Bethesda may have just saved Fallout 76 – and also added a new bug

Bethesda may have finally saved Fallout 76, as a new update for the online RPG removes one of the most frustrating issues and balance issues, making it easier for newer players to actually compete in PvP, and get the benefit of missions and challenges. Still, in typical fashion, Bethesda’s update also introduces a new bug – if you log into Fallout 76 right now, you may find that the ammo for one of your weapons has disappeared, or that you’re suddenly unable to move.

Let’s do the good news first, because – playful needling by Bethesda aside; we really love them – the changes coming to Fallout 76 far outweigh the effects of the new bug.

In the latest update, which was released on January 24th, Bethesda has removed all Fallout 76 hacked and older weapons. Essentially, the RPG has faced a balance problem. Since its launch in 2019, various legendary weapons complete with mods and damage buffs have been temporarily added and then removed – if you played back when the explosive damage Flamer was available in the game and you picked one up, you get to keep it, but subsequent updates remove it from the gaming world, making it unattainable for newer players.

These are actually the legacy weapons – weapons that only some players who have followed Fallout 76 throughout its lifetime have access to, but have since been removed and therefore cannot be claimed by newer players.

That means a portion of Fallout 76’s player base has more powerful gear than everyone else. If you want to try the game out and the first time you try PvP you are instantly blown to pieces by someone’s legacy Fatman, you might just want to give up. Alternatively, if you want to enjoy Fallout 76’s co-op events, it might not be as much fun to have players who can wipe out even the toughest enemies in seconds thanks to legacy weapons.

But now, legacy weapons—and hacked weapons, which aren’t as common and have always been frowned upon by the Fallout 76 community—have been removed.

“We are implementing a system that will remove illegal mods associated with weapons that cannot be obtained in-game,” Bethesda says. “Most players will not notice any change to their existing weapons, but players who are in possession of a weapon with a mod that cannot be natively equipped to the weapon may notice a damage reduction on the weapon and the mod will no longer exist.”

Fallout 76 fans have been positive about the removal of legacy weapons, saying it might convince them to give the Bethesda RPG another try. “Lots of people have passed away because of inheritance,” writes one. “It is very likely that we will see an influx of old players coming back who had passed away because legacy diminished their enjoyment of the game.” “I’ll be back,” says another. “New content, no legacy, sounds like a fun time.”

“Today is an update that as far as I’m concerned can take as long as it needs to,” writes a third fan. “I’m looking forward to seeing real teams fight now…and not wipe out the event in seconds.”

However, the latest update appears to have added a new bug to Fallout 76, where players who have power armor that uses a weight reduction ability log in to find that ability no longer works. This means that their equipment load has suddenly become too great for them to move properly.

Other players, using the plasma gatling gun, have encountered a bug where the ammo counter shows ‘500’, but even when the gun is fully loaded, it only fires 17 rounds before it runs dry, rendering the weapon more or less useless. Bethesda says it is “investigating reports” of these issues and will post updates when they are resolved.

If you’re coming back to Fallout 76 but also want to know when the next Bethesda apocalypse is coming, check out everything we know about the Fallout 5 release date. You might also want to try some of the best Fallout 4 mods, or maybe some of the other best games like Fallout on PC.