Vault 87

Vaults & Shelters · Source: Fallout 3 (2008), Bethesda Game Studios — in-game world, terminals, and dialogue

Overview

Vault 87 was a research facility dedicated to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, featured in Fallout 3. Its experiments transformed kidnapped wastelanders into super mutants, and the vault is a key location in the main quest.

History & Background

Run by pre-war scientists under military authority, Vault 87 conducted FEV research using test subjects brought in from the outside world. After the war the experiments continued, producing generations of super mutants that spread across the Capital Wasteland. The player must infiltrate the vault to obtain a GECK sample, navigating mutant patrols and the feral-infested depths where the mutant Fawkes is imprisoned.

Geography & Layout

The vault's entrance lies beyond Little Lamplight's caves via Murder Pass; its interior includes laboratories, holding cells, and the massive FEV vats where mutants were created.

Wasteland Significance

Vault 87 is the origin of the Capital Wasteland's super mutant population and a central hub of Fallout 3's main quest, cementing the FEV as the series' explanation for many of its monsters.

Notable Appearances

Fallout 3 (2008).

Tags: vault-87, fev, super-mutants, fallout-3, fawkes, murder-pass, little-lamplight, experiments, main-quest, genetic-research