Building your bunker just the way you want doesn’t involve only deciding the layout of your Fallout Shelter—you can also decide the aesthetic of some of your rooms. It might take time, but you can craft “Themes” to apply to your diners and living rooms to make them more interesting.
Themes are a way for you to of show allegiance to one or more of the factions of the Fallout franchise or just to create a visual separation of your vault by using different themes as you expand your bunker.
How to get Themes in Fallout Shelter
To get Themes in Fallout Shelter, you need to go through two steps: find all nine Theme recipe fragments and craft the Theme in the Theme Workshop. Each Theme is divided into nine Theme recipe fragments that can be found in the Wasteland while completing quests from the Overseer’s Office and later crafted in the Theme Workshop.
So to get started, you have to build the Overseer’s Office to unlock quests, and for that you need to have at least 18 dwellers in your Vault and spend 1,000 Caps to build it. You’ll have to complete multi-stage quests such as Climbing the Ranks, Almost Human, and Food Glowrious Food to collect the theme recipe fragments.
As you collect the fragments, you’ll have time to build the Theme Workshop as you’ll need to have 42 dwellers in your shelter and spend 3,200 Caps. Once you have nine Theme fragments, you can build in the in the Theme Workshop.
How to use Themes in Fallout Shelter
The diner and living quarters must be three-rooms wide and fully upgraded for you to be able to use Themes. Once you upgrade the room you wish to use the Theme, click on the room and then in the brush icon to open the theme menu for that room.
If you have more than one Theme and wish to change it, you can freely do so, you just have to select the Theme you want and it will be applied. Themes don’t bring any benefit such as buffs or upgrades to the diner or living quarters, however, they are purely cosmetic.
You don’t need to build a Theme per room, once you built the Brotherhood of Steel living quarters, for example, you can apply it to more than one barrack. After you crafted all the Themes, the Theme Workshop won’t have any purpose, so you can destroy to build other room in it’s place.
All Theme recipes in Fallout Shelter
There are six Themes you can find or make in Fallout Shelter based on the factions of the franchise: Party (not a faction), Minutemen, Railroad, Institute, Brotherhood of Steel, and Vault 33 (based on the Fallout TV show). Each Theme has the diner and the living quarter version. Here are all the Theme recipes in Fallout Shelter:
| Theme | Ability required | Junk required | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brotherhood of Steel diner | Strength | – Six Baseball Glove – Six Alarm Clock – Six Toy Car – Five Shovel – Four Teddy Bear | 9,000 caps |
| Brotherhood of Steel living quarters | Strength | – Five Baseball Glove – Five Alarm Clock – Four Toy Car – Four Shovel – Three Teddy Bear | 7,000 caps |
| Institute diner | Intelligence | – Six Desk Fan – Five Duct Tape – Five Yarn – Four Camera – Four Microscope | 8,000 caps |
| Institute living quarters | Intelligence | – Eight Desk Fan – Seven Duct Tape – Seven Yarn – Five Camera – Six Microscope | 11,000 caps |
| Minutemen diner | Agility | – Two Toy Car – One Duck Tape – One Yarn – One Brahmin Hide – One Shovel | 2,000 caps |
| Minutemen living quarters | Agility | – Three Toy Car – Two Duck Tape – Three Yarn – Two Brahmin Hide – Two Shovel | 4,000 caps |
| Railroad diner | Endurance | – Four Baseball Glove – Three Globe – Four Desk Fan – Four Magnifying Glass – Three Wonder Glue | 6,000 caps |
| Railroad living quarters | Endurance | – Two Baseball Glove – Two Globe – Two Desk Fan – Two Magnifying Glass – One Wonder Glue | 3,000 caps |
| Party diner | Agility | – Two Toy Car – One Brahmin Hide – One Duct Tape – One Shovel – One Yarn | 1,660 caps |
| Party living quarters | Agility | – Three Toy Car – Three Brahmin Hide – Two Duct Tape – One Shovel – One Yarn | 3,320 caps |
| Vault 33 diner | Agility | – Two Toy Car – One Yarn – One Brahmin Hide – One Duck Tape – One Shovel | 2,000 caps |
| Vault 33 living quarters | Agility | – Three Toy Car – Three Yarn – Two Brahmin Hide – Two Duck Tape – Two Shovel | 3,000 caps |
