I hate to say it, but if you want to keep your first Vault from dying, you'll probably need to buy $5 worth of lunch-boxes just to keep you safe during your learning curve. The couple dwellers you get from those lunchboxes should act as sufficient guards while you get everything else squared away.
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| Get a couple of these cards in your lunchboxes and you'll be set for a while. |
First thing's first, you're going to need Power. Power will run your Food & Water production buildings, so consider Power your top priority (under dwellers of course). The "Strength" SPECIAL stat will help your dwellers produce Power, so choose your dwellers with the highest strength to work in your first Power Generator.
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| Level 1 Power Generator |
Food buildings work best with high Agility dwellers, and Water purification buildings work best with high Perception dwellers. (They produce resources faster)
If you notice that your resource bars are constantly full, or near full, build extra production rooms even if you don't have dwellers to put in them; you can use them just for resource storage at first. There's no sense in making power if you can't store it, right? Apply this same tactic for Food & Water production.
If your power dips below the line, buildings farthest from the power room will start to shut off first, possibly causing a chain reaction that could wipe out your vault. ALWAYS keep your power well above the line.
If your food dwindles below acceptable levels, your dwellers will slowly start to lose HP and die. Whatever you do, don't let your water dwindle, because your dwellers will lose health AND succumb to radiation poisoning, which really is a pain in the bum.
You will soon start to notice your need for Dwellers increasing, at which point you will want to provide "accommodations" for your Dwellers to "procreate". Dwellers with high Charisma will "procreate" the fastest when assigned to the Living Quarters.
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| To rename your Dweller's, simply click on them, then click their name. |
Your vault should be stabilizing if you've taken care of the things above. Use this time to send some dwellers into the Wasteland to collect armor, weapons, and caps. Try to send each Dweller out with as many StimPaks as possible so they can survive for longer periods, and whatever you do, don't leave them out overnight until they're level 50, the resurrection bill can get quite costly.