Bethesda dishes details for the first major Fallout 76 raid, Vault 94

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It was once a utopia

Fallout 76is getting ready to unleash vault raids on us by way of Patch 12, and Bethesda is finally ready to pull back the curtain on them in their latest official update blog.

The first major event is none other than Vault 94, which players have been running around trying to uncover secrets in for a while now. But along with Vault 96 (in the future) it’s not actually slated to open until the big summer update, which will allow players to dive in and really explore this once-utopian society. Bethesda calls it “completely overrun by nature,” and full of perils.

That will unlock in just four days on August 20, and Bethesda says it’s going to be “one of the most challenging experiences” in the game to date. You can opt to take it on solo, but the publisher recommends “a full team of level 50+ characters” to really take it on: it’s a raid after all! Perhaps the most interesting bit is that they’re actually making an effort to have this feel like a real dungeon.

New “instancing tech” will be implemented, which creates a private game state for you and your team just like a standard MMO or dungeon crawler. In other words, unlike the rest of Fallout 76, some asshole can’t run in and start mucking around (though Bethesda already separated PVE and PVP into different modes a while back). It’ll sport “three different missions” with new objectives (Dead in the Water at launch, followed by Meltdown and Washout each week respectively), which will rotate on a week to week basis.

You can run it at any time exceptfor a three hour grace period between rotations, where the vault will be closed. I’m not a fan of the rotation concept, but thankfully novice, standard, and expert modes are available from the start (the latter two have time limits), which should be a positive long term upgrade for casual fans and hardcore players alike. Naturally unique rewards are in, like gear, XP, caps, crafting materials, plans, and improved repair kits. “Vault 94 Steel” is also a thing (and binds to your account), which will seemingly operate just like tokens in an MMO raid, allowing you to craft items by way of currency earned from completing the raid.

There is a catch here though: Bethesda is testing the tech on August 20 on PC. If that goes off without a hitch (friend: we’re talking about Fallout here!), it will roll out on consoles “over the following days.” The rest of patch 12 will be unleashed as normal, but not Vault 94 on consoles…yet. Bethesda says it’s ready to “disable the raid” if issues are detected, so maybe don’t 100% take off work next Tuesday just in case.

Inside the Vault [Bethesda.net]