There will come a time when you’ll stop receiving new Dwellers in the form of Wasteland refugees. The need for new Dwellers is an issue since you must increase your population to unlock new rooms and progress the game. Luckily, there are four ways you should learn on how to get more Dwellers in Fallout Shelter, and we will explain each method in greater detail below, so you’ll have more Dwellers in your Vault than you can sustain.
How to Get More Vault Dwellers in Fallout Shelter
You have four options when it comes to getting more Dwellers in Fallout Shelter:
- Recruit them using the Radio Station.
- Birth them inside your Vault.
- Get them by opening Lunchboxes.
- Find them when completing Quests.
We’ll cover all options below so you know exactly what tools are at your disposal as the Overseer of your Vault.
How to Recruit More Dwellers in Fallout Shelter
You can build a Radio Station in your Vault for 600 caps after achieving a base population of 20 Dwellers. You will want to assign Dwellers with a high Charisma stat to recruit new Dwellers from the Wasteland and to improve the happiness of your existing residents. Depending on the Charisma level of your assigned Dwellers and how upgraded your Radio Station is, you will get a new Dweller every 6 to 12 hours.
Remember that you can turn off the radio station’s recruiting function if you are overwhelmed with too many Dwellers and don’t want to recruit anymore. Finally, you can never recruit a Legendary Dweller with the radio station, but you can recruit Rare and Common varieties.
How to Breed More Dwellers in Fallout Shelter
For your Dwellers to hook up and become pregnant, you must assign a female and male Dweller to the Living Quarters. The primary stat for the Living Quarters is Charisma, but Dwellers with little of this stat will still take a roll in the hay, so don’t worry if you still need to get specialized Dwellers. Once a Dweller becomes pregnant, it will take three hours for them to give birth. You can still assign pregnant Dwellers to work during this time.
After a baby Dweller is born, you’ll need to wait another three hours for the kid to grow into a fully functional adult you can assign to work. Once you have more Dwellers of better rarities and stats, you can learn how to breed Legendary Dwellers.
How to Get Lunchboxes in Fallout Shelter
Lunchboxes contain five cards that unlock various content for your Vault. The fifth card offers the chance to unlock new Dwellers of Rare and Legendary varieties, including named Legendary Dwellers.
Here are your chances of unlocking a Rare or Legendary Dweller in a lunchbox:
- Rare Dweller: 21.2%
- Legendary Dweller: 3.8%
You can earn more Lunchboxes in Fallout Shelter in six different ways.
- Purchase them from the in-game store.
- Complete quests given by the Overseer’s Office.
- Finish objectives found in the Objectives Menu.
- Receive a 100% happiness rating on the weekly report.
- Loot from dead bodies during Wasteland Encounters.
- The seventh day on the daily report will always be a Lunchbox.
What Quests Give Dwellers in Fallout Shelter?
Three quests will let you recruit a Dweller. However, you need to build an Overseer’s Office before these quests appear, and there is no rhyme or reason for when they will appear in your quest list.
These quests give Dwellers in Fallout Shelter:
- A Cry for Help
- Hop on the Roach Coach
- The Scenic Route
In addition, the best way I’ve found to find recruitable Dwellers while completing quests is by sending Dwellers from my Vault with a high perception stat. The higher the perception stat, the more chance you will get a random encounter with an opportunity to recruit a new Dweller to your Vault. I found a good portion of my Vault Dwellers in this way, and it is a quick way to unlock additional rooms until finding better Dwellers to replace them.
For those seeking a more exclusive addition to their Vault, three non-repeatable quests bring Legendary Dwellers. These unique recruits can only be obtained through these quests, adding a sense of prestige to your Vault. Just like above, you need an Overseer’s office for these quests to appear:
- A Settler Needs Your Help: You will be rewarded with Preston Garvey for finishing this quest line.
- Climbing the Ranks: You will be rewarded with Sarah Lyons for finishing the “In Shining Armor” sub-quest in this quest chain.
- Horsemen of the Post-Apocalypse Part 3: You will be rewarded for finishing the “Run, Three Dog, Run!” sub-quest in this quest chain.
Now that you know how to get more Dwellers in Fallout Shelter, you’ll be populating your Vault with only the best residents and will be unable to unlock all the rooms in no time! Check out our Fallout Shelter hub for more guides, like how to get Lucy, The Ghoul, and Ma June as Vault Dwellers.
