New Fallout 76 Wastelanders screenshots prove the raiders definitely have the coolest base

Fallout 76 Wastelanders factions bases — (Image credit: Bethesda)

Where would you like to live? A brown, wooden settlement in Spruce Knob, or in the wreckage of a massive crashed space station? I feel like it's an obvious choice. Space station, please! Even a space station that's no longer in space is cooler than anything else on the ground.

Today Bethesda revealed a bit more detail about the Fallout 76 Wastelanders update, which will (eventually) add human NPCs, branching dialogue, and a reputation system to the game. In a post on Fallout 76's site, Bethesda showed us the Settler faction's base—they're former union workers from Washington DC and they've put down stakes in Spruce Knob, building an outpost called Foundation.

"These Settlers may know their way around construction equipment," the post reads, "but they have no idea what challenges you and others have faced in Appalachia during the past year. It may be mutually beneficial to seek them out to share your experiences and lend a helping hand toward their efforts."

Foundation is in a nice spot in The Savage Divide region, and the Settler base looks, you know, pretty nice! It has a sign and everything. Kinda looks like a moderately overpriced furniture store that sells a lot of wicker.

But even this nice little glimpse of Foundation hasn't changed my mind. I'm personally going to be making a beeline for the base of the other major faction in Wastelanders, the raiders, who have taken over the crashed Valiant-1 space station located in the Toxic Valley region. Foundation just can't compare.

"They’ve set up a rather formidable base of operations at the Crashed Space Station that they call 'Crater' and outsiders who drop by unannounced aren’t going to get a warm welcome," according to the post. "If you’re looking to arrange an introduction to Meg and her gang, you will need to be crafty."

One does not simply walk into Crater, it seems. Which makes it even more cool, like a nightclub with a bouncer, and a guest list, and a mysterious owner, and instead of a velvet rope there's barbed wire, and also the bouncer is a cannibal.

"At both Foundation and Crater, you will find completely revamped locations to explore, new vendors to trade with, crafting areas, and plenty of people to talk to. However, your interactions with those people will depend on your reputation with them and how they view you."

Some details about that reputation system, Bethesda says, will be along next week.

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.