Fallout 76’s new Wastelanders expansion is a solid update that brings a traditional Fallout-style RPG structure, NPCs and all, to the once-barren hills of Appalachia. But some of the bugs players are discovering are as unfortunate as they are hilarious.
Spotted by PC Gamer, some wasteland denizens are reporting that NPCs are stealing their weapons, much like they did in Fallout 4. The bug seems to trigger when a player dies in the radius of certain characters during open-world events. One player, Dani García, captured the encounter on YouTube which showcases a caravan leader, Marion Copeland, taking up their plasma gatling weaponry after the player died protecting her.
Since open-world NPCs can’t die, and players can’t steal from other character’s pockets, that means Marion gets to keep her new prize. Bethesda are investigating the bug after other players reported similar incidents on the Fallout 76 subreddit.
There’s something darkly funny about this situation, especially since I’ve been openly robbing every NPC I encounter right in front of them. I mean, it is the post-apocalypse — I assume taking weapons off dead bodies is the main powerhouse of the economy in post-war Appalachia. However, Fallout 76’s legendary weapons take hours of grind to obtain, so losing a powerful item is a major risk for any player who just wants to just give the new content a spin.
The last time a major bug caused players to lose things from their inventory, they were compensated by Bethesda with everything they lost, along with an Atom bonus due to the scale of the issue.
We’ve reached out to Bethesda for more information on this situation, and will update should we receive a response.
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