Last month, Bethesda announced plans to implement a new PvP mode that would lift the restrictions of the standard game and create a more dangerous, hostile Appalachia. The new mode will be called "Survival" and Bethesda shared the first details in this week's blog post.
Since the launch of Fallout 76, we’ve received lots of feedback from some of our more competitive players who requested greater challenge, fewer restrictions, and more incentives when it comes to PVP combat. With this in mind, we began developing Survival mode, which will bring a new way for you to engage in even more demanding, high-stakes, and deadly adventures in Fallout 76. We’re still hard at work on this mode internally and plan to bring it to the live game in phases as we add more content and features over time.
Once live, you'll will be presented with two different game modes: Adventure and Survival, the latter of which is being considered a beta. Survival will offer all of the same quests, events, and story that you'd find in Adventure, except they'll exist under "the ever-looming threat of hostile dwellers."
While you're free to create a new character for Survival, there is an option to bring your existing character over to the new mode. All of the progress you've made in Adventure mode will carry over; however, there's one slight drawback. Anything that affects your character in one game mode will also affect them in the other. So if you were to fire all of your ammo in Survival, it will be gone if you log into that character in Adventure, and vice versa.
As for the actual balancing mechanics of Survival, there will be no "invitations" to PvP; all players except for your teammates or event groupmates will be flagged as hostile. Leveling scaling will also work the same way as it does in Adventure mode. Bethesda believes this will help level the playing field a bit, especially for new characters.
Bethesda acknowledged that they plan to experiment with different rules for Survival after the Beta release, particularly noting the death mechanic. Right now, players who die in Survival mode will be unable to use the seek revenge spawn option and can only spawn at their C.A.M.P. or Vault 76.
They're also experimenting with rewards and loot. Killing a player will reward you with double the Caps along with possible Aid or other items they may drop in addition to their Junk.
"Added risks and rewards like these in Survival mode PVP will make each of your deaths more devastating, and every kill you rack up much more lucrative. However, it’s important to note that these changes aren’t set in stone, and we’ll be looking to make adjustments based on playtesting and your feedback during the Survival Beta," the developer explained.
For those more interested in the competitive aspects, Bethesda is planning to roll out in-game leaderboards at the start of Survival mode. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for more details on this.
Survival Beta is expected to roll out in March, but Bethesda admitted they still have "a lot more work to do." With that in mind, we'll have to wait for more specific details regarding its release.