Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Build the Fallout Shelter best layout with this layout planner tool and guide to maximise vault efficiency for improved resource generation, maximum survivors and stronger defences against Wasteland threats.
This guide includes beginner layout and endgame layout options with screenshots to help players progress through Fallout Shelter efficiently based on my experience playing Fallout Shelter since game launch.
Table of Contents:
– Beginner layout (Starter)
– Best Layout (End Game)
– Layout Planner Tips
– Room Sizes Guide
Beginner layout (Starter)
The starting layout varies slightly to the end game layout as players don’t have all buildings available yet. This stage is still critical to optimising your speed of progression and I recommend deleting the tutorial structures to follow this build guide order:
- Build a Power Station directly right of the starting elevator and a Water Treatment and Diner directly underneath. This means your production rooms are centrally located to deal with incidents and form a reasonable defence against early raider attacks as you can focus your strong dwellers and equipment items in these rooms. The Power Station is an important option for this as the Strength SPECIAL stat also increases attack and defence of dwellers.
- Build your initial Residence separate from the rest of your base to manage any incident spread and keep it safe from any potential raids on your vault during the early game. While this benefit will eventually be lost as you expand further it makes the start of your vault layout significantly easier to manage.
- Build your initial Storage Room beneath the Residence for the same reason.
- When you unlock the Medbay and Science Lab you can build these above your Residence and alongside your Diner.
- Overseer’s Office and Radio Studio can be built under your Storage Room which concludes the early game buildings. Both of these are important to unlocking quests like the Game Show Gauntlet and attracting dwellers.
- Don’t forget to expand rooms to their maximum size as you progress.
- When you need more resource generating buildings continue to build through the middle of your base layout.
- Keep the utility unoccupied rooms (Residence, Storage and training rooms) on the left hand side for easier management. The right side of the map can be used for additional Medbay or Science Labs as these are the perfect layout for the smaller space. Avoid building these on the top two rows as this will impact the effectiveness of your defensive Power Station and Water Treatment rooms.
- Eventually you will have the Caps and resources to transition towards the endgame layout below which you can start by building elevators down the right side of the map (excluding the top few floors to start) and destroying rooms on the left hand side of your vault while moving them to the bottom.
Best Layout (End Game)
Fallout Shelter has several considerations for an endgame best Fallout Shelter and I recommend players start to implement this when you feel comfortable with resource generation as it takes significant Cap investment and relies on building at the bottom of the map which requires rocks to be cleared.
This layout is split into three sections (top/middle/bottom) and utilises elevators along the left and right hand sides to protect against Molerat events to significantly reduce the active management required:
- Top: The top section of your vault is dedicated to resource generation as these will be occupied by your dwellers and used to defend against attacks. The first rooms that these attackers encounter is particularly important so your top 2 rows should always consist of 3 Nuka-Cola Bottlers with the gaps filled in by Medbays. Nuka-Cola Bottlers are powerful resource generating buildings for both water and food while using the Endurance SPECIAL stat for durable dwellers.
- Middle: In the middle of your vault place utility rooms that include all training rooms, the Overseer’s Office, Barber Shop, Radio Room and crafting stations.
- Bottom: This section is for your unoccupied rooms and separated from everything else so that any incidents here can be ignored as they will spread throughout all connected rooms then resolve themselves. Starting from the bottom you should build your Residences, you will need 5 fully upgraded Barracks to reach the maximum 200 dweller cap. The remaining space should be Storage Rooms as necessary along with more Medbays and Science Labs in the middle which help incidents intentionally spread quickly throughout this bottom section. Note that a row of elevators is placed on the bottom of the map which further prevents Molerat events.
Layout Planner Tips
The optimal layout is driven by a number of game mechanics:
- Vault Size: The total potential vault size is 641 squares, this includes the main area which is 26 squares wide and 24 rows deep (624 squares) and 17 additional squares along the top row near the entrance. With this space you need to factor in the Fallout Shelter room sizes where an elevator occupies one square while a room occupies 3 squares. 9 squares is the optimal room size except for the Medbay and Science Lab which are optimised at 6 squares.
- Raiding AI: AI such as raiders and deathclaws always follow the same behaviour when entering your base during an attack which allows players to place their strongest dwellers directly in their path. This AI path starts from the vault door room and moves through every room on that level (left to right) until the end is reached. Where there is no elevator at the end of that level the AI will back track until an elevator is reached and move down one floor. Once down a floor they will go left if possible and otherwise go right.
- Incident Spawn & Spread: Molerat incidents are unique in that they will only spawn if the room is touching a dirt area. All incidents spread over time if not addressed by your dwellers although they will not spread through dirt and if every room that the incident can spread to has had the incident it will end by itself. Because of these mechanics a number of Fallout Shelter layout ideas capitalise with designs that have separate production rooms away from non-production rooms so incidents resolve themselves or avoid Molerat encounters entirely.
Fallout Shelter Room Sizes Guide
The minimum and maximum Fallout Shelter room sizes to plan your room layout:
| Room Name | Minimum Room Size | Maximum Room Size |
|---|---|---|
 Vault Door |
6 | N/A |
 Elevator |
1 | N/A |
 Living Quarters |
3 | 9 |
 Power Generator |
3 | 9 |
 Diner |
3 | 9 |
 Water Treatment |
3 | 9 |
 Storage Room |
3 | 9 |
 Medbay |
3 | 9 |
 Science Lab |
3 | 9 |
 Overseer’s Office |
6 | N/A |
 Radio Studio |
3 | 9 |
 Weapon Workshop |
9 | N/A |
 Weight Room |
3 | 9 |
 Athletics Room |
3 | 9 |
 Armoury |
3 | 9 |
 Classroom |
3 | 9 |
 Outfit Workshop |
9 | N/A |
 Fitness Room |
3 | 9 |
 Lounge |
3 | 9 |
 Theme Workshop |
9 | N/A |
 Game Room |
3 | 9 |
 Barbershop |
6 | N/A |
 Nuclear Reactor |
3 | 9 |
 Garden |
3 | 9 |
 Water Purification |
3 | 9 |
 Nuka-Cola Bottler |
3 | 9 |
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