Fallout 76's Wastelanders NPCs Are Looting Players' Bodies

Fallout 76 players are finding that if their characters die in-game while they're near some of the game's new NPCs in certain situations, there's not always a guarantee they'll have all their equipment when the respawn. It looks like some of these NPCs are taking it upon themselves to loot players' bodies and utilize their equipment, based on evidence from players who've been reporting the problem. One player even took a video that showed themselves taking part in a Wastelanders event only to find that their weapon had been taken by an NPC upon death with no clear method to get it back.

The Fallout 76 player who goes by Dani García on YouTube shared the video below that showed what happened when they were participating in one of the event that has been added as part of the big Wastelanders update. While fending off a ton of enemies, they were eventually killed and respawned only to find the weapon they were using beforehand missing from their inventory. They searched through the menus for a while to find it before going back into the battle.

Once they returned to the fight, they found out what'd apparently happened to their weapon. The NPC known as Marion Copeland had commandeered the weapon to use it for herself, a reasonable enough response given the circumstances had they been another human player but a completely unexpected one seeing how they're an NPC. The player was left with an empty slot in their inventory while the NPC had a new weapon to use against the enemies.

To make things worse, not all of the NPCs in Fallout 76 can be killed – just as it is in every Fallout game – which means getting these stolen weapons back from characters isn't always so easy. It's even worse if it's a coveted, high-level weapon that's stolen from players, so people playing in Wastelanders events might want to keep an eye on their loot if they're ever killed in a fight.

Bethesda said it's investigating the issue. Stolen items have been restored in the past through an innovative solution, so perhaps there will be a way to give players back their items who lose them because of this bug.

Thanks, PC Gamer.