Section 23: Experimental Vaults - therabidsquirel/The-Fallout-Shelter-FAQ GitHub Wiki
23.1
Q: What are experimental vaults?
A: Experimental vaults were introduced with the 2.0 update, exclusive to Steam, Android, and iOS. You access them through the "Experimental Vaults" button on the main menu. The vaults are limited-time, each season usually lasting 40 days. Each season usually introduces a small amount of new weapons, outfits, legendary dwellers, and quests, and maybe a minor mechanic exclusive to the experimental vault. Each season also comes with a paid battle pass-type system, more on that in 23.2. Once the season ends, the experimental vault is deleted and any Quantums you had saved in it can be given to one of your main 3 vaults, more on that in 23.4.
23.2
Q: What's this paid battle pass about?
A: Each season comes with it, and it has three tiers. There's a free tier, a season pass tier which costs $9.99 USD, and a premium pass tier which costs $19.99 USD. Price may vary by region, and exact currency conversions may not be accurate.
Regardless of the tier you're on, the pass has 20 ranks (and 5 bonus ranks that are just lunchboxes). You have to rank up the pass by completing challenges (earning badges) in the experimental vault, or by spending Quantums in any vault. There will be enough challenges to fully rank up the pass to 20 without having to spend Quantums. Rewards earned through ranking up the pass can be redeemed once per vault, with no limit on the number of vaults to redeem them in. More clarification in 23.3. Here's what you get:
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Free Tier: Of the two rows in the pass, you get the rewards from the bottom row (ranks 1-20). This can be things like lunchboxes, pet carriers, and Mr. Handy, but usually doesn't include any of the new content.
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Season Pass: Of the two rows in the pass, you get the rewards from both rows (ranks 1-25). This includes most of the new content and the 5 bonus ranks that are just lunchboxes.
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Premium Pass: Same as the season pass, with the addition of some extra exclusive items, usually a legendary dweller or two. You also get bonus weapons, outfits, and pets, what these are will vary by season. Finally, you get 25 badges to help rank up the pass.
23.3
Q: So I can rank up the pass and redeem the rewards in any vault?
A: Progress on the pass is global and shared between all of your vaults. While challenges to rank up the pass will only be in the experimental vault, any vault can spend Quantums to rank up the pass. The rewards are also redeemable in every vault. Any given vault can only receive each reward once, but there is no limit to the number of vaults you can redeem in. You can for example redeem the rewards in all 3 regular vaults, delete them, make new vaults, and redeem the rewards in those as well.
23.4
Q: What happens when the season ends?
A: When it ends, the experimental vault gets deleted. If you have access to your game files, the vault is the file Vault4.sav, so if you want to save it you can rename it to 1, 2, or 3 so it uses a regular vault slot.
At season end you can collect any unredeemed pass rewards in your regular vaults, and you have the option to select just one of your regular vaults to receive all the Quantums that had been saved up in the experimental vault. Nothing else transfers over. Once you've ranked up the pass to max, there is no longer much reason to play the experimental vault for the remainder of the season if all you care about are rewards for your main vaults. You will not be able to go back and finish ranking up the pass if you didn't finish it.
23.5
Q: How many seasons have there been so far? How many will there be? When will the next one be?
A: The first season was in update 2.0, and the minor version increases with each new season. As of the time of writing this, the game is just coming into the 5th season, so update 2.4. We do not know when they will stop making seasons. So far they've all come one after the other. There is usually a waiting period of a few days between each season, so if you don't see the new one yet, just be patient.
23.6
Q: With all of these items exclusive to the battle passes, am I unable to complete the VDSG in my main vaults if I missed something from a season?
A: For most things yes, dwellers it seems you'll be out of luck on.
When starting a new game, the VDSG hides some weapons and outfits from the total and in the actual spaces, likely because some items are difficult to get. Prior to the 2.0 update, the weapon, outfit, and dweller totals in a new game were 238/147/39 respectively. The actual totals were 239/160/39. Checking in version 2.4, it seems the totals in a fresh game are 238/148/58. Given multiple weapons and outfits have been added, it looks like it's not including any of the season-exclusive weapons/outfits until you find them (I'm not sure what the one extra included outfit is). Dwellers on the other hand are all included, so it looks like if you missed any you'll never be able to complete the dweller collection. There's rumors of being able to find the exclusive dwellers in lunchboxes after the season ends, but I haven't seen proof of that yet.
23.7
Q: Will you include what specific things were introduced with each season?
A: I'm very unlikely to. While I try to keep this FAQ updated, I don't play anymore, and I don't feel like constantly staying on top of all the specific additions. I did my best to keep this whole section general enough to apply to all the seasons. If someone knows of a resource that does keep up to date, I would be happy to link it here.