Inside the Vault – Protect Appalachia Public Test Server Release Notes

The next major update for Fallout 76 is ready for you to jump into. This time, we have dangerous new endgame content for those who are prepared to adventure around and protect the Wasteland. Enemy factions have found weakness in some of the residents of well-known locations around the map, and they’ve decided it’s time for them to start taking over. Leaving behind an Appalachia that has become infested with locations that are now overran with by these powerful enemies. It’s up to you to clear them up and earn some new rewards along the way.Read on to get the full breakdown on what’s available to play in this Public Test Server (PTS) period.

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”. As a general reminder, not all the content you see in the PTS is guaranteed to be released with the update that we’re testing.

PTS Testing Features

Before we dive into the new content coming with this update, we’re adding some new tools to help make testing in the PTS easier.Leveling PotionsAdded leveling options that will increase the level of the character that drinks it. This can be used on existing and newly created characters, and the potions can be found in the PTS locker. Currency and Ammo CratesTwo new crates that grant currency and ammo to assist in testing needs. Once obtained from the PTS Locker, the crates can be found in the MISC category of your Pip-Boy.

Infestations

Infestations are a new form of end-game content meant to reward those who explore the map and challenge experienced players with high-stakes combat and provide new unique 4-Star Legendary rewards.Infestations must be discovered as you’re exploring the world, which means they won’t be marked on the Paper Map or flagged in your Pip-Boy until you discover one. They’re organic encounters and you’ll know you have walked into an infested area because the enemies you would expect to be there have been pushed out and a new faction has taken their place.

Infestation Locations

Infestations can happen at locations across the Toxic Valley, Forest, Ash Heap, Savage Divide, Mire, and Cranberry Bog regions. Multiple Infestations can be active across Appalachia at any given time, but if nobody comes to clear them the faction infesting the area will clear out and head off to another area.Exploring Appalachia is the best way to find these Infestation locations.

Infestation Enemies

When an infestation takes over a location the enemies that usually ruled that area are pushed out and overtaken by a new faction. At launch, the Blood Eagles, Cultists, PRC Ghouls, Mole Miners, Scorched, Super Mutants, and Robots all have the chance of being the new ruling faction in the area.These new enemies will hit harder and be tougher to take down. There will also be accompanied by an elite-level boss.Each Infestation boss will have their own unique weapon and be afflicted by a random Mutation to alter the fight even further. If you’re heading out to find an Infestation, make sure you’re well geared and ready for a fight.More factions may also find their way into infesting Appalachia in the future.

Infestation Rewards

While clearing an Infestation you should expect to get standard loot from the lower-tier faction enemies, but defeating the Infestation boss is where the big rewards come in.Beating the Infestation boss will give you a guaranteed 3-Star item and a high chance of a 4-Star Legendary weapon or armor piece. This update will also introduce new 4-Star mods that can only be obtained through Infestations gameplay. The 4-Star weapons and armor you get from participating have a chance to have these mods attached.Here’s a sneak peek at two of the exclusive Infestation 4-Star Mods:

• Vector (Armor Mod): Increase accuracy in V.A.T.S. from a very long distance by 10% (up to 50%)

• Tarnished (Weapon Mod): The lower the equipped item condition, the greater the weapon damage (up to 120%).

Teaming Up

While Infestations can be cleared solo, if you’re extremely well prepared, they are meant to be challenging and become way more manageable with a team. If you want to hunt for Infestations with a team, make sure to create or join an Exploration Public Team.If a member of your team finds an Infestation all other group members will receive a popup asking if they would like to Fast Travel to their teammate’s location. This allows you to cover way more area in your quest to find and clear out these Infestations.

Infestations Testing Plans

During the start of the PTS Infestations will be activated at a higher rate than they will be in the live game to give you more opportunities to test the content. The first week of PTS testing will have the highest number of Infestations potentially active and then we will bring the number of active Infestations closer to the value we intend to launch with over time.

Known Issues

• Hold to join on controller (d-pad down) doesn't work.

• Leaving an infestation as a party will cause the world activity callout to be removed and it doesn't come back when you rejoin.

• Being on the map and trying to fast travel from the world activities as someone finds an infestation will cause the infestation world activity to not allow a player to fast travel to it.

Deathclaw C.A.M.P. Pet

Prepare to welcome a new friend into your C.A.M.P. Our next C.A.M.P. Pet will be a Deathclaw. One of the most dangerous and scariest creatures in Wasteland will now be able to make a home in your C.A.M.P.The Deathclaw C.A.M.P. Pet will be available for testing during this PTS. You’ll immediately notice that it is the largest C.A.M.P. Pet we’ve added to the game, so we want to know where it does and doesn’t fit. So, make sure to share your feedback on this dangerously adorable creature.Important Note: The Deathclaw C.A.M.P. Pet will only be obtainable through a purchase when it releases alongside this update.

Accessing Your Deathclaw C.A.M.P. Pet

The Deathclaw C.A.M.P. Pet can be found in your Allies/Dwellers menu in the Workshop.

New Seasonal Fish

If you need a break from clearing out Infestations, you can try your luck at catching some of our new seasonal fish. We have plans to add new and unique fish that you can only catch during the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter seasons. For this PTS, we will be focusing on Summer Fish. This will also come with new fishing challenges and rewards for you to obtain.These new fish can’t be turned into Fish Bits like the other Appalachian fish though. That’s because they can be used to craft new seasonal food recipes. We’re not going to cover what the recipes are, what advantages they provide, or the locations for these new fish here. Our hope is that you’ll be able to discover all that on your own.If you do want a little hint on where to start looking, head over to Fisherman’s Rest and find a note from Captain Raymond.

Known Issue

“Casting Off” Wont’ Progress Past “Listen to Linda-Lee Shortwave Signal”We have a known issue where the “Casting Off” quest looks like it won’t progress past the “Listen to the Linda-Lee Shortwave Signal” objective after tuning into the broadcast. Heading to Fisherman’s Rest will progress the quest forward.

Armor

Thank you all for your feedback on the Armor changes that arrived in The Backwoods update. The team has some changes that will be arriving in the Live game later this month, but you’ll see it first here in this PTS. The changes below will:

• Make sure armor breaks in a more consistent and predictable manner.

• Slow down the speed at which armor breaks.

• Change armor condition loss so it mostly happens when armor is preventing damage.

• Make it so increasing your max HP now makes your limbs last longer before breaking.

Armor Changes

• Reduced the amount of condition damage taken for all player armor.

• Reduced the condition damage dealt to armor (and Power Armor) when the player deals damage to themselves.

• Addressed issues where armor condition would degrade based on health damage taken rather than the health damage the armor piece prevented.

  • This improves cases where armor penetration effects or enemies dealing high damage relative to armor resistances would result in unexpectedly high armor condition damage.

  • Conversely, cases where player armor is mitigating more of the incoming damage will mean more of that incoming damage is converted into armor condition damage.

  • This effectively means that most of the condition damage dealt to armor now occurs when the armor is actually mitigating incoming damage.

• Fixed a case where percentage reductions to damage could apply to Power Armor condition damage.

• Fixed a case where armor condition damage from multi-projective attacks (Shotguns, etc.) were handled differently between Power Armor and regular armor.

• Addressed some cases where certain armor sets would take condition damage unexpectedly fast relative to other armor (Wood armor is a prime example).

Perks

• Retribution now works with Defender’s mod.

Weapons

• Updated the following weapons with new Legendary Mods and effects. Existing items will gain new effects, but their Legendary Mods will not change.

  • Gutter

  • Vampires

  • (NEW) Inertial

  • (NEW) Ghost’s

  • (NEW) Implicit Poision Damage

  • V63-HELGA

  • (NEW) Penetrates targets.

• Fixed an issue where certain damage bonuses would be much stronger than intended.

Light Machine Guns

We have added and updated mods for this weapon. Reminder, there is always a chance that some of these mods might not release with this update, but we wanted to give you all the opportunity to try these out and provide feedback. The PTS locker will have what you need to create the mods.The following Light Machine Gun mods are now available via scrap-to-learn, as well as loose mods in quest rewards.Savage Divide quest rewards

• Light Machine Gun Stub Barrel

• Light Machine Gun Bruising Stock

• Light Machine Gun Stabilized Stock

Cranberry Bog quest rewards:

• Light Machine Gun Long Barrel

• Light Machine Gun Large Magazine

• Light Machine Gun Muzzle Brake

Explosion Damage

• Explosions now retain more of their damage when not directly hitting the target.

• Explosions from multi-projectile attacks (Gauss Shotgun, Two-Shot + Explosive legendary mods, etc.) should now retain more of their damage when facing enemies with high resistances.

• Bonuses to explosion damage (Demolition Expert, Bobblehead: Explosive, etc.) are no-longer skipped for self-damage.

  • Dev Note: The global reduction in Self damage is still present and unaffected by this change.

PVP Damage

• Fixed an issue where multi-projectile attacks (Shotguns, etc.) could kill other players much faster than expected.

  • Dev Note: This only affects damage dealt by a player when attacking another player.

Legendary Mods

• Diver’s

  • Changed effect to “Regenerate Health While in Water +3 HP/s”.

Workbench

• The confirmation UI when making items now organizes items and ingredients into groups. Components are still itemized.

• Crafting prompts that ask if you are sure now have a “Don’t ask again” option.

Radiation Resistance

Radiation Resistance (specifically resistance to Radiation Exposure - not resistance to radiation damage incurred from ingesting food/drink items) is now much more effective. This includes the Radiation Exposure resistance from all Armor, Power Armor, Armor mods, Power Armor mods, Legendary Mods, various Food/Drink/Chem/Magazine/etc. items (many of which have been buffed - see below), etc. Enemies' resistance to incoming Radiation damage will also be affected by this change, and it helps pave the way for us to explore reducing Radiation Immunity on many enemies (and also explore more ways for players to deal Radiation damage) in future updates.Reaching 1500-2500 Radiation resistance will now dramatically reduce the incoming radiation damage from heavier environmental radiation such as Nuke Zones. This is not a hard threshold, so you can pack on as much Radiation resistance as you can muster, and it'll continue to reduce the effect of environmental radiation.Dev Note: We're expecting the possibility of additional tuning for Radiation effects during this PTS, so please be sure to provide as much feedback as possible.

Items with Radiation Resistance

• Nuka-Orange: Radiation Exposure Resistance +25 -> +50

• RadShield: Radiation Exposure Resistance +300 -> +600

• RadShield can no-longer be repeatedly consumed to stack the effect.

• Glowing Blood Pack can no-longer be repeatedly consumed to stack the effect.

• Irradiated Blood Pack can no-longer be repeatedly consumed to stack the effect.

• Rad-X: Radiation Exposure Resistance +600 -> +300

  • Dev Note: This will still be stronger than its previous effect due to the aforementioned Radiation Exposure Resistance change.

• Rad-X: Diluted: Radiation Exposure Resistance +250 -> +125

  • Dev Note: This will still be stronger than its previous effect due to the aforementioned Radiation Exposure Resistance change.

• Soot Flower Herb Paste Radiation Exposure Resistance 20 -> 25

• Glowing Fungus Soup: Radiation Exposure Resistance 20 -> 25

• Steeped Strangler Pod Tea: Radiation Exposure Resistance 20 -> 25

• Steeped Strangler Bloom Tea: Radiation Exposure Resistance 20 -> 25

• Mirelurk Cake With Bloodleaf Aioli: Radiation Exposure Resistance +25 -> +50

• Bloatfly Loaf: Radiation Exposure Resistance +25 -> +50

• Tesla Science 6: +15 -> +100

Player Ghoul

• Player Ghouls now convert 20% (up from 15%) of post-resist Radiation Exposure damage to health (before converting to Glow when at full health).

• Unified how Player Ghouls gain Glow from sources of Radiation damage. 25% of post-resist Radiation damage is converted to Glow when at full health.

  • 10% -> 25%: Most ambient radiation from enemies.

  • 40% -> 25%: Most sources of irradiated water.

  • 35% -> 25%: Gamma Gun self damage.

  • 10% -> 25%: Most enemy attacks with Radiation damage

  • 50% -> 25%: The Pitt, Grafton Dam, Glassed Caverns, Power Plants, Black mountain Ordnance Works, Flooded Trainyard, various irradiated flora, etc.

  • 15% -> 25%: Eviction Notice Rad Scrubber, Emmett Mountain Disposal Site, various barrels with Nuclear Waste, various areas Ash Heap, etc.

  • 30% -> 25%: Certain locations in Missile Silos, Project Paradise

Weapons with Radiation Damage

• Adjusted the Gamma Gun to only deal Radiation damage.

  • Dev Note: We're expecting to need to tune this over time as enemy Radiation Resistances/Immunities are adjusted.

Environmental Radiation

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (4 -> 5): Water in parts of Atlantic City, Radstorms, etc.

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (7 -> 10): Most areas with irradiated water, Dyer Chemical, Power Plants, The Pitt, Scorched Statues, various Radiation Barrels, ambient radiation in Eviction Notice, etc.

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (11 -> 20): Car Explosion, Pitcher Plant, various Toxic Vents/etc.

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (21 -> 35): Vault 94 G.E.C.K. Wing, Water in parts of Vault 94, parts of Project Paradise, Fissure Sites, Gauley Mine, Power Plants, the trenches in The Pitt Heart of the Swamp, many locations with deep water, Blackwater Mine, Flooded Trainyard, Glassed Caverns, Black Mountain Ordnance Works, Irradiated Thistle, Bomb Berry, Undetonated Bomb C.A.M.P. item, Chemistry Set C.A.M.P. item, etc.

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (35) -> 45): Radstorm Radiation in The Pitt, waste water in Power Plants, etc.

• Increased the magnitude of these effects (40) -> 75): Parts of Project Paradise, Atlantic City, the Foundry Smelter C.A.M.P. item, a couple of spots near Nuka-World on Tour, West Tek, Ash Heap, Federal Disposal Field HZ-21, various locations with barrels of radioactive waste, etc.

• Increased the magnitude of Radiation effects in Seismic Activity (7 -> 10, 11 -> 20, and 21 -> 35, depending on how far along the event has progressed).

• Increased the magnitude of Nuclear Fallout Radiation (outside of burning springs): 40 -> 75

• Increased the magnitude of Nuclear Fallout Radiation in Burning Springs: 40 -> 45

• Increased the magnitude of the Radiation effect during the quest to become a Ghoul: 600 -> 900

Enemies

• Unified how Feral Ghouls and Glowing Ones heal from incoming Radiation damage - they now absorb 25% of post-resistance Radiation damage.

• Removed Radiation Healing from Feral Lost - these were only meant to be immune to radiation.

• Increased Bloodbug Spit radiation damage.

• Increased Tick Spit radiation damage.

• Increased Radtoad Spit radiation damage.

• Increased the radiation damage from Irene The Irradiated's version of the Unstable Isotope mutation. Changed the effect slightly to avoid excessive radiation damage if the effect occurs too frequently.

• Increased Scorched Mirelurk melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Scorched Fog Crawler melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Radstag melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Mirelurk Queen melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Mutant Hound melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Radscorpion melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Radroach melee attack radiation damage.

• Increased Radiation damage from Glowing Ones.

• Increased Scorchbeast (and Scorchbeast queen) strafe attack radiation damage

• Slightly increased the ambient Radiation damage aura from Radscorpions, Mole Rats, Yao Guai, Radstags, Mutant Hounds, many Glowing enemy variants, Vicious Mongrels, Stingwings, Bloodbugs, Mirelurk Queen, Mirelurk Hunters, Mirelurk Crabs, Mirelurk Kings, Bloatflies, Radhogs, etc.

Misc Changes

• Addressed some inconsistencies with the HUD radiation indicator that may have caused it to display incorrect values from time to time.

Additional Notes

• Fixed an issue where Robots in Daily Ops weren't immune to poison damage.

• Fixed an issue where the Cryo Frame mod for the crossbow was dealing less cryo damage than expected.

• The Grenadier perk's expanded radius bonus will now affect the damage radius for explosive projectiles (Gauss weapons, Explosive Legendary Mod, etc.)

  • Dev Note: This should already be working as expected for explosive launcher weapons such as Missile/Grenade Launchers.

• Dissipating Armor mods now recover Rads at a constant rate (this is a significant increase to the recovery rate in some cases).

• Fixed a case where increasing player max health wasn’t resulting in proportionally hardier limbs.