Fallout 76 Patch Nerfs Demolition Expert, Explosive Legendary Mod

The latest patch for Bethesda’s Fallout 76 is now available. It’s 500 MB for PC players and 3.5 GB for Xbox One and PS4 owners. It brings a number of improvements to in-game performance, server stability, and game client stability.

Perhaps most notable are some of the nerfs. The Demolition Expert perk has had its damage bonuses nerfed, with the max rank now only providing 60 percent additional damage. The Explosive Legendary mod and Two Shot legendary effect have also had their damage reduced to 20 percent and 25 percent of base weapon damage respectively.

Several quests and events have also seen some changes with this patch. Belly of the Beast provides “Ultracite Power Armor” entry to Taggerdy’s Terminal, while First Contact will place an objective on the Overseer’s C.A.M.P. with the player having to place their own C.A.M.P. in response. Check out some of the changes below, with full patch notes here.

GENERAL

• Performance: Several additional improvements have been made to in-game performance.
• Stability: The Fallout 76 game client and servers have received additional stability improvements.

BALANCE CHANGES

• Perks: The damage bonuses provided by each rank of the Demolition Expert perk have been reduced from +20%/40%/60%/80%/100% to +20%/30%/40%/50%/60% to match other weapon perk damage bonuses.
• Perks: The condition loss bonuses provided by each rank of the White Knight and Licensed Plumber perks have been reduced from 30%/60%/90% to 20%/40%/60%, and their repair bonuses have also been reduced, to match the Power Patcher perk.
• Dev Note: In looking at the Demolition Expert, White Knight, and Licensed Plumber perks, we felt they have so far been overperforming in their current roles, and we wanted to bring them more in line with similar perks to help prevent them from feeling like mandatory picks.
• Weapons: The Explosive legendary mod’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +20% of base weapon damage, with explosive radius damage.
• Weapons: The Two Shot legendary effect’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +25% of base weapon damage.
• Dev Note: As mentioned in a previous Inside the Vault article, both the explosive mod and two shot weapons could result in dealing very high amounts of damage, and this was compounded if two shot and explosive were combined. We’ve decided to tone both of these damage bonuses back.
• Weapons: Flamers, Cryolators, plasma weapons, and laser weapons can no longer spawn with the Explosive legendary mod.
• Dev Note: The explosive mod causes weapons to fire bullets that are…explosive. The weapons listed above don’t fire bullets, so we’ve temporarily removed the ability for them to spawn with that mod applied so we can make adjustments.

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

• Scrapping: Loose weapon and armor mods are now protected from autoscrapping when crafting. However, they can still be scrapped manually if a player wants to break them down into scrap components.
• Turrets: An “(Owned)” tag will now appear next to the names of Turrets a player has built in their C.A.M.P. or a workshop.

DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY

Carry Weight: Is now capped to an absolute limit of 1,500 pounds over the character’s current maximum carry weight. For example: If your carry weight limit is 210 pounds, then your maximum limit is 1,710 pounds.

• Characters will be unable to exceed this new weight limit moving forward.
• Characters who already exceed this limit will be unable to add any additional items or caps to their inventories until they have reduced their carry weight below the cap.
• Dev Note: These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world. They also play role in helping to regulate the in-game economy. We do recognize the desire to be able to own more of the cool items that we have in the game, and we are looking into a variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size. We will be sure to talk more about this when they are ready.

Cap Stashes: To help address cap exploits, caps stashes have been turned into containers, which allows them to properly reset and provide players with instanced loot.

Plans and Recipes: When viewing a plan or recipe in a menu, a “(Known)” tag will now appear next to the names of recipes and plans the player has already learned.

Vendors: Recipes and Plans in Vendor inventories are no longer randomized and can now be reliably sourced from those Vendors, with the exception of some minor Workshop and C.A.M.P. Plans.

• The appearance of many Plans and Recipes in Vendor inventories is based on player level and they will show up once the proper level has been reached.
• Additional structural Plans for wall sets, power connectors, doors, generators, and water purifiers have also been added to some Vendors.

PVP

• Hunter/Hunted: A server-wide message will now appear when a player joins the Hunter/Hunted queue.
• This message will only be displayed once per player to avoid spam.
  An additional server-wide message will be displayed when Hunter/Hunted is ready to begin in order to give other players a final chance to join.

QUESTS AND EVENTS

• Belly of the Beast: A new “Ultracite Power Armor” entry has been added to Taggerdy’s Terminal on the top floor of Fort Defiance, offering Ultracite Power Armor plans to those who read it.
• First Contact: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear upon reaching the Overseer’s C.A.M.P. for the first time, prompting the player to place a C.A.M.P. of their own.
• Gauley Mine: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear at Gauley Mine to introduce players to Ore Deposits.
• Monster Mash: The amount of XP awarded per round during this event has been reduced from 350 to 100.