Bethesda has just unleashed the latest major update for Fallout 76, and while the game has had its fair share of stick from gamers, it seems to be doing rather well, and the improvements continue to flood in. I’m willing to give this game some slack these days, it’s not perfect, but few games are these days. However, if you are playing, the new update will come in at 25GB. It’s a big one, and you get Daily Ops, balancing improvements, bug fixes, and most importantly, One Wasteland, which dynamically adjusts levels to match other players. It’s a bold system, but I think it could work well.
However, as always seems to be the case, the Windows Store version has a bigger update size, clocking in at 37.8GB. Seriously Microsoft, what’s the deal with your installer format, it’s crap?! How can it really be that much more than the Steam install size?
You can download the upload by starting the launcher, so best to plan ahead and get the update before you sit down to play. The changelog is a beast though, so deep breath… here we go.
Fallout 76 Update 22 Release Notes
One Wasteland
With today’s update, we’re excited to introduce One Wasteland to Fallout 76, which allows creatures to dynamically adjust their levels up or down on the fly to more closely match each player they encounter.
If multiple players all come across the same enemy at the same time, its level will simultaneously rise for the higher-level players and drop for the lower-level players.
In addition to their levels, each creature’s damage, health, and resistances, as well as the loot they drop and the XP they award, will also better match each player.
This means that all players who are adventuring together can have an impact on any given combat encounter, even if there is a large level gap between them.
While creatures will still have minimum and maximum levels, such as a max of level 50 in The Forest, they are now much more flexible overall.
One Wasteland opens up more opportunities to adventure anywhere in Appalachia, whether alone or with your friends. It also smooths out some of the early game bumps for new players, allows higher-level players to get max-level loot in previously lower-level regions, and should offer more consistent combat encounters for everyone.
New Season, Board, & Rewards
Join Armor Ace and the Power Patrol in their march against the oppressive Subjugator and his army of Red Viper minions during Fallout 76 Season 2, which begins today!
Season 2 brings the all-new “Armor Ace” S.C.O.R.E.board to the game, featuring 100 ranks for you to achieve during the next 10 weeks.
We’ve added a host of rewards that you will unlock as you rank up, including new Power Armor paints, Armor and Weapon Skins, themed cosmetics, C.A.M.P. items, in-game currencies, Perk Card Packs, and more.
We’ve made several adjustments this Season that you may want to keep in mind as you dive in:
Rank-ups will be purchasable immediately, so those who would like to rank up using Atoms can join the fight to crush the Red Vipers starting today.
We’ve implemented some new Daily and Weekly Challenges, such as Daily Ops themed Challenges, to offer you even more day-to-day variety as you rank up.
We’re also adding more Weeklies to the Challenge lineup so you have more flexibility to progress on your schedule.
Finally, we’ve made several of last Season’s rewards, like Lunchboxes, the Ammo Converter, available at Gold Bullion vendors so players who missed them have another opportunity to unlock them.
Put your skills to the test by taking on instanced, randomized, and repeatable encounters called “Daily Ops.” Daily Ops are fairly challenging, and so we recommend them for characters who are level 50+.
Our first Game Mode for Daily Ops is called “Uplink,” which will require you to secure a series of Uplinks to track down and destroy enemies that are threats to Appalachia.
In Daily Ops, you’ll square off against enemies from a single faction who are affected by a unique “mutation,” which will make them deadlier and more challenging to take down.
Complete your objectives, eliminate the enemy threat, and you will be rewarded for your efforts to make Appalachia a safe place for everyone.
To join a Daily Op, open the Map screen and find the new World Activity tracker we’ve added in the lower-left corner.
Select a Daily Op from the list to learn more about it, including which location, enemies, and mutations you’ll face.
Enter Daily Ops directly from the tracker by clicking the “Join” button.
You can take on Daily Ops alone or in a team of up to four other players.
Each day, Daily Ops will feature a fresh combination of location, enemy faction, and enemy mutations to keep you on your toes.
Locations: The Burrows, The Burning Mine, Valley Galleria, or Vault 94
Enemy Factions: Super Mutants, Blood Eagles, or Robots
Enemy Mutations:
Piercing Gaze: This mutation is always applied to enemies the “Uplink” Daily Ops mode, and gives them greatly enhanced perception of players.
Volatile: Enemies will explode on death
Active Camouflage: Enemies will be cloaked when not attacking
Resilient: Enemies can only be killed by a melee attack
Freezing Touch: Enemy attacks will freeze players
Since you will be facing constant combat and deadly threats during your Operations, we’ve reduced the condition damage taken by your weapons and armor by 50% while in a Daily Op.
Like the event “A Colossal Problem,” creatures in Daily Ops will drop ammo based on the weapons you’re using when you take them down. This will help keep your ammo reserves topped off through lots of combat.
You can repeat Daily Ops as often as you’d like each day, and you will receive a base set of rewards every time you complete one. However, there are three additional reward tiers that you can reach once per day by completing a Daily Op within certain time limits:
Initiate Tier: 16 minutes or less
Paladin Tier: 12 minutes or less
Elder Tier: 8 minutes or less
The higher the tier you achieve, the higher your chances to get better rewards, including more XP, larger amounts of in-game currencies, legendary items, and even brand-new items like the War Glaive, which is a customizable two-handed melee weapon.
After finishing a Daily Op, you’ll be able to view an Operation Report, which shows you how fast you managed to complete it, which reward tiers you reached, and a list of the rewards you earned (except for XP and currencies).
Legendary Perks
Legendary Perks are new high-level Perk Cards for players who have reached level 50+, which will help you add even more power and build diversity to your characters.
We’ve added a new “Legendary Perks” button to the top of the normal Perk Card Menu, which you can use to access and modify your Legendary Perk Slots and Cards.
You will unlock your first Legendary Perk Slot at level 50, and up to 6 slots in total at certain level milestones after that: 75, 100, 150, 200, and 300.
If you already have high-level characters, they will immediately have access to one Legendary Perk Slot for each of the above milestones they’ve reached.
For example, a level 250 character will have access to 5 Legendary Perk slots, and will gain a 6th slot at level 300.
One Legendary Perk Card can be equipped to each slot, and you can unequip them at any time in exchange for 1 Perk Coin (more on Perk Coins below).
Legendary Perk Slots are account-wide, and will be available to all of your characters as soon as you unlock them.
Even your characters below level 50 will be able to equip Legendary Perks in these slots, which gives them access to more power at an earlier stage of the game than your higher-level characters had at that level.
With Legendary Perks, we’re introducing “Perk Coins,” which you can use to increase the power of your Legendary Perk Cards by upgrading them.
Earn Perk Coins by scrapping your unused normal Perk Cards. Each Perk Card you scrap will grant you 2 Perk Coins per rank.
For example: When you scrap a rank 1 Perk Card, you’ll receive 2 Perk Coins, and scrapping a rank 3 Perk Card will award 6 Perk Coins.
Each Legendary Perk Card can be upgraded up to three times, at a price of 50, 100, and 150 Perk Coins to reach ranks 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
While Legendary Perk Slots you’ve unlocked are account-wide, your Legendary Perk Selections and upgrades are separate for each of your characters.
To help give your Perk Coin collection a boost, we’ve added a “Become Legendary” Challenge to the Character Challenge Menu, which awards 50 Perk Coins to characters who reach level 50.
Please note: If your characters are already level 50+, this Challenge will already be completed for them the next time you log in, and the 50 Perk Coin reward will be added to your Perk Coin total automatically.
Design Updates
General
Fast Travel: It is now free to Fast Travel to Foundation and Crater.
Combat
Bonus Damage: We’ve changed the way that damage bonuses are calculated so that they now apply additively instead of multiplicatively.
Please Note: While stacking damage bonuses will now have a smaller overall effect on your damage output than before, these changes will make the resulting damage much more predictable and allow for future improvements. This is very important for the health of the game going forward. It will also create better opportunities for us to make smarter and more effective balance changes.
We are still evaluating feedback we gathered on these changes from the PTS, but we also welcome your thoughts on how different weapons and builds feel after today’s update so that we can make additional adjustments in the future.
Items
Alien Blaster: Damage increased by 30%.
Legendary Weapons: The Assassin’s legendary attribute now applies its bonus damage to human NPCs.
Secret Service Armor: Plans for Light and Ultra-Light Limb Mods for Secret Service Armor have been added, and they are now purchasable from Regs in Vault 79.
Shishkebab: Now deals Fire damage instead of Energy damage.
Perks
Modern Renegade: Increased Modern Renegade’s chance to cripple limbs from 2%/3%/4% to 4%/8%/12%.
Tank Killer: Pistols now benefit from the Tank Killer Perk Card.
User Interface
Public Teams: We’ve renamed the “Building” team to “Casual” and removed the Casual team bonus. In its place, we’ve added a “Daily Ops” team type, which offers bonus XP for completing Daily Ops (+25% bonus XP to start, +100% bonus XP for a fully bonded team).
We did this in part because it is not possible to build in Public Teammates’ C.A.M.P.s., and partly because most players were using the Building team the way we had intended Casual to be used anyway.
Removing the Casual team option, it made room for us to add the new Daily Ops team type, which we feel players will find more useful following today’s update.
World
Vault 94: Is now accessible during world exploration in Adventure Mode and Private Worlds.
Vault 51: We’ve added a new no-C.A.M.P. zone around Vault 51’s exterior in preparation for future content.
Bug Fixes
Art & Graphics
Apparel: Underarmors no longer clip through Chally the Moo-Moo Outfits.
Emotes: While equipped, Grognak’s Battlecry Emote now correctly displays its icon in the Emote Wheel.
Headwear: Extreme facial features no longer clip through the Ghillie Suit Hood’s facemask.
Lighting: Corrected lighting issues affecting the inside of the Charleston Capitol Building.
Lighting: Corrected lighting issues that were affecting building interiors in Morgantown Trainyard.
Loot Bags: Fixed an issue with the Vault-Tec Duffel Bag model that made it difficult to interact with.
Weapons: Fixed additional issues that could cause clipping when reloading a Handmade Rifle with the Screaming Eagle paint.
C.A.M.P. and Workshops
Ammo Converter: Attempting to sell 40mm Grenade Rounds no longer results in a “Transaction Failed!” error.
Blood Eagle Nest: Allies can now enter and exit the Blood Eagle Nest more easily.
Blueprints: The “Select” option in the Blueprint menu now correctly appears greyed out when the player is not currently highlighting an object.
C.A.M.P.: Resources generated by objects like the Collectron, Fertilizer Producer, and etc. are now stored in the player’s Stash or Scrapbox if they move C.A.M.P. locations before collecting them.
C.A.M.P.: Fixed an issue that could prevent Fast Travel to another player’s C.A.M.P. if the C.A.M.P. owner had the Future-Tec C.A.M.P. skin equipped.
Camp Fires: Objects that can only be placed in dirt can no longer be built on a Camp Fire.
Communist Bunker: Objects placed on the floor of the Communist Bunker no longer appear to float.
Communist Bunker: The interior walls of the Communist Bunker are now hexagonal rather than cylindrical to help players more easily place wall décor.
Communist Bunker: The building requirements for the Communist Bunker now correctly call for Concrete instead of Asbestos.
Communist Fence: Added an alternate version of the Communist Fence that can be freely placed without needing to snap to other objects.
Displays: Wall Weapon Racks can now be correctly snapped to Walls.
Exploit: Items can no longer be stacked on objects that are in disrepair.
Exploit: Fixed an exploit allowing players to build Workshop Ammunition Factories in their C.A.M.P.s.
Please note: As a result of this fix, C.A.M.P.s and Blueprints that contain a Workshop Ammo Factory are now invalid and can no longer be placed.
Players will also receive a notification that their C.A.M.P. or Blueprint cannot be placed if it contains a Workshop Ammo Factory.
Exploit: Addressed a C.A.M.P. budget exploit related to Generators.
Floors: Farmable Dirt Tiles can no longer be replaced by other floor types.
Floor Décor: The Standing Taxidermy Gorilla Plan now correctly unlocks the Standing Gorilla instead of the sitting version, and vice versa.
Floor Décor: The Standing and Sitting Taxidermy Gorillas now correctly display their destroyed states when they are in disrepair.
Fusion Generator: When scrapped, Fusion Generators now correctly return Aluminum, Copper, and Rubber.
Log Cabin: Players can now correctly place items in the window of the Log Cabin.
Rain Water Collector: No longer becomes invisible when destroyed.
Challenges
Daily: Scrapping Fertilizer now correctly progresses the “Collect Fertilizer” subchallenge for the “Gather Building Supplies” Daily Challenge.
Death & Respawn
Ash & Goo Piles: Players now die immediately when turned into an Ash or Goo Pile, rather than entering the “down but not out” state.
Respawn: Implemented a fix to reduce cases where players could become unable to respawn after being killed during an event or in an interior.
Please Note: This fix may not address all situations that can cause this issue to occur, but it should help, and we are continuing to work on a more complete fix.
Enemies
Scorchbeast Queen: The Scorchbeast Queen’s wings can now be crippled to cause her to land, and her legs can be crippled to slightly reduce her rotation speed.
Items
Aid: Fixed an issue in which players were unable to die from Radiation damage while affected by +Max Health buffs, like those offered by Buffout, Bufftats, and Psychobuff.
Aid: Mud Cookie, Swamp Tofu, and all Omelette Recipes no longer incorrectly appear in the Cooking Station’s Meat category.
Aid: Seared Venison with Berries and Cranberry Meatball Grinder now correctly appear in the Cooking Station’s Meat category, and will now progress the “Cook a Meat-Based Meal” Daily Challenge.
Alien Blaster: Players can now correctly switch back to the Standard Grip mod after applying the Sharpshooter Grip.
Armor: The Pocketed Mod for the Raider Chest Piece no longer incorrectly grants more carry capacity than the Deep Pocketed Mod.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit in which players could intentionally double the stat bonus offered by Unyielding Armors.
Fireworks: Equipping Fireworks no longer causes players to reload much faster than intended.
Gatling Gun: Erroneous “Crafting item unlocked” notifications no longer appear when scrapping Gatling Guns.
Loot: Enemies that drop contextual ammo can now correctly drop Arrows, Crossbow Bolts, .38 rounds, 40mm Grenade Rounds, Ultracite Plasma Cartridges, and Ultracite 2mm Electromagnetic Cartridges instead of random ammo when players kill them with the appropriate weapons.
Power Armor: Fixed an issue in which Power Armor with the Junkyard Paint was not providing the correct amount of Radiation Resistance.
Shotguns: Fixed an issue affecting Suppressor Shotgun Mods that could cause the weapon’s range value to be negative.
Underarmor: Secret Service Underarmor Lining Mods can now be correctly applied to Camo Secret Service Underarmor.
Underarmor: Fixed an issue that allowed players to craft the Camo Secret Service Underarmor without knowing the Secret Service Underarmor Recipe.
Mutations
General: Players can now correctly acquire more than one Mutation in a given play session.
Speed Demon: Fixed an issue that reduced Stimpak healing while under the effects of the Speed Demon Mutation.
NPCs
Critters: Now cap at level 5 and can no longer spawn as legendary.
Fishbones: No longer flees from nearby hostiles at Ohio River Adventures.
Performance and Stability
Client Stability: Fixed a crash that could occur when using the Pip-Boy.
Client Stability: Improved client stability on Xbox One when players sign out of their profiles during active gameplay.
Performance: Fixed an issue with the Tesla Rifle that could result in poor framerates for nearby players.
Server Stability: Addressed multiple issues that could result in a server crash during normal gameplay.
Server Stability: Addressed a server crash that could occur during Nuclear Winter matches.
Server Stability: Addressed a server crash related to player Vending Machines.
Server Performance: Addressed an issue that could cause a “Waiting for response from server” message to appear after using a nuke keypad.
Perks
Class Freak: Fixed an issue that caused some Mutations to not interact correctly with the Class Freak Perk Card.
Concentrated Fire: Rank 3 of the Concentrated Fire Perk no longer causes the chance-to-hit in V.A.T.S. to suddenly jump to 95% when using an automatic weapon.
Quests and Events
A Colossal Problem: Players will no longer receive the MIRV Frag Grenade Plan multiple times after completing the event.
A Colossal Problem: Fixed an issue where equipping certain types of thrown explosives caused Wendigo spawns to drop random ammo on death.
An Ounce of Prevention: Further addressed an issue that could block quest progression when attempting to analyze the Ghoul Blood Sample.
Primal Cuts: Quest targets will now appear on all Prime Beasts, instead of only on the last few, which will help players track down any wayward Beasts.
Primal Cuts: During the final wave of Prime Beasts, players are now only required to kill the boss to complete the event.
Vital Equipment: Fixed an issue in which a player could complete Vital Equipment multiple times per day if they already had one of the quest items in their inventory.
Sound
C.A.M.P.: Sound effects now play after use the “Repair All Items” option in C.A.M.P.
Music: The music volume in the Atomic Shop no longer reverts to its default setting when the first song finishes playing.
User Interface
Controls: Fixed an issue that could prevent the quick-heal button from working properly after switching game modes.
Controls: Fixed an issue that could cause the controls to become unresponsive when opening the Social Menu under certain conditions.
Damage Numbers: Grenades and Mines now correctly display damage numbers when they hit enemies.
Item Transfer: Fixed an issue that could cause items to be transferred from unintended inventory categories when spamming the transfer button.
Notifications: Reduced the size of Season rank progress bars and rank-up notifications so that they take up less space on the screen.
Notifications: The “Challenge Complete” flyout notification is now correctly translated in non-English versions of the game.
Notifications: S.C.O.R.E. rank-up progress and reward notifications now correctly appear to players who are wearing Power Armor.
Notifications: Purchasing multiple rank-ups using Atoms and then leaving the Season board no longer causes the S.C.O.R.E. meter to progress very slowly or rank-up sound effects to loop repeatedly.
World
General: The following locations can now be accessed at all times, and attempting to enter them no longer sometimes displays a “Location available at a later date” error.
Arktos Pharma Biome Lab
Eta Psi House
Pi House
The Burrows
The Nukashine
Van Lowe Taxidermy
Fort Defiance: The No C.A.M.P. zone at Fort Defiance has been expanded to include the road in front of Allegheny Asylum to resolve an exploit affecting enemy spawns during the Line in the Sand event.
Peter Donnell
As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!