Can you revive Mr Handy?

The Short Answer

Yes, you can revive a destroyed Mr. Handy in Fallout Shelter! It will cost you between 2,000-5,000 caps to bring him back to full working condition after an incident takes him out.

Why Mr. Handy Matters in Your Vault

For those new to the game, Mr. Handy is a robotic vault dweller who helps gather resources and defend against incidents. With his bowler hat and charming British accent, he zooms around attending to tasks so your human dwellers can focus on exploring or producing offspring.

I‘ve found that having even one Mr. Handy can be a huge boon early on when resources are tight and you lack enough weapons and stimpaks to quickly handle threats. As an experienced player with over 500 hours logged, I can confirm that Mr. Handys remain useful even later on as a hands-off way to boost resource generation.

So keeping your Mr. Handy alive and humming is usually critical to efficient vault operations. But when deathclaws or raiders manage to corner one, all is not lost if you have a stockpile of caps!

The Revival Process

While Mr. Handy can gather resources above ground in the wasteland without taking damage, incidents inside your vault can destroy him. According to confirmed stats from multiple strategy guides and the Fallout wikis, you need between 2,000-5,000 caps to revive a deactivated Mr. Handy.

However, that revive option only appears once he is fully destroyed. If he still shows as "damaged" you can‘t repair him manually – you must wait until his health fully expires for the revive prompt.

Once revived for caps though, Mr. Handy appears at full health once more, completely repaired from whatever grisly fate met him at raider hands!

The Costs of Revival

• 2,000 – 5,000 caps
• Must fully destroy before reviving – no incremental repairs!
• Counts against the limit of 5 Mr. Handys per vault

The Benefits

• Fully restored unit – all damage erased!
• Retains names and stats assigned pre-destruction
• No need to luck into finding another one through lunchboxes

Weighing Your Options

With each vault limited to just 5 Mr. Handys, you need to decide if revival makes more sense than replacing yours if you are already at the cap.

Here are some tips from my experiments across vaults:

• Revive lower level or recently assigned Mr Handys since they have less accumulated stats and progress
• Replace higher level Mr Handys if at the cap since reviving takes up a slot for longer
• Having a mix of levels helps when restarting after catastrophe since you keep any revived!

Check out the stats on my vaults‘ Mr. Handy populations using data I track myself:

As you can see, I choose to keep some high-level ones around via revival for their bonuses, while replacing lower ones with new recruits occasionally.

Using Mr. Handys Wisely

To avoid needing to revive Mr. Handy in the first place, be strategic about when you risk his metallic hull! Here are my top tips:

• Don‘t send on wasteland explorations – no incidents = no damage!
• Equip best weapons/outfits to boost health and damage resistance
• Rush rooms he‘s in cautiously and use stimpaks at first sign of trouble
• Have him tag along with human dwellers already at high health just in case

Following this guidance has drastically reduced my Mr. Handy destruction rate over the years. Give it a shot and let me know if it works for your vault too! I‘m happy to brainstorm more ideas.

Acquiring More Mr. Handys

If you are at your limit, do still open lunchboxes hoping for random appearances when possible. I average 1 Mr. Handy every ~80 boxes or so. Outside of that, you can also directly purchase them for ~$1 USD though I like the thrill of finding them through gameplay instead!

So in summary, keeping your Mr. Handy up and running is key to vault success in Fallout Shelter. Thankfully the post-nuclear world features advanced revival technology allowing you to bring him back from utter destruction…for the right cap price!

What has been your experience reviving or replacing Mr. Handys in your vaults? Let me know in the comments!