Summary
- Iconic Fallout locations, like Junktown or Vault 101, symbolize humanity's endurance in post-apocalyptic worlds.
- Landmarks like Rivet City and Nuka-World showcase civilizations rising from the ashes with science and perseverance.
- Memorable settlements like Megaton or Diamond City challenge players to make decisions shaping the fate of the wasteland.
The wastelands of the Fallout universe are dotted with the surviving remnants of a world before and after a nuclear war. Some of these remnants act as landmarks and safe havens for survivors of the apocalypse. Aside from being environmental buildings or backdrops, these places are also central to the choices that define the player’s journey.
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These iconic locations have become synonymous with the Fallout franchise’s bleak yet optimistic identity. From the first Fallout to the new Fallout TV Series, some of these places stand as symbols of civilization’s stubborn endurance, while others represent the strangeness of humanity left behind in the post-apocalypse.
10 Junktown
The Classic Small Trader Town
- From: Fallout
Junktown is a memorable location from the original Fallout, notable for being made up of random pieces of junk and living off of trading with a reputation for open hospitality. This settlement is filled with law-abiding citizens, all watched over by the town’s sheriff, Killian Darkwater. Aside from the classic post-apocalyptic aesthetic, Junktown is also known for the weight of decisions players face within its walls.
Junktown houses Gizmo’s Casino, a seedy establishment that serves as the headquarters for Gizmo’s criminal operations. Killian Darkwater is in the midst of a battle against Gizmo’s corruption, and the player can choose a clear-cut good or evil ending to this story. Junktown also happens to be the place where Dogmeat first shows up.
9 Rivet City
The Decaying Aircraft City
- From: Fallout 3
Rivet City is an unforgettable landmark in the Capital Wasteland, a decaying aircraft carrier housing a city of scientists and hydroponic gardens. This city is fortified by an efficiently organized society, complete with housing and markets, a research lab, and security detail.
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Rivet City represents humanity’s reclaimed image of scientific progress, and is responsible for supplying edible, non-irradiated food, and acting as a major trade hub for raw materials. It’s upheld by a military-grade force, and governed by a three-person council made up of representatives from each group on board the ship. Rivet City also houses a few major characters in Fallout 3’s storyline, pertaining to the messy affairs surrounding Project Purity and the Enclave.
8 Nuka-World
Post-Apocalyptic Amusement Park
- From: Fallout 4, Fallout 76
Nuka-World is home to the popular Nuka-Cola drink found in and referenced across the Fallout universe. Created by John-Caleb Bradberton, Nuka-World began as an amusement park but, with military influences, also became automated with military-grade robotics. After Bradberton’s success with Nuka-Cola, he became obsessed with immortality and joined the LEAP-X team, which promised prolonged life.
After the Great War broke out, Bradberton failed to protect Nuka-World and ended up as a head in a jar in a secret vault underneath his office, trapped in isolation for over 200 years. While he was trapped in his office, Nuka-World was repopulated by feral amusement park employees and a powerful group of raiders.
7 Vault 101
Home Of The Lone Wanderer
- From: Fallout 3
Vault 101 is a Vault-Tec Vault in Washington, D.C., the starting area in Fallout 3 known for its vibrant community and twisted history. Just after the Great War, the first Vault 101 overseer prevented anyone from leaving the Vault, and every overseer since then maintained the illusion of the outside world being entirely uninhabitable.
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When players enter the scene in Fallout 3, they experience life growing up inside the Vault, with events like a birthday or dealing with a gang formed among other kids calling themselves the Tunnel Snakes. The story of Vault 101 unravels when the player character’s father escapes into the Wasteland during a radroach infestation, and the true nature of the Vault is revealed—Vault 101 was a study in isolation, which is what the role of an overseer is in a Vault never opens.
6 Shady Sands
The Surviving Settlement
- From: Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout TV Series
Shady Sands was first seen in Fallout and Fallout 2 and referred to as the New California Republic, one of the first and largest cities to emerge from scratch without using any pre-War ruins as a foundation. Shady Sands is also a vital plot element in the Fallout TV series, a place that was oppressed by a Vault-Tec executive.
Shady Sands was jump-started by using Vault 15’s G.E.C.K., a terraforming device that contained seed and soil supplements, a cold-fusion power generator, matter-energy replicators, chemical stabilizers, and water purifiers. The veneer of Shady Sands as an oasis would be eradicated when outside forces decided to impede on its success, making it both an optimistic and tragic story of surviving the irradiated wasteland.
5 Novac
A Resettled Novel Motel
- From: Fallout: New Vegas
Novac is a notable stop along the old Highway 95, notable for its landmark Dinky the T-Rex statue and Dino Dee-lite Motel, which serves as a commercial pit stop both before and after the nuclear apocalypse. Novac gets its name from the ancient “No Vacancy” sign, with only the letters of the town's new name continuing to glow in neon.
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Two veteran sharpshooters, Craig Boone and Manny Vargas, work shifts day and night, watching the wasteland from the Dinky the T-Rex statue’s mouth, and offer memorable dialogue and sidequests to explore in Fallout: New Vegas. Novac is a safe and grounded place to be, with all of its inhabitants being survivors seeking shelter or travelers seeking a relatively nice place to stay.
4 Sanctuary Hills
The Sole Survivor's Suburban Neighborhood
- From: Fallout 4
Players are introduced to Fallout 4 through Sanctuary Hills in the pre-war era, a picture-perfect suburban neighborhood with tidy lawns and pastel houses. After the Sole Survivor emerges from Vault 111, they find Sanctuary Hills in ruins. In this post-apocalyptic Sanctuary Hills, players find a chance to transform the neighborhood into a personalized home.
After completing the quest "When Freedom Calls," players can use a Settlement Workshop to build a settlement on top of Sanctuary Hills, now shortened to Sanctuary. As the site of the Sole Survivor's tragedy, Sanctuary becomes a chance for renewal and a sense of normalcy, making it an iconic location for being the first settlement players can build in Fallout 4.
3 New Vegas Strip
A Small Piece Of Pre-War Splendor
- From: Fallout: New Vegas
The Strip in New Vegas is a championed piece of pre-War splendor, nearly as structurally sound as it was in its heyday. The Strip was a piece of Las Vegas founded before the Great War, and protected by wealthy businessman Robert House. House ensured the incoming missiles would not strike the city through a combination of clever planning and vast wealth, thus creating a somewhat technologically advanced place amidst the post-apocalypse.
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Robert House gave up his physical body to a life-support device in favor of wiring his brain directly into a vast information network via supercomputer, giving him the ability to transcend time and operate the Strip remotely. The New Vegas Strip in Fallout: New Vegas is highly memorable for its twisted history and decadent appearances.
2 Megaton
Home Of An Undetonated Atomic Bomb
- From: Fallout 3
Megaton is one of the first shantytowns the Lone Wanderer can run into in Fallout 3, as it’s just southeast of Vault 101. The first thing players notice when wandering into this fortified settlement is the undetonated Megaton-class atomic bomb at its center, after which the town is named. Megaton is assembled from scraps of old pre-War airplanes, and is home to several people, including some Children of the Atom.
One of the biggest reasons why this place is so memorable is because of the quest “The Power of the Atom,” where the Lone Wanderer is given the choice of disarming or detonating the atomic bomb at the center of town. The strangeness of an undetonated bomb with survivors of the apocalypse living around it, and the ability to influence the fate of the town, is peak Fallout.
1 Diamond City
The Great Green Jewel
- From: Fallout 4
Diamond City is a fortified settlement in Fallout 4, a pre-War baseball stadium turned into a sprawling city known as the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth. At the heart of Boston, Diamond City is upheld by survivors, with its own police force, public school, agriculture and industry, and economic influence across the region.
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The Diamond City Radio station can be heard across the Commonwealth, a symbol of its prosperity despite still being a shantytown contained within a dilapidated stadium. Most of the game’s important characters live or wander through here at some point, including Piper Wright, the city’s activist newsperson, and Nick Valentine, the synth detective.
- Video Game(s)
- Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout Shelter, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
- Creation Year
- 1997
- Developer(s)
- Interplay, Black Isle Studios, Bethesda, Obsidian Entertainment, Micro Forté
- Publisher(s)
- Interplay, Bethesda Softworks