Room placement in Fallout Shelter is one of the most important decisions you'll likely make in the game. Mirroring games like XCOM, it's all about maximising the space whilst getting the utmost out of adjacency bonuses and extensions, whilst making it easy for your disaster-fighting dwellers to get around.
Here on this page, we'll be taking you through the best place to build rooms, and the specific function each room carries out so you know what each room does, and can plan your Shelter to the height of efficiency.
Where's the best place to build rooms?
The most important factor to bear in mind for room placement is space. Each room - Barbershop and Elevator aside - can be upgraded up to three times, and most expanded up to a maximum of three spaces along by placing copies of a certain room adjacent to one another. Doing so earns you additional storage and resource yields, and also allows means a single dweller can work a room thrice the size of what they would have before the expansion, making it the most efficient way of laying out.
Fallout Shelter Trailer - Fallout Shelter at E3 2015 You can also only demolish a room if it doesn't connect one to the next, meaning that once you've placed a few down, rearranging your Vault can quickly become a costly exercise. With that in mind, on starting out you should aim to leave space for at least three of each major resource-earning room - the Diner, Water Treatment, and Power Generator - wherever possible.
What's more, each room has a particular SPECIAL stat assigned to it, meaning some Dwellers are going to be more effective in working there than others.
Other Fallout Shelter guides:
Looking for more guides on Fallout Shelter? Take a look at our main Fallout Shelter guide and tips page, our guide to room functions and room placement, advice on dwellers, SPECIALS, happiness and breeding, explainations of Legendary Characters, Pets, Weapons and other collectibles, how to unlock and use Mr Handy, plus how to earn Bottle Caps and Lunchboxes with Objectives, and our page on Quests, combat, and Daily Quests in Fallout Shelter, too.
List of Fallout Shelter rooms and what they do:
| Room | SPECIAL | Dweller Population required | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vault Door | - | - | Initial defence against attackers which can house guards |
| Elevator | - | - | Allows movement between floors and vertical expansion of the Vault |
| Living Quarters | Charisma | - | AT Grants additional max population Allows for breeding |
| Power Generator | Strength | - | Produces Power |
| Water Treatment | Perception | - | Produces Water |
| Diner | Agility | - | Produces Food |
| Storage Room | Endurance | 12 | Increases storage capacity for weapons and outfits not in use |
| Medbay | Intelligence | 14 | Produces Stimpaks |
| Science Lab | Intelligence | 16 | Produces RadAway |
| Radio Studio | Charisma | 20 | Attracts Dwellers to the Vault from the Wasteland |
| Nuclear Reactor | Strength | 60 | Produces Power |
| Garden | Agility | 70 | Produces Food |
| Water Purification | Perception | 80 | Produces Water |
| Nuka-Cola Bottler | Endurance | 100 | Provides both Food and Water |
| Weight Room | Strength | 24 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Strength |
| Athletics Room | Agility | 26 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Agility |
| Armory | Perception | 28 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Perception |
| Classroom | Intelligence | 30 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Intelligence |
| Fitness Room | Endurance | 35 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Endurance |
| Lounge | Charisma | 40 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Charisma |
| Game Room | Luck | 45 | Trains occupying Dwellers' Luck |
| Barbershop | Charisma | 50 | Allows customization to Dwellers' hair and facial hair |
| Overseer's Office | - | 18 | Makes Quests available for out-of-Vault exploration |
| Weapon Workshop | - | 22 | Crafting weapons |
| Outfit Workshop | - | 32 | Crafting outfits |
