So 2018 was a terrible year for the Fallout franchise. The release of the open-world survival title Fallout 76 was nothing short of laughably bad. The hits just kept on coming too. Fallout 76 players were victimized by countless bugs in-game, while also being hit with everything from accidental doxing through Bethesda support pages, all the way to a massive amount of mold in collector’s items.
And now, there is yet another bug. This time, a major exploit has been reported that allows players to remotely wipe the inventories of other gamers on the same server. According to the Fallout 76 subreddit, the stealing is done through a “remote” hack. This merely requires the hacker to be in your vicinity (within render distance). Players on any public server can be affected by this hacking issue. Although it seems that person-to-person trading doesn’t expose users to the exploit. However, your caps, access to various locations and stash box/scrap box items are safe from this bug.
“Since there is no way of knowing what player is using the hack, the only way to avoid it, is to not play on a public server. If you or friends of yours have a Fallout 1st subscription, you might want to stick to playing on a private server for a while. If you do play on a public server, it might be beneficial to store your best weapons and armor.”
This comes as a major slap in the face to the majority of the playerbase. The only people able to guarantee playing the game it to completely avoid online play, as there’s no way to know which players could be using the hack. Bethesda did promise a PTS next year, but we will have to wait for that. Until then, the only way to get a safe experience is to switch to a private server. That means you’re going to have to pay the absurd $100 price for Fallout 1st’s premium service. Although, it was possible for Fallout 1st members to get screwed over too, as those private servers were actually not all that private due to a bug.
Unfortunately, there is no ETA for when Bethesda will issue a patch. It’s just bad news all around. If you are unlucky enough get your items stolen, you should report it to Bethesda. The company is monitoring the issue though, so expect some kind of response soon.
