Watch Fallout 76 Wastelander gameplay in action

This weekend at PAX East Bethesda showed off about 17 minutes of Fallout 76 Wastelanders, the free expansion adding NPCs to their multiplayer RPG. Members of the team were on hand to talk along with the footage, noting that NPCs are being incorporated into the main story quests. Along with the fact that Charisma is suddenly an important stat for impressing those NPCs it seems like the release of Wastelanders will be a good excuse to start over with a new character.

The team note that existing robotic NPCs have been rewritten and made interactive so you can chat with them as well, rather than just have those quest givers monologue at you as they previously did. There's a new reputation system at play, and a choice to make between settlers and raiders, although apparently we'll be able to explore some of the questline for each before choosing a side.

Among the other additions seen are new weapons like a bow and a plasma caster, a lighting pass that makes everything look a bit less flat and makes reflections show up a little better, and instanced locations for major NPC so that you (and any team mates) aren't bothered by randoms while the plot's happening.

The expansion comes out on April 7, which is the same date as Fallout 76's Steam release. Here's everything we know about Fallout 76 Wastelanders so far.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.