Inside the Vault – Gleaming Depths Public Test Server

PTS Update – 10/25

Patch Notes

Combat Balancing

• Made adjustments to most creatures' body part damage and VATS hit chances, reduced the bonus damage on most weak points from 2.0x to 1.5x.

• VATS hit chance on head, limbs, and various weak points has been reduced for most creatures.

• Adjusted VATS hit chance on a few creatures' torsos (a few are slightly higher and a few are slightly lower)

• Health for body parts generally associated with benefits for crippling limbs has been reduced. In many cases, it should be much easier to cripple a creature's limb before dealing enough damage to kill the creature.

• Combat inhibitors for robots and turrets are now generally harder to target and damaging them will result in less overall health damage to the robot, but the combat inhibitor can now be destroyed much earlier, before the robot/turret has lost most of its health. (While this affects most creatures, this does not affect the EN06 Guardian and Ultracite Terror.)

• This change should most benefit VATS targeting specific limbs for the purpose of gaining the benefits of crippling a creature (or destroying a combat inhibitor), as well as manually aiming at specific limbs outside of VATS.

Raids Balancing

• Electrified flooring in the EN06 Guardian encounter now deals energy damage instead of untyped damage.

• Adjusted the difficulty of enemies during the Drill encounter. These enemies should be slightly more difficult.

• During the encounter with Bloodhound, Lynx, and Vulture, repair bots will spawn faster and repair generators much more quickly.

• Adjusted the health and resistances for Bloodhound, Lynx, and Vulture. They should now take slightly longer to kill with physical damage.

• Bloodhound, Lynx, and Vulture now deal more damage (especially Lynx).

• Vulture's gauss rifle now staggers players.

• Ultracite Terror bite damage deals much more damage and will stagger players hit by it.

• Ultracite Terror poison spray attack is now easier to dodge, but will deal more damage on a direct hit.

Raids Misc:
Updated art for Lynx and Vulture's weapons.

Player Titles

• The "Public Tester" Player Title will be granted to everyone who plays on PTS.

Animations

• The engineers at Vault-Tec are test running their latest 3rd person petting animation in preparation for the arrival of our furry companions. Our Vault-Tec engineers would like to note that these animations are indeed prototypes. Vault-Tec does not advise attempting to pet dangerous wildlife as it could prove hazardous to your health.

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PTS Update – 10/18

Patch Notes

Caravans

Windy

• Mothman and Ogua bait names now show correctly in the player's inventory.
• Cryptid will no longer spawn during caravan if the bait in the players inventory is destroyed.
• Added dialog to indicate that the initial Sheepsquatch bait provided by Windy only works on Large caravans.

Collector Murmrgh

• Known Issue: We’ve identified an issue where Legendary Weapons and Armor are not being dropped from Collector Murmrgh’s crates.

Combat Balancing

• The cooldown of evade effects now scales based on how much damage was avoided.
• Added additional information about Damage Types and Damage over Time effects to the Help menu.

Tesla Cannon

• Base damage of Tesla Cannon increased by 30 damage.
• Ammo capacity increased from 50 to 60.

Tesla Cannon Mods

• Spark Gap Series Mods: No changes.
• Solid State Series Mods: Decrease AP cost for VATS and increases damage more than the Spark-Gap Series.
• Triple Resonant-Oscillator: Damage decreased by 10. Ammo cost increased from 5 to 6.

Creature Balancing

Balance adjustments for the Thrasher:

• Increased melee attack damage especially at higher levels.
• Decreased Sonic Gobble attack damage at lower levels.
• Now weakest to fire damage and resistant to radiation, energy, and poison damage.

The Thrasher has also received similar health and resistance changes that other creatures have obtained over the past few patches. We expect the Thrasher to be more dangerous up close but take less damage to kill.

Pets

• Updated the recipe for Dirt Pile to reflect the correct materials for crafting.
• Added a new category in Armor Workbenches for C.A.M.P. Pet Clothing.
• Updated the C.A.M.P. Pet Commands images to include a cat and dog.
• Dev Note: The middle wheel image is still Dogmeat. This will be addressed in a future update.
• Cat now meows correctly at the "speak" command.

The Gleaming Depths

• Spectator Mode will target a live player by default.
• New VFX added to the Ultracite Terror Tail Smash and death animations.
• Known Issue: The Ultracite Terror's final attack causes the hood of the creature to become distorted.
• Left D-Pad has been set to the Ping Button. Pressing and Holding the Left D-Pad button will now quick swap weapons.
• Known Issue: The Quick Swap may not work for some players.

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PTS Update – 10/11

Patch Notes

The Gleaming Depths

• Fixed a bug where EN06 Guardian (first encounter) and Ultracite Terror (final encounter) could take more damage to individual body parts than intended.
• Fixed an instance where players would crash while in Spectator mode when the encounter completes.
• Added Cooking and Chemistry stations to breakrooms.
• Dev Note: You can bake a pie in the Raid now!
• 4-Star Legendary Weapons and Armor now appear on the new Rewards Screen.
• Higher Value rewards are filtered to the top.
• Fixed an issue that kept players stuck in Spectator Mode.
• Reward Screen now shows item previews.
• Known Issue: 4-Star Legendary reward descriptions have small text.
• Increased the amount of contextual ammo and other rewards that are granted on encounter completion.
• Spectator Cam message has been added explaining that the player is currently dead and must wait for the encounter to end.
• Known Issue: The “You Are Dead” message may remain when players respawn.
• Spectator Cam button bar now reads "Leave Raid" instead of "Respawn".
• Gleaming Depths Map Marker now reads "Fast Travel" instead of "Join Raid".
• The Stalker no longer breaks your armor when their attacks land.
• Known Issue: The Stalker is missing the Drill Fist.
• The Drill can no longer be healed with the Medics legendary mod.
• Condition checks have been improved to prevent players from skipping encounters.
• Encounter timer stops when the encounter is completed instead of when the reward screen appears.
• The Gleaming Depths quest can be untracked in the Pip-Boy.
• Fixed a soft lock on party wipe during Ultracite Terror final attack.

Perks

• Lifegiver
• Fixed an issue where having this Perk could regenerate HP.
• Action Boy/Girl
• Fixed a display issue for the AP Regen under Effects.
• Born Survivor
• Fixed an issue where all ranks used the 20% threshold.

Mutations

• Speed Demon
• Fixed reload speed not being displayed.
• Bird Bones
• Fixed fall speed not being displayed.
• Marsupial
• Fixed jump height not being displayed.
• Herd Mentality
• Active effect is now displayed rather than the Serum description.
• Empath
• Fixed display issue where the positive effect would be lowered instead of the negative, and the positive effect was not reflecting the Stranger in Numbers bonus.
• Herbivore & Carnivore
• Adjusted description to be more readable.
• Unstable Isotope
• Added more information about the effects.
• Electrically Charged
• Added more information about the effects.
• Changed damage type to Energy.

C.A.M.P. Pets

• Fixed a bug that caused cats to not animate properly after interacting with it.

Caravans

• Players are now able to trade with Ineke and Theo to receive their tier rewards.
• Player is now able to buy and build floor variant of Persian Rug from Ineke.

Known Issues:

• Ogua and Mothman bait names are swapped in Windy’s bait selection. Opposite cryptid will spawn.
• Player is not given cryptid bait after selecting the Charisma option during Windy's quiz.

Combat Balancing

Updated loot for Weapon-Using Creatures (Raiders, Blood Eagles, Cultists, Mole Miners, Super Mutants, Scorched, and Lost):

• 20% chance to drop the player version of whichever weapon the enemy had equipped.
• When not dropping a weapon, Junk items will be dropped instead.
• This scales with level up to level 50.
• Dev Note: Level scaling on dropped Junk was also in the prior PTS update, but we wanted to mention it here for clarity.
• Increased amount of Steel that can be dropped.
• Added Ballistic Fiber (rare) and Rubber to the Junk list.
• The current list of possible scrap items that these Junk items can yield is as follows: Adhesive, Aluminum, Antiseptic, Asbestos, Ballistic Fiber, Bone, Cloth, Coppper, Cork, Crystal, Fiber Optics, Fiberglass, Gear, Glass, Gold, Lead, Leather, Oil, Plastic, Rubber, Screw, Silver, Spring, Steel, Wood.
• Made some adjustments to the counts for non-steel Junk items.
• Different kinds of Junk items will lean towards dropping from certain creature types (Raider, Cultist, Blood Eagle, Super Mutant, etc.)
• Dev Note: This is WIP and will probably be further adjusted later.
• When not dropping a weapon, Caps are also dropped. This scales up with level up to level 50.
• Enemies will also drop the player version of whichever grenade they had equipped.
• Dev Note: This occurs independently of whether the enemy drops a weapon or Junk.
• Addressed an issue where Raiders wouldn't drop Stimpaks and Pre-War Money.
• Addressed an issue where some enemies (particularly Scorched and Raiders) were restricted to dropping a lower count of items than expected.
• Dev Note: This change was in the prior PTS update.
• Adjusted the scrap yield for the following items: Adjustable Wrench, Alarm Clock, Ball-Peen Hammer, Baseball Glove, Bone Cutter, Bonesaw, Broken Light Bulb, Broom, Cafeteria Tray, Cake Pan, Colander, Combination Wrench, Cooking Pot, Dinner Plate, Empty Blood Pack, Empty Coolant, Enamel Bucket, Femur, Fishing Rod, Gear, Giddyup Buttercup Back Leg, Ladle, Left Foot Bones, Left Hand Bones, Microscope, Military Ammo Bag, Plunger, Restored Desk Fan, Right Foot Bones, Right Hand Bones, Rusty Canister, Skull, Surgical Tray, Test Tube Rack, Used Oil Can, Wrench.
• Dev Note: This also affects these loot items in all other cases where they can be found.

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PTS Update – 10/10

Two New Caravan Vendors Enter the Fray! 

Meet Windy, Milepost Zero’s resident Cryptid Hunter and Merchant

The thrill-seeking daughter of one Julia H. Park, Windy grew up obsessed with the stories and interviews her mother wrote for the Cryptid Hunter Monthly newsletter. Now she wants to take that passion for cryptids and bring it to Milepost Zero. All you need to do is recruit her.

Once recruited, Windy will provide you with Cryptid bait for a trial run of her cryptid summoning concoction. When using Windy’s bait, it will guarantee that the cryptid you’re trying to summon will appear during your next Caravan run. Want to fight Mothman? Windy has bait for that! Level her up and you’ll even be able to guarantee a fight against the Blue Devil itself!

Collector Murmrgh

After you have hired and upgraded all the base employees at Milepost Zero, Collector Murmrgh will become available for hire. With no additional upgrades needed, Collector Murmrgh will offer Mystery Boxes in exchange for supplies. These mystery boxes will contain rewards that range from RadX, Stimpaks, Legendary Weapons/Armor to Legendary Scrip, Treasury Notes and even outfits!

Patch Notes

Player Titles

• Tutorial for Player Titles has been added! This will pop up the first time you earn a Player Title.
• Player Titles have updated art when viewed in the Pip-Boy and inspected.
• Titles no longer reset when you log out of the game.

Caravans

• Windy

• Free Sheepsquatch bait, and other subsequent baits, only apply to large caravans. We are aware that messaging is missing for the first run .

• When the player receives bait, corresponding icons are missing on your pip boy.

• Destroying a bait removes it from your inventory, but still applies to your next Caravan.

• This blocks you from getting a different bait until after your next Large Caravan run.

• Collector Murmrgh

• To help you unlock Collector Murmrgh quickly, we’ve added supplies to the PTS locker. Stock up and spend them to unlock Murmrgh faster!

• Open the transfer menu with interacting with the locker to see them. If you need a refresh, fast travel away and back to Vaut 76.

• Miscellaneous

• Joanna does not appear again if player leaves game during the “Return to Owner” objective in “Bump in the Road” and begun the Marley and Joanna cutscene.

• Caravans may stall if players nuke Skyline Valley during a run.

• Players may lose the “hurry” prompt on a Brahmin if they fast travel from one caravan directly to another before starting it.

• Players are unable to trade with Ineke and Theo to receive their tier rewards. They are still able to upgrade the vendors to Tier 3 to unlock Collector Murmrgh.

Weapons and Armors

• Botsmith armor is now classified as Heavy Armor.

Perks

• Cap Collector
• Now applies to corpses
• Evade cooldown has been reduced to 1 second and is now increased by armor
• Light Armor: +0.1 second per piece
• Medium Armor: +0.2 seconds per piece
• Heavy Armor: +0.4 seconds per piece
• Deflect and Damage Reflection
• Fixed an issue where shotguns were reflecting more damage than intended
• Thru-Hiker
• Ranks reduced from 3 to 2
• Ranks adjusted to 45% and 90%

Combat Balancing

Increased the damage of the Hellstorm Missile Launcher:

• Projectile damage (all barrels): 120 -> 178
• (Hex Barrel damage is based on this and also will be increased proportionally)
• Standard Barrel explosion damage: 80 -> 178
• Cryo Payload explosion cryo damage: 78 -> 107
• Napalm Payload explosion fire damage: 78 -> 107
• Dev Note: Fire DoT is unchanged.
• Plasma Payload explosion energy damage: 78 -> 178

These values are at level 50. Lower-level values are similarly increased.

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PTS Update – 10/4 (good buddy)

The Gleaming Depths Raid

The Gleaming Depths raid is a new endgame activity designed to be faced by a party of four highly leveled and geared players. Each encounter is going to require your party to work together to overcome unique coop mechanics to overcome the bosses within. These bosses may also punish some types of character builds and we’re sure you’ll figure out which builds are more advantageous for each fight.

Unlike Daily Ops and Expeditions, which can be cleared solo if you have the correct build, the Gleaming Depths will require you and your squad to take on unique roles during the encounters and communicate with each other. To help facilitate communication, we’re also introducing a contextual Ping system to allow those who may not feel comfortable with being on voice comms to assist the team. When pointed towards a target, the ping system will mark hostile and friendly targets, points of interest, and containers.

When designing this activity, the team laid out five core features that will make raids different than other repeatable content like Daily Ops, Expeditions or World Bosses:

• Require Teamwork
• Challenge Endgame Builds
• Unique Boss Fights
• No Time Gating
• High Value Rewards

We’ve covered the first three bullet points in the opening paragraphs so now let’s cover the last two.

No time gating. Raids can be completed back-to-back without having to wait for a reset timer. With each encounter you clear you get rewards. This is important because completing these raid encounters will be your primary source of 4-Star Legendary Mods/Items as well as other raid related rewards.

To start the questline, go to the Gleaming Depths location in the Ash Heap (there’s a new Raid Map Marker to help guide you). Form your party of four and then enter the raid through the Ultracite Fissure.

If you run into any issues and need to restart the questline follow these steps: Pip Boy > Data > Gleaming Depths > Reject. After that, reenter the Gleaming Depths to pick the quest back up.

P.S. We’re aware that we’ve said nothing about the ACTUAL raid bosses. That’s because we want you to experience that for yourself!

If you’re someone who likes to record their gameplay, we’d love to see your first experience. Record it and tag @Fallout on X (formerly Twitter) so we can watch your clear. Surely, you’re going to one-shot it, right?

4-Star Legendary Items (And ENEMIES!)

With the release of the Gleaming Depths, we are expanding the current legendary system to take your 3-Star items and allow you turn them into 4-Star items. Opening a whole new avenue for you to modify your weapons and armor in ways that amplify your playstyle.

These 4-Star Legendary items will be obtainable as drops during the raid and they also have a chance to drop from the new 4-Star Legendary Creatures that will spawn around Appalachia.

4-Star Legendary Creatures are deadlier, faster, and tougher than the Legendary enemies that you’re used to. If you’re lucky (unlucky?) enough to come across one, you’ll also notice that they have new unique modifiers applied to them.
To give you an idea of the new mods that await you, here’s a 4-Star Legendary mod from the Weapon, Power Armor, and Armors category:

• 4-Star Legendary Weapon Effect: Critical Hits Restore 5% of Health & AP For Player & Teammates Within A 50m Radius
• 4-Star Legendary Power Armor Effect: Reflect 10% of Damage Received Back Towards Attacker (up to 50% on Full Stack)
• 4-Star Legendary Armor Effect: Melee Weapons Deal +5% Bonus Damage (up to +25% on Full Stack)

This all ties into the Legendary Crafting system that was introduced in Milepost Zero. If you have 4-Star Legendary Weapons and Armor, you’ll have a chance at obtaining a loose mod or learning the recipe when you scrap the item. Like Three-Star Mods, loose 4-Star Mods can be traded with other players. But the second you craft it on an item, that item becomes untradeable and you cannot drop it.

Combine the introduction of 4-Star Legendary items with the introduction of Raids and this is the largest expansion to our endgame yet!

Player Titles

Player Titles are a new way to express what’s unique about your Vault Dweller. Through your Pip-Boy, you can combine different prefixes and suffixes to come up with a nickname that suits you! Earnable from participating in Public Events, Limited Time Events, completing Main Quests, and Seasons, these unique titles will help you stand out from the crowd. The Gleaming Depths raid will also have its own set of titles that will be tied to Challenges.

For long-time players, any titles that are associated to content that you’ve already completed will be automatically granted to your account.

What you’ll see during the PTS and at Gleaming Depths release is just the start journey. Expect to see new titles in the future!

Please Note: You may need to reassign your title when you relog into the game. We have a fix in the works for this that will arrive in a future PTS update.

Patch Notes

Weapons and Armors

• Brotherhood Recon and Secret Service are now classified as Heavy Armor
• Civil Engineer, Arctic Marine, Marine Armor, and Trapper Armors are now classified as Medium Armor
• Covert Scout Armor, Solar Armor, Thorn Armor, Urban Scout Armor, Forest Scout Armor, and Wood Armors are now classified as Light Armor
• (PTS-only) Addressed an issue where Pulse Grenades would no-longer appear in the list of possible items when looting Lost.

Combat and Creatures

• Creatures that previously would use and thus drop player weapons on death (Scorched, Super Mutants, Mole Miners, Raiders, Cultists, Blood Eagles, Lost) now drop additional junk items.
• Addressed an issue where the Hack and Slash legendary perk would cause additional damage to the original target, rather than only deal that damage to other nearby targets.

C.A.M.P. Pets

· Known Issue: We're aware of C.A.M.P. Cats not following Vault Dwellers after interacting with them.

Perks

• Iron Stomach
• Now also increases Energy Resistance
• Natural Resistance
• No longer increases Energy Resistance
• First Aid
• Now affects Stimpak Diffuser
• Pharmacist
• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1
• New effect: Radiation healing scales with INT
• No longer required to craft Disease Cures or Water Filters
• Batteries Included
• Ranks reduced from 3 to 2
• Rank 1 now offers 45% weight reduction
• Rank 2 now offers 90% weight reduction
• Ordnance Express
• Ranks reduced from 3 to 2
• Rank 1 now offers 45% weight reduction
• Rank 2 now offers 90% weight reduction
• Deflect and Damage Reflection
• Added a limit to the amount of bonus damage that can be reflected based on armor to 4x the damage received. This is before the bonus from Power Armor and other effects. For example, while in Power Armor the limit would be 8x.

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PTS Update Notes - 9/30

C.A.M.P. Pets

Say hello to two new fuzzy friends who will help bring your C.A.M.P, to life! We’re excited to bring C.A.M.P. Pets to Fallout 76 starting with a Cat and a Dog. And yes, you can pet them.

You can find your C.A.M.P. Pet in the newly updated DWELLERS workshop tab and spawn them by placing the corresponding spawning furniture for the cat or dog - a cat bed and a doghouse.

Once placed, the animals will follow you around your C.A.M.P., idly walk, sit in their furniture and use their own cat scratcher or digging in their doggy bone mound. The latter furniture items must be placed before they will use them, and currently are found in the MISC workshop tab.

C.A.M.P. Pets will not follow you in the world - they are just that - a C.A.M.P. pet! You cannot have more than one at a time, but you can have one pet and one ally in your C.A.M.P.. They will not, however, be available in your Shelter.

To interact with your new friend, walk up to them and press the interaction buttons that you see when they are close. "Interact" for Pet Commands, "Customize" for Dress Up, and "Edit Name" to call them what you'd like (other players will NOT see your pet's name).

Through Pet Commands you can have them sit, speak, and of course, pet them through an emote style window.

Dress up your pet by crafting their collars at the Armor Workbench in the Headwear section, then use the "Customize" interaction to place them on your friend.

As well as being a cute dweller in your C.A.M.P., they will also bring you an item every so often! This Pet Treasure system allows your fuzzy friend to show their love for you by bringing you a little treat!

We hope you enjoy the C.A.M.P. Pet feature as much as we did creating it!

Keep an eye out for more pets in the future!

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Mutated Public Events Update

We’re making a change to the Mutated Public Events playlist by adding five public events each with two mutations to the playlist.

These events are:

• Campfire Tales: Volatile and Toxic Blood Mutations
• Free Range: Resilient and Swift-Footed Mutations
• Project Paradise: Active Camouflage and Resilient Mutations
• Beasts of Burden: Freezing Touch and Reflective Mutations
• Safe and Sound: Swift-Focused and Danger Cloud Mutations

During the PTS, these events will be on rotation so that you can provide us feedback on all these events.

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Perks Update

During Milepost Zero PTS testing and release, we made some focused changes to Vaccinated, Iron Stomach, Thirst Quencher, and Natural Resistance perks to make these generally underperforming cards more interesting and easier to incorporate into your builds. We did this by removing the extra ranks, lowering the cards cost, and changing the card’s effect to scale with the related primary stat.

In today’s PTS update, we’re continuing this process by modifying more Perk cards with the same design goals in mind. This batch of changes primarily focuses on Endurance cards, but you’ll also see some changes to a few cards in the other stat categories.

• Adamantium Skeleton

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Limb Damage Reduction effect now scales with END

• All Night Long

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Rank 1 Perk Point cost increased from 1 to 2

• New effect: The positive effects of pre-war alcohol last twice as long

• Bloodsucker

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Moved from CHA to END

• Rank 1 gains the effects of the former Rank 3

• Healing bonus increased from 150% to 200%

• Additional effect: Benefits now also apply to Cannibal

• Cannibal

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Increased the healing received and hunger restored at Rank 1

• Cap Collector

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Now applies to all containers, not just Cap Stashes

• New effect: The amount of Caps found scales with LCK

• First Aid

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Stimpak healing scales with INT

• Four Leaf Clover

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Misses in VATS contribute to the Critical Meter based on LCK

• Hard Bargain

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Rank 1 now grants +7 CHA while bartering with NPCs

• Junk Shield

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• Now works while in Power Armor

• Additional effect: Now also scales with LCK

• Lifegiver

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Improves HP gained from END

• Lone Wanderer

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: AP Regen and defense bonus based on CHA

• Night Eyes

• Removed requirement for the time of day

• Professional Drinker

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 2

• Ricochet

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Now increases Deflect chance based on LCK. Deflect grants a chance to reflect 100% of the damage of ranged attacks back to the attacker and reduces the damage you take from the attack by 50%. Deflect chance receives a bonus while wearing Heavy Armor or Power Armor (+50% multiplier). While in Power Armor, the amount of damage reflected is doubled (200%).

• Bullet Shield

• Moved from STR to END

• Added a 4th rank.

• New effect: 5% chance per rank to Deflect ranged attacks for 6 seconds when firing a heavy weapon.

• Serendipity

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New effect: Now increases Evade Chance while under 30% life, based on LCK. Evade provides a chance to avoid all incoming damage from direct attacks. Evade can happen once every 2 seconds and cannot happen when over encumbered or while in Power Armor.

• Evasive

• Ranks reduced from 3 to 1

• New Effect: Now increases Evade Chance based on AGI.

• Starched Genes

• Ranks reduced from 2 to 1

• Moved from LCK to END

• Rank 1 now provides the benefits of the former Rank 2

• Thru-Hiker

• Moved from AGI to END

Combat Balance

Adjustments to Explosion VFX

We’ve reduced the radius in which screen flash effects appear for a multitude of explosions throughout the game. This is purely a visual change and does not impact the radius in which damage is dealt except in the couple of cases noted below.

A few of these have had sizeable reductions (especially Fatman and Fatman MIRV explosions). Please be sure to provide feedback on whether these changes are sufficient in reducing unwanted screen flashing, if there’s any additional explosions that we should adjust, or if some explosions no-longer feel impactful and satisfying to use.

Player Weapons

• Artillery Piece (Workshop)
• Auto Grenade Launcher / M79
• Baseball Grenade
• Broadsider
• Bug Grenade
• Cryo Arrow
• Cryo Grenade
• Cryo Mine
• Explosions (all types) from weapons using the Explosive legendary mod
• Fatman
• Fatman MIRV (from individual projectiles)
• Flaming Arrow
• Floater Flamer Grenade
• Floater Freezer Grenade
• Frag Grenade
• Grand Finale (Broadsider)
• Hack and Slash (Legendary Perk)
• Hellstorm Missile Launcher
• Hellstorm Missile Launcher Cryo Payload
• Hellstorm Missile Launcher Napalm Payload
• Hellstorm Missile Launcher Plasma Payload
• Missile Launcher
• Missile Turret
• Nuka Grenade
• Also has a slight reduction to the damage radius to differentiate from Nuka Quantum Grenades.
• Nuka Quantum Grenade
• Also has a slight increase to the damage radius to differentiate from Nuka Grenades.
• Dev Note: Adjustments to the size of the explosion VFX to better match the radius in which the explosion deals damage will occur at a later date.
• Orbital Strike Beacon
• Plasma Grenade
• Power Armor Explosive Vents
• Pulse Grenade
• Troglocide

NPC Weapons and Environmental Effects

NPCs’ use of player weapons listed above will also be affected.

• Exploding Cars & other Civilian Vehicles
• Explosive Rounds from Turrets
• Floater Freezer Death
• Fusion Core Meltdown (Robots)
• Gas Canisters
• Invaders from Beyond UFO Missile Strikes
• Mole Rat Landminer
• Robot Death Explosion
• Scorched Exterminator Plasma Launcher
• Super Mutant Suicider Mini-Nuke
• Turret Death Explosion
• Various destructible objects such as machinery in Grafton Steel and The Foundry (The Pitt)
• Vertibird Death Explosion
• Vertibot Death Explosion

Weapons

We have made changes to Damage and AP Costs for many weapons which primarily focuses on improving cases where weapons don’t perform well enough to meet players’ expectations.

Damage Buffs

These values represent the weapon at its maximum level (45 or 50, depending on the weapon). Lower-level values have similar increases in damage.

This list represents an early pass on many non-automatic and single-shot weapons, including Shotguns, Revolvers, Rifles, and Bows. Please be sure to provide feedback on these changes as we intend to make follow-up adjustments as needed.

Damage for the following weapons has been increased:

• 10mm Pistol: 28 -> 31
• 44 (Revolver): 60 -> 72
• Black Powder Pistol: 176 -> 216
• Black Powder Rifle: 180 -> 217
• Bow: 90 -> 95
• Cold Shoulder: 115/75 -> 91/91
• Combat Shotgun: 90 -> 97
• Compound Bow: 100 -> 112
• Crossbow: 70 -> 111
• Double Barrel Shotgun: 115 -> 140
• Gauss Rifle: 140 -> 146
• Gauss Shotgun: 140 -> 187
• Dev Note: We recognize that the initial update to the Gauss Shotgun (originally 105 -> 140) was not sufficient in making up for damage lost with the earlier change to how explosions’ damage is calculated. We’ll continue to observe this weapon’s performance and will make further updates if needed to ensure that it meets expectations.
• Harpoon Gun: 175 -> 195
• Hunting Rifle: 70 -> 100
• Lever Action Rifle: 75 -> 88
• Pepper Shaker: 60 -> 75
• Pipe Bolt-Action: 70 -> 94
• Pipe Gun: 26 -> 28
• Pipe Revolver 55 -> 70
• Pump Action Shotgun 95 -> 102
• Salvaged Assaultron Head: 50 -> 62
• Single Action Revolver 62 -> 82
• The Dragon: 225 -> 255
• Western Revolver: 65 -> 84

Weapon Mod Adjustments

Adjusted the damage for the Beta Wave Tuner and Gamma Wave Emitter mods for the following weapons:

• Laser Gun
• Reduced DoT damage
• Reduced fire damage
• Ultracite Laser Gun
• Reduced DoT damage
• Reduced fire damage
• Gatling Laser
• Increased DoT damage
• Reduced fire damage
• Ultracite Gatling Laser
• Reduced DoT damage at level 35
• Reduced fire damage
• Plasma Gun
• Reduced DoT damage

Dev Note: While these weapons are still being evaluated for overall balance, these particular mods over-shot the current target for fire damage mods (especially when taking into account the recent adjustments to creature health and resistances) and are being brought in line with similar mods for other weapons. This allows for more consistency among weapons and mods when making future changes.

AP Cost Reductions

AP costs for the following weapons have been reduced:

• 10mm SMG: 28 -> 14
• Dev Note: The Anchorage Ace no-longer gains an additional AP cost benefit beyond the Reflex Sight’s 15% reduction.
• .50 Cal Machine Gun: 30 -> 12
• Auto Grenade Launcher: 30 -> 18
• Broadsider: 40 -> 18
• Cremator: 30 -> 20
• Cryolator: 20 -> 10
• Fat Man: 60-> 40
• Flamer: 30 -> 10
• Gatling Gun: 30 -> 14
• Gatling Laser: 30 -> 8
• Gatling Plasma: 30 -> 14
• Gauss Minigun: 30 -> 14
• Harpoon Gun: 40 -> 18
• Hellstorm Missile Launcher: 45 -> 20
• Light Machine Gun: 32 -> 10
• M79 Grenade Launcher: 30 -> 16
• Minigun: 30 -> 8
• Missile Launcher: 45 -> 25
• Pepper Shaker: 30 -> 14
• Plasma Caster: 30 -> 18
• Ultracite Gatling Laser: 30 -> 10

Mutations

• Addressed an issue where the Eagle Eyes mutation would gain twice the intended benefit from the Strange in Numbers perk.
• Dev Note: The effect of this mutation was originally reduced in an earlier update, but the effect of the Mutation with the Strange in Numbers version perk had not been updated at that time. This change brings Eagle Eyes in line with expectations for how Strange in Numbers affects mutations.
• Addressed an issue where the increased hunger/thirst penalty of the Speed Demon mutation had no effect.
• Addressed an issue where the effects of the Class Freak perk, the Speed Demon Serum's impact on negative mutation effects, and RadX's effect on suppressing the effects of Speed Demon were not properly represented in the Pip-Boy.
• Addressed an issue where the Speed Demon mutation would also count as the Empath mutation for reducing damage dealt to teammates.
• Dev Note: Alongside the other Empath bugs, this was causing a 33% reduction in all damage taken and a further 33% reduction to explosion damage taken while on a team – so long as a fellow teammate was using the Speed Demon mutation.
• Addressed an issue where the Empath mutation's damage reduction for teammates was twice as effective as intended for explosion damage.
• Addressed an issue the Empath mutation's increase to damage taken would cause twice as much additional explosion damage as expected.
• Addressed an issue where the Empath mutation's increase to damage taken would be affected by the Strange in Numbers perk.
• Addressed an issue where the Empath mutation had a stronger decrease to teammates' damage taken than expected - as if the Strange in Numbers perk was always active, regardless of whether the Empath user had Strange in Numbers equipped.
• Addressed an issue where the Twisted Muscles mutation wasn't affected by the Strange In Numbers perk.
• Addressed an issue where the Twisted Muscles mutation had a much lower than intended chance to cripple enemies.
• Addressed an issue where the Twisted Muscles mutation had no effect for Unarmed weapons.

Creatures

These enemies previously shared weapons with players and now use enemy-specific variants of those weapons. As a result, these weapons can no-longer be looted after those enemies are killed. To make up for the loss of these items, we’ll be making adjustments to creature loot and scrap-to-learn chance for non-legendary mods in a later update during this PTS.

The types of health, damage, and resistance adjustments mentioned in the creatures below have also been applied to other creatures as part of earlier updates. We’ve included additional information here to help provide a better understanding of the changes being made.

Balance adjustments have been made for the following creatures:

• All creatures previously using player weapons (Blood Eagles, Cultists, Lost, Mole Miners, Raiders, Scorched, Super Mutants):
• Weapon damage now scales to level 100.
• Dev Note: As these creatures previously used player weapons, their damage would only scale to level 45 or 50.
• Thrown grenades now scale with level.
• Dev Note: This currently only applies to enemies using grenades. Damage from player grenades is unchanged.
• Health, resistances, and damage now scale more smoothly from level 1 to level 100.
• Dev Note: These creatures will generally be less threatening at mid-level (especially 35-75) but should be a bit tougher towards level 100. In some cases at lower level, these creatures may be slightly weaker or stronger in order to ensure that they’re appropriately engaging even when first met.
• Power Armor variants’ resistances now scale more appropriately at differing levels.
• Dev Note: These creatures previously would gain a flat bonus from Power Armor at all levels and thus could be unexpectedly tough at low-to-mid level.
• Resistances differentiated between Blood Eagles, Cultists, and Raiders.
• Now relies more on health as the primary driver of survivability rather than resistances.
• Dev Note: Resistances are being used to differentiate damage types rather than as a substitute for health. This has the side benefit of showing higher damage numbers when attacking these creatures which more closely match the weapons being used.
• No-longer gains a variable amount of resistances based on randomized armor.
• Floater Freezer
• Slightly lowered the duration of the slow effect on the freezing breath attack.
• Reduced the rate at which the slow effect accumulates for the freezing breath attack.
• Reduced damage for the freezing breath attack.
• Reduced the cryo damage for the blast/stare/shockwave attack (the one which also deals fusion core damage).
• Floater Flamer
• Reduced damage for the fire breath attack.
• Floater gnasher
• Reduced damage for the bite attack.
• Alien Invader
• Reduced health
• Reduced damage in Daily Ops.
• Lesser Devil
• Increased damage.
• Bloodbug
• Reduced radiation damage at lower levels.

Magazines

The following Magazines have been updated. For the most part, these are direct increases to the Magazines’ effects.

• Astoundingly Awesome Tales 7: +25 max AP, up from +5.
• Astoundingly Awesome Tales 10: +35% more damage with scoped weapons while aiming, previously +15% without needing to aim.
• Dev Note: This magazine now specifically offers its benefit to weapons fired using manual aim and does not affect VATS.
• Backwoodsman 2: Name and cover art updated to match effect.
• Dev Note: This is a purely cosmetic change for the magazine’s name and cover. It was previously swapped with Backwoodsman 7 (see below).
• Backwoodsman 6: Now only affects healing from cooked foods, rather than all effects from cooked food.
• Backwoodsman 7 (name and cover art updated to match effect): Now affects all thrown weapons (Sheepsquatch Shard, Tomahawk, Throwing Knife, Meat Cleaver) instead of just Tomahawks.
• Live and Love 1: +25 max HP while on a team, up from 10.
• Live and Love 3: Now only affects healing from fruits & veggies, rather than all effects from fruits & veggies.
• Live and Love 6: +25 damage resistance while on a team, up from 10.
• Grognak the Barbarian 3: +25 poison resistance, up from 15.
• Grognak the Barbarian 8: +25 cryo resistance (Charisma no-longer required), instead of +2 damage resistance per point of Charisma.
• Grognak the Barbarian 9: +25 carry weight, up from +10.
• Grognak the Barbarian 10: +25 energy resistance, up from +15.
• Tesla Science 6: +75 radiation resistance, up from +15.
• Guns and Bullets 6: +75 damage resistance at night, up from +10 damage resistance at night.
• Now occurs slightly later at night to match Nocturnal and other night-time effects.
• Scout's Life 3: Now reduces all items' weight by 10%, instead of +10 carry weight.
• Scout's Life 9: Now provides +25 fire resistance, instead of -80% camp placement cost.
• US Covert operations Manual 1: +50 damage resistance while sneaking, up from +10 while sneaking.

Backwoodsman 6 and Live and Love 3 far exceeded the intended level of benefit for magazines and have been adjusted to match their original effect of boosting Healing from food items. Backwoodsman 6’s prior change in the Once in a Blue Moon update had been made in error, and we apologize for the confusion.

Prior to this update, these magazines boosted all foods effects, including (but not limited) to Carry Weight, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, VATS Critical Attack damage, etc.

The effects of these magazines will be further adjusted if needed in future updates.

Bugfixes & Miscellaneous Adjustments

• Addressed an issue where Super Mutant Suiciders wouldn't drop mini-nukes. They now have a small chance to drop a mini-nuke when killed without exploding.
• Addressed an issue where the Health and Resistances for the Scorchbeast Queen, Ultracite Titan, and Wendigo Colossus/Earle weren’t using updated values.
• Addressed an issue where Shotgun durability was much higher than expected as a result of an earlier change.
• Dev Note: Shotguns previously would lose durability per-pellet instead of per-shot, and shotgun durability had not yet been updated to match the much-lower durability impact after the change. Please be sure to provide feedback on this change, especially if you feel that Shotguns no-longer have durability that’s comparable to other weapons.
• Addressed an issue where NPCs using Laser Rifles can occasionally deal unexpectedly high damage.
• Dev Note: This occurred when those NPCs were using Laser Rifles with Sniper barrels which will charge over time when not being fired in order to deal more damage on the next shot. These mods have been removed from NPC-specific Laser Rifles.
• Addressed an issue where Tormentor perk had no effect for automatic weapons.
• Addressed an issue where weapons other than Shotguns could be affected by the Enforcer perk in specific circumstances.

PTS Only

• PTS players will have all Perk Loadout and Camp Slots by default
• PTS players will now be able to access their shelters

General

• Benefits to buy and sell prices at NPC vendors from CHA is no longer capped at 25 and now scales all the way to 100.
• Fixed missing text for some Lunchbox effects
• Damage delt by Damage Reflection effects is now scaled by DR
• Fixed a case where Perk Cards could be incorrectly unequipped when logging in
• A dialogue box is now shown if any Perk Cards were unequipped during log in
• Updated the scrap confirm dialogue box to provide more information about the item being scrapped
• Quantity of the item being scrapped. This also applies to creating items
• If any mods can be learned from scrapping
• The complete item name is now displayed correctly

Weapons and Armors

• Civil Unrest and Bunker Buster no longer incorrectly display as a 5-star Legendary weapon
• Added item tags for the following headwear item types
• Bandana
• Mask
• Gasmask
• Hat
• Added item tag for Heavy, Medium, and Light Armor
• Added item tag for Improvised weapons
• Thirst Zapper
• Quad Legendary Mod now works correctly with the Thirst Zapper
• Karma Syringer
• Updated effect description
• Gatling Plasma
• Now deals split damage similar to other plasma weapons

Weapon and Armor Mods

• Adamantium
• Fixed an issue where multiple armor parts with this effect did not stack
• The following are no longer consider Costumes
• Vault 63 Riot Control Helmet
• Burnt Vault 63 Riot Control Helmet
• Vault 63 Recon Helmet
• Burnt Vault 63 Recon Helmet
• Vault 63 Security Helmet
• Burnt Vault 63 Security Helmet
• Handmade
• Fixed an issue where Handmade Rifle Reflex Sight (Circle) mod would not display in players inventory
• Gatling Plasma
• New mod plans added are tradable
• Updated Beam Splitter to work similar to other splitter mods
• Now fires +4 projectiles instead of flame projectiles
• New: Flamer Nozzle (Scrap to Learn)
• Converts weapon to flamer style weapon
• New: Accelerated Nozzle (Find Plans)
• Increased fire rate
• New: Gamma Wave Emitter (Find Plans)
• Adds burning damage
• Converts some damage into Fire
• New: Calibrated Capacitor (Find Plans)
• Adds Crit Damage
• New: Large Core Receptacle (Find Plans)
• Increases ammo capacity
• New: Stinging Core Receptacle (Find Plans)
• Armor Penetration
• New: Swift Core Receptacle (Find Plans)
• Reload Speed
• War Drum
• No longer uses Tin Cans in crafting
• Added Steel and Lead requirements for crafting

Food and Aid Items

• Herd Mentality Serum
• Updated description to indicate proximity to teammates is irrelevant
• Bobblehead: Medicine
• Now benefits the Team Medic Perk
• Spiked Venison and Tato Stew
• No longer incorrectly gains a damage buff from Slow Metabolizer

Legendary Mods

• When scrapping items, the Legendary Mods that can be received or learned are now listed
• Fixed an issue where CHA, INT, and LCK Legendary Mods could not be found on weapons
• Legendary Mods in the Tinker Bench are now split into groups by star count
• Two Shot
• Hid the accuracy and recoil details in the description text. They are still visible within the workbench menu. Dev Note: These parameters weren’t very quantitative and cluttered the effect description.
• Durability
• Now grants +50 Durability to the item

Accessibility

A suite of new accessibility features are coming to the game with this update!

When you enter the game for the first time, you’ll be presented with the Accessibility Menu that includes the new settings. This will only appear once and if you need to change any of these settings in the future, go to Settings > Accessibility.

Speech-to-Text

Turning Speech-to-Text ON will add a new message window to the UI that will transcribe all voice communication from other players in the area.

Message Window Fade Time – Changes how long the message window stays on screen after the last message has been received.

Message Window Visibility – Changes the transparency of the message window.

Text-to-Speech

• Turning Text-to-Speech ON will allow players to type text into the message window and have that text converted into audible speech for other players in the area who have Text-to-Speech ON.
• Text-to-Speech Voice – Allows you to choose between a masculine or feminine voice type.
• Chat Volume – Allows you to adjust the volume of the incoming text-to-speech audio.

Screen Narration

• When the setting is ON, you’ll hear the audible description of emotes from other players in the area. For example: “[Player] wants to team up!”

UI Navigation

• Digital Input
• Several screens relied completely on analog stick input and that has been addressed to allow keyboard control on PCs and d-pad control on consoles. This includes the Challenges, Scoreboard, Map, and Character Creation screens.
• Analog Input
• Several screens didn’t support analog inputs to navigate the UI, so that analog functionality has been added to the Favorites Wheel and Social Panel.
• Single Key Presses
• Fast Travel Countdown Cancel – Now allows a single button command to cancel the fast travel instead of clicking both the left and right analog sticks.
• Social Menu – Allows a single button command to enter the Social Menu instead of having to hold CTRL-TAB on PC.

How to Participate in the PTS

All players who own a copy of Fallout 76 on Steam can participate in our PTS. Please note that progress from the PTS does not carry over into the live game. The Atomic Shop is also disabled during this testing period.

To install the PTS, open your Steam library, and install “Fallout 76 Public Test Server”.