Fallout 76’s newest update is live and to the surprise of no one, it’s garnered some criticism. This is because Bethesda has added more quality of life items to the Atom Shop, namely the new refrigerator and Collectron Station. The former was suggested by the community many months ago and that request has been honored…in exchange for $7 in Atoms, of course.
The refrigerator essentially keeps items like food and drinks from spoiling, cutting the spoilage rate in half. Then there’s the Collectron Station which deploys a Collectron bot to gather Scrap and other “simple” items from nearby. It’s a good way to minimize your own collecting time and of course, it costs Atoms (which can be purchased with real money).
To be fair, Atoms can be earned in-game through challenges and whatnot. But it’s well known that the number of free Atoms received slows steadily as you progress further into the game. Also, given how Bethesda revamped the beginning experience to cut down on Atoms earned from challenges, new players will take even longer to get these items. Finally, it doesn’t help that Bethesda promised no pay-to-win elements in the Atom Shop before the game launched (though these technically could be considered “pay to skip the grind” elements).
We’ll see how Bethesda reacts to all the complaints in the meantime. It has a lot more on the way for Fallout 76, including the Wastelanders update that adds human NPCs back to the game.
