In Fallout 76, players emerge into Appalachia after a nuclear war and must establish a new society by fighting the Scorched and the nefarious Scorchbeasts that spawn them. It’s not a bad hook, but players have discovered a more pressing threat to the safety of this new world: item dupers.
Duping has been in Fallout 76 for some time now. Duping is when players take an existing item and, using in-game systems in a way not originally intended, duplicate it, creating an infinite stream of powerful items. It’s a serious problem, and it has created a completely out of control economy. Players are creating new alternate characters to serve as pack mules, roaming Appalachia with thousands of pounds of legendary weapons and stashes full of caps, Fallout’s currency.
Complicating matters further, players who want to get in on that action can go ahead and complete real-money transactions with these dupers.
Originally, duping was limited to one specific exploit. More recently, players discovered a developers-only room that could be accessed by determined explorers.
Needless to say, players who are trying to enjoy Fallout 76 are frustrated by the situation. Those who go about the quest content in the game and don’t encounter malicious actors on the server have their experience largely unchanged. (That being said, the ambiance of Appalachia can be ruined when you come across in-game wheeling and dealing over illicit goods and purchases.)
Players who try to go about PvP or are hunted down by dupers, however, quickly find themselves in a pickle. Even players in the non-violent Pacifist Mode are reporting being one-shot killed due to duping powerful items like bobbleheads, which temporarily increase stats.
The Fallout 76 fan base, in turn, has started to hunt and kill item dupers. A guide on how to hunt dupers made the front page of the Fallout 76 subreddit — before it was removed by mods. “What you do with the dupers loot is on you ethically and morally,” noted the guide. Another player posted about their experience, since deleted, in killing a duper and dropping the ill-gotten loot in the river, along with taking and sending screenshots to the duper to taunt them.
Unfortunately, the counter-actions against dupers has gone too far, with players attacking innocent targets based on even slightly suspicious criteria. One player shared a story of getting to share the game with his girlfriend, only to have vigilantes level her CAMP. Other users have reported having concerned anti-dupers approach them and demand they display their inventory to prove they aren’t carrying a suspicious amount of duped items under threat of griefing.
Fallout 76 is bringing player vending to the game in an upcoming patch, as well as a PvP mode. These features are excellent additions to the game, but the in-game economy and the soured fan base will be major obstacles to their successful implementation.