Each character's SPECIAL profile affects their ability to generate different resources, and their statistics can be increased by training them in rooms devoted to each stat. They rescue dwellers from the wasteland and assign them to different resource-generating buildings in the Vault, using the SPECIAL statistics system from the other Fallout games.

Players guide and direct the citizens of the Vault, known as dwellers, and need to keep them happy through meeting their needs such as power, food, and water. In Fallout Shelter, players build and manage their own Vault as an Overseer – the leader and coordinator of their Vault. A notification appears when a room produces resources. Vault resources are shown along the top of the screen.

The original Fallout Shelter is a single-player experience, but a multiplayer board game adaptation of the game was released in late 2020.

The game grossed US$5.1 million (equivalent to about $6.3M in 2022) in microtransaction sales in the first two weeks after its release. Common criticisms included the game's lack of depth, its use of unnecessary microtransactions, and its lack of an ending. Critics enjoyed the game's extension of the Fallout universe, the core gameplay, and its visual style. Upon release, Fallout Shelter received mostly positive reviews. The game tasks the player with building and effectively managing their own Vault, a fallout shelter. The game is also available on Tesla vehicles. Part of the Fallout series, it was released worldwide for iOS devices in June 2015, for Android devices in August 2015, for Windows in July 2016, for Xbox One in February 2017, and for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in June 2018.

Construction and management simulation, survivalįallout Shelter is a free-to-play construction and management simulation video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, with assistance by Behaviour Interactive, and published by Bethesda Softworks.

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