(If this guide is useful to you, then please rate it upwards.)

The first few sections of this guide's contents have been arranged in the estimated order of which new players will need the information; other sections are arranged thematically.
I highly urge players to read the second-last section about backing up files.


Introduction
Summary of tips
Special abilities (in a simple table format)
----------
Building your base just right, from the start
General building principles
The first three levels of your base
What to build on the other levels
My ideal base
----------
Dwellers
Stationing Dwellers in the right rooms
Resources
Objectives
----------
Wasteland expeditions
Wasteland buildings
Quests
----------
Nuka-Cola Quantum
Money (Caps)
----------
Attackers versus the Vault
Disasters occurring within the Vault (fires and vermin)
----------
Increasing the population of your vault
Clothes for Dwellers
Pets for Dwellers
Training for Dwellers
Weapons for Dwellers
----------
Mr. Handy robots
The Mysterious Stranger
----------
How to transfer saved game files from other devices to Steam
Backing up your saved game files for Fallout Shelter
Some concluding words


Note: Perhaps the most important part of this guide is the second-last section, "Backing up your saved game files for Fallout Shelter", as many people have had problems with their saved game files becoming corrupted (which apparently affects their Steam cloud file as well).
This may especially occur if you have a power failure with your computer.
Judging by the number of posts in the Steam discussion forums from people complaining about losing their entire game (a fair enough complaint), this is a significant problem.
I highly recommend that players manually back-up their saved game files.

Fallout Shelter is a great little game. Played right, it should be an enjoyable experience.

You are the Overseer of an underground fallout shelter.
As the introduction to the game states, “As Overseer, your job is to expand and maintain the Vault, while keeping your Dwellers safe and happy”.

Some reviewers of the game have complained about how their base was wiped out by attackers. However, I suspect that they might not have managed their resources properly, and their bases suffered accordingly.

Whilst some of my Dwellers have died (don’t worry, they were revived; no need to get out your black armbands just yet), I haven't even come close to being defeated.
My game style has been to concentrate on building up the base first, getting the resource production right, sending out an occasional Dweller into the Wasteland for resources, and only then sending some Dwellers off on Quests.

Slow and steady wins the race, in the right circumstances.
That's my theory, and I’m sticking to it. Stick with me, and she'll be apples.

When I first started, I made some mistakes with the way I first built my base, and I had to go back and delete a few rooms to make the base more efficient. In fact, there are still a few things that I wish I had done differently.

Hopefully this guide will help you avoid my mistakes.

Anyway, that's enough from me.
Let's get on with the guide.
Onward!

1) Build only resource-producing rooms (power, food, and water) on the top three levels (don't build anything on the very top level when you first start the game).

2) Whenever possible, build all of your rooms three units wide, or allow space to do so later on.

3) Assign Dwellers to rooms which correspond with their highest special ability; put your best Dwellers in the top three levels.

4) Give all Dwellers weapons; give the best weapons to those in the top three levels.

5) Build living quarters and storage rooms on the fourth and fifth levels.

6) When you have enough Caps to spare, delete the original living quarters room on the first level and replace it with resource-producing rooms.

7) In the early stages of Vault development, send off only one or two Dwellers into the Wasteland (leave enough Dwellers in the Vault to keep everything running well).

8) Concentrate on building up your base, especially focus on power, food, and water; only send Dwellers on Quests when you have people and weapons to spare.

9) When you have enough spare resources, build a Medbay and a Science Lab, to produce Stimpaks and RadAways.

10) Build training rooms, to upgrade the special abilities of the Dwellers. Building a Fitness Room is especially important, as it enables Dwellers to build up their Endurance (health) levels. To achieve maximum health points for Dwellers, they need to be fully trained in Endurance first (this won't be possible for your first few Dwellers, as you will need them to be actively working).

This is only a simplified list; to play the game effectively, I suggest you read through the entire guide.

As an aside, the initials of the seven special abilities form the word “special”.
A nice little acrostic from the makers of the Fallout games.

One of the most important elements to get right in Fallout Shelter is the placement of the rooms in the underground bunker (known in the game as a “Vault”).

Important recommendation: The first three levels of your base should consist of high-use resource-production rooms. This is essential to the defence of your base. The reasoning is explained below.

As the base is often attacked via the main entrance (by Raiders, Feral Ghouls, and Deathclaws), it is important to have a decent number of bunker personnel (known in the game as a “Dwellers”) at the ready.

If you ensure that the first three levels of your base consist of high-use resource-production rooms (i.e. those rooms which produce power, food, and water), then you can have Dwellers constantly stationed there, ready to defend against any attacks, whilst they simultaneously work at producing resources.

When you first start the game, the room on the first level will be living quarters.
Therefore, I suggest that you build high-use resource-production rooms on the second and third levels, and some living quarters deeper down; then, when you have enough money, delete the living quarters on the first level and replace it with a resource-production room (three units wide).

It is important that, as soon as possible, you expand your resource-production rooms to be three units wide.
You can place rooms, of the exact same type, beside each other, and they will combine into one room (you can combine up to two or three rooms, but no more than that).
A room which is three units wide can produce more resources.

A room of one unit can accommodate two Dwellers, a room of two units can accommodate four Dwellers, and a room of three units can accommodate six Dwellers.
A group of attackers will cram into a room, no matter how big it is.
Therefore if three attackers enter a room of one unit, only a maximum of two Dwellers will be able to fight them off (3 vs. 2), but if the room is three units wide, then you can use six Dwellers will be able to fight the attackers (3 vs. 6).

Having a room which is three units wide means that you can bring the maximum firepower possible to bear on your enemy. This will end the fight faster, and minimize the damage taken by your Dwellers.
When your base is in the early stages, just being attacked by raiders, this tactic may not seem important. However, later on, when your base is being attacked by Deathclaws (who may rampage through several rooms before they are stopped), it will be vital.
(However, with regards to the vermin who spawn inside your base, I have noticed that if they go to the only one-unit room I have, that they die quite quickly - so their health and attacking power may be minimised in one-unit rooms; nonetheless, for the other reasons given, it is far better to have your rooms three units wide.)

Whilst the vault’s entrance room can be staffed with Dwellers, there are two problems with doing that, especially for new players.
1) Stationing Dwellers in that location means that most of the time they are idle (instead of producing power, food, water, etc.).
2) Only two Dwellers can be stationed in the entrance room (instead of six), so their combined fire-power is not optimal.
All attackers can be killed off by Dwellers stationed in the main rooms on the top two levels (if your Dwellers are heavily armed, attackers may not even make it to the third level).
In the early stages of the game, I didn’t station anyone in the vault’s entrance room. When my Vault's population was about 180-190, I had more Dwellers than I really needed, so I put two spare fully-ugraded Dwellers in the entrance, who would kill off all Raiders and Ghouls (which meant I only had to heal two people in those attacks, rather than six).
Don't bother about upgrading the Vault main entrance in the early stages of the game; however, when Deathclaws start raiding your base, then an upgraded Vault entrance can give you a few extra seconds to make sure you’re ready to fight them.

If you get more items (clothes, firearms, etc.) than you have room for in your storage rooms, just upgrade your storage rooms or build more; but don't worry too much if you can't, as excess items will be stored by the game, although they will be unavailable until you have enough storage space.

As you won't start off the game with a lot of money (known in the game as “Caps”), you will not be able to build as many rooms as you want straight away.
Therefore, just allow space for expansion in the top three levels by building elevators, going down from the top. On levels 4, 5, 6, etc., you can build living quarters, storage rooms, training rooms, etc.
It's better to wait for the money to build your base properly, rather than saddle yourself with a situation where you have to go back later and delete rooms placed in haste.
Building a column of elevators will enable you to develop your base properly, with long-term development in mind.

Whenever possible, build your rooms three units wide, or allow space to do so.
This will enable you to maximize firepower against attackers.
If a large room (three units wide) has only two Dwellers inside it when it is attacked, you can drag another four Dwellers into that room to help defend against attackers.

Some rooms are only two units wide:
Barbershop (changes the appearance of dwellers).
Overseer's Room (enables multiple Quests at once).
Vault door (the entrance to your base).

Some rooms are already three units wide when you first build them:
Outfit Workshop (craft clothes/outfits).
Weapon Workshop (craft weapons).

If you place two rooms of the same type and level beside each other, they will merge to become one room.
If you upgrade a room, and then place a basic-level room of the same type beside it, the second room will not combine with the first until it has been upgraded to the same level of the first room.
Three rooms is the limit for merging; you can't merge a fourth room, but you can merge a separate new set of rooms instead.

The width of the base allows you to build eight units across the length of each level.
Therefore, the design of each level should be: large room (three units wide), elevator, large room (three units wide), elevator, medium room (two units wide).

It should be borne in mind that you cannot delete a room which has units to both sides of it.
For example, if you built three small rooms beside each other, and you wanted to delete the room in the middle, you would not able to do so unless you deleted one of the other rooms as well.

It is a good idea to build resource-production rooms all on the same level (and put living quarters, storage rooms, etc., on separate levels).
When you get a Mr. Handy robot, it will move between all of the rooms on one level, automatically collecting resources. If some of the rooms on that level aren't resource-producing rooms, then your Vault will be less efficient.
I recommend that you build levels with the same type of resource-producing rooms on them. For instance, if your power level is badly depleted, you can put a Mr. Handy onto the level with only power rooms, and fix the problem efficiently.
When you are in the early stages of building, just put one power room on one level, leaving the rest of that level untouched, and then you can add more power rooms to that level when you have the Caps to build them and the Dwellers to put in them.

Any rooms built on the bottom two levels of the available Vault space can be obscured by the pop-up information box at the bottom of the screen; whilst this can be easily overcome by zooming in to those two levels, I found that it was much easier to build some living quarters and storage rooms on the two bottom levels (which are needed for the Vault, anyway), and that overcomes the problem.


* * * * * * *

You'll notice that the game doesn't allow you to build any toilet facilities for the Dwellers, so either they’ve all been holding it in for years at a time, or they’ve found somewhere quiet and isolated to go.
The Overseer's Room seems rather quiet, and I've never seen anyone actually working in there; maybe it's because of the smell?
Although, come to think of it, a lot of people have been volunteering to go outside on missions; maybe there's a good reason why it's called the Wasteland?

As mentioned previously, the first three levels of your base should consist of high-use resource-production rooms, for defensive purposes.
Those three levels should have the maximum number of Dwellers possible in the available rooms; use the Dwellers with the highest levels available (assign them to those rooms which correspond with their highest special ability).
The Dwellers on the first level should have the best weapons, the Dwellers on the second level should have the second-best weapons, and so on.

The design of first three levels should be:
1) vault entrance room (no Dwellers), elevator, large room (6 Dwellers)
2) large room (6 Dwellers), elevator, large room (6 Dwellers)
3) large room (6 Dwellers), elevator, large room (6 Dwellers)

If you want to, you could tack on a medium room.
E.g. large room (6 Dwellers), elevator, large room (6 Dwellers), elevator, medium room (no Dwellers).

After your first three levels, you may want to build some unstaffed rooms, such as living quarters and storage rooms, as well as lesser-used rooms, such as used for training Dwellers.
However, I would suggest that you build no more than three or fours levels of such rooms, and have high-use resource-production rooms above and below, staffed with Dwellers with decent weapons.

As your base will come under attack from vicious ground-digging animals, who can pop up anywhere, in any room, it is important to have groups of armed Dwellers available every few levels, so they can be dragged to any room which is under attack.
This is especially important to enable the defence of people in the training rooms (who may be low in numbers, and therefore vulnerable to attack).

In my base, I have high-use resource-production rooms built every few levels, with flying-squads of decently-armed Dwellers in them, so that they can be rushed to the defence of rooms under attack.

The graphic to the right shows the first few levels of my base.
If I knew then what I do now, I would have constructed my base differently, probably something like the following (notated regarding the purpose of the rooms):

Level 1: Vault entrance, elevator, power
Level 2: power, elevator, power
Level 3: food, elevator, food
Level 4: water, elevator, water
Level 5: Radaways, elevator, Stimpaks
Level 6: living quarters, elevator, living quarters
Level 7: storage, elevator, storage

Level 8: power, elevator, power
Level 9: radio station, elevator, training room
Level 10: training room, elevator, training room
Level 11: training room, elevator, training room
Level 12: training room, elevator, training room
Level 13: power, elevator, power

Level 14: food, elevator, food
Level 15: water, elevator, Nuka-Cola
Level 16: water, elevator, water
Level 17: power, elevator, power

At the very bottom levels:
Bottom level a : living quarters, elevator, living quarters
Bottom level b: storage, elevator, storage, elevator, barbershop
Bottom level c: storage, elevator, storage, elevator, overseer's room

The rooms above are arranged in groups, so you can see the general idea behind the layout.

If you place elevators at both ends of your rooms (those on the right side of your base), then Dwellers will be able to move between rooms a bit more quickly.

Weapons and training for elite troops
A big base requires a lot of power, and so you end up with a lot of Dwellers working in power production room.
I train them all up Strength (for power production) and Endurance (health), give them the best weapons and use them as flying-squads to assist other rooms.
That's why, in the above layout, the power rooms are placed at either the top or bottom of each group of levels, so that the heavily-armed and highly-trained flying squads can quickly get to any other levels that need help.

The personnel on the the top three levels have the best weapons (the first level personnel have the very best weapons, whilst the second level personnel have the next best weapons), so as to counter all of the attacks that come through the main entrance.

It works
These tactics have worked well. When my Vault got to a population of about 100, all attacks by Raiders and Feral Ghouls would be stopped on the first level (with no effort on my part whatsoever), and the Deathclaw attacks would be stopped on the second level, i.e. they would get no further than three rooms (with me clicking quickly on the Dwellers to keep up their health).
Whilst infestations by vermin can be a bit of a problem, I use my flying-squads to deal with them as much as possible.

Robots
Having rooms of the same types on the same level is useful for when you deploy your robots, which will automatically collect resources. If you are low in a particular resource (such as after an Radscorpion infestation), then you can assign your robots to the levels needed and they will collect a lot of the desired resources automatically.

For example, Radscorpion attacks always seem to deplete my power resources; so, after an attack, I would deploy the robots onto those levels which have power production rooms (if you have a range of rooms on each level, then getting the robots to collect one type of resource would be far less effective).

This "ideal base" is based upon my current knowledge; it may change if and when new information changes things.

---------------------------------

The graphic to the right shows my Vault (as at 19 May 2017). Whilst it's not as perfect as I'd like it to be (because of mistakes made when I was playing early on), it's not too bad.

The graphic was put together from several screenshots (I may try to make a better picture of it when I have the time).

This current one has heaps of training rooms, because I made the mistake of building up my population too fast, too soon - and now I'm trying to train them all to full levels in all special abilities (about 50/161 have been done).

Later on, I will get rid of some of the training rooms, and will start to kick out the earlier Dwellers when I have enough new Dwellers (those conceived by Dwellers with full stats).

If you can't see the picture in full from within the Steam browser, here's a link so that it can be viewed in a standard browser:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/772776712076823982/D1995E541D8A9EEF48289DF75B904A6AF36F0890/

Each Dweller comes with special abilities in several areas.

S = Strength
P = Perception
E = Endurance
C = Charisma
I = Intelligence
A = Agility
L = Luck

Their abilities/experience for these areas can be viewed either by clicking on the individual, or by looking at the list of Dwellers.

The list of Dwellers can be sorted by their first name, level, special abilities, morale, status, and job (work location).
To access the list of Dwellers, just click on the icon in the top left of your screen.

The efficiency of Dwellers is increased when they are at a higher level, have higher-rated special abilities, and have high morale.

Dwellers can level up by several means:
* Working in rooms.
* Fighting attackers, fires, and vermin.
* Exploring the Wasteland and doing Quests.

I have often had problems dragging Dwellers from one from to another, whereby they accidentally go into a nearby room (especially when quickly dragging dwellers into a room to deal with an infestation of vermin).
The key to placing Dwellers in the proper room is to look at the corners of the target room, as they become highlighted when a dragged Dweller is hanging over the room, ready for insertion. If the corners of the right room are highlighted, then just drop the Dweller in.
On the other hand, if you accidentally pick up any Dwellers when scrolling through your base, just drag them out to a blank/dirt area, and drop them there, as the Dwellers then won't move from their current room. Or you can just right-click to drop them (whilst you are still holding down the left-click button).

A dead Dweller can be revived, even out in the Wasteland and or after a Quest has finished (even if you fail at doing the Quest).
Just click on the corpse and you will be offered a choice, whether to revive or not. The more valuable a Dweller is (with a higher level, etc.), the more you will have to pay for revival. That's a good reason to always have a reserve of spare Caps.

If a dead body is left in a room, the morale of the other occupants of that room will decrease rapidly. Therefore, it is best to revive dead Dwellers as soon as possible.
After an attack or disaster, check the Vault's list of Dwellers to see if there are any dead ones you have missed (sort the list by its morale column).

* * * * * * *

If a colleague is left lying dead on the workplace floor, the morale of co-workers will go down. Who would have thought it? But, apparently it’s true.
Note: Do not test out this theory at work; the legal authorities are known to become very unhappy with those who kill off their work colleagues, even the annoying ones.

Make sure that you allocate the best-suited Dwellers to the appropriate rooms.
For example, if a Dweller has a high S rating, put him/her into a room that produces power.

Putting a Dweller into a room appropriate to his/her abilities not only increases production times, but also increases the morale of the Dweller (which leads to higher production rates).

Special abilities linked to resource production:
S = power
P = water
E = Nuka-Cola
C = radio station broadcasts (recruitment); living quarters (pregnancies)
I = Stimpaks and RadAways
A = food
L = luck (for gathering Caps in the Wasteland)

The special abilities of Dwellers can be increased in training rooms:
S = Weight room
P = Armory
E = Fitness room
C = Lounge
I = Classroom
A = Athletics room
L = Game room

On occasion, you may see Dwellers wandering around - which occurs if they are not assigned to any room.
This can happen when a Dweller dies, when a Dweller returns from the Wasteland, or when a child has turned into an adult.

Remember to equip your Dwellers with outfits which match the room they are in (e.g. if they are in a power room, give them outfits with high S ratings).

* * * * * * *

Personally, I have been using mostly women in my radio station room, as they seem to be the most efficient at passing on information.
I was once told that the three most effective forms of communication were television, telephone, and tell-a-woman (and now you've read it on the internet, so it must be true).

There are three indicator bars located at the top of your screen, which show the levels in the Vault of power, food, and water. If you click on the icons, it will show you the numerical levels of those resources.

It is immensely important that these three items (power, food, and water) are produced in high quantities.

You need to keep up the levels of food and water to keep the Dwellers alive.
If the vault runs low on food, the Dwellers will begin to starve, and lose both health and morale.
If the levels of water are low, Dwellers will begin to get radiation poisoning (presumably because they have to rely on the slightly older water in the off-screen storage tanks, which contain a bit of radiation).

You need to keep up the level of power to keep all of the rooms running.
If your power is low, rooms will begin to shut down; they will go dark and will no longer produce resources.
If that happens, transfer Dwellers to any spare spots in power-producing rooms. Also, until power is fully restored, transfer Dwellers from dark rooms to those resource-producing rooms which are still working (otherwise, you may run out of food and water whilst you are dealing with your power shortage).

In the early stages of building your Vault, don't build any non-essential rooms (such as a barbershop); if you have too many rooms, you might not have enough power to keep them all running.
In the early stages, if you are not doing Quests (I recommend concentrating on building up your Vault), then you don't need to build an Overseer's Room; leave it for later on.
Once your base is well-established, with lots of power, you can then safely add non-essential rooms.

When a production room is ready, a green icon will appear.
Click on the room to add the newly-acquired resources to your Vault's reserves.

You can get more resources (and money) by rushing rooms. Click on a room's Rush command to do this.
However, it is best done when the percentage of the chance of a disaster is at a low level. The higher it is, the more likely you are to fail, in which case you will cop a disaster (a fire or a vermin infestation), which could cost you more resources and money than you hoped to gain in the first place (reviving dead Dwellers can be quite expensive); also, failing a rush will increase the time it takes to get resources for that room (in that one instance).
(I usually do a Rush when the chance of a disaster is less than 30%; the lower, the better.)

It is worthwhile keeping up the morale of your Dwellers, as this gives you a "Happiness bonus" in the production of power, food, and water - as well as aiding crafting (presumably by making it faster).

At the end of each day you will get a bonus gift of Caps, the amount of which depends on how high your population's morale is.

Completing tasks for Objectives can earn you money, Mr. Handy robots, lunchboxes, and pets (the latter two are especially worth it).

The Objectives are relatively easy when you start the game, and then get harder as you progress.

You can access your Objectives list by clicking on the green icon located in the lower right of your screen.

You can delete one Objective per day from your list, for free, if you think one of the existing Objectives is too hard.

When you have enough Dwellers to keep your base running, with people to spare, send out some Dwellers into the Wasteland.
This is a good way to gather items, especially Weapons and Junk.
Depending on your resources, you might want to send out only one or two Dwellers at first.

To send a Dweller into the Wasteland, drag the Dweller to outside the Vault entrance.
When an interface box appears, allocate them as many Stimpaks and RadAways as you comfortably can, without depriving your Vault of enough Stimpaks and RadAways to help your Dwellers ward off an attack.
25 of each is the maximum you can give a Dweller who is going out into the Wasteland.
When Dwellers are exploring the Wasteland, they will automatically use their Stimpaks and RadAways to heal themselves; however, if you agree to them entering a building, then you have to give them Stimpaks and RadAways yourself.
Also, you should equip Dwellers with an appropriate weapon and outfit/uniform. Whilst giving them an outfit with a high Endurance rating makes them last longer, I usually give them an outfit with a high Luck rating, so they will pick up more items from the Wasteland.

Endurance and Luck are useful abilities for exploring the Wasteland.
It is worthwhile training a set group of Dwellers in those abilities, so that they can get maximum results from Quests and Wasteland expeditions; the time spent in training rooms may be lengthy, but it's worth it in the long run.
I've heard that Charisma helps Dwellers to recruit people from the Wastelands, but I have not confirmed this.
Apparently all of the special abilities are useful in the Wasteland, depending on the circumstances.

Assign them a pet, if you have an appropriate one available.
Some pets will aid Dwellers by giving them an attack bonus or a defence bonus, or may increase their luck in finding resources.

The further out into the Wasteland a Dweller goes, the chances increase for obtaining better resources; however, the likelihood of running into harder enemies also increases.

If a Dweller's inventory has become full, then he/she will automatically return to the Vault.
However, you can recall a Dweller from an expedition at any time you want. A returning Dweller will only take half as long to come back as their journey out was (e.g. if you send a Dweller out for 2 hours, the return trip will only take 1 hour).
You even have the option to tell a returning Dweller to start exploring again.

If Dwellers die during an expedition, they can be revived (which costs money).

There are several types of buildings that can be explored in the Wasteland.
These can be accessed by a Dweller out on an expedition or on a Quest.

This is a good opportunity to get some good stuff. However, be aware that, if you have to fight off some strong attackers, that the Dweller may use up a lot of Stimpaks and RadAways (if you only have one or two left afterwards, you might need to return the Dweller to the Vault, bringing your expedition to an end).

When you are fighting a group of attackers, target the boss (if there is a boss, he/she/it will have a skull on their health bar).
Just click on your Dweller and then drag the target onto an attacker (I find that I have to drag the target a bit further to the right to highlight the desired enemy), and you will then shoot at that specific attacker.
If there is no boss, shoot at the attacker with the lowest health, to finish them off quickly (which will then mean that you will be taking damage from fewer attackers). After that, target the enemy who has the best weapon.
If target icon appears over an attacker, click on it to get a higher attack rate with critical hits.

You can stop exploring a building, even during a battle (which you might want to do, if your Dweller is about to die). Just click on the icon in the top right of your screen.

When you have cleared a building of enemies, make sure that you have collected all of the items from the rooms.
Items may be obtained by clicking on sparkling things (usually boxes, cupboards, etc.).
Items can be obtained from sparkling things whilst a Dweller is in any room in the building.

Items may also be obtained by clicking on the dead bodies of attackers (most bodies will disappear after a battle; the bodies that remain are those with items).
Items can only be obtained from dead bodies whilst a Dweller is in the same room.

It is worthwhile to re-check rooms for items, as sometimes they may be small, or may be obscured (such as by a Dweller standing in front of it). Sweep your mouse back and forth to look at all the rooms from left and right angles.
Once you exit the building, you cannot return to it to get any items you may have missed.

Sometimes, when you are in your Vault, the game will let you know that a Dweller on an expedition has found a Quest building. You may accept or decline the offer to explore the building.
The notification icon (which will appear in the top left of your screen) won't last for long, so if you keep on working on something in your Vault, you may miss out on the opportunity.

If a Dweller exploring the Wasteland clears a building, which results in a message which says "Quest complete", note that this does not count towards those achievements which require a number of Quests to be completed.

I recommend only sending out a Quest team when you have all of your base production facilities working well, and your base defences are up to scratch.
Don’t send out a Quest team when doing so will leave your base denuded of adequate firepower.

The real trick to going on a Quest is to have:
* Dwellers of a high level, with high-rated Endurance, Strength, Agility, and Luck (and maybe even Charisma, to win over potential enemies).
* Top-grade weapons; or, at least, very good weapons.
* As many Stimpaks and RadAways as you can take (25 of each is the maximum you can give a group of Dwellers who are going out on a Quest). However, I've found that questers don't usually need a lot of RadAways; I normally send questing parties off with 25 Stimpaks and 15 RadAways.
* All of your questers at full health before they leave the Vault.
* Pets assigned to the questers, which give an attack bonus or a defence bonus (or a luck bonus, for increasing their chances of finding resources).

The principles for sending Dwellers out on Quests is much the same as for those going out on Wasteland expeditions, except that questers can go out in a group of three.

Equipping Dwellers with good weaponry on Quests is a must.
Whilst I suggest giving your best weapons to those stationed on the first level of your base, with the second-best weapons going to those stationed on the second level of your base, I recommend that you try to share the second-best weapons between the second level personnel and the Quest personnel.

The instructions for Quests tell you what level weapons are the minimum required. I usually equip questers with well above the minimum; however, if the minimum requirements aren't too high, I'll just provide my questers with good weapons, rather than top-grade weapons.

There may be times when the requirements of a Quest necessitates that your Dwellers take with them the best weapons that you have.
Many Quests can take hours for the Dwellers to get to their destination and then back home again.
If that is the case, then so be it; but you will need to be careful in dealing with attacks upon your base (or, in a worst-case scenario, avoid playing the game until your Questers have returned, but that could be a bit extreme). Or you could spend some Nuka-Cola Quantum.

A Dweller who dies whilst on a Quest can only be revived when the Quest is over.
Just make sure that you have some spare Caps to revive a Dweller who dies.

You can speed up Quests by spending your Nuka-Cola Quantum.
They can also be used to speed up a Dweller's training or crafting.
It generally costs one Nuka-Cola Quantum for every two hours (or part thereof) of speed completion, e.g. 5 to speed through 10 hours, 6 for 10.5 hours (although it takes 3 NCQ to speed up a facial make-over).

Opportunities to obtain Nuka-Cola Quantum only come along every now and then, so you'll need to be careful about which Quests you spend them on.

You can obtain Nuka-Cola Quantum from some Quests and Wasteland buildings. When you complete the main part of the Quest/building, some extra bottles of Nuka-Cola Quantum will be added to your inventory.
You can also get them from Lunchboxes and from completing Objectives.

Nuka-Cola Quantum can also be obtained by clicking on Bottle (who can be acquired from the Bottle and Cappy Quest), when he visits the Vault (which will happen at random times).
However, you will only get Nuka-Cola Quantum from Bottle when you click on him whilst he is dancing or waving (although you may only get some Caps instead).

Personally, I try to follow Bottle around closely when he shows up, to get the Nuka-Cola Quantum (because they are so rare, compared to Caps); although an attack by Deathclaws can interrupt that tactic.
Bottle may give you just one Nuka-Cola Quantum, or several, in one "drop". I have seen Bottle do two drops during the one visit, although it is a rare occurence.
Clicking on Cappy (when he is dancing) will only produce Caps.

Or you can buy Nuka-Cola Quantum from the Store page for real-life money (the developers have to get paid somehow; after all, they need power, food, and water too).
So far, I haven't spent any money on Fallout Shelter, but it would certainly be worthwhile supporting the developers who have created this fun game.

Be aware that Nuka-Cola Quantum is different to Nuka-Cola, which is a resource (like water) in the game. When I first found out that I could build a room to make Nuka-Cola, I though "Fantastic!" (because I thought it was Nuka-Cola Quantum), so the reality was a bit disappointing (story of my life, I guess).

You can get Caps by:
* Clicking on a room which has finished production (there is a chance of getting bonus Caps, depending on the Luck level of the Dwellers in the room).
* Dwellers gaining higher levels.
* Sending Dwellers out on Wasteland expeditions (especially Dwellers with high Luck levels).
* Sending Dwellers on quests.
* From your daily rating, which is based upon the morale of Dwellers (for the seventh day, you'll get a Lunchbox).
* Getting Caps cards from Lunchboxes.
* Selling off unwanted or excess gear. Do you really need those BB guns, when you have shotguns, missile launchers, and flamethrowers? (However, I recommend that you scrap superfluous items; so as to get Junk, instead of selling them for Caps).
* Clicking on Cappy (who can be acquired from the Bottle and Cappy Quest), when he visits the Vault (which will happen at random times). However, you will only get Caps when you click on him whilst he is dancing.

Buying new rooms can be quite expensive.
Don’t overdo it; remember to leave yourself a nest-egg for a rainy day.
If some of your Dwellers are killed by attackers, you will need money to revive them. If they die inside your base, the mere presence of their dead bodies will lower both morale and efficiency; so make sure you have a decent sum of money ready to revive anybody who needs it.

There is a limit to the number of Caps you can stockpile, being 999,999.
However, on rare occasions, the game may bump the number of caps slightly over that limit; but once those extra Caps are spent, or stolen by raiders, the limit will still be 999,999.

* * * * * * *

If you're worried about your chances of reviving Dwellers, then I suggest that you build your fallout shelter in Israel - because, statistically, that area has the highest resurrection rate in the world.

Invaders who break into the Vault's entrance room (on the first level):

1) Raiders: These are hard to deal with when you are at a low level (early on in the game), but when you've built up your base, they become almost inconsequential.

2) Feral Ghouls: These attack and irradiate Dwellers; make sure you check the health and radiation levels of Dwellers after an attack.

3) Deathclaws: These are nasty mutants with massive strength. You need to keep a close eye on the Dwellers who are fighting these guys, and give them Stimpaks quickly when needed.
They can easily fight their way through several rooms of armed Dwellers before they are stopped.
Deathclaws are attracted to your base by radio calls and by the Vault door being opened.

Vermin who can emerge anywhere within the Vault:

4) Radroaches: Vermin with low-level strength.

5) Mole Rats: Vermin with medium-level strength.

6) Radscorpions: Vermin with high-level strength. These irradiate Dwellers when they attack.


When your Vault is attacked, you may notice that your resource icons at the top of your screen are flashing red; this indicates that the attackers are destroying your resources.
When the attack is over, make sure that you build up your resources again.

After a particularly bad attack, it is worthwhile checking your list of Dwellers, to make sure that you haven't missed reviving anyone who is dead - just sort the list using the morale icon (the smiley face; click the down-arrow to reverse the order of the list).
Also, have a look through your Dweller list for anyone who needs healing (who you might otherwise miss). Fix their radiation levels with Radaways, and then restore their health with Stimpaks.

Disasters can randomly occur in your Vault.
A fires may break out; it can spread to other rooms if it's not stopped quickly.
Radroaches, Mole Rats, and Radscorpions may infest a room; exterminate them quickly, before they go on to other rooms.

Dwellers will lose health whilst fighting fires or infestations, so keep a sharp eye on their health levels, and give them Stimpaks or RadAways when needed.

Any Dwellers in a room with a disaster will automatically fight against it (except for children and pregnant women, who will scream and run away).

If there is space for more people in a room affected by a disaster, drag in people from other rooms to help.
This is why it is a good idea to have set rooms with a flying-squad (equipped with good weapons, and preferably with high Endurance and/or Strength levels) every few levels in your Vault.
If you have low-level Dwellers in a disaster room who are struggling to fight a disaster, drag in high-level people from other rooms to help; if the room is full, the Dweller with the higher level will replace the low-level Dweller.

Another good idea (not mine) is to keep six high-level weapons in your inventory; and then, when a random room is infested, you can quickly allocate those high-level weapons to the Dwellers who are fighting the vermin (just remember to swap back the weapons afterwards).

When a disaster is over, the Dwellers you have dragged from room to room will return to their original room. However, following a disaster, I’ve found that it doesn’t hurt to confirm that everyone is back in their original room (because, on rare occasions, I've had some people wander off).
Those Dwellers who were in the last room, where the disaster ended, will gain experience.

When a disaster is over, it is worthwhile scanning through the list of Dwellers, to check for:
* Dwellers with very low health (don't waste Stimpaks on Dwellers who have just copped a small bit of damage, as they will gradually regain their health).
* Dwellers who have radiation poisoning.
* Dwellers who are dead (they can be revived, if you pay out some money; which is why it is always a good idea to have a decent amount of spare cash on hand). You can quickly see any dead people by sorting your the list of Dwellers by morale.

You can get more people for your vault in four ways:

1) Place a man and a woman in the same living quarters, and then let nature take its course.
You will know things are going well for the happy couple if they start talking in a slightly animated fashion (moving their hands about), and then start dancing together; shortly afterwards they will kiss and then retire into the bedroom.
If they both wear clothing with a high C rating, that should speed things up.

The Vault is a small world, and once you have several dozen Dwellers, things may get confusing.
You may put a male and female in the living quarters and find that they are not becoming a couple.
It may be that you have accidentally put two people from the same family in together, and incest is not allowed in the Vault.
You may realise this when the two people speak about how nice it is to be spending some family time together (or something similar).
If they are just standing there, with a distinct lack of arm movement during their conversation, odds are that they are closely related.
Just remove one of the two, and bring in another person to try their luck.

A successful coupling will finish up with a pregnant woman; about three hours later, a child will turn up (a green icon of a baby's head will appear above a pregnant woman; click on the icon to get a child).
You can change the name of a new baby, if you want to, when the interface box appears.
If you want to change a Dweller's name later on, just click in their name area in their individual statistics box.

Children cannot be assigned work whilst they are under age (presumably because of labour regulations and all that malarkey), but once they have become adults they are available to experience all the joys of the daily work grind.
It takes about three hours for a child to become an adult.

Pets are available (from Quests, etc.) which can increase the chances of having babies with higher special abilities.
Allocate the relevant pet to a female in your living quarters. If you have a similar second pet, attach it to the father-to-be.

You get a child with a high rating of a particular type, if you make sure the father and mother both have a high level of that type; e.g. if both the father and mother have a high A rating, then their child will have a higher A rating than usual.

When both parents have all of their special abilities at maximum, it has been estimated that there is about a 7% chance for them to produce a Legendary baby (13% Rare; 80% Common).
[Source: https://github.com/therabidsquirel/The-Fallout-Shelter-FAQ/wiki/*5.-Breeding]

2) Create a radio station room.
A radio station in your vault will not only increase the overall morale of your vault workers, but it will broadcast to the outside world to attract more people (unfortunately, radio calls will also attract Deathclaws).
If you click on your radio room, you can see a countdown for when the next general broadcast becomes effective.
However, not every broadcast will work; if a broadcast is ineffective, the countdown will automatically start over again.
If the broadcast has worked, a large green symbol will appear in your radio room, click on it and a new Dweller will come running out of the Wasteland and appear at the vault's main door.

In the early stages of your Vault's development, you will want to get as many people as you can, but once you hit a certain critical mass (maybe about 100 Dwellers), you will find that you need more qualiity rather than quantity.
That's when you should change your radio room's function, from broadcasting out into the Wasteland (which recruits Wastelanders) to just broadcasting inside the Vault (which increases morale).
At that point, concentrate on training up your Dwellers' special abilities. That way, when you decide to produce more babies, they will be born with higher special abilities, following on from the special abilities of their parents.
Until you have Dwellers who have levelled up in all special abilities, I would suggest concentrating on producing babies with high Endurance levels, as having high Endurance increases Dwellers' health points every time they level up.

3) Recruit a new person when out on a Quest or a Wasteland expedition.
This will occur as part of the structure of a Quest, or as part of the story attached to a Wasteland building you explore whilst on an expedition.
Obtaining a new Dweller in this manner is a bit of a rarity.

4) From a lunchbox card.
When you obtain a lunchbox you will get a wide range of extras by clicking on the cards contained within.
A rare possibility is that you will obtain a new Dweller. Enjoy it when it happens.



* * * * * * *

Sometimes a happy couple stationed in the living quarters will dash off to a back bedroom.
I don't know what they get up to in there, but I suspect that they're eating lots of chocolates, cakes, and donuts, as they come out soon afterwards with big smiles on their faces, and the female's belly has grown considerably.
About three hours later, a young child will arrive on the scene (presumably attracted to the smell of cakes in the air).

Wearing the right type of clothing in an appropriate room will increase a Dweller’s effectiveness in that room.

The clothes list tells you what numerical weightings for abilities are held by each piece of clothing.
Therefore, for example, if you are going to place a Dweller in a room which produces power, you should give him some clothing with a high S rating.

For example, if I have a Dweller with a high S rating, who only needs one or two experience levels to get to the maximum S rating, I will give him a set of clothes with a low S rating (just enough to maximize the S ability), and then give the clothes with a high S rating to a Dweller who has a lower personal S rating.

Some clothes are gender-specific.
For example, the Librarian Outfit, Movie Fan Outfit, and Waitress Uniform can only be worn by women, whilst the Accountant Outfit, Bespoke Attire, Business Suit, Clergy Outfit, Greaser Outfit, Ninja Outfit, and Sci-Fi Fan Outfit can only be worn by men.
However, most sets of clothes can be worn by either gender.

You can craft more sets of clothes in the Outfit Workshop.
When you upgrade the Outfit Workshop, you can then make rare and legendary Outfits, which are well worth it for the extra special ability points they give to Dwellers.

Some clothes have numerical weightings for two or more abilities.
These can be useful; for example, when sending a Dweller out on Quests or into the Wasteland.


* * * * * * *

Seeing how some clothes are gender-specific, some Social Justice Warriors will feel compelled to complain to the developers about this Earth-shattering issue. In order to help them with their oh-so-important grievances, please direct any whiny SJWs to OhMyGodPleaseGetALife.com, or to WouldYouLikeSomeCheeseWithYourWhine.org.
Contrary to rumours, my highly-placed informants tell me that the developers do not intend to introduce a character called Bruce/Caitlin, who will have the ability to wear both male and female clothing.

Pet carriers (containing a pet) can be obtained in a variety of ways, such as from completing Objectives and Quests.

When sending a Dweller out on a Wasteland expedition or on a Quest, it is a good idea to assign them a pet, if you have an appropriate pet available.

Some pets will aid Dwellers by giving them an attack bonus or a defence bonus, or may increase their luck in finding resources.

Some pets are designed for use inside the Vault, e.g. to increase the chance of child SPECIALs, reduce crafting costs, reduce training time.

Training is vital for building up the special abilities of Dwellers.
Place Dwellers in a training room, and their abilities will increase. When a training session has been completed, a green icon will appear above the Dwellers' heads; click on the icons, and then either leave them in the room for more training, or drag them elsewhere.

Heightened abilities not only help with producing resources inside your Vault, but also help with your Dwellers are out on Quests or exploring the Wasteland.
According to the game's help section, Dweller with higher Endurance will gain more health as they level up, so Endurance training can be quite useful.

Whilst training rooms are not vital in the early stages of your base, you really need to build them as your base develops.

Whenever possible, build all of your training rooms three units wide, or allow space to do so later on.
(I made the mistake, early on, of building several single-unit training rooms in a row on the one level. I had assumed that there was no way that I would want to have any more than two Dwellers training in a room at any one time; boy, was I wrong!)

When your Vault has become so efficient that you are producing more resources than you actually need, then that is the perfect time to be training as many Dwellers as you can.
You should put as many Dwellers into your training rooms as possible. Even if your Dwellers don't need extra training for the rooms they are in (if they have maximised the relevant special ability), train them up in any of the other special abilities - it all has the potential to be useful (see the section in this guide regarding special abilities).

Stationing several Dwellers in the same training room will decrease the time needed for their training in that room.

As children born in the Vault can inherit the special abilities of their parents, it is especially important that potential parents have as many high-level special abilities as possible, so that future generations of Dwellers will be born with special abilities at a higher level than usual.

A quote from Battleseed in the Steam discussion forums is quite pertinent:
Every time you level up a dweller that does not have the max possible E stat, you rob them of potential HP.

You can obtain weapons by:
* Exploring the Wasteland.
* Going on Quests.
* Clicking on the dead bodies of Raiders and other enemies (those which are left behind after a fight).
* Getting weapons cards from Lunchboxes.
* Building a Weapon Workshop, and then crafting weapons (those weapons are constructed from Junk, obtained from Wasteland expeditions, from Quests, and by scrapping unwanted items in your Vault). When you upgrade the Weapon Workshop, you can then make rare and legendary weapons.

Crafting time can be significantly reduced by dressing the crafting Dweller with a high-level outfit of the special ability which is the same as the special ability allocated to the weapon on the crafting list.

If you have a pet with a bonus for crafting, then allocate it to a Dweller in your Weapon Workshop.

If you obtain a pet which reduces crafting time, you can allocate it to a Dweller who is already crafting a weapon in your Weapon Workshop and it will reduce the time needed for completion immediately.

There are also some pets which can reduce the cost of crafting.

You can obtain recipes for more weapons from dead enemies, Wasteland expeditions, and Quests.

When you get a Mr. Handy robot, assign it to a level which is producing resources, and it will move between all of the rooms on that level, automatically collecting resources.
This is why it is a good idea to build resource-production rooms all on the same level (and put living quarters, storage rooms, etc., on separate levels), so that the robot will collect as much as possible.
Also, as some attacks seem to concentrate on depleting one type of the Vault's resources (power is usually the main target), I have found it a good idea to build the same resource-production rooms on the same level; so, if my Vault's power has become half-empty, whilst the food and water stocks are ok, I just transfer my robots to those levels in my Vault which are making only power.

Apparently, the robots will continue to collect resources after you have quit the game.

You can have more than one Mr. Handy, but you can only assign one Mr. Handy per level.

Mr. Handy robots can be damaged by attackers or disasters, and can therefore be destroyed.
If a Mr. Handy is smashed into pieces, he can be rebuilt (just click on the bits of him lying on the floor), but the cost of rebuilding is 2000 Caps.

Mr. Handy robots will assist against attackers or disasters; however, they doesn’t seem to do a lot to help. My personal tactic is to drag them out of harm’s way, as it is far better to save the money you would have to spend on rebuilding them when they fall apart.

You can send a Mr. Handy out into the Wasteland to gather resources; however, when I tried doing that, it didn't seem to collect very much, so I just use the robots inside the Vault instead.

A Mysterious Stranger will appear in the Vault at random times, wearing a brown hat and trenchcoat.
He will be visible in the Vault for only a short time.
If you have a large base, he can be hard to find.

If you can click on the Mysterious Stranger before he disappears, you will get some money (the amount varies; sometimes it can be quite a lot).

He seems to be often found at the ends of rooms, but has been seen in the middle of rooms as well, and even in elevators.

Finding him can be quite tricky sometimes, as he may hide behind a person, structure, or equipment.

It can be easier to find him by sweeping your mouse left and right, so you are able to view rooms from left and right angles, which will help you locate him if he is standing behind something; however, doing that will take longer, which means that you can't look through as many rooms for him.

His arrival will be heralded by some ominous music ("dom-dom-dom-dom"); his departure will be notified by some light music (like small bells).
The music will sound louder if his location is near to the area which your screen is currently viewing; conversely, it will sound quieter if he is further away.

Fallout Shelter started off as a game for mobile phones, and was then released for personal computers.
You can see a lot more of the game on a wide computer screen than you can on a phone screen; therefore, there are people who want to transfer their saved game files from the phone version to the Steam version.

Here's a link to a handy guide on transferring your phone's saved game files for Fallout Shelter to Steam:
http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=893952874

Your progress with Fallout Shelter can be saved in two ways.

1) In-game
Although Fallout Shelter will periodically save your game, it is worthwhile saving it in-game on occasion (you can do this via the green icon in the bottom right of your screen).
When you have finished playing Fallout Shelter, don't just hit the X button, but use the "Save and Exit" function (accessible via the green icon in the bottom right of your screen).

2) Manual external back-ups
It is highly recommended that you manually back up your saved game files for Fallout Shelter.
Looking at the discussions about Fallout Shelter on Steam shows that, for some reason, some players have had their game of Fallout Shelter fail - and have been unable to retrieve their saved game (there are also many posts on the same subject in Bethesda's forum).
It especially seems that if you experienced a power failure (however brief), that it can stuff up your automatically-saved game file.
If you have played the game for many hours, and that happens to your computer, then you won't be happy.

However, you could try deleting the "Vault1.sav" and the "Vault1.sav.bkp" files and see if the Steam Cloud restores your game.

I recommend you manually save your saved game files for Fallout Shelter in one of three ways:
1) Save the files to another folder in your computer.
2) Save the files to a separate USB device kept at home (if your entire computer irretrievably crashes, then option 1 won't be much use to you).
3) Save the files to the Cloud, or to a separate USB device which is then stored at another location (because if your house burns downs, then options 1 and 2 won't be any good - unless, like the ubiquitous chimney left standing after a bushfire, your USB is the only thing to survive when the rest of your house is destroyed).

Where can you find the saved game files for Fallout Shelter on your computer?
You should be able to locate your saved game files at:
C:/Users/<your username>/AppData/Local/Fallout Shelter/Vault1.sav

That file path is for the Steam version of the game. For other versions, see the file paths listed in the Steam guide "How to transfer save files from any device to Steam version" (there is a link to that guide in the section above). Also, you can have a look at the following link (which also includes Xbox):
https://github.com/therabidsquirel/The-Fallout-Shelter-FAQ/wiki/*1.-Important-Information#14

If you can't see the files, or can't even see the folder, try ticking the Windows option to view "hidden files" (according to one report, you may even need to tick, untick, and tick it again to make it work).
If you are having trouble unhiding your files, you could do a search for the "Vault1.sav" file on your computer, and copy it from the search results.

You can also do a search for: %localappdata%
That should return results for several of your games, including Fallout Shelter.
Or do a search for: Vault1.sav (in Windows, it should be quicker if you search for "name:Vault1.sav").

If you have more than one Vault, then you will have to back up a separate file for each one (Vault1.sav, Vault2.sav, Vault3.sav, etc.).

Keep more than one copy of your saved game
I have a folder on my computer of backups of Steam saved games (which can also be copied to an external drive), which has shortcuts to the relevant game folders which have the saved game files (for each game, I also keep a notepad file with the relevant file path in it).

This system makes backups a lot easier to handle, especially when you have several games which need to be backed up.
You could just delete the previous backup; or, like I do, just add a date to the file (if, as has happened to me in the past, your latest backup is corrupt, then you can use the previous backup).

Also, it is worthwhile saving your backup files to an external drive (such as a USB stick) every now and then; because if your computer crashes irretrievably, you will lose any backups you had on your PC.

If you backup all the time and nothing happens, it will seem like a waste of time.
But if your computer crashes and you didn't backup, then you'll be kicking yourself for being too lazy or too busy to do it.

I would suggest that you make a back-up every few days (that way you only risk losing a few days' progress); of course, if you want to be mega-careful, you could make a back-up after every time that you play.
However, it's worthwhile backing up your game, after playing, when you have collected a new Dweller from a Lunchbox, Quest or Wasteland expedition. If you get any Legendary Dwellers, you won't want to lose them because of a crash.

Where can you find the screenshots from Fallout Shelter on your computer?
Your screenshots from the game can be found at the following locations:
(Steam screenshots and in-game screenshots.)
C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\my games\Fallout Shelter
C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\FalloutShelter\Screenshots

Note: There have been a few reports from people who have lost access to their vault after a friend has played Fallout Shelter on the same computer.
Unless you have a solution to this problem, then I would suggest that you don't play on a shared computer, and that you don't let others play Fallout Shelter on your computer.

For the locations for saved game files and screenshots, my thanks go to:
https://github.com/therabidsquirel/The-Fallout-Shelter-FAQ/wiki/*1.-Important-Information#14
http://help.bethesda.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/34921/~/where-are-fallout-shelter-screenshots-located-on-my-pc%3F

If you succeed beyond your wildest expectations, due to my amazingly helpful guide, you may send a donation to ShowRedbeardTheMoney.com, or to RedbeardIsAScammer.org (or something like that; I can't be expected to remember all these website addresses).
In the very unlikely event that you follow my guidelines and fail anyway, you may apply for a refund at NoWayAreYouGoingToGetAnyMoney.nyet, or at RedbeardIsAStingySod.org - or maybe go to IBetYouDidntFollowMyGuidelinesProperlyInTheFirstPlace.com.

A final reminder:
If this guide was useful to you, then please rate it upwards.
Thank you.

* * * * * * *

Some words of wisdom from the developers:



For a bit of amusement:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1675474716