". They infiltrate Raven Rock and encounter a man who threatens to torture them, asking the group who their boss is. However, the Enclave's experimented laboratory animals manage to escape and attack the Enclave, although the group points out how eerily coincidental the attack was. In the facility, a terminal mentions the Enclave was heavily battered by a "wanderer", and their president and most elites were destroyed. The Enclave has transferred their remaining forces to the underground and is preparing for a great return, with Raven Rock being one of their temporary bases, with the rest scattered all around the wasteland.

The group briefly meets a "wanderer" in a building, but he gives the group a warning to stay away from him as he leaves. They later cross paths with him again as he is chasing after a deathclaw (also known as the Mount Mabel Monster). Curious, the group chases him and finds him threatening the deathclaw. He claims the deathclaw is under his control, but the group discovers the deathclaw is not a typical vicious one, but one of the experimented lab animals that raised hell back in Raven Rock. The group refuses to let the wanderer kill the deathclaw because they feel sympathetic towards the creature as it helped save their lives before. The deathclaw then wanders away with gratitude for its life being spared.

The group reunites with Hannibal and he introduces the group to Paladins Glade and Colvin of the Brotherhood of Steel. The two reveal the Brotherhood is concerned with the Enclave's recent activities and regrets not being able to destroy them, so Lyons sends the two to investigate. Everyone decides to start an investigation on the nearby mutants. A lead directs them to Vault 87 where they decide to investigate the strange large centaurs. There, Glade explains how Vault 87 was the source of super mutants in the Capital Wasteland, but the Brotherhood cleansed the place of evil 10 years ago, although the active mutants and centaurs suggest someone has restarted the FEV experiments. Fawkes meets the paladins and tells them he is not their enemy, as they share a common friend with the Lone Wanderer. Fawkes also wishes to find the reason behind the new type of centaurs. Glade gets injured by a mysterious group of people deeper in the Vault, whom Fawkes identifies as mercenaries of the Talon Company.

To investigate the Talon Company, at Fawkes' suggestion, the group disguises themselves as traveling merchants. At their outpost, they find a message to rendezvous at the VAPL-58 power station to see their employer. Fawkes mentions that traveling with the Lone Wanderer taught him to think before acting. When suggested he should see the Lone Wanderer, Fawkes replies, "Maybe... he has gone missing for long." At the power plant, they learn that the Talon Company's client is the Enclave, so Fawkes suggests heading to Fort Bannister, a Talon base, hoping to talk to their boss to stop cooperating with the Enclave. The company's commander is a woman named Harton who orders her company to kill the group. Despite that the team kills many of her soldiers, Harton listens to them plead with her to stop cooperating with the Enclave, using the threat the Enclave are terrible people and will end up betraying them. Harton considers the idea, though says her boss would have her killed. Harton turns hostile and the group defeats her. Colvin and Glade appear, saying they have evidence that shows the Enclave is restarting the FEV program and are hiring thugs for the dirty work.

This is currently where the story stops, which is chapter 9 in the SEA version.

Factions[]

• Commonwealth Minutemen
• Crimson Caravan
• Enclave
• Gunners
• The Institute
• The Railroad
• Slavers
• Commonwealth Allies

Characters[]

Original[]

• Overseer Jacob March
• Jenny (non-playable)
• Kura, the Wise Deathclaw (non-playable)
• Kevin (non-playable)
• "Robot Dog"
• Enclave commander Harton
• Various generic named playable heroes

Fallout[]

• Harold
• Roger Maxson

Fallout 3[]

Fallout 4[]

Fallout 76[]

• Zorbo (non-playable)

Other[]

These characters were released for the Chinese version, though they do not appear to be in the current SEA version:[1]

• Dark Lord (from Doom) [2]
• Ingram (SP version) [3]
• Theil [4]
• Bosco
• Atomic Cat
• Jacob Orden
• Mama Murphy
• Brian Virgil (SSR version)
• Courser
• Rhys
• Reginald Rothchild

Creatures[]

Robots[]

• Synth

Items[]

Currencies[]

Limited-time content[]

Daily Events[]

• Atomic Cat Analysis
• Breakthrough Evaluation
• Cap Replenishment Proposal
• Food Budgeting Plan
• Preston's Rescue
• Water Purification Project

Limited Time Events[]

• Astoundingly Awesome Tales II: Hellwalker
• Quincy's Past
• Search & Rescue Crimson Caravan
• The Mechanist's Challenge
• Total Conflict

Reception[]

Fallout Shelter Online received generally positive reviews from players for its new features such as a story mode, albeit being on the more basic side, as well as combat and PvP. It has a 4.2/5 on Google Play.

It has been criticized for its lack of distribution in Western regions. The game's English script, while being comprehensible, contains some minor errors such as "Vault-Tech", incorrect terminology such as "Steel Brotherhood" instead of "Brotherhood of Steel", and "Fox" instead of "Fawkes", and the occasional untranslated Chinese. Some of the hero cards for the haggard and older women of the series, such as Ronnie Shaw and Isolde, also received criticism as they tend to look far younger than they do in the original games; this was criticized in a TheGamer article claiming it was re-enforcing misogynistic stereotypes and beauty standards.^[4]

Notes[]

• The game contains the first visual depictions of Roger Maxson.
• There are a few references to Fallout 76. The Mistress of Mystery has the Veil of Secrets as a trinket. Sarah Lyons has a pink sprinkles paint skin. There is a Fasnacht armor set. Zorbo can be battled in the Nuka-World campaign.
  • Roger Maxson was likely selected as a playable hero due to his status as a Fallout 76 character. The only other hero from the original Fallout is Harold, who was in Fallout 3.
• This is the third Fallout game to feature talking deathclaws, after Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics.
  • In addition to the Wise Deathclaw, placing the Mount Mabel Monster in the first or second slot of the party will allow her to deliver mission dialogue. This is not possible with animal heroes such as Dogmeat.
• Other creatures such as the Alien or non-speaking characters such as the Roach King can also deliver story dialogue.
• On October 9, 2022, a new updated version of the game was released featuring new features. The game changed servers, and player progress from the old version was not transferable.
  • Updating players are compensated based on criteria such as playtime and payments.
  • Players of the old version can keep their progress by not updating to the new version, but it will not be updated.

Bugs[]

Placing Dogmeat in the first or second slot of the party during story cutscenes may cause lines to be said by the wrong characters throughout.

Videos[]

English/International versions[]

Chinese versions[]

These videos use Chinese text and subtitles, but have English audio

Gallery[]

Basic hero cards[]

Fallout 3 hero cards[]

Crossover cards[]

External links[]

• Official website (Chinese)
• Official website (English)

References[]

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