Vault 22

Vaults & Shelters · Source: Fallout: New Vegas (2010), Obsidian Entertainment — in-game world, terminals, and dialogue

Overview

Vault 22 was a research vault dedicated to agricultural and botanical science, featured in Fallout: New Vegas. Its experiment went catastrophically wrong when the plant specimens it cultivated began infecting the vault's population.

History & Background

The vault's scientists experimented with fungus-based agriculture designed to restore the surface. The fungi proved parasitic and infectious, transforming dwellers and eventually overrunning the entire vault. By 2281 the facility is a tangled jungle of mutant vegetation, its inhabitants either dead, fled, or lost to the infection. The player can investigate its ruins to recover data for the Followers of the Apocalypse, uncovering the horrific progression of the outbreak.

Geography & Layout

The vault is buried beneath a mountainside, its interior overgrown with aggressive plant life; some sections have broken open to the surface, where strange botanical growths spill out into the desert.

Wasteland Significance

Vault 22 is a cautionary tale about scientific hubris and one of New Vegas' best horror-tinged dungeons, with its fungal lore connecting to broader themes of mutation in the series.

Notable Appearances

Fallout: New Vegas (2010).

Tags: vault-22, botany-experiment, fungus, fallout-new-vegas, overgrown, plant-mutation, followers-of-the-apocalypse, research-vault, desert, horror