Bethesda’s ever-improving vault-building simulation received its biggest update yet back in July, when it introduced an entirely new quest system that got Overseers out of the bunker alongside their adventurous inhabitants. While this week’s additions aren’t quite as game-changing, they’re …
Bethesda’s ever-improving vault-building simulation received its biggest update yet back in July, when it introduced an entirely new quest system that got Overseers out of the bunker alongside their adventurous inhabitants. While this week’s additions aren’t quite as game-changing, they’re a step in an exciting direction for players who want more aesthetic control over their vault.
The big feature this time around is the new Theme Workshop room which allows players to paint their Diners and Living Quarters in the style of various factions from Fallout 4. You can show your loyalty to the Brotherhood of Steel, Minutemen, Institute, or Railroad by decking out your rooms in their honor. To unlock each theme, you’ll need to discover blueprints while on quests, just as you would for craftable weapons or armor: this time, however, the blueprints are in fragments, and a single theme requires nine different fragments. Alternatively, if you’re hungry for a change of décor and rich in Nuka-Cola Quantum, you can buy the blueprints outright for 27 bottles without finding a single fragment.
As with other crafting rooms, designing the themes takes time and dweller power, but once you’ve made a theme it will be available to use as often as you’d like. We opted for our first style to be the Railroad Living Quarters, because we always enjoyed sleeping in that moldy catacomb surrounded by androids that could snap and kill us at any moment, and we wanted to share that joy with our dwellers. Since themes can only be used on full-sized and fully-upgraded versions of the residences or restaurants (and all rooms of that size are affected by the change), our largest barracks are now adorned with a lovely brick finish, red furniture, steel storage, and the Railroad’s secret symbol. If you hate a theme you can always revert to the original style, but we’re happy for the change of scenery.
The addition of the Theme Workshop ideally means even more aesthetic control to come, and this update already hints at holiday themes in the works. To get you in the mood for what will hopefully be Halloween-styled quests and more, this week’s update also includes some spooky new stickers for iOS 10. Vault Boy and Girl are dressed up as vampires, ghosts, mummies, and more, along with Fallout-appropriate perks like Grim Reaper’s Sprint. For some reason, the Vault Boy popping out of a pumpkin sticker is adorable every time.
To round out the week, we’ve also received new quests (although no high profile specifics like the previous hunt for Bottle & Cappy), rebalanced quest difficulties and travel times, and the option to speed up dwellers’ training with Nuka-Cola Quantum. In all, a big bag of treats for Fallout Shelter fans.
