Fallout 76 is out very soon, and we’ve been playing the beta for all its worth. One thing that will happen though, is death. Fallout 76 can be a very tough game, especially if you wander into a toxic area overrun with Super Mutants (as we once did). So we accept that in Fallout 76 death will come often, but what actually happens when you die in the game? Is there any cost to death, or do you just respawn? Many Vault Dwellers died to bring you this information.
What Happens in a Fallout 76 Death?
In Fallout 76 death functions very differently to other Fallout games, in fact it’s closer to something like Destiny, sort of. If you lose all your health in the game, it doesn’t mean immediate death, as any nearby player can revive you. Of course, that’s entirely dependent on there actually being another person close to you when that happens. If you’ve wandered off on your own, treating Fallout 76 like a single-player RPG, then you may not have any choice but to give up and die.
What happens then? You’ll be deposited back at the map screen. You can then choose where you’ll respawn, but it’ll act much like the regular fast travel system. You can only respawn at specific locations around the world, and only places you’ve visited already. The nearest location to your death site is free, and you’ll respawn in a safe location away from anything that killed you. Anything further than that, though, and you’ll have to pay to travel there. It costs more depending on the distance, and about a quarter of the map away will cost around 30-35 caps.
What Do You Lose for Dying?
Now this is where things may change between the beta and the main game. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of penalty for dying, but your death location becomes marked on the map, along with the suggestion that you’ve lost some items and you should return to your body to retrieve them, Dark Souls-style. It’s possible we may have lost some bottlecaps, but we certainly didn’t notice any items were missing. Dying may be harsher in the final game, or it may depend on your level. Either way, there probably will be some penalty for death, so try not to run headlong into a Super Mutant base again.