For a Fallout Shelter Vault to survive and thrive, players must recruit new Vault Dwellers to produce resources and expand. Vault Dwellers can be assigned to explore the wasteland or work in different rooms, producing vital resources such as food, water, and power. They’re crucial to any Vault’s success and luckily, there are several great ways to get more Dwellers to your underground society.
There are four main ways to get new Dwellers: childbirth, radio recruitment, Lunchboxes, and quests out in the wasteland. Childbirth is likely to be the first option players choose, as all Vaults in Fallout Shelter have a starting population of twelve Dwellers. However, to really raise the population of a Vault, players should attract new inhabitants from the wasteland with the radio, and recruit new Dwellers through quests.
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How To Get More Dwellers In Fallout Shelter
The easiest way for players to get more Vault Dwellers is to mate a male and female Dweller in a living room. The time it takes for the female Dweller to become pregnant varies based on the couple’s Charisma SPECIAL stat. Pregnancy lasts three hours in real-time, and it takes an extra three hours before child Dwellers become adults.
This is easy, as all players need to do is place the couple in any living room. However, placing Dwellers in a living room stops them from performing other roles inside the Vault, including working rooms to produce resources.
Constructing a radio room for the Vault is an excellent early-game investment. Radio is an iconic part of Fallout and a Vault’s radio room should ideally be staffed with Dwellers who have high Charisma. This attracts new Dwellers to the Vault and also raises the Vault’s overall happiness as a nice bonus perk.
Dwellers can also be sent out to explore the wasteland and complete quests to recruit Dwellers. Quests typically provide useful rewards such as weapons, outfits, and pets (including a loving tribute to legendary canine companion Dogmeat). However, some quests also provide new Dwellers, and may even draw legendary figures such as Fallout 3’s Sarah Lyons to the vault.
How To Get Dwellers From Lunchboxes In Fallout Shelter
Players can also get new Dwellers from Lunchboxes. Lunchboxes contain a wide range of different items, including caps, junk resources, and pets. They're typically rewarded from completing objectives and quests, and from daily and weekly reports. However, they can also be purchased in bulk from the in-game store, making them similar to lootboxes.
Characters from Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and the Fallout show can all appear in Fallout Shelter as Legendary Dwellers. Legendary Dwellers often come equipped with special items and have much higher SPECIAL stats than ordinary Dwellers.
However, it’s worth noting that the more Vault Dwellers players have, the more resources they need to produce. Vault Dwellers need food, water, and power, and new facilities need to be constructed and staffed to keep up with demand. A Fallout Shelter Vault can hold a maximum of 200 Vault Dwellers, but players can easily run into problems before they hit the limit if they don’t manage their resources carefully.
