Fallout 76 Getting New Mode Without PvP Restrictions

Game Rant

By Rory Young

Published Dec 21, 2018

Bethesda is updating the Fallout 76 community on its plans for the rest of 2018 as well as early 2019, including the potential addition of a free PvP mode.

The developers of Fallout 76 are prepping for the holiday, slowing things down while starting to discuss plans for 2019. In Thursday's "Inside the Vault" blog post, Bethesda says that today's hotfix will be the last update to Fallout 76 of 2018 but that the team is still collecting feedback and investigating as necessary. Future updates planned for 2019 continue to be in the works, including one addition that will please a certain niche of players: a new mode with zero PvP restrictions.

According to Bethesda, this new mode will remove Fallout 76's basic PvP restrictions. Players currently do reduced damage to "strangers" until the opposing party returns hostility, a choice made to prevent griefing parties that aren't interested in PvPing. Players can also become allies with other players, preventing them from doing damage to each other. It's unclear if the new PvP mode would erase all of these restrictions or just the reduced damage for strangers. Removing friendly fire protections does sound like it's in line with Bethesda's goals, however.

This new free PvP mode is apparently already up and running at Bethesda's offices. The team says it's "already having fun" playing it. That said, the release window for the new mode is in the first quarter of 2019, so it may be several months out still.

The PvP mode isn't all that Bethesda is working on for Fallout 76 in 2019, however. A patch is also planned for release in mid-January that will deal with an assortment of different issues. Specific issues include fixes to the Lever-Action Rifle reload animation, perk cards, and the rapidly reproducing robots at Whitespring. Further, with future patch notes Bethesda plans to include developer commentary on certain decisions so that the community might better understand the changes.

For the time being, however, players will have to enjoy Fallout 76 as it is. Outside of the game Bethesda is holding a special holiday screenshot contest, though. Players can post their holiday-themed photomode captures and screenshots on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #Holiday76. Bethesda's favorites will be shared as part of the next Inside the Vault blog. Beyond that, Bethesda wishes everyone a happy holiday.

Fallout 76 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.