Fallout 76 Overhauls New Player Experience

By Tanner Dedmon

Bethesda teased Fallout 76 players not long ago with some under-the-hood changes added to the game's test servers, but at the time, Bethesda said it wouldn't be telling players what, exactly, those changes did. It was clear from players' findings, however, that the changes were geared towards new players, and now that the patch notes for that PTS update are out, we know for sure that the new player experience has essentially been overhauled. The update itself is still only on the test servers, however, and won't be released on live servers until later in the summer.

When the update first landed on the test servers and Bethesda played coy about what'd changed, players pooled their info together and found a couple of neat differences between the live version of Fallout 76 and the test server content. For one, players found that new characters were able to skip straight to Level 20 if they wanted to with those who did gaining a basic loadout to help them along. Some new perks were also correctly identified, but the full patch notes for the test server update expanded greatly on what's new.

You can check out those patch notes below. To experience them for yourselves to see how they feel, you'll have to head to the test servers to check them out.

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New Additions

General

  • Players can now choose to start at Level 20. This gives them starter weapons, ammo, armor, perk packs, various survival supplies, and pre-filled loadouts.
  • We've placed a donation box outside of Vault 76 for players to help one another.
  • Two new perks have been added, Arms Keeper and Stable Tools .
  • Arms Keeper: Reduces Weight of Rifles (10%, 25%, 40%)
  • Stable Tools: Automatic Melee Weapon Durability Bonus (10%, 15%, 20%)
  • There are now level 10 versions of T-45 and Raider Power Armor.
  • We've added a "New" filter when viewing Perk Cards.
  • We now give a warning to players under level 50 trying to enter Daily Ops.

Workbench Changes

  • All workbench lists use alphabetical sorting.
  • Item names in workbench are standardized across all lists.
  • Show unlockable button now shows recipes you can learn through a plan, scrapping, or can purchase in the Atomic Shop.
  • Unlearned recipes show the name of the plan you need, what item to scrap, or lets you buy it from the store.
  • 1-star legendary mods no longer show up under "Random Legendary Mods". 2- and 3-star mods now display correctly under "Current Mods" when inspecting an item.
  • Improved the learned mod counter.

New Design Changes

  • We've lowered the level requirements for Various Perk cards.
  • Added more default CAMP recipes for all players.
  • Rebalanced combat in Morgantown and Summerville.
  • Replaced the Liberator Bots outside of Vault 76 with Feral Ghouls.
  • Lowered the frequency of enemy attacks on the player's CAMP
  • Adjusted the Gun-Fu Perk effect and text description.
  • The bugs have been exterminated, and mysterious construction has begun at the Gilman Lumber Mill.
  • Renamed over 600 CAMP Items.
  • Removed the Hunter/Hunted radio station and event.
  • Good with Salt description accurately states the effects of the modification. The Refrigerated mod does not stack with the perk.
  • Grenadier perk now applies to Gauss weapons.
  • Players will no longer receive Legendary Power Armor pieces as rewards from Events and Quests until level 20.
  • Legendary creatures no longer mutate at 50% Health to have Health regeneration, but instead have 60% increased Health.
  • Various changes to health, resistances, and weapon damage for the following creatures: Super Mutant, Protectron, Mole Rat, Mr.Handy/Gutsy, Feral Ghoul, Scorched, Glowing One, Assaultron, Mirelurk King, Mirelurk Crab, Cave Cricket, Radscorpion, Angler, Floater Flamer, Floater Freezer, Floater Gnasher, Mutant Hound, Liberator, and Mirelurk Hunter.
  • Reduced the amount of pop-up information upon exiting the Vault.
  • Increase Aid items in low-level quest rewards and challenges.
  • Daily Ops rewards prioritize giving un-learned recipe rewards to players. Once all recipes are learned, players will start getting repeats.
  • Other players can no longer steal your CAMP's bone chimes.

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