Bethesda banning Fallout 76 players for 'abusing' duping exploits and 'dev room' incursions

Bethesda has been busy patching loopholes in Fallout 76 that allow item duping, but a new blog post suggests it's going further and actually banning players who use these exploits. "We want you to know that we take these exploits and those abusing them VERY seriously," the post states. The post also refers to players who found a way into Fallout 76's secret 'dev room', which contains every item in the game, including unreleased items.

"Once identified, we work very closely with our Support team to remove problem players that are abusing these exploits - whether that’s the duping exploits or those using cheat apps or mods to access areas in-game that are otherwise inaccessible (and unintended) for players in the game world," the post continues. It urges players to report those they suspect of using exploits, and should they discover an exploit on their own to "stop using it immediately" and file a support ticket.

That's not all Bethesda is asking—the post also requests feedback on Fallout 76's in-game events. Via the forums, players are encouraged to tell Bethesda what events they like best, which they like least, and what types of events they'd like to see in the future. (My own vote would be to replace the Fertile Soil event with nothing but blessed silence. I am so tired of getting notified of Fertile Soil when I pass within a stone's throw of Flatwoods. Make it stop.)

Finally, a little more about the upcoming new PvP mode has been revealed. "Think of it like playing the game you’re playing right now, but with no PvP rules," the post says. "We want to introduce significantly more tension, drama, and consequences with every encounter with another human player."

We'll learn more about the new mode next week, apparently. I'm particularly curious what the 'consequences' might actually be, because in order to create more drama and tension, there needs to be more than just junk as a reward for defeating another player.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.