Fallout 76 raids begin August 20

Raids will arrive in Fallout 76 on August 20, we learned during a panel discussion at QuakeCon today. These raids are designed for 4-player teams and will take place in Vault 94. A second raid in a different Vault is being developed as well and will arrive "in the not too distant future," though there isn't a concrete date set.

This initial Vault 94 raid is "very puzzle based" according to project lead Jeff Gardiner. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from when taking on a raid, and higher difficulties add a timer and increase the awards earned. In the image above you can see a new type of power armor Gardiner called the "potted plant"—power armor with ferns growing on it that will improve your stealth. Once you've earned the entire set of armor through your repeated Vault 94 raids, you'll gain an additional bonus. Hey, armor set bonuses! That's new to Fallout 76, too.

Some rewards will drop midway through the raid, so even if you ultimately fail you won't come away completely empty handed. For solo players looking to take on Vault 94, you're in for an extreme challenge, though Gardiner said it was possible for a single player to complete the raid without help.

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.