Every game franchise that's been around as long as Fallout will have a few "loose ends" when it comes to lore. Though many anomalies such as the ghoul kid in the fridge or actual-psychic Mama Murphy raise eyebrows, they don't have much to do with the timeline of events in the game universe.
Questions that plague Fallout lore fanatics and the timeline relate to things like Liberty Prime or how long nuclear radiation fallout sticks around. From the creation of Deathclaws to who created RadAway and why it is everywhere, some parts of the Fallout timeline just don't make sense.
Updated June 9, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: Fallout boasts some of the most expansive lore and worldbuilding ever featured in a video game. The series is known for its captivating setting that allows players to visit an alternate version of America's history in which the bombs fell and changed the face of the world as everyone knew it. However, several things about this alternate timeline don't hold up when scrutinized extensively, with the most egregious offenders of the bunch being mentioned below.
15 Why Has The Vegetation Not Grown Back Yet?
Chernobyl is one of the more notable cases of an area that was affected by radiation to a massive extent. While the scale of this incident would pale in comparison to an actual nuclear bomb, this comparison is still fair to make one argument.
Throughout the Fallout games, vegetation is pretty sparse and ranchers who grow food have the potential to become multi-millionaires... or whatever the term for a person with a lot of caps is. However, the affected area of Chernobyl has grown vegetation in spades, and this just took a quarter of the 200 years that the Fallout universe has spent suffering the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse.
14 Where Is All The Ammo Coming From?
The aftermath of the nuclear apocalypse has seen a massive decrease in faculties, forcing people to live off the land and rely more on makeshift solutions as opposed to pre-war amenities. However, it seems ammunition is one thing that was either completely untouched or developed in spades during these years.
The series' main characters can find a ton of ammunition just scattered about their respective worlds. At a time when people don't even bother to perform regular upkeep even two centuries after the nuclear apocalypse, just whoexactly is funding the creation of so much ammunition that is strewn all over post-apocalyptic America?
13 Why Are The Fusion Cores So Inefficient?
The application of Fusion Cores has been pretty inconsistent across the Fallout universe. These powerful energy sources have let high-tech machinery function for years.
However, when placed in a suit of Power Armor, these Fusion Cores deplete in a comically short amount of time. Sure, this might be for the purpose of adding restrictions on using these powerful suits of armor, but feels pretty forced given the power that has been exhibited in these Fusion Cores.
12 How Have The Roads Not Completely Eroded Over Time?
Roads need regular maintenance to remain functional, otherwise they are bound to get damaged and erode over time. However, in the event of a nuclear apocalypse that ends regular life on Earth, it's only a matter of time before these roads become damaged beyond all hope.
So it's surprising that the roads in the Fallout universe haven't just completely disappeared, but some of them still look good enough to be driven upon! It's a small complaint, but there's no denying that the lack of proper vehicles would imply that most of these modern roads are completely useless.
11 How Have The Light Bulbs In The World Not Completely Burnt Out?
This can seem like a rather forced complaint, and understandably so. After all, people haven't reverted to the dark age in Fallout, and it's obvious that the simple act of making and maintaining light bulbs is not completely out of left field at all.
However, there are several abandoned places since the bombs dropped that still have perfectly-functioning lights. How is this possible, since a light bulb's filament would obviously die out in a few years... especially if they're left on during that time?
10 Why Did No One Pursue Alternative Fuel Sources?
Fallout fans will recall what led to the creation of the nuclear wasteland: the Resource Wars over oil and uranium. Many skirmishes were fought over the last scraps of land said to have the black gold specifically. But the signs of scarcity were obvious long before the first conflict in 2051.
As war brewed, America did make headway with atomic power. However, there is not much in Fallout lore to suggest why no one else pursued alternative power sources like wind or solar energy. While this question does break the premise of Fallout's divergence from our own world, it still needs to be asked.
9 Why Has the Radiation Not Dissipated By Now?
This is another question even long-time fans have trouble reconciling their disbelief in. Britannica states that, after 48 hours, the residual radiation from a nuclear explosion will have decreased to about one percent. Some fans have contended that this isn't true, citing Chernobyl as an example. But that was a nuclear explosion with particles going into the air instead of a bomb being dropped.
Even with the intense radiation generated by these bombs, 200 years is a long time. And it's unclear just how many bombs got dropped, so why is everywhere still so disconnected and irradiated?
8 How Did Bottle Caps Become The Preferred Currency?
Pre-war currency (paper money, generally) is littered throughout the Fallout wasteland. But it doesn't mean much in comparison to precious Nuka bottle caps that act as the main currency. How exactly did this come to be?
Nothing across any of the games really indicates that the bottle caps are special in any way. In fact, it might be easy to create a bunch of bottle caps instead of scrounging around for them to create infinite money. So was there some event or series of events that made everyone want bottle caps? With Fallout 5 feeling ever further out of reach, fans will have to keep waiting on an answer.
7 Why Would Animals Evolve Into Monsters Instead Of Dying?
The FEV has done a great deal: created super mutants, facilitated neural links with computers, and even contributed to synth creation. Fallout lore also claims that FEV, in tandem with radiation, contributed to the creation of monsters in the wasteland. Though it is also rumored that Deathclaws are mutated chameleons, this happening over the course of 200 years doesn't quite track.
Radiation, regardless of type, generally causes malignant mutations and not evolutionary ones. That means that most animal life would have died off due to explosions or long-term radiation poisoning. The likelihood of animal groups at-large mutating from crabs into giant crusty Mirelurks isn't as high as them all dying off quickly or over time.
6 If RadAway Cures Radiation And The Institute Can Teleport, Why Can’t Humans Cure Cancer?
Players can find all kinds of medicine and drugs around the still irradiated Commonwealth. From stimpaks to Jet, the Sole Survivor can handle just about anything including radiation. Just use RadAway — it's everywhere anyway. But why is that?
Was pre-war America able to anticipate nuclear war to the point of creating anti-radiation meds like candy? If they could do that, why not target other harmful things like cancer? The mystery behind the creation of RadAway and how the Institute creates some of its technology such as teleportation just doesn't hold up in comparison to tackling other real-world problems like cancer or even something as banal as near-sightedness.
5 Liberty Prime: Used Or Unused?
There are discrepancies about whether or not a giant robot got used during China’s occupation of Alaska. As fans of the franchise will remember, before the ultimate events of the Great War, China invaded Alaska for its oil. In order to regain control of the territory, the U.S. deployed units clad in power armor that were successful in their mission.
But the player can encounter a place called Cambridge Polymer Labs with a bemusing Nanny robot caretaker. She will tell the player the history of the research surrounding the lab including work for components used to construct a Liberty Prime. She goes so far as to say that it was Liberty Prime who returned Alaska to U.S. control. This is in obvious conflict with what fans know about the Fallout timeline. Power armor was more successful, so the Pentagon chose to use it instead of Liberty Prime. Unless…?
4 Fallout 76 Features The Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout 76 has rubbed many of the franchise's fans the wrong way for many reasons. But one of the main issues lies in how the game twists already established universe lore for the games. Specifically, 76 features the Brotherhood of Steel but takes place a full 30 years before the group is founded.
This issue wouldn't be such a thorny one if it weren't for the fact that Fallout 76 attracts many new players to the franchise. This sets them up for immediate confusion as all other entries in the series stand by the original foundation year of the Brotherhood being 2077. Moreover, the East Coast chapter, pictured in promotional media for 76, wasn't founded until 2254.
3 Jet Chems and Vault 95
Jet didn’t exist at the time the Vaults became necessary. Fallout 2 reveals to fans that Myron developed the drug from Brahmin poop gas during the 23rd century. This wouldn’t be problematic if not for Vault 95 near the Glowing Sea.
Vault-Tec filled this one with drug addicts, made them quit cold turkey, and stay clean for about five years. After that, the Vault dwellers gained access to 15 cases of Psycho and Jet. This would suggest that Jet did exist prior to the Great War. Many fans chalk this inconsistency up to the series switching studios from Interplay to Bethesda after Fallout 2.
2 If 200 Years Have Passed, Why Is The World Still In Shambles?
Fans often quarantine this question in the furthest possible corner of their minds. After all, Fallout 4 takes place some 200 years after the events of the Great War. Why wouldn't civilization have recovered a bit or at least scrapped all of the blown-out cars for parts by now?
But there are still skeletons in the streets and plenty of unlooted buildings around the Commonwealth. New Vegas also shows that some industries like gambling have recuperated, so that just further begs the question.
1 Furthermore, What About Other Countries?
Though not much is known about how other countries fared during the Great War, fans have their theories. Most people believe the U.S. fared better than any other country.
Europe and the Middle East had only just come off the Euro-Middle Eastern War and civil unrest when the bombs dropped. China also got nuked and not much is known about the USSR, Australia, or anywhere in Africa or South America. Whether or not these countries also had Vaults is irrelevant if, in 200 odd years, they haven't been able to recover at the snail's pace that the U.S. seems to have.