Fallout 76 Patch 9 adds backpacks, personal vending machines and more

Another week, and another game has a new patch. This time Bethesda is up to the plate with a new update for Fallout 76 which helps address a variety of in-game issues while also adding some new gameplay loops.

A big area that received some attention this update was the C.A.M.P. system, which got a bunch of bug fixes and a bundle of new content. Players will now be able to take advantage of some cool new additions like personal vending machines that dispense items on demand inside their own bases. These can be used to sell items to other players in a cool iteration of a personal shop that’s really fitting with the faux-futuristic tone of the franchise.

The patch also introduces a new faction to the open world, the Pioneer Scouts. You can start their quest lines by interacting with recruitment posters scattered around the wastes, particularly at train stations. These quests will involve a variety of simple tasks and mini-games that will award players who complete them with some cool new decorations, all themed for the new addition.

There is of course the mountain of bug fixes and tweaks to nearly every area of the game. Exploits and item duplication bugs were addressed, problems with the UI aplenty have been dealt with, and a literal ton of performance, sound and other technical problems have been 86’d. And that’s just the start of what this major update contains. You can find the full patch notes below if you want to see all of what this new version of Fallout 76 entails.

NEW WILD APPALACHIA CONTENT

JOIN THE PIONEER SCOUTS!

• Read Pioneer Scouts posters at Train Stations around Appalachia to begin your journey as the newest member of the Order of the Tadpole.
  • You can also unlock a Pioneer Scouts poster for your C.A.M.P. for free in the Atomic Shop through June 9.
• As a Tadpole, you can take part in a variety of activities and mini-quests to show off your Pioneering spirit.
  • Complete new Pioneer Scouts Challenges to earn badges that will help you rank-up and can be turned in to claim themed loot.
  • Join the new “Terrors of the Dark” event to listen to spooky stories around the campfire with your fellow Pioneer Scouts.

BACKPACKS

• Backpacks are new functional items that you can equip to increase your Carry Weight.
  • You can receive your first Backpack by being promoted to the Pioneer Scouts rank of Possum.
  • Craft higher-level Backpacks to receive larger carry weight bonuses.
  • Backpacks can be modded to change their appearance to match your personal tastes.
  • You can also add functional mods to give your Backpack more utility, like increased damage reduction or food refrigeration, often in exchange for reduced storage capacity.
• Backpacks will remain visible over outfits and armor but will be unequipped when you step into a set of Power Armor.
  • Outfits that already have a cosmetic backpack built in will not display your functional backpack. However, you will still receive the benefits that your backpack provides.
  • Note: Our previous article on Backpacks stated they would remain functional while wearing Power Armor. This was incorrect and we apologize for the miscommunication.

PERSONAL VENDING MACHINES

• Start a new business venture by building a Vending Machine in your C.A.M.P., which you can use to sell items to other Dwellers for Caps.
  • You can build up to four Vending Machines in your C.A.M.P. using the Vendors tab in the Build Menu.
  • Power it to advertise your C.A.M.P. to other players on the Map. Players can also Fast Travel to C.A.M.P.s that offer vending and appear on the Map.
  • Up to 30 individual or stacks of items can be assigned to the Vending Machine at any given time.
• Assign items from your Inventory or Stash to your Vending Machine and set the Cap prices that you’d like to sell them for.
  • Items you’ve assigned to Vending will not be removed from your Stash. Instead, they will display an icon next to their names so that it’s easy to tell what you’ve placed on sale at a glance.
  • You will receive a notification whenever a player buys one of your items. 90% of the sale price will be added to your Cap balance. This 10% fee has been designed to help maintain the health of the game’s economy and mitigate inflation.
  • Items can still be sold after you’ve reached the current maximum Cap balance of 25,000, but you will not receive any Caps beyond that limit.
• Alternatively, you can use the Map to seek out other traders who have set up shop when you’re looking to purchase new gear for your collection.

LEGENDARY EXCHANGE MACHINES

• Legendary Exchange Machines have been added at Train Stations around Appalachia. You can use them to turn your unwanted legendary items into a new currency, called Legendary Scrip.
  • Legendary Scrip can be used to buy legendary items from the Purveyor, a new “Legendary Vendor” who will be arriving in Appalachia on May 16. Prepare for her arrival by exchanging your items for Scrip.
  • The higher the star-rating of your legendary items, the more Scrip you will receive from Exchange Machines.
  • Legendary Scrip cannot be traded and is not shared across characters on your account.

C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS

• C.A.M.P. Damage Protections: C.A.M.P. objects and Structures no longer take damage from other players as long as the defending player, and their C.A.M.P. defenses, are not hostile against their attackers.
• Foundations: The requirement that all Foundation pieces in a block of Foundations need to be built on the terrain has been removed.
  • Now, only the first Foundation will need to be built on the terrain and subsequent foundations snapped to that original piece will then ignore this rule.
  • This change only applies to C.A.M.P.s and doesn’t affect Workshops.
• Personal Terminal: Players can now build and power a Personal Terminal in their CAMPs which can give information about new discoveries in Appalachia and provides a reminder about visiting some of your “daily” friends.
  • You can claim a free Personal Terminal for your humble abode by visiting the Atomic Shop.
  • The Personal Terminal can be found on the Misc. Structures tab in the Build Menu.
• Punch Bowls: Can no longer be activated and beverages can no longer be placed within.
  • Dev Note: Who’s been spiking the punch?! We’ve had to disable the functionality of Punch Bowls for the time being, but you can still build and place them in your C.A.M.P.
• The Whitespring: C.A.M.P.s can no longer be built or placed near the Whitespring Golf Club.
  • Dev Note: We’ve seen many requests from the Fallout 76 community to remove the ability to build C.A.M.P.s near the Whitespring Golf Club, as they can tend to trivialize enemies in the area. We agree with this feedback, and have decided to place a no-build zone in this location.
• Workshop PVP: The following Adjustments have been made to the rules of Workshop PVP:
  • Workshop owners must now enter the bounds of the Workshop before they are placed in PVP with the contesting players.
  • Workshop Turrets no longer attack a Wanted player unless that player is contesting the owner’s Workshop.
  • Players that are not actively contesting an owned Workshop cannot damage the objects built there.

DESIGN AND BALANCE

• Ammo: Flamer Fuel created via crafting increased from 5 to 20.
• Ammo: Cryo Cells created via crafting increased from 15 to 25.
• Fast Travel: A 15-second timer will now appear when attempting to Fast Travel while enemies are nearby. The player will now automatically Fast Travel to the selected location when the timer expires, as long as they are not hit by an enemy during the countdown.
• Hunting Rifle: Increased the damage bonuses provided by the Prime and .50 Caliber Receiver mods. These mods now respectively grant the highest and second-highest damage increases of any Hunting Rifle receiver mods.
• Plasma Guns: Damage increased by 30%.
• Enclave Plasma Guns: Damage increased by 10% to 30%.
  • Dev Note: These Plasma Gun changes do not apply to the Gatling Plasma. The damage increase is intended to address drawbacks to Plasma weapons that split damage evenly between ballistic and energy damage types. The Gatling Plasma only deals energy damage and is already one of the higher DPS heavy auto weapons.
• Legendary Armor Effects: Sentinel, Cavalier, and Assassin legendary effects now have a 75% chance to apply during combat.
  • Also fixed an issue that could cause these legendary effects to double when using certain equipment combinations.
  • Dev Note: Prior to this re-balance and bugfix, combinations of these legendary armors could make players effectively invulnerable from damage, particularly in combat with other players.
• Loot: The legendary drop rates for the Gatling Gun and Cryolater have been adjusted to better match all other weapons.
• Nukashine: Several new “Wake-Up” locations have been added to Nukashine.
• Radstorms: Now occur a little more frequently than before in the Ash Heap, Cranberry Bog, The Mire, and the Savage Divide.
  • Dev Note: We’ve read your feedback that Radstorms were too rare, especially when it comes to completing Radstorm-based challenges. They will occur a bit more often than they did prior to this change, but they will still be somewhat rare. Additionally, as of Patch 8.5, Nuke Zones count toward Radstorm Challenge progress.

QUESTS AND EVENTS

• Bureau of Tourism: This has been promoted to a full Main Quest. When players are pointed to begin Bureau of Tourism, it will now display a full quest banner on-screen.
  • Dev Note: For new players, exploring the Toxic Valley is an important step in progressing through the game. We wanted to make sure that players have clear pointers to this level-appropriate content.
• Miscellaneous: It is now possible for high-level Unruly Golfer Feral Ghouls to spawn at the Whitespring. This should help higher-level players more easily complete the “Kill unruly golfer feral ghouls at Whitespring” objective.

SURVIVAL BETA

• Death Mechanics: Cap losses on death in the Survival Beta are now based on the player’s current level will not exceed 50 Caps.
• Scoreboards: Added a new “Survival Score” category that will be used as the primary stat for ranking player performance in Survival Beta worlds.
  • Players receive one Survival Point for every Experience Point earned while playing in the Survival Beta.
  • The total number of Survival Points you currently have will determine your placement on the Scoreboards. The three players with the highest Survival Scores will be highlighted on the Map.
  • On death, your Survival Score will be reset to zero.
  • When you kill another player, 75% of the Survival Points they had prior to death will be added to your Survival Score.
  • For example: If your Survival Score is 500 and you kill a player whose Score is 1,000, they will lose all their Points and you will receive 750, for a new Survival Score of 1,250.

BUG FIXES

ART AND GRAPHICS

• Characters: Female Dweller shoulders no longer clip through the Vintage Linen Coat.
• Characters: Biv’s treads no longer appear to jitter when he stops near the entrance of the Nukashine’s basement.
• Enemies: The Sheepsquatch now has a proper animation for crawling and standing up after its legs have been crippled.
• Enemies: Mirelurks are no longer missing gore when dismembered.
• Enemies: Fixed a visual issue that could cause Feral Ghouls to spawn wearing too many clothing items.
• Items: Scout’s Life #10 now displays the correct cover art.
• Outfits: Reworked the Nukagirl Rocketsuit models that appear while inspecting the body piece and helmet.
• Power Armor: Jetpack visual effects no longer persist upon landing after firing a weapon while using a Jetpack.
• Power Armor: Duplicate decals have been removed from Camo Power Armor Paints.
• Weapons: Crossbow Bolts have been made easier to see.
• Weapons: Fixed several issues affecting how weapon lights appear to players.
• Weapons: Plasma Gun projectile visual effects now correctly appear to start from the barrel of the weapon when viewed by another player.
• Weapons: Plasma Gatling and Plasma Gun projectile visual effects have been restored.
• Weather: Rain no longer falls through Camping Canopies.

C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS

• Blueprints: Fixed a rare issue that could cause game controls to lock up when attempting to create a Blueprint.
• Blueprints: Fixed an issue that could prevent Blueprints with vases on shelves from being placed.
• Blueprints: Fixed multiple issues that could prevent Blueprint placement if a blueprinted object, such as a Tent, contained another object.
• Blueprints: The player’s C.A.M.P. will now correctly be automatically blueprinted if the client crashed while building.
• Blueprints: A Blueprint that includes a Tent will no longer appear placeable if the selected location is invalid.
• Blueprints: Fixed an issue that prevented Blueprints from being placed if the player’s Stored items have reached the maximum object count.
• C.A.M.P.: Improved the way terrain and supporting objects are detected, which allows for more natural object placement.
• C.A.M.P.: Fixed an issue that could result in loss of stored items under specific conditions.
• C.A.M.P.: Players can now correctly activate the build menu by selecting a teammate’s C.A.M.P., even if that teammate is far from the area.
• Fermenter: Items assignments to the Fermenter from the Stash are now preserved if the player’s C.A.M.P. cannot be placed upon joining a world.
• Fermenter: All Items assigned to the Fermenter that have Condition now correctly display their Condition bars.
• Statues: The bottom of the Mothman Statue no longer disappears when it is placed or while previewing it in the build menu.
• Wall Décor: Implemented an improvement affecting how objects Wall Décor items are attached to Walls or other objects.
• Wall Décor: Can now be properly placed around Hanging Chandeliers.
• Wires: Editing or removing a Wire or placing a Blueprint containing a Wire no longer prevents players from continuing to build.

CHALLENGES

• General: Corrected typos in number of Challenges.
• Combat: The “Destroy Robots While Unarmed” Challenge now correctly specifies that the player must use gauntlets or martial gloves, rather than bare fists.
• Holiday: All Halloween costumes now correctly count toward Halloween costume Challenge progress.
• Hunter/Hunted: Corrected Weekly and Daily Hunter/Hunted Challenges to specify that the player must “win” rather than “complete” Hunter/Hunted.
• Hunter/Hunted: The Silver Shroud costume option in Weekly Hunter/Hunted Challenges no longer displays description text for the Manta Man costume.
• Hunter/Hunted: Corrected the “Win Hunter/Hunted While Wearing a Mr. Fuzzy Mask” Weekly Challenge to state “Mask”, instead of “Hat”.
• Weekly: Fixed an issue where sometimes picking flowers, killing huge creatures, and killing Mothman as part of a Weekly Challenge would not count as expected.
• Weekly: Corrected a Weekly Challenge timer that would have outlasted the inevitable heat death of our universe.
• Weekly: The Flatwoods Monster once again correctly counts as an Alien for the “Take Pictures of Cryptids” Weekly Challenge.

ENEMIES

• Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to leave the game’s playable area near Sugar Grove.
• Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow a Vertibird to be farmed for XP.
• General: Deathclaws, Mirelurks, Mirelurk variants, and Radscorpions are no longer considered animals.
  • Dev Note: These creatures were incorrectly added to the Animals category, and already belonged to other creature categories, like Insects or Reptiles. This change should prevent inconsistencies and double dipping that could occur with Perk effects that target certain types of creatures.
• Imposter Sheepsquatch: if the Imposter Sheepsquatch is visible when it is killed, its corpse will no longer become invisible.
• Legendary Robots: Now consistently detonate 10 seconds after being destroyed, rather than exploding immediately.
• Scorchbeast Queen: Can no longer be turned into an Ash Pile or a Goo Pile. This should help limit cases where players were unable to loot the Queen’s corpse in certain situations.

ITEMS

• Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to gain the benefits of an Aid item without consuming it.
• Exploit: Fixed an issue that could allow players to skip reload animations for certain weapons.
• Explosive Shotguns: Fixed an issue causing Shotguns with the Explosive legendary effect to deal double damage, rather than the intended +20%.
• Gatling Gun: Gatling Guns that have the Sight Ring mod now fire more accurately down the sights.
• Gatling Laser: Fixed an issue that cause the Gatling Laser to fire only fire one round when holding the fire button after reloading a Fusion Core.
• Grognak’s Axe: Can now correctly be repaired beyond 100% Condition using the Weapon Artisan perk.
• Legendary Items: All legendary effects, rather than just the first, are now correctly listed in the notification that appears when receiving a legendary item.
• Legendary Items: Legendary stars are now correctly displayed in the item’s name on the Inspect and Modify screens, as well as in the notification that appears when receiving a legendary item.
• Lever Action Rifle: The Wooden Inlay Lever Action Rifle Paint can now be correctly applied to The Sole Survivor and will remain applied between play sessions.
• Loot: Fixed an issue that could prevent a player from receiving a legendary item after killing a legendary creature on busy servers.
• Minigun: Crafting Chrome Minigun Paint now correctly consumes the required materials.
• Mods: Fixed an issue the prevented the Electrified mod from dealing its bonus damage to the Sheepsquatch.
• Nuke Code Pieces: Removed the second item preview that appeared upon picking up a Nuke Code.
• Paper Bags: Fixed an issue that could occur when dropping items on the ground inside Vault 76.
• Power Armor: The Targeting HUD helmet mod’s “Detect Life” effect is no longer applied to other nearby players.
• Power Armor: Bone Raider Excavator Paint can no longer be applied to the left arm piece of X-01 Power Armor.
• Power Armor: Fusion Cores no longer continue to drain while the player is dead.
• ProSnap Deluxe: Using a Photomode Pose or an Emote while the ProSnap Deluxe is equipped no longer results in sudden teleportation.
• ProSnap Deluxe: Mods are no longer removed from the player’s ProSnap Deluxe if they have not yet completed the “Bucket List” quest.
• ProSnap Deluxe: Old target data no longer persists on-screen when attempting to take a photo of something new.
• Stealthboy Mark III: Can now be correctly used from the Pip-Boy inventory.

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY

• Loading: Addressed an issue that could cause players to encounter an infinite loading screen when fast traveling to Top of the World.
• Stability: Addressed an issue that could cause the client to crash while in the Whitespring Bunker.
• Stability: Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred while loading new areas.

PERKS

• Adrenaline: Fixed a visual issue that could cause weapon damage to update incorrectly in the Pip-Boy.
• Animal Friend: Deathclaws, Mega Sloths, Mirelurks, and Scorchbeasts can no longer be pacified by Animal Friend.
• Animal Friend: Mutant Hounds can now be pacified by Animal Friend.
• Class Freak: Now correctly suppresses the Grounded Mutation’s negative effects.
• Marathoner: Updated the description text to indicate that Marathoner has no effect while wearing Power Armor.
• Strange in Numbers: Now behaves more consistently when players and their mutated teammates are far away from each other.
• Weight Reduction Perks: Item weight displays now refresh correctly when equipping and unequipping weight perks, like Pack Rat.
• Wasteland Whisperer: Grahm can no longer be pacified by Wasteland Whisperer.
• Wasteland Whisperer: Mega Sloths, Snallygasters, and Wendigos can no longer be pacified by Wasteland Whisperer.
• Wasteland Whisperer: Mirelurks and Mirelurk Hunters can now be pacified by Wasteland Whisperer.

QUESTS AND EVENTS

• AWOL Armaments: Now awards 350 XP when completed successfully.
• Back on the Beat: Steelheart no longer sometimes stops moving after combat.
• Back on the Beat: Now has a random chance to start, instead of starting automatically when players enter Morgantown.
• Census Violence: Now awards 350 XP when completed successfully.
• Cold Case: Fixed an issue that could prevent the player from crafting the KidSecure ID despite having the required materials.
• Daily Quests: No longer replay their fanfares after logging out and back in.
• Encryptid: Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause the Imposter Sheepsquatch to sometimes stop attacking.
• Free Range: Fixed an issue that could cause Brahmin names to display placeholder text under certain circumstances.
• Free Range: Addressed an issue that could cause Brahmin spawned by Free Range to remain in the world, even if no players engaged with the event.
• Grafton Day: Adjusted the Grafton Day Event area to prevent starting and exiting the Event at the same time.
• Heart of the Enemy: Fixed an issue that prevented players from repeating the Heart of the Enemy Daily Quest. Cranberry Bog now offers the repeatable version of the quest every other day.
• Heart of the Enemy: Quest markers that point players to quest locations inside Vault-Tec University now correctly lead them to the best door to get to the objective.
• Holotapes: Corrected several issues in which Holotape subtitles did not completely match the audio during “Unsolved” quests.
• Into the Fire: No longer sometimes displays as a misc. quest instead of a full quest.
• Key to the Past: Fixed an issue that could prevent the objective from appearing in the quest tracker if the player disconnected from the world after finding Roselynn’s note.
• Lode Baring: Players who are still inside the mine when the escape timer expires will now be correctly killed when the mine collapses.
• Miscellaneous: The “Kill a Wendigo While Wearing a Clown Costume” objective no longer reappears on login after it has been completed.
• Tracking Terror: Fixed an issue that could cause Son of Fluffy to spawn as a legendary.
• Unsolved: Death and Taxidermy: Clue items are now correctly marked as quest items in the player’s inventory.
• Unsolved: Death and Taxidermy: Fixed an issue that could cause the “Invoice” to duplicate.
• Unsolved: Death and Taxidermy: Fixed an issue that could cause some quest items to disappear from the player’s inventory after completing the quest and logging out.
• Unsolved: Picnic Panic: Increased the font size on Mary’s Diary Page so that it’s easier to read.
• Wasted on Nukashine: Fixed an issue that could prevent the Wasted on Nukashine quest from appearing in the quest tracker.

SOUND

• Power Armor: Nukashine Power Armor’s landing sound effects no longer apply to Power Armor that does not have the Nukashine paint.

SURVIVAL

• Addictions: Are no longer cured by death.
• Chems: The “Detect Life” effect applied by Berry Mentats is now only applied to the player who consumes them.
• Food: Canned Meat Stew awarded by the “Feed the People” quest can no longer spoil.
• Mutations: The Empath Mutation now interacts correctly with both the Strange in Numbers and Class Freak perks.

USER INTERFACE

• Buttons: The “Change Profile” button on Xbox One has been changed to “X” to avoid conflicts with other button assignments.
• C.A.M.P.: The Cap price displayed when attempting to move C.A.M.P. locations now matches the actual cost.
• Combat: Directional hit indicators now correctly appear when hit while in several menus, including: the Map, V.A.T.S., Workbenches, and C.A.M.P./Workshop menus.
• Combat: Directional hit indicators once again appear when hit by a Plasma weapon fired by another player.
• Controls: Opening the Pip-Boy immediately after exiting a loading screen or switching between first- and third-person view no longer causes the game controls to become unresponsive.
• News Screen: Fixed an issue that could allow the News Screen to appear while performing a streaming install of Fallout 76.
• Notifications: Radio Station discovery messages no longer always appear all at once after logging in.
• Photomode: Equipping Binoculars no longer causes Photomode Pose names and descriptions to become mixed up.
• Pip-Boy: Explosive Shotgun damage displayed in the Pip-Boy now matches the weapon’s actual damage.
• Pip-Boy: In the Pipboy’s Component View, all components are now shown in the list, not just components that are in the player’s inventory. This should allow for easier tracking of hard-to-find crafting ingredients.
• Player Icons: Fixed multiple issues that could cause Player Icons to be reset to the default icon.
• Quest Markers: Now correctly appear on the Map, in the Compass, and above Paper Bags when items are dropped on death in the Survival Mode Beta.
• Shop: Fixed an issue that prevented Limited Time Offers from refreshing correctly in the Atomic Shop without a client restart.
• Shop: Preview images for the Red Rocket Door now correctly include the door’s metal side walls.
• Tutorials: The ProSnap Deluxe tutorial for camera zoom now appears correctly when the player looks through the viewfinder.
• Vendors: Now reliably trade in Armor Mod Plans that were previously randomized, including Brotherhood of Steel Combat Armor mods and Deep Pocketed Mods.
• Vendors: Known Plans and Recipes once again correctly sort to the top of Vendor inventory lists.
• Vendors: Items in Vendor inventories can once again be inspected.
• Workbenches: Pressing the Repair Kit button immediately after entering the inspect menu no longer places the player in a Workbench menu showing Atomic Shop items.