Bethesda has spent the months following the announcement of Fallout 76 explaining every major feature except the one fans are most curious about: the ability to find and use nuclear weapons. Setting up bases with the C.A.M.P. device is cool and all, but that’s been around since Fallout 4. Blowing things up on a massive scale though, now that sounds interesting. Fortunately for everyone following the game though, Bethesda is very much aware of the curiosity surrounding this feature and has released another animated instructional video in response.
The first step to accessing nuclear weapons in Fallout 76 is acquiring a nuclear launch code. If this video is to be taken at face value, then gaining a complete code is going to take a bit of effort on the part of the player. It seems launch code pieces can potentially come from several sources. The most literal interpretation of what’s presented above says that players will come across them as drops from enemies, but “inquiring with the locals” could also mean accepting and completing quests. Knowing Bethesda, it’s likely that both methods can lead to the eventual earning of nuclear weapons. Of course, players can also share pieces of codes among themselves. It’s implied that here that the other players need to be part of one’s squad, but it might also be a simple matter of belonging to the same faction.
As for actually using one’s nuclear stockpile, Fallout 76 provides plenty of incentive. The obvious benefit is the elimination of another faction or clearing an area of powerful wildlife, but utilizing nuclear weapons also carries with it the side benefit of spawning the games rarest and most valuable materials. Collecting those materials won’t necessarily be a walk in the park though, as resulting fallout can also spawn incredibly powerful enemies.
In the portion of the video discussing targeting, there’s a brief cut to a character getting chased around by a large bird-like creature with antennae and large insect-like eyes. Todd Howard has mentioned that the folklore of West Virginia was used to inform some of the creature designs, and this does loosely fit thee description of the Mothman. So, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see it actually turn up in game. The question is: what kind of a threat will it end up posing?
Fallout 76 launches for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14.
