Background

 

Vault 3 was one of five vaults constructed by the Vault-Tec Corporation in the broader Mojave region assigned to house a civilian population, along with Vault 11, Vault 19, Vault 21, and Vault 34, as well as one of two vaults constructed in proximity to the Las Vegas Strip, along with Vault 21. Nestled amidst the blocks of South Vegas, Vault 3 was intended as one of the seventeen "control" vaults, so it was not given any parameters for the social experiments that notoriously plagued most other Vaults.[Non-game 1]

 

For decades after the Great War, all was going well in the Vault until a water leak occurred sometime in the 23rd century, forcing the residents to open the Vault for the first time to find help. After the original inhabitants of Vault 3 opened their doors, they began trading with other communities and establishing connections with the outside world. For a couple of weeks, it was peaceful and the inhabitants made a good living. However, the increased trade also brought the Vault to the attention of the drug-addicted raider tribe known as the Fiends.[1]

 

Exploiting the Vault dwellers' naivety and lack of security, the Fiends successfully conned themselves into the Vault, upon which they killed the inhabitants and claimed the Vault for themselves.[2][3]

 

Originally intended as a safe place to house his people and keep them from accidentally wandering near the settlement of Westside, partially to avoid disrupting the Great Khans' drug trafficking around there and partially to prevent more of their number being killed by the Westside Militia, especially their super mutant member Mean Sonofabitch,[4] Motor-Runner eventually capitalized on their fortune and turned the vault into an impenetrable base of operations.

With Vault 3 under their control, the Fiends have since grown steadily stronger, becoming a serious threat to the people living on the outskirts of the southwestern corner of New Vegas as well as a constant nuisance to the New California Republic Army command stationed at Camp McCarran.[5]

 

Layout

 

The location of Vault 3 can be acquired from Colonel Hsu at Camp McCarran after volunteering to clear it out for him, from Elder McNamara in the Hidden Valley bunker during Still in the Dark, from Diane at the Red Rock drug lab during Aba Daba Honeymoon, or from Private Ortega outside the east gate at the NCR sharecropper farms.

Situated within the main block of the South Vegas ruins, the Vault door, which is opened by the adjacent control panel, is connected directly to the South Vegas ruins rather than a cave system like other Vaults in the game and therefore provides no loading point for the Vault interior, thus the lack of a door opening sequence.

Inside the entrance is a Fiend guard, who will question the Courier on what they are doing there. Passing a 64 Speech skill check or wearing Great Khan armor allows the player character to navigate the Vault without being attacked. The armor can be removed after the initial dialogue with the guard. This particular guard levels with the player character, and will have a high HP at higher levels, with a maximum of 260 HP at level 30.

The walls of the Vault are covered with graffiti, presumably done by the occupying Fiends. Much of the graffiti in the Vault is the same as that which can be found on the Brotherhood's bunkers in Hidden Valley. In one of the toilets, there is graffiti on the wall of a stick man and woman. It's an enlarged version of the one in Hidden Valley. Overall, there are about five hackable terminals inside the Vault, which contain information about the Vault's history.

 

Vault 3 consists of three areas:

 

Recreation area
Vault 3 seems to have a much larger recreational area than the other Vaults. The recreation area also includes several pool tables and some minor loot. There is a locked door containing multiple Nuka-Cola bottles, one Nuka-Cola Quartz, and one Nuka-Cola Victory. Within the recreation area, there is a locked door leading to the maintenance wing.

 

Maintenance wing

The leader of the Fiends in the Vault, Motor-Runner, can be found in his throne room in the northern part of the maintenance wing along with his two guard dogs, Bone-Gnash and Ghash-Bone.

 

Living Quarters

On the main floor of the living quarters, there is a cage holding three captives, including Rick Lancer, Rachael and Dennis. The cage also holds the body of the fourth captive, Carter, who managed to escape to search the Vault for weapons before being caught and subsequently killed. Daniel, the Fiend who holds the key to the cage can be found in one of the southernmost rooms of the living quarters. Alternatively, the cage door can be picked without Karma loss, and no Fiends will become hostile regardless of detection. In addition, the captives will leave the cage and walk in the crouched "sneak" position past all of the Fiends in the Vault to the front entrance, and the Fiends seemingly pay them no mind.

 

Two of the rooms in the living quarters each have a deceased Fiend on a bed, surrounded by empty syringes, Jet and Psycho. Around the southern part of the living quarters is a bedroom containing a terminal with an administrator "Billy boy" and a function called "Compose Automated Blast Message." However, this does nothing, stating that the system is offline. Some of the Vault is flooded, and the flooded areas are long and difficult to swim through with enough time to return for air before taking drowning damage. In addition, the water is irradiated at 1 rad/sec. The rebreather or Turbo will aid in searching these areas.

 

 

Photograph Date: May 2098

Model: Rebecca Hamm

Vault Suit 03

 

 

Photograph Date: May 2098

Model: Rebecca Hamm, Vault Suit 03

 

 

Photograph Date: May 2098,

Location: Overseer's Office Vault 114

Model: Rebecca Hamm

 

 

Photograph Date: May 2098

Location: Exterior Vault Entrance, Vault No. Unknown

Model: Rebecca Hamm

 

Rebecca Hamm stated herself that she was born and raised inside Vault 03,  She gave its accurate location inside the Mojave Wastes in the City of Henderson, a City once located on the outskirts of what was once Las Vegas.  On record to her new employers, the Responders, she was 1 of 12 known survivors that managed to escape the massacre of Vault 03 via a concealed back entrance.  Although she could not give the precise location to that back entrance, she has available knowledge of  the faculties operations and the identity of its final Overseer, a woman named Maxine Caswell.