What you need to know
- What do Diablo 4, World of Warcraft, and Sea of Thieves have in common? Well, a fair few things really. But the answer was pets.
- You can tame creatures in Fallout 76, but they’re not permanent, and can be inadvertently killed by all sorts of random things.
- A recent datamine by SugarBombsRADS has discovered that Bethesda’s more robust pet acquisition system is nearing completion.
Back in 2021, Bethesda and the team behind Fallout 76 teased a feature that has since largely been left by the wayside. Now, it seems that feature is making a comeback, and players will finally get some new companions for their wasteland adventures.
Fallout 76 is a multiplayer survival action RPG based on the popular Fallout franchise. A prequel of sorts, Fallout 76 showcases some of the earlier days of the nuclear apocalypse, with dwellers from Vault 76 emerging to an Appalachian wasteland beset by roaming mutants, psychotic raiders, and desperate survivors. The game was notoriously maligned at launch for its lack of polish, but it has found new life again after years of rigorous updates and improvements, buoyed by the excellent Fallout TV show.
Fallout 76 recently picked up a major map expansion dubbed Skyline Valley, which introduced a range of new features, new story quests, boss battles, gear, and much more. But Bethesda and its Fallout 76 team is by no means finished there.
Discovered by SugarBombsRADS in the Fallout 76 Datamining Discord community, it seems that Bethesda’s long-awaited revamped companion system might be nearing completion. The system was teased initially with its 2021 roadmap, with many of those promised features being largely AWOL since their announcement. The pandemic doubtless played a role in their delay, but with Fallout 76 getting renewed interest and funding after its resurgence this year, it seems many of those features are now back on the menu.
The datamine showcases the skeletal framework of a new pet tutorial system. Bethesda teased C.A.M.P. pets previously, but so far we’ve only got a very rudimentary animal taming system, which lets you convert random mobs from the field into friendly NPCs that will wander around your base. Since they’re mobs, they’re also very based on mobs rules, and can die pretty easily to random hazards. Players have been asking for something a little more robust, given that pets and companions are standard fare for Fallout since its inception. Dogmeat has been famed since the very first Fallout game as the player character’s canine companion, and Fallout 76 has oddly never had a system that really played into this aspect of the Fallout fantasy. Until now, it seems.
The datamine also includes a range of pet-themed icons, suggesting this will be a far more intricate system than the basic taming systems available today. In addition, the same datamine suggests that new 4-star legendries are on the way. Up until now, players could only acquire 3-star legendries, despite the interface having accommodations for up to 5-star items. Naturally, a 4-star legendary would be potentially vastly more powerful, accommodating more unique gameplay-modifying affixes to weapons and armor.
YouTuber DTDGamer also showcased a range of new items from the latest PTS update, including C.A.M.P. plans for building bases, and new armor sets, weapons, and more.
Fallout 76 is awesome
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Available on Xbox Game Pass across both consoles, PC, and cloud, Fallout 76 has discovered a new lease of life thanks to the resurgence of the franchise. It couldn’t have happened without the tireless efforts of the team working on the game, from Bethesda itself to partner studios like UK-based Double Eleven.
Bethesda teased a wide variety of new features coming beyond Skyline Valley too, including playable ghouls, a first for the mainline franchise. Ghouls are a sort of irradiated human, with a zombie-like appearance. Some ghouls become totally feral and violent, losing their sanity and humanity. Others retain a high degree of intelligence, though. The Fallout TV show seems to be gradually introducing new lore to explain how ghouls work physiologically in the Fallout universe, so perhaps Fallout 76 will take that a little bit further, too.
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The addition of pet companions will bring Fallout 76 a little bit closer to that traditional Fallout experience. It remains to be seen how much, if at all, they might be affected by player builds and perk cards, or if they’re more of a cosmetic boon rather than a deep PvE one. Obviously, content datamined from the public test server (PTS) isn’t necessarily guaranteed to launch, but since this was previously teased and is potentially entering fully fledged testing soon, I suspect we’ll get an official announcement fairly soon.
