Fallout 4’s Vault-Tec Workshop Swiftly Sets You Up In Vault 88

There are two kinds of Fallout 4 DLC. The first are actual story-based add-ons that give us something to do as we explore the Commonwealth. The others are Workshop packs that expand the usefulness of settlements and allow us to improve our homesteads. While we wait for Nuka-World to take us to a whole new place, we get one final Vault-Tec Workshop pack. While this second-to-last DLC does give us nine new quests, it’s primarily about helping us craft an entirely new settlement. Fortunately, it’s a relatively quick, painless, and easy affair that gives you fast access to a new home.

You first come across Fallout 4’s Vault-Tec Workshop by reaching level 20. Once you do, you’ll be able to hear a broadcast from Vault 88 stating there’s some sort of emergency and asking you to come to the Quincy Quarries location. Since the vault was incomplete when the bombs fell, everyone inside of it turned into ghouls. Overseer Valery Barstow is still there, however, and wants you to help get Vault 88 up and running. Which also means conducting experiments on the settlers you can attract to it.

Think of Fallout 4’s Vault-Tec Workshop as an opportunity to enjoy some The Sims-style activities within the game. You have the freedom to do as Overseer Barstow asks or attempt to make the Vault 88 residents happy. It’s an interesting dynamic. After everything’s cleared out, using the Workshop, you’ll get the opportunity to put a settler named Clem through his paces. Fortunately, none of the building demands are too difficult for these experiment quests.

Each one of the five Fallout 4 Vault-Tec experiment quests requires a Terminal. It’s fairly easy to build, as you don’t need any particular perks to create it. All you have to do is get two pieces of rubber, two pieces of copper, two pieces of circuitry, and four pieces of aluminum. It also requires one bolt of electricity to run. By this point, it shouldn’t be too difficult to accumulate all of these items, but you can always put the Terminal away after each experiment and use it for the subsequent ones if you are running short.

The other experiment items aren’t too taxing either. The Power Cycle 1000 Prototype, for the first experiment, needs 4 steel, three screws, 2 rubber, and 2 copper, as well as two bolts of electricity. It also requires one person to use it. The second experiment’s Soda Fountain Prototype only needs 6 steel, 3 glass and 2 bolts of electricity. The Phoropter Prototype, used for the third experiment, is one of the most difficult pieces to build due to the 4 steel, 25 nuclear material, 3 glass, 2 aluminum, and 3 electricity bolts it needs to be used. Finally, the Slot Machine Prototype requires 4 steel, 2 circuitry, 2 gears, 2 screws, and 2 plastic. It’s nice to know you aren’t going in and finding out your current character build is going to keep you from doing incredible things, like Automatron did with its dependence on the Robotics Expert perk.

It’s refreshing, in a way. While the Fallout 4 Vault-Tec Workshop is brief, but it gives you what you want, when you want it, without having to worry about getting yourself in a good place to do it. Instead, you can hop right in and start enjoying and creating, once the incredibly brief experiment quests are done. Of the three Workshop add-ons so far, it may be the most practical for that very reason. It has quests that introduce you to the new location and some additional items, then lets you swiftly get to customizing your new home.

Fallout 4 and its Vault-Tec Workshop DLC are immediately available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.