After nearly losing half my vault population from an untimely series of Death Claw attacks, I have devised a way to make any vault immune to Death Claws as soon as they appear at populations 60+.

The solution is simple, don't put a second elevator on the first floor.

To make your vault immune to Death Claws, just follow these steps. (It is preferred that you start as early as possible, but it is still effective even if you have already past the 60 dwellers mark)

Start 1 (Below 60 population):

1. Check if the rooms on your first floor is essential to your vault. If they are, relocate them somewhere else.

2. Acquire 7 to 10 level 1 dwellers and max out their endurance (8 or higher is good enough if it is urgent) . If you don't have access to the fitness room yet, increase your population ASAP.

3. Arm them and send them out to the waste land until they hit levels 40+, then recall them. Hopefully each will have found a 15+ or even 20+ weapon by then. Each explorer is guaranteed to run into a blue item if they explore for 60 hours.

4. Destroy your first floor.

5. Build a series of 5 high end production room (ie. Nuclear Plant) on the top floor after the elevator.

6. Station the high level high health dwellers on the first floor. Give them the best weapons.

Optional: Train your dweller in luck and another stat for production.

Tip: Build your training rooms at the left side of your vault and surround them with other rooms so mole rats can't kill your level 1 dwellers and hinder their progress.

TIP: Build more than one Medbay in case of multiple Death Claw attacks.

Start 2 (Above 60 population, Death Claws causing havoc every time

1. Turn off Radio and stop sending people outside

2. Make sure Stim Packs are fully stocked.

3. Gather the highest level dwellers you can, recall all those exploring.

4. Destroy your first floor.

5. Build a series of 5 high end production room (ie. Nuclear Plant) on the top floor after the elevator

6. Station the high level high health dwellers on the first floor. Give them the best weapons.

7. Re-open the Radio station. Get 7 to 10 more dwellers

8. Train these level 1 dwellers to max endurance and send them out to the wastelands properly armed.

9. Recall them when they hit levels 40+

10. Station them on the first floor.

This structure will force the Death Claw to attack your strongest room twice.

I have tested it out, and I was able to successfully kill the Death Claws on floor one this way.

Maxing out Endurance and then leveling your dwellers will give them the highest possible health, up to 2 or 3 times higher than normal. Hence, they won't risk dying when fighting

Death Claws.

Best of Luck!

I like this!! if my game will ever work again I'll try this on my 2nd vault it's still small enough to mess with.


on my first vault i put my energy plant on the top floor because they are the strongest and I am also working on everyone's endurance but back to the subject at hand I have the power plant and my strongest best equip guys and gals in the first room then so on and so forth for the following rooms the death claws use to destroy me now they only make it to the 2nd maybe 3rd floor and into 4 rooms before they are dead I did alot of research on this and yes the radio is a magnet for death claws but it keeps my guys happy so idk I keep it up n running 24/7


I still hate those buggers though but the better equip and stronger your peeps are the better they will survive the claws I never thought of endurance against them though great point this is why I love forums your always learning something new

I never used a second shaft on my entire layout. My only problem is trying to click on the right people to heal. Most of the time, the stupid interface lags so much or clicks on the wrong people that I don't heal the in time.

Thanks so much for the Gauntlet scheme!


I would add 1 suggestion: Wasteland Gear on the first floor dwellers adds 3 endurance points. My first floor looks like a hazmat site, but my elite dwellers are now hard enough to kill that I can keep up on stimpak dispensal (although I'm tapping like a madman). The most recent pack of Death Claws never made it off the 1st floor.