Fallout 76 is an online prequel where every surviving human is a real person. Work together, or not, to survive. Under the threat of nuclear annihilation, you'll experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe.

Reclamation Day, 2102. Twenty-five years after the bombs fall, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers — chosen from the nation's best and brightest — emerge into post-nuclear America. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland's greatest threats.

Back in Dec. 2018, Bethesda briefly mentioned a new, more dangerous mode, which is separate from the main game and has fewer restrictions on player-versus-player (PVP) experiences. Dubbed “Survival” this mode will be coming to Fallout 76 in a future update, and we’ve got a few more details for you today.

Since the launch of Fallout 76, we’ve received lots of feedback from some of our more competitive players who requested greater challenge, fewer restrictions, and more incentives when it comes to PVP combat. With this in mind, we began developing Survival mode, which will bring a new way for you to engage in even more demanding, high-stakes, and deadly adventures in Fallout 76. We’re still hard at work on this mode internally and plan to bring it to the live game in phases as we add more content and features over time. Here’s a preview of what you can expect from Survival when phase 1 opens for beta testing.

After hitting Play from the Main Menu, you’ll be able to choose whether you’d like to play Adventure mode, which is Fallout 76 as you know it today, or the new Survival mode. The same quests, events, and story that you’re used to in Adventure mode will all remain available in Survival, but you’ll have to navigate them under the ever-looming threat of hostile dwellers who may be hiding just around the corner.

You’re free to create new characters for Survival mode, and encouraged to do so, but you can also use your existing ones. If you do take on Survival mode with an existing character, keep in mind that all your progress from Adventure mode will travel with you, and anything that affects your character in one game mode will also affect them in the other. This means that if you fire off all your ammo, level up, complete a quest, spend Caps, or find a fancy new weapon in Survival, this will also be reflected on that character in Adventure. If you’d rather keep your existing characters as they are, we recommend starting a new one when you head into the more challenging Survival mode.

Stranger Danger

Survival mode is not for the faint of heart! All players, except your teammates or event groupmates, are automatically flagged as hostile toward one another by default. There are no “invitations” to PVP combat in Survival mode. You can attack other players without restriction from the first shot you line up, meaning every encounter you have with a stranger could turn deadly in the blink of an eye.

Further, level scaling in Survival mode will work the same way it does in Adventure mode today. This will help to level the playing field a bit and give newer characters a fighting chance against high-level players they might encounter during their adventures in the Wasteland. As a result, you’ll need to keep your wits about you during every hostile encounter, because even low-level characters can pose a real threat.

Greater Risks, Greater Rewards

As this will be our first implementation of a Survival mode, we plan to experiment with different rules after Beta release, such as death mechanics. Currently, players who die in Survival mode will be unable to use the seek revenge respawn option against their aggressors and can only choose to respawn at their C.A.M.P. or Vault 76. We’re also planning to award you double the Caps when you kill another player, and they may drop their Aid or other items in addition to their Junk. Added risks and rewards like these in Survival mode PVP will make each of your deaths more devastating, and every kill you rack up much more lucrative. However, it’s important to note that these changes aren’t set in stone, and we’ll be looking to make adjustments based on playtesting and your feedback during the Survival Beta.

It’s also worth noting that players who are currently in Adventure mode worlds are completely separate from those in Survival mode, so you won’t need to worry about Survival players coming for your Aid items or double Cap rewards when you’re in Adventure mode.

Leaderboards

For those of you who are focused on the new mode’s more competitive aspects, we’re also planning to roll out in-game leaderboards with the start of Survival mode (Beta). You’ll be able to see how you stack up against your friends and others in your current world, so you’ll need to stay sharp if you want to stay on top. We’ll have much more to share about leaderboards and all of the stats you’ll be able to keep tabs on during each play session as we get closer to the Survival Beta.

Looking further ahead, we’re going to continue to evolve, improve, and add content to Survival mode with future updates throughout this year and your feedback will incredibly helpful as we make it the most fun and challenging Fallout PVP experience we can. Our hope is to roll out the Survival Beta in March. However, we still have a lot more work to do on Leaderboards and other features and may need more development time for testing. Stay tuned for more information on the exact timing, and an even more in-depth look at Survival mode as we get closer to release.

We’re still targeting the end of the month for Patch 5, which will have another big wave of fixes. As a change moving forward, we will be working to make sure that Inside the Vault is the first place you see Patch Notes released. Patch 5 notes won’t be finalized until later in the month, but we want to give some more information on a couple planned changes for Patch 5.

• (UPDATED) Changes to the Two-Shot and Explosive Legendary Mods: The Two-Shot and Explosive Legendary Mods will be undergoing a few balance changes in this next patch. We know that there has been some frustration over how powerful these mods are, particularly when combined and used in player vs. player combat. With Patch 5, the damage bonus for Two Shot Legendary modded weapons has been reduced from +100% to +25% damage and the Two Shot legendary mod can no longer be looted in the world. The Explosive Legendary mod has a reduced damage bonus, now adding +20% of the base weapon damage with explosive radius damage instead of +100%. Note: This was a misunderstanding in what was being addressed with these mods. They will still be available in the world but are just undergoing some balance changes. Thank you for your feedback, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the changes.
• Mod Scrapping No More: We are aware of the aggravation involving mods being accidentally scrapped. Patch 5 will be implementing a fix so that loose weapon and armor mods must be scrapped manually to be used in crafting and repair.
• Hotkey improvements for AZERTY keyboard layouts, which should help French-speaking players have an easier time when constructing their C.A.M.P.s.
• A “(Known)” tag will now appear next to recipes and plans you’ve already learned in Vendor and player inventories, and trade menus.
• The Traveling Pharmacy Perk will now correctly reduce the weight of RadAway and other Chems.
• Early Warnings quest progress will no longer become stuck when crafting Upgraded Motors, and logging out after crafting Upgraded Motors will no longer reset the quest tracker to 0/5.
• And much more!

Additionally, we’re continuing to investigate, track down, and eliminate exploits, and your reports on these types of issues are a huge help in quickly bringing them to our attention as they spring up. Once again, if you think you’ve found an exploit, or observed another player using an exploit, please let our Support team know by submitting a ticket, and include any steps that may help reliably reproduce the issue.

Key Features:

• You will Emerge! Multiplayer finally comes to the epic, open-world RPG. Create your character with the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and forge a path in an untamed wasteland with hundreds of locations. Whether you journey alone or with friends, a new Fallout adventure awaits. 
• Mountain Splendorland! All-new graphics, lighting and landscape technology brings to life six distinct West Virginia regions. From the forests of Appalachia to the noxious crimson expanses of the Cranberry Bog, each region offers its own risks and rewards. Post-nuclear America has never looked so beautiful!
• A New American Dream! Use the all-new Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform (C.A.M.P.) to build and craft anywhere in the world. Your C.A.M.P. provides much-needed shelter, supplies, and safety. You can even set up shop to trade goods with other survivors. Beware that not everyone will be neighborly.
• The Power of the Atom! Go it alone or with fellow survivors to unlock access to the ultimate weapon: nuclear missiles. This destruction also creates a high-level zone with rare and valuable resources. Do you protect or unleash the power of the atom? The choice is yours.
• B.E.T.A. (Break-It Early Test Application) Access! Pre-order and get access to the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A.

Fallout 76 arrives worldwide for PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 14, 2018.