Fallout 76 has just been treated to a meaty new update – Fallout 76: Wastelanders – meaning it’s now awash with human NPCs for the very first time, some of whom have been naughtily pinching players’ gear. However, it looks like man’s best friend is also on the way to the online RPG game’s post-apocalyptic Appalachia.
That’s according to Bethesda project lead Jeff Gardiner in a Reddit AMA the studio hosted yesterday. In response to a question asking if pets were on the way to the game soon, he replies: “Edible ones? I kid. Now that we have our companions system in the game, we are looking to add pets as well.” So, exciting news for fans of Fallout 4’s Dogmeat and the other various animal-esque creatures you could have follow you about the wasteland.
There’s no word on when they’ll arrive just yet, but they’ll surely make welcome, if inedible, additions to the game. Plus, the dev’s revealed, there will more Fallout 76 allies to come in the future, so it looks like you’ll be able to recruit a bunch of new human-shaped friends in a later update, too. Neat.
It’s not clear if they’ll all be able to join you at your in-game camp, though. When asked about the possibility of having multiple NPCs stay at your camp at a time, the dev explains: “While we would love to do this there are numerous issues that would need to be addressed. Doubling the amount of NPCs in the world comes at a heavy cost!”
However, he adds, “That said, we are patching in a way for folks to dress their companions up using all of the costumes they’ve found in our next patch in May!” Sweet!
Elsewhere in the AMA, Gardiner also shares that the studio is “talking about ways” to let players explore regions outside of Appalachia, advising players to “stay tuned”. Hmm. Guess we’ll have to wait for a future update to find out what lies beyond.