In recent years, game developer Bethesda Softworks has released some of the most beloved role-playing games in the industry. Franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Dishonored, DOOM, Prey, and Fallout have all garnered massive followings and provided a healthy return to the company. Among these, one of the most recognized (and at time controversial) series is Fallout, the post-apocalyptic RPG series that began two decades ago in 1997.
With open-worlds to explore, compelling characters to engage with, and unique missions to complete, there have been plenty of opportunities to experience unique and hilarious moments in the Fallout games. Some of these moments have become so ingrained in the Fallout community that they’ve become memes unto themselves. Additionally, Bethesda and its partner developers seem to be well aware of these memes and find fun and unique ways to incorporate them into new games and community discussions.
We collected some of the most unique and interesting Fallout memes that are sure to cause a chuckle among Fallout fans. And for those who haven’t yet played the series, these memes might be enough to drive a play through of the Fallout franchise novel moments.
Here are 19 Hilarious Fallout Moment Only True Fans Will Understand.
Choosing Low Intelligence
At the beginning of each Fallout game, players have the opportunity to choose the characteristics they want most for their in-game character. Players can choose characteristics like Strength, Perception, Charisma, Luck, and Intelligence. The game options and experience can change dramatically based on which perks players decide to place the most points in.
One of the funnier options is to select everything except intelligence, and let the character play through the game (at least the early parts) with low intelligence.
Doing so leads to some rather comical dialogue exchanges, where players can look like total fools to the people they speak with, which in turn leads to funnier conversations. Naturally, as players progress through the game, they will usually increase their intelligence along with the other stats, which improves the quality of the conversations, but it’s still a fun experience for new and veteran players.
Deathclaw Territory
One of the most frightening and tough enemies in the Fallout series is the Deathclaw, a large, agile mutant creature that can often take out players in a couple swipes. The monsters can take a lot of damage and require players to be strategic with their efforts. When players are able to eliminate a Deathclaw, the rewards can be great.
To aid players as they make their way through the Fallout games, the developer has built in a weapon targeting method called V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) that allows players to slow down time and aim for the exact part of an enemy's body that will do the most damage. So, as every Fallout player knows, when a Deathclaw appears, it’s time to spam the V.A.T.S. button and get as many shots off on the Deathclaw with the character’s most powerful weapon as possible before the Deathclaw charges the player.
The Path Less Taken
Like many other open-world games, players in Fallout can take nearly any path they choose as they traverse the landscape to fulfill missions. To make the environment interesting, the developers build in large mountains, wide valleys, and numerous natural outcrops for players to enjoy.
While such a large environment is fun to explore for a while, after a time players prefer to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, which usually means heading in a straight line.
The challenge with that is sometimes there’s a mountain in the way. And instead of going around, players will often try to scale the mountain and go over it, even if it ends up taking longer in the end. Sometimes players don’t want to give in, even if they know they’re wrong and there’s an easier way.
No Running Vehicles
Fallout offers players a unique post-apocalyptic world that’s part futuristic technology and part degraded wasteland. Interestingly, despite the fact that there are tons of impressive technological advancements in Fallout (i.e. nuclear bombs that can be shot from a shoulder cannon or high-tech laboratories), the game is conspicuously lacking working vehicles.
It’s almost comical that players can use all kinds of amazing machines and devices to aid their journeys, but can’t find a single working vehicle to cruise around in.
Instead, players are forced to walk or run around the gigantic maps. While this may be a simple design choice by the developers, it’s a notable one that has caused at least a few Fallout players frustration as they trudge across the blank landscape to complete their quests.
Removing the RP from the G
One of the most compelling aspects to the Fallout series is the role-playing experience, where players get to live the life of a post-apocalyptic man or woman in dangerous times. As with most role-playing games (RPGs), much of the fun comes from the story and experience gamers get while playing.
However, many have criticized Bethesda of phoning it in with some of the Fallout (and other title) stories and role-playing mechanics. Games like Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls Online have provided mediocre storylines and boring side quests that are often copies of other missions or experiences in the game. Some have speculated that Bethesda has done this to cut back on costs of developing the game or to make it easier for new players to enjoy, but there’s no denying that it removes much of the immersion. Hopefully Bethesda will make the necessary corrections and improvements going forward.
Napping - The Best Medicine
Like any other RPG title, the Fallout games offer players simple ways to improve their health after taking damage in fights with enemies. Players can use medicines they find around the world, or they can simply take a nap.
Obviously, not everything in an RPG game can be realistic or much of the fun would be lost.
But it’s still funny to think that all a player has to do to relieve themselves of the pain that comes with a broken leg or gunshot wound is to lie down for a quick nap. That said, Fallout isn’t the only game that has silly mechanics attached to its health regeneration actions. Other titles have players wrap their arm in a bandage even when they’ve been shot in the leg or pull out an arrow after getting shot by a sniper rifle. So maybe taking a nap to recover from a broken limb isn’t such a bad strategy after all.
Only Bullies Invited
The opening moments of Fallout 3 are unique in that players get to live through the infancy, childhood, and adolescence of their character before kicking off the bulk of the game as an adult. One of the scenes that plays out for the player is a birthday party where the character’s dad has invited a bunch of kids from the underground vault where the player is living.
For some reason, the kids invited to the birthday party aren’t very nice to the player’s character and make the birthday party a bit of a drag. One has to wonder why the character’s dad invited only bullies to the party when there were other, nicer kids in the vault who could have attended. At least it was a character-building experience, right?
Sims Simulator
One of the features introduced in Fallout 4 was the ability for players to build their own town from the scraps and materials they find around the world. For some players, this world-building aspect became the most enjoyable and engaging part of the game.
Some gamers pointed out that they or their friends became so enveloped in building their town that they referred to Fallout 4 as a “$60 Sims Simulator.”
While some may laugh or scoff at the fact that some players preferred the world-building over the actual story of the game, it’s actually a testament to Bethesda for creating an experience that appeals to many different types of gamers. Hopefully it’s something the developer will continue in the future, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of the core features that made the series so beloved.
Another Settlement Needs Your Help
Shortly after Fallout 4 released in 2015, a new meme surfaced that focused on one of the game’s main characters: Preston Garvey. Early in the game, players meet Garvey and the Minutemen, a civilian militia hell-bent on saving the Commonwealth from thieves and raiders. For the next few hours, Garvey will send players on numerous missions to help settlements around the map, always with the same line about how “another settlement needs your help.”
Naturally, something so repetitive and at times frustrating will become a meme in the gaming world. To make it more ridiculous among gamers, it seems Garvey and the rest of the Minutemen were incapable of doing anything more than send the player on every settlement-saving quest. The good news was those missions provided plenty of experience points and a handful of fun weapons to use against future enemies.
Let’s Eat the Plague Rats
In the Fallout games, players take on a range of creatures and monsters in the post-apocalyptic world. One such creature is the rat, which carries all sorts of diseases and plagues around the Commonwealth. Naturally, one would want to avoid these pests as much as possible, or shoot them on site and leave the area at once.
But sometimes when times are bad, one must do crazy things to survive.
That seems to be the mentality of some in the Fallout games as they cook up those disgusting rats and eat them. Maybe they are hoping to cook out the plague or figure any kind of meat is better than going hungry, but it’s still enough to make one’s stomach churn as they look at the nasty creatures cooking over an open flame.
Mixed Priorities
One of the selling points of the Fallout series is the ability for players to be as immersed as they want. While some choose to complete the main missions and enjoy the story, others like to explore the open world or try their hand at crafting unique creations.
For some players, it’s fun to figure out the unique projects they can engage in, no matter how involved or challenging they may be.
In fact, some players have figured out the most complex creations Fallout has to offer before they ever engage in the game’s simplest activities, like figuring out how to clothe companions or unlock helpful traits for their characters. Ultimately, it comes down to priorities and it’s nice to have a game where players can engage in the activities that appeal to them the most.
Defying Science
As players make their way around the Fallout world, they collect materials they can use to create other useful items. However, in order to make use of those materials, they often have to break down items and collect the materials that come from it. For instance, players can pick up a pencil and scrap it for wood, which is used to craft other items.
Interestingly, when players pick up a pencil, it shows as taking up 0.00 pounds in the player’s inventory, meaning players can carry as many as they want without having to worry about overfilling their inventory. However, when players scrap the pencil, they are left with 0.02 pounds worth of wood. Essentially, players have created mass by breaking down a pencil into the wood it’s created from.
Constantly Scavenging
The Fallout games use looting and crafting mechanics to give players the items they need to complete the game. Naturally, this means players will spend a large amount of their time scavenging through buildings looking for materials, weapons, gear, and other loot to aid them in their quests.
The funny thing about the looting feature is it doesn’t fit very well with the overall story of the game, especially Fallout 4.
One would expect that if a father or mother’s child is taken, they would make it their entire life goal to get their kid back and no amount of loot could pull them from their focus. Since it’s a game, it seems players don’t have many qualms with taking a break from the main and side missions to loot through buildings for materials that they can use to craft bigger, better weapons and gear.
Mission Proximity
In the early part of Fallout games, players are often tasked with simple missions that give them a chance to earn some experience points and loot without the threat of too much challenge. However, some of the quests and side quests don’t make much sense. For instance, there seem to be an inordinate amount of missions where settlements and people are being attacked by creatures or enemies who are housed on the far side of the map.
Granted, these missions are meant to get players moving and fighting, but the premise could have been a little more thought out. It just doesn’t make sense that a group of bloatflies would travel across the map to attack a settlement if there are four of five other settlements to attack along the way.
Fallout Engineering
As mentioned above, Fallout 4 introduced a handful of new mechanics to the series, including the ability for players to build a town exactly as a they want. However, the building mechanic in the game has a few quirks that are hilarious when exploited.
One of the most notable quirks in the Fallout 4 building mechanic is the fact that players can create floating buildings so long as they have one part of the building touching the ground.
The end result, then, are buildings that are entirely held up by a single flight of stairs. One can’t help but think of Minecraft’s cartoonish gravity rules when looking at such Fallout creations or wonder just how far into the absurd someone can take the Fallout 4 building mechanics.
Search Eyeball, Find Shotgun
Since players spend much of their time in Fallout looting for materials, weapons, and gear, it’s not surprising that some of the looting mechanics can get a little funky. For instance, players will find what seems like a large pile of ammo or cash, but only pull out a few bullets or dollars respectively.
One of the more ridiculous outcomes of this looting system is that players can find some interesting items in the most uncommon place, such as discovering a shotgun by looting an eyeball, or getting ammo or bottle caps (Fallout’s in-game currency) from a rat or other critter. Granted, the development behind the games likely uses a random number generator to decide what loot to drop at certain areas, but it’s fun to see the comical outcomes it produces.
Tire Iron Attack
As players progress through the Fallout games, they gather better, more powerful loot and gear. By the end of the game (or middle for more dedicated gamers), players can have fully-loaded gear and weapons that will protect them against nearly any attack or take down any enemy they come across.
It’s always surprising and funny to see low-level enemies carrying only a tire-iron or weak pistol try to take on players who are fully geared in armor and armed with the game’s most powerful weapons.
What makes these moments even more entertaining is when players are trudging around in the game’s power armor, the giant metal suit that’s become synonymous with the Fallout series. Do these enemies really think they stand a chance against such a powerful force?
Sweep the Dirt
Players meet numerous interesting characters in the Fallout games, many of whom have unique or compelling stories. Some of these characters, however, seem to have become a lost cause in the post-apocalyptic world and have resorted to providing very little to the fledgling society.
One of the most notable and recognized of these worthless community members are those that take on meaningless roles, such as sweeping the dirt around their house or village. Players can’t help but stop and stare at the absurdity as they walk past. That said, some will argue that at least these people are trying to do something, while others (like Preston Garvey mentioned above) are entirely capable but can’t seem to stop themselves from always sending the player on the missions while they hang back and do nothing.
The Fallout Series Storylines
Most Fallout fans have their favorite game from the series, but there’s no denying that most gamers’ favorite is Fallout: New Vegas. In fact, as rumors start to swirl about the potential upcoming release of Fallout 5, many gamers have petitioned the developer to build the upcoming game with Fallout: New Vegas in mind, rather than other Fallout titles.
That doesn’t mean the other Fallout games are bad, but simply shows how much gamers have come to love the 2010 entry to the series.
Much of that sentiment is created thanks to the different premise New Vegas offers compared to the other Fallout titles. Rather than simply searching for a lost family member or friend, Fallout: New Vegas throws players into the life of a man who’s been shot in the head and left for dead. It’s hard to not be energized just by that simple opening story tidbit.
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What are your favorite Fallout memes?