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Everything we know about Fallout Shelter Online

Find out about this sequel of sorts in our Fallout Shelter Online guide

We here at Pocket Tactics love Fallout Shelter. Though its monetisation did make it a little bit of a grind at first, it was a fun way for Fallout fans to get a daily dose of Vault-Tec goodness. Fallout Shelter also improved as time went on, with new inclusions like questing, special characters, and all sorts of gear to kit out your dwellers.

So when we heard about Fallout Shelter Online, we were pretty stoked – a sequel-of-sorts adding PvP, and more questing and combat mechanics. What’s not to love? That’s why we decided to create a Fallout Shelter Online guide, bringing together everything we know about the post-apocalyptic game.

Fallout Shelter Online has currently launched in certain parts of Asia, but we still have no clue as to when it might make an appearance in the west. So we figured it was about time to round up all of the information on offer about this new Fallout game. We want to make sure that you’re equipped and ready to head out into the wasteland when the time comes, so here’s our guide to everything we know about Fallout Shelter Online.

everything we know about fallout shelter online:

fallout shelter online vault: WILL THERE BE VAULT building?

When we heard about Fallout Shelter online, we were immediately curious as to whether the game has vault management. Here’s everything we know:

  • Just as in Fallout Shelter, you manage a vault
  • Rooms produce resources required to upgrade vault dwellers, characters, and gear
  • There is a new room called the Recycling Centre, which produces bottlecaps
  • As opposed to Fallout Shelter’s two dwellers per one block, now only one dweller can work in a one block room
  • Dwellers have passive perks which make them more effective in certain rooms
  • You can only rush each room three times a day
  • You can upgrade rooms, but in general you are going to be dealing with larger amounts of currency

fallout shelter online vs. fallout shelter: what’s the difference?

Fallout Shelter Online is a sequel-of-sorts, but it changes a lot of things in comparison to the original game. Here are some of the changes:

  • Whereas location was somewhat in question for the original, Fallout Shelter Online absolutely takes place in the Commonwealth, with heroes from Fallout 4, and recognisable locations making an appearance
  • Fallout Shelter Online is more of a gacha, with a greater focus on combat
  • There’s PvP in Fallout Shelter Online
  • Vault dwellers and characters are far more fleshed out, with bonds, perks, traits, and special abilities

fallout shelter online characters: how do they work?

With Fallout Shelter Online comes new character mechanics which make the game far more of a gacha than the original. This is how they work:

  • In Fallout Shelter Online you can collect powerful characters from across the Fallout universe, adding them to your team, or having them work in your vault
  • You can get character cards during quests, but the main way you get them is by collecting posters
  • Posters are essentially character fragments, which allow you to unlock new characters, or upgrade your favourite ones
  • You can collect posters in a variety of ways, or buy them for Nuka Cola Quantum in the game store
  • Resources are used to upgrade aspects of your characters, with food used to upgrade levels in the training room, caps to upgrade gear, and water for passive abilities
  • Some of these heroes include characters like synth detective Nick Valentine, Preston Garvey, and Elder Maxson
  • Every character in the game has bonds, traits, a perk, a special ability, and general stats on top of that
  • Traits basically describe the character’s innate strengths and weaknesses
  • Perks reflect what rooms the character works most efficiently in
  • Special abilities are used in combat

There are plenty more worlds and characters to explore in our list of the best mobile MMORPGs

fallout shelter online bonds: how do bonds work?

One of the newest mechanics is bonds, which changes how you build a party in the game. Each character has an innate bond, and by adding more characters to the party with that bond, you gain a variety of buffs. Here are the requirements for each greater bond buff:

  • Two people in the party share a bond
  • Five people in the party share a bond
  • Five people in the party share a bond and have three stars

The effects that each bond confers are different, but these are the consistent requirements.

fallout shelter online pvp: HOW DOES PVP work?

One of the biggest changes coming in Fallout Shelter Online is the improvements to the combat system, and the inclusion of PvP. Here’s how that’s going to work:

  • Just like the original, Fallout Shelter Online is an auto battler, where combat takes place almost entirely for you
  • The key difference with Fallout Shelter Online is that you have AP, which builds during combat, allowing your characters to unleash special abilities
  • These special abilities can be activated manually in regular combat, so timing is tactical, and can do anything from healing your party, to stunning a boss
  • Special abilities automatically activate in PvP, meaning that it is essentially a wholly auto battle mode, where what you bring to the fight is most important
  • In PvP, your reward is based upon your rank
  • There are five members in a battle party

Want some more multiplayer games? Check out our list of the best mobile multiplayer games

fallout shelter online guilds: HOW DO GUILDS WORK?

The online aspect of the new game is also present in some of the new additions. Guilds are basically online groups that you can join. Here’s some info:

  • Guilds are groups that you can create yourself, or join alongside other players
  • These groups give you bonuses for completing certain tasks
  • The tasks can range from defeating bosses, to completing side quests
  • Guilds also offer a shop with special deals

fallout shelter online quests: how do quests work?

While playing Fallout Shelter Online you might find yourself undertaking quests into the wasteland, and these grant you with plenty of rewards. Here’s how they work:

  • Just like the levels you navigated in the first game, Fallout Shelter Online now has bigger dungeons with greater difficulty
  • Nest Dungeons in particular are tough, and there are a variety of ways to approach their difficulty
  • There are also regular quests and a daily resource raid, all of which can get you character cards, gear, resources, and a variety of other loot
  • The game also has a main story, following the vault’s previous overseer, who vanished under mysterious circumstances
  • While questing, you need to use rad-x to survive the conditions of the wasteland
  • There are four difficulties – easy, medium, hard, and master

fallout shelter online free-to-play: is the game free?

Though the game is free-to-play, it’s safe to say that Fallout Shelter Online seems to be more heavily monetised than the previous game, with a real trunk-load of currencies:

  • The central currency is Nuka Cola Quantum, which you can use to buy posters, pre-war money – used to buy more dwellers – and is also used to speed up actions in-game, as it was with the first
  • Posters are what you require to unlock characters, and their cost increases with tier, SSR being the top
  • Rad-X feels like an unfortunate addition, and effectively means you can only spend limited time out in the wasteland pursuing quests – it does regenerate, but whether this inclusion stays in-game we think is questionable

fallout shelter online release date: when is it coming out?

Fallout Shelter Online’s release date currently isn’t clear. While it has released in certain regions of Asia, it hasn’t yet come to the West. A representative from ZeniMax Asia, Bethesda’s parent company, was quoted saying: “Right now we don’t have any news in terms of this game’s release in the West.”

That said, it would be strange if Bethesda passed up the opportunity to push the game in the west, considering how successful the first was, so fingers crossed we get it eventually. We’ll be sure to update this guide when we do.

That’s all we know! Be sure to keep an eye on our news to hear when it’s coming, and on Fallout Shelter Online’s Google Play and App Store pages. If you need something to play in the meantime, be sure to see our lists of the best mobile strategy games, and the best mobile RPGs.