Summary
Bethesda has rolled out another update for the PTS version ofFallout 76in early November 2024. This release introduces nearly 70 changes and serves as a preview of theFallout 76Gleaming Depths update.
Originally announced at Gamescom in late August, the Gleaming Depths update is planned to arrive in December 2024, kicking offFallout 76Season 19. The majority of the upcoming content drop has been playable via the Public Test Server build of the game since October 25.
Bethesda has updated thePTS version ofFallout 76on November 1, offering fans another preview of what to expect from Season 19. The changelog attached to this patch contains 68 items in total, the vast majority of which describe combat rebalancing tweaks. This will be of particular interest toFallout 76melee players, as over 50 close-combat weapons were buffed by the update. Some of the most notable changes include a 26% damage increase for the War Glaive, as well as a 25% buff for the Grognak Axe, both of which will now deal over 100 points of damage per hit at max item level. Ditto for the Cattle Prod, whose maximum damage output has been increased from 86 to 113 per non-critical hit.
Fallout 76 Double-Nerfs Auto Axe in New PTS Update
At the same time, the early November 2024 update has nerfed theFallout 76Auto Axe, which has long been considered as one of the game’s best melee weapons. The industrial saw now deals only 24 points of damage at max level. While its rapid attack rate still makes it deadly, especially considering the 5% damage boost per Strength SPECIAL point, this change is a bit unusual because it completely negates the buff that the Auto Axe just recently received in the Skyline Valley update back in June 2024, when its max-level damage was increased from 26 to 31. As such, this tweak effectively constitutes a double nerf.
The only other nerf that’s part of this patch targets theFallout 76V63 Zweihaender, one of the game’s newest two-handed weapons, which launched as part of Season 18. Specifically, this armament now deals 64 physical damage rather than 85. However, its energy damage has also been increased from 45 to 64, making these changes more of a rebalancing rather than a true nerf—especially since energy damage also scales with Strength, despite this not being indicated in the Pip-Boy.
The November 1 update also improved the third-person petting animation for C.A.M.P. pets and rebalanced caravan missions by preventing cryptids from spawning during small caravan runs. Instead, these deadly creatures will now only have a chance of attacking large caravans.
Increased the base damage for the following melee weapons:
Follow-up on the VATs changes made in the 10/25 PTS Update
We wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you all for the feedback around the recent combat balance changes that were made in the PTS.
The team has decided to revert the recent changes to VATS hit chance for now. The other changes (body part damage multipliers and how much damage it takes to cripple a limb) will still use the updated values with a few exceptions. As always, we plan to monitor and provide further updates in the future.
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
