The Wild Appalachia update of Fallout 76 has landed, and with it comes a number of changes that will be important to note for the PvP-minded. Chief among these are damage tweaks for overall PvP and the launch of the harder edged Survival Mode.
For those who PvP regardless of play mode, the newest update has removed “slap damage,” which is any incoming damage from a player you are not hostile towards. Returning fire against said player will still mark you as hostile, however, as will attempting to contest an owned Workshop. There has also been tuning of weapon damage in an effort to limit one shot kills, which affects both the standard “Adventure Mode” and the new Survival Mode.
Speaking of Survival Mode, that has officially arrived in its beta form as well with all of the specifics of its ruleset. In this mode, players are automatically hostile to one another from the get-go, with holstered weapons flagging your nameplate as a cautionary yellow while drawn weapons flag you a grumpy, angry red. Cap rewards for player kills and Cap deductions on death have been doubled, and slain players will drop a random amount of Aid items in addition to the usual junk items, and while the Seek Revenge respawn option is removed from the mode, players can spend a portion of their Caps to place a bounty on a player.
Why go through all this? Rewards: Players can complete weekly challenges in Survival Mode for Legendary weapons, all XP gains are increased by 20%, and there’s also a scoreboard system that tracks the top surviving players in the mode. Incidentally, the map will not show player positions unless they have a bounty on their heads or are in the top three of the Longest Life scoreboard.
There’s more to unpack in this update, naturally, so make sure to check the notes for details.
