Fallout 76 celebrates its eighth anniversary this year, and as an MMORPG, it’s still evolving and getting new features, ways to play, and mechanics for players to enjoy and explore. For years, users have been asking for companions that will join them in the open wasteland, or, at the very least, some roaming pet mechanic, which is commonplace in other MMOs.
Bethesda Game Studios is finally preparing to deliver that very feature to fans of the post-apocalyptic title, allowing pets that occupy a spot in player camps to go out into the wild. It doesn’t end there, as these ‘CAMPanions’ will be getting a few more features to thicken their capabilities.
We’re Getting Roaming Pets in Fallout 76
Fallout 76 is the subject of constant innovation and evolution from Bethesda Game Studios. From when the game launched in 2018 to now, dozens of new seasons have landed, map expansions have been introduced, and new ways to play have been fully appreciated by millions of gamers.
The next change that has players excited is the introduction of roving companions. This will see Bethesda build on an existing pet feature that, until now, has seen dogs, cats, and some other creatures (some of which are rather monstrous) confined to players’ CAMPs.
With this major overhaul to the system, those CAMP pets will now become companions in the wasteland, but they’re going beyond simple cosmetic additions.
I spoke to Bethesda during the Summer Game Fest event in Los Angeles and heard from Jon Rush, Creative Director, who explained how it will work:
Imagine a world where your CAMP pet becomes your CAMPanion.
It follows you around the entire map, adventures with you, explores with you, can fight for you, will sit, will stay, can be commanded to kill, has a skill tree. Dogs, hogs, cats, Deathclaws…
The full-fledged feature will finally give players a companion that can join them in the wild, even if they’re playing totally solo in the realms of Appalachia.
This new CAMPanion feature will be hitting the PTS (Public Test Server) soon, with Bethesda aiming to polish the locomotion mechanics before finessing how pets engage in combat in the open world.
Long-term, we can envision a scenario where a huge boss battle has its footfall multiplied by all these players turning up with a variety of pets, all pitching into the fight and making things much more chaotic for all involved.
There’s no indication of when this feature will hit the public platform, but it shouldn’t be too long.
Are you looking forward to finally having roaming companions in Fallout 76? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Fallout 3 has been remastered in Unreal Engine in a new video
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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