Fallout 76 – Update 16 Highlights and December Updates

A few days ago, Bethesda’s multiplayer survival RPG Fallout 76 received its 16th update that kicked off the holiday season all across the game’s post-apocalyptic wasteland. If you’re interested, you can find the complete patch notes here, or check out this article for some highlights. Have a look:

UPDATE 16 HIGHLIGHTS
Our next update for Fallout 76 has something for everyone as Appalachia settles into the holiday season, and we’ve rounded up some highlights for you below. Update 16 is currently set to arrive on Tuesday, December 10, and full patch notes will be posted during maintenance that day.
MORE CHOICE IN NUCLEAR WINTER MAPS
Since the launch of Morgantown for Nuclear Winter, we’ve seen lots of requests from Overseer Candidates who want the ability to choose which map they’d like to play on during a match. We’ve seen lots of requests for this from the community, as well. In Update 16, The Forest is returning alongside Morgantown, and you will be able to cast a vote for your map of choice at the start of each new match. Once the ballots are in, the map that received the most votes will be selected for that match.
As with any change to the Candidate selection process, ZAX is pretty excited to tell you more about this one, so keep an eye out for a new ZAX Transmission on Fallout.com in the next few days.
PRIVACY, PLEASE! NEW OPTION FOR PRIVATE WORLDS
Following some community discussions and feedback, we’re introducing an option in Update 16 that will help Private Worlds offer a true solo experience, if you so choose. To do this, we’re adding a button to the Play Menu when you highlight Private World mode that will let you toggle between “Team Only” or “All Friends.” By choosing “Team Only,” just you and players you’ve already formed a team with can enter your Private World. Selecting “All Friends” works just like Private Worlds do now, allowing anyone from your friends list to jump into your Private World while you’re there.
CONTRACT HOLIDAY CHEER FROM THE SCORCHED
Some of the Scorched throughout Appalachia are getting into the spirit of the season, and they come bearing presents! Starting December 12, whenever you spot Scorched dressed in festive attire, or hear their joyous jingle bells, it’s time to go on the hunt. Each “Holiday Scorched” you take down will drop a Holiday Gift for you to unwrap. Gifts can be low, medium, or high-quality, and may contain anything from a lump of coal, to rare plans and recipes. You’ll also get some wrapping paper so that you can craft a few Holiday Gifts of your own to share with your fellow Dwellers.
Holiday Scorched Event Details:
Start Date: Thursday, December 12 at 11:00 a.m. ET
End Date: Thursday, December 26 at 12:00 p.m. ET
IT’S MAKING A LIST, AND PROCESSING IT TWICE
Ho! Ho! H—Who’s that coming down the chimney? It’s Santatron! For a limited time after Update 16 arrives, you will be able to claim a free Santatron bot from the Atomic Shop. Build the Santatron Station in your C.A.M.P. and the bot will roam the nearby area to collect treats for you, like candy, toys, and coal. Best of all, while the Holiday Scorched event is active, your Santatron will occasionally give you a Holiday Gift of random quality. Stay tuned for more details in next week’s Atomic Shop article on Fallout.com.
UNWRAP HOLIDAY COSMETICS IN NUCLEAR WINTER
As we’ve mentioned previously, since our Halloween-themed Nuclear Winter challenges ended a little early, they are going to make a comeback in Update 16 for a limited time. All six challenges and rewards will be available starting December 11, and any progress you made toward them last time will be preserved.
That’s not all! You can also get decked out for the holidays and ring in the new year with a set of six new Christmas-themed Nuclear Winter challenges and cosmetic rewards. Starting December 17, a new challenge will appear each day until all six are live, and all of them will remain available until January 6. Here are the dates and times for both sets of holiday challenges.
“Nightmare Preceding Christmas” (Formerly “Halloween”) Challenge Details:
Start Date: Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00pm ET
End Date: Monday, December 16 at 7:00pm ET
Christmas Challenge Details:
Start Date: Tuesday, December 17 at 7:00pm ET
End Date: Monday, January 6 at 7:00pm ET

Then, this follow-up “Inside the Vault” article outlines the game’s December events and updates that include a free trial, some cross-promotional cosmetic rewards, and more. Check it out:

There’s a lot going on in Appalachia as we kick off the holiday season, including a Free Trial and Double XP combo event, exclusive rewards for Twitch Prime members, and a variety of festive activities you can take part in. Below, we’ve recapped all the details you need to know for everything that’s happening this week, including an extension for the Holiday Scorched event.
FREE TRIAL AND DOUBLE XP THIS WEEKEND
Whether you’ve never played Fallout 76 before, or you’re a battle-hardened Scorchbeast slayer looking to introduce your friends into Appalachia, now is the perfect time to head in-game because we’ve just kicked off a new Free Trial Weekend! In addition to having access to the full game you will also be able to level up twice as fast, because we’ve fired up a new Double XP Event for all game modes until the trial comes to an end on at 12:00 p.m. ET on December 16.
As a reminder, console players will need an Xbox Gold or a PlayStation Plus membership to access the Free Trial, and you can get full details on the event by reading our Free Trial article on Bethesda.net.
COSMETIC REWARDS FOR TWITCH PRIME MEMBERS
We’ve partnered up with Twitch to bring you a variety of in-game cosmetic rewards that you can claim just for being a Twitch Prime member. The Twitch Prime Holiday Bundle will be available for several weeks, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET on December 13. Ensure your Prime Loot is waiting for you in Fallout 76 as soon as the event begins on Friday by logging into Twitch.tv and heading to the Connections settings page to link your Bethesda.net account. Read our recent article on Bethesda.net to preview the exclusive in-game rewards and get additional event details.
HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES NOW LIVE!
Following our announcement of the Holiday Scorched event, we have been reading feedback from those of you who will be busy with holiday celebrations in real life, and that you would like some more time to go hunting for Holiday Gifts in-game. We’re happy to let you know that we are extending the end-date from December 26, until 12:00 p.m. ET on December 31. This change also means that the Santatron bot’s ability to find Holiday Gifts for you is being extended to match the Holiday Scorched event.
Additionally, the “Nightmare Preceding Christmas” Nuclear Winter Challenges are currently available in-game this weekend, offering you another shot at Halloween-themed cosmetics until 7:00 p.m. ET on December 16. The next day, a new set of Holiday Challenges will start becoming available, and six new themed items will be up for grabs. Catch a preview of the rewards in our latest ZAX Transmission.
If you’d like even more details on the Holiday Scorched, the Santatron bot, and the holiday Nuclear Winter challenges, including start and end times, be sure to read the Patch Notes for Update 16.
AN UPDATE ON PATCH 16
Following the release of Update 16 earlier this week, we began receiving community reports that effects granted by armor were being disabled after reloading. We have been actively investigating this issue and have confirmed it is related to a fix that we included in Update 16 to address an issue with the “+250 Damage Resistance While Reloading” (+250 DR bug) legendary effect.
Getting this resolved is a priority for us, and the fastest way for us to address it is to roll back the fix for the “+250 DR” bug. We are currently planning to do this as soon as possible, so keep an eye on the Fallout 76 forums and @Fallout on Twitter for more details as soon as they are available. Additionally, it’s still important to us to fix the +250 DR bug, but we want to make sure that fix completely addresses the issue and does not introduce anything new. We are currently aiming to fix this prior to Wastelanders, and we will let you know as soon as we have more concrete details to share.