Fallout 76 Update Adds New Region to Explore

Fallout 76 (and other Fallout games, too) have seen a surge of players rushing into the Wastelands thanks to the Fallout TV show, so for all Fallout 76 players new and old, the game’s latest update couldn’t have come at a better time. Bethesda announced this week that Fallout 76‘s map is growing a bit larger with the Skyline Valley region ready to be explored so long as you’re fine with playing on the test servers, for now. That new region and other changes have been added to the PTS for Steam  users to try out ahead of their wider releases across all platforms.

The Skyline Valley expansion is live now on the test servers, but only half of it. Bethesda said that the rollout will be split into two parts with the first of those consisting of its own schedule that takes place throughout the rest of April. To start off the PTS update, the first Skyline Valley activity players are tasked with is the Dangerous Pastimes event which runs every 20 minutes wherein you have to help some Skyline Valley locals seek some thrills which of course means shooting things while you knock out a few objectives.

After that, the Skyline Valley update will follow the this schedule:

Fallout 76 Skyline Valley Schedule

April 18

• Once PTS is open, the new public event, Dangerous Pastimes, will be running every 20 minutes.

April 27

• Dangerous Pastimes will be replaced by Fasnacht as we test some changes around the event. Primarily, the changes will be focused on the performance and pacing of the event. Fasnacht will be running at the top of the hour.

April 29

• Dangerous Pastimes replaces Fasnacht.

Bethesda also urged players to maybe drop a nuke or two in the Skyline Valley area if they have a chance. The whole region is littered with storms and eerie environments overall, so it seems there’s something worth exploring there.

“Along with testing the public events, we want to specifically request that you all nuke the region while playing. Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing,” Bethesda teased. “Probably nothing… right?”

Separate from Skyline Valley itself but also part of this update, Bethesda is also retooling how combat feels throughout a series of updates. The first of those is included in the PTS release right now and affects several creatures including the Anglers, Cave Crickets, Floaters, Gulpers, Mutant Hounds, and Protectrons.

“We have also improved how we calculate the falloff for weapon damage at range,” Bethesda said. “We expect this to smooth out the falloff damage for weapons that historically lost most of their damage right away. All ranged weapons benefit from this, but it should be most visible with Shotguns and Pipe Guns, as well as when fighting larger creatures such as Deathclaws.”

If you want to get into the PTS to try out these features, you have to have a copy of Fallout 76 on Steam. If you do, simply opt into the PTS through your Steam library by downloading the Fallout 76 test server.