Fallout 76 has opened its Public Test Server for the much-anticipated Burning Springs update, marking the largest map expansion since Wastelanders in 2020. Players can now explore rural Ohio, where toxic wastelands, new characters, and the looming Rust King set the stage for a fresh questline. The update also introduces Bounty Hunting, allowing players to track down mutated enemies for rewards, with guidance from The Ghoul, voiced by Walton Goggins from the Fallout TV series.
Beyond exploration, the update includes new public events, legendary mods, additional side quests, and the chance to tame a Radhog as a C.A.M.P. pet. With sweeping balance changes, combat refinements, and a reorganized emote system, Burning Springs aims to enrich both solo and cooperative gameplay. Bethesda is gathering feedback from players during the PTS before its official launch in December.
Full Patch Notes
- New Region: Burning Springs
- Set in southeastern Ohio, poisoned by nuclear fallout and chemical contamination
- Ruled by the Rust King, a cunning Super Mutant
- Highway Town serves as the new social hub and fast travel location
- New Questline
- Introduction to Burning Springs characters and conflicts
- Storyline will expand across future updates
- Bounty Hunting System
- Grunt Hunts: repeatable bounties with mutated targets
- Head Hunts: challenging public events with unique enemies and rewards
- Legendary progression with 1, 2, and 3-star enemies
- New legendary mods exclusive to Bounty Hunting
- Legendary Mods
- New 1-, 2-, and 3-star mods for weapons and armor
- Effects include kill streak bonuses, resistances, stat boosts, and new damage types
- New Public Events
- Gearin’ Up: Help armor a Deathclaw for the arena
- Sinkhole Solutions: Fight Radscorpions and Stingwings near Scorpion Lake
- Additional Content
- New fish species in irradiated waters
- Side quest Dirty Laundry with collectible Abraxodyne briefcases
- Milepost Zero rewards relocated to Highway Town vendors
- Spooky Scorched and Holiday Scorched event rewards updated
- New C.A.M.P. Pet
- Radhog pet available for testing in the PTS and later in the Atomic Shop
- New Weapon: Hand Cannon
- Can be crafted and modified into a rifle
- Fires .50 or .308 rounds with explosive and piercing effects
- Emote Wheel Update
- More categories and slots for favorite emotes
- Improved organization of Social, Performance, Help, and Taunt options
- Gleaming Depths Raid Update
- New weekly challenge with 4-star legendary rewards
- Redistribution of raid rewards for progression balance
- Combat Adjustments
- V.A.T.S. tweaks planned
- Cryo damage effects standardized
- Fixes for aura damage and AP drain issues
- Daily Ops Changes
- Freezing Touch mutation deals Cryo damage
- Decryption difficulty rebalanced
- Perk Adjustments
- Multiple perk cards rebalanced, reclassified, or fixed
- Examples: Bullet Shield Rank 4 removed, Good With Salt moved to INT, Night Eyes cost reduced
- Power Armor Fixes
- Resolved entry issues
- Weapons and Workbench Fixes
- Reload delays removed
- Weapon tagging and missing armor names corrected
- UI Improvements
- Perks grouped in the Status tab
- Fixed floating number and Pipboy display issues
Fallout 76 is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. As the first multiplayer entry in the Fallout series, it takes place in Appalachia in the year 2102, following the story of Vault 76’s dwellers. While the game faced a difficult launch, updates such as Wastelanders and the Amazon Prime television series helped revitalize its popularity.
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