New Fallout 76 Details Paint a Perilous PvP Picture

Bethesda has gone into detail regarding how PvP works in its upcoming multiplayer shooter, Fallout 76. If you were hoping to get along with everyone in the post apocalyptic wastes of Virginia, you might be a little disappointed. The first multiplayer entry in the series sounds like it could be a hostile place, as it seems players won't be able to turn off damage from others and play peacefully instead.

"Outside the Vault, you and your fellow dwellers are free to hit, chop, smash, shoot or otherwise attack each other as soon as you’ve reached level five," A new post on the official website states. It's not quite that simple, though, as damage dealt to other players will be significantly reduced unless they return fire. When this happens, both players will cause full damage to each other. When you're in this state, you'll be able to see the name of your opponent as well as the reward in Caps you'll receive if you defeat them.

Again, there's no mention of being able to avoid PvP entirely, other than to simply avoid other people who are trying to kill you and hope they stop. However, you can choose to block someone who's antagonising you, which will make it much more difficult for them to cause you harm. If another player does kill you, you can also respawn away from them to avoid further confrontation.

To us, this doesn't sound particularly promising. Give someone a way to kill another player, and they'll do it. Expecting everyone to get along seems a little naive, and the above deterrents of decreased damage probably won't stop a lot of people from gunning you down. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out, of course, but this isn't particularly encouraging.