Summary

• Fallout 76 is growing in popularity with tie-in promotions and a larger player base.
• The Skyline Valley update expands the map with new quests and enemies.
• Major combat rebalancing for enemies and weapons is happening through patches.

Fallout 76, the long-running post-apocalyptic franchise's online multiplayer title, has seen a major resurgence, largely due to the success of Amazon's Fallout TV series, and tie-in promotions that gave the game away for free to Prime Gaming subscribers, or at a heavily discounted price to other players. With the game's player base larger than ever, now's a perfect time for Bethesda's latest update to the game, which expands the map and adds several new features.

Fallout 76 had a mixed response from players upon its launch in 2018, with complaints of numerous technical issues that impacted the stability of the game, a lack of gameplay purpose, and an initial absence of human non-playable characters making the open-world feel lifeless outside of interacting with other players on the map. Fortunately, in the years that followed, Bethesda has added several changes to the game and has improved it significantly, with 18 previous major updates and quality of life patches, overhauled gameplay modes, and more NPC characters making for a better experience either as a solo player or as part of a group, making it worth playing in 2024.

Players can enjoy a completely solo experience on a private server, along with other exclusive features, with a Fallout 1st subscription, but this is not required to play Fallout 76.

Fallout 76's Skyline Valley Update Expands Its Map

Players Can Explore The New Region In The Game's Public Test Server

As previously mentioned, Fallout 76's next major update expands the game's map to let players venture deep into the wooded heartland of Skyline Valley, which is the map's seventh region. This can be found south of the Savage Divide, between the Ash Heap and the Cranberry Bog, and is based upon the real Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. This gives players plenty of new land to cover, with regional weather patterns and new enemies to encounter, along with the inclusion of Vault 63.

Currently, the Skyline Valley update is only available on the game's Public Test Server, but will be coming to the main game in a future update. Fortunately, all players who own a copy of Fallout 76 on Steam can participate in the Public Test Server, which is available to install from their libraries alongside the main game, so everyone can jump in and start exploring now.

The Skyline Valley Update Comes In Two Main Parts

With A Brand New Questline

The Public Test Server's version of the Skyline Valley update is split into two parts, with the first part already available to play. The intent of this is to allow players to get better acquainted with the new region and its hazards as they place new camps and participate in the new public event, Dangerous Pastimes, which occurs every 20 minutes. In this event, players must help thrill-seeking storm chasers get the best picture of the storm by protecting them from the elements and other threats.

Between April 27 and April 29, Dangerous Pastimes will briefly be replaced by Fasnacht, the seasonal public event in which the townsfolk don masks and parade through a decorated town to signal the end of winter. This is done to test the pacing of the event, which will be on the hour, and then after April 29, Dangerous Pastimes will return as the main public event. While there are no major details surrounding the update's second part yet, Bethesda has confirmed it will introduce a completely new questline.

Bethesda also requested that players all attempt to nuke the region while testing, saying "Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing. Probably nothing... right?"

Fallout 76 Is Receiving Major Rebalancing For Its Enemies And Weapons

These Are The Beginning Of A Series Of Combat Updates

Another welcome update outside of the new terrain is rebalancing some of the combat following player , and this can also be tested on the Public Test Server. While this will take place over a variety of patches to weapons and enemies, both mutated or robotic. Bethesda has already improved how the falloff for weapon damage is calculated at range to smooth out the weapons that lost most of their damage immediately, and while this impacts all ranged weapons, it's most visible with Shotguns and Pipe Guns. There have also been adjustments to the following enemies:

• Angler
• Cave Cricket
• Floaters
• Gulper
• Mutant Hound
• Protectron

With these enhancements, and an entirely new region to explore, it's definitely worth jumping back into Fallout 76. It is worth noting that progress from the Public Test Server does not carry over into the live version of Fallout 76, and the Atomic Shop is also disabled during this testing period, so, while the testing is a good way to get acquainted with the new terrain straight away, some may understandably want to wait for the main release to reap the full rewards.

Source: Bethesda