A Fallout 76 update has finally removed the most notoriously damaged weapons from the Bethesda RPG. This was after four years. Although it can be fun to have powerful weapons and abilities in single-player games such as Skyrim, Fallout 4 or Fallout 5, multiplayer Fallout 76 means other players must deal with the consequences of any Fallout 76 gun being used.
If you’ve ever seen a Scorchbeast Queen melt in seconds, you’ve probably run into one of these such legacy weapons. In particular, we’re mostly talking about explosive laser weapons here – that is to say, laser guns that have the ‘Bullets explode for area damage’ legendary mod effect applied. While you haven’t been able to get the explosive mod on laser weapons for years now, they were obtainable early in the life of Fallout 76.
Many of these weapons aren’t actually a big problem, but some of them can absolutely devastate the game’s hardest challenges in seconds. The most well-known weapon is the Explosive Laser. It can shoot additional projectiles when paired up with the Two Shot legend mod. Bethesda was reluctant to remove these weapons from legitimate players, but they finally took action.
The latest Fallout 76 PTS update removes the explosive mod from all legendary modules – the fix is expected to roll out on live servers with the next major update, Nuka-World on Tour, which is set to release in December. In a post detailing the update, Bethesda explains that “Although we are playing in a post-apocalyptic world, we still want to keep that world fair, fun, and inviting to all.” They say that the team is “implementing a system that will remove illegal mods attached to weapons that cannot be obtained in-game.”
The community has certainly reacted to this change positively on the whole – a megathread on the game’s subreddit is already at over 1,700 comments. “This should have been addressed two weeks after being discovered,” remarks the top comment, “but four years will do.” Another says that they’re pleased to see that “Bethesda is taking off the gloves to deal with one of the oldest, ugliest, most divisive problems.”
Twitch streamers and YouTubers of Fallout76 have also addressed the issue. Some have returned to the game after being away, while others have responded to the call to discuss the patch. “I genuinely never thought this day would come,” says YouTuber LoneVaultWanderer, “I seriously thought that this was going to be swept under the rug and never talked about ever again officially.” Another YouTuber, AngryTurtle, is “excited” about the change, saying “I don’t enjoy using them – they are just too powerful.”
Personally, I got into Fallout 76 much later down the line, so I missed my chance to get one of these guns – and I certainly wasn’t looking to veer into the dark underworld of black market trading and potential duplicated or hacked variants that has bubbled up around the weapons over the years. Although it was entertaining to see one once in a while, it was perhaps less fun when the third one appeared in a session. One of the most thrilling fights was reduced by ash in just seconds. As one Reddit user says: “War. War sometimes changes.”
We’ve got everything you need to know about lining up the perfect Fallout 76 mutations and making the best use of your Fallout 76 perk cards for maximum effect. We’ve also got all the details on the Fallout 76 Nuka-World on Tour update and the Fallout 76 theatre group putting on in-game stage plays for charity. There’s also more of the best MMORPGs to look through if you fancy branching out.
