Fallout 76 now lets you go fishing in its irradiated waters, though I'm more interested in the massive combat overhaul added in its 'Gone Fission' update

Look, I'm not a big fan of fishing minigames for a whole bunch of reasons. But I am deeply fond of abysmal puns. So on that basis alone, Fallout 76's Gone Fission update gets a pass from me. But this exquisitely/terribly titled addition to Bethesda's multiplayer Fallout does more than let you yoink marine life out of its irradiated water bodies. It also brings a significant overhaul to the game's combat, and that has my attention.

Before all that, though, fishing fans can get their rod on by visiting a new location in the Mire. Imaginatively called Fisherman's rest, here you'll encounter a character known as The Fisherman (really stretching your vocabulary there, Bethesda). The Fisherman will give you the Casting Off questline, through which you'll acquire a fancy new fishing rod.

You can fish anywhere in Fallout 76 that's wetter than a puddle, but your basic fishing rod won't be able to catch more than generic tiddlers and pieces of junk. To hook more elusive quarry, such as rare axolotls and radioactive glowing specimens, you'll need to upgrade your rod by completing fishing challenges and daily quests, while also gathering higher-quality bait. Weather can also affect your chances of a better catch, so you're more likely to snag rarities when it rains, catch glowing fish in a radstorm, etc.

The update also lets you cook fish and gear up with a wide range of maritime-themed apparel and equipment. If you're looking for new digs, meanwhile, you can set yourself up in a houseboat, furnish it with fishing rod displays and bottled octopi, outfit your character in scuba gear, and pass the time testing your strength on the Poseidon Arm Wrestling machine.

None of this really bites for me, but as I mentioned, Gone Fission adds more than just fishing. Apparently, Bethesda has been working on an extensive combat rebalancing project since last year, and the Gone Fission update adds a lot of weapon tweaks as part of that.

Fallout 76 - Season 21: Gone Fission - YouTube

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There are far too many changes to go into in any detail here, but I'll give you the broad strokes. Many weapons have had their base damage increased, including a wide array of rifles and SMGs, and more than 50 melee weapons. Alongside guns and bludgeoning implements, various perks and weapon mods have also been rebalanced, with the latter seeing a general shift toward making them more powerful.

One of the more specific changes the update makes is to limb damage and crippling. Now, instead of certain weapons and mods having a percentage chance to instantly cripple a limb, they will deal more consistent increases to damage that culminates in crippling. "We expect that these changes will make most enemies easier to cripple while making limb damage more consistent and predictable," Bethesda explains, though the changes will make the appendages of some enemies, like region bosses, harder to disable overall.

The Gone Fission update is available now. Fallout 76 has come a long way since its infamously empty launch in 2018. Jeremy Peel recently chatted with former Bethesda designer Jeff Gardiner about how the studio turned the game around. "It deserved all the criticism that it got, for sure," Gardiner conceded. "It taught me a lot, as pain does."