Bethesda has outlined hundreds of potential changes toFallout 76combat and perks, which are set to enter public testing soon. While not all of these experimental tweaks may make their way to the stable version of the game, the overall revamp is still likely to mark one ofFallout 76’s biggest combat rebalancings to date.
As is the case with any live service game with combat, the process of balancingFallout 76is a never-ending affair, complicated by the constant influx of new content. Even Bethesda’s patches that have entirely different priorities—likeFallout 76’s recently debuted Gone Fishing update—have a tendency to include dozens of balancing tweaks affecting weapons, armor, and perks.
As of late June 2025, Bethesda is working on a particularly sizable update incorporating hundreds of combat balancing changes for its post-apocalyptic West Virgina-set game. A company representative characterized the upcoming patch as “one of the largest numeric shifts” thatFallout 76’s combathas experienced to date. The update is planned to be introduced as part of the next Public Test Server (PTS) version of the game, which doesn’t have a firm release date yet but is expected to materialize later this summer.
Fallout 76 Buffing More Underperforming Weapons
Among the highlights of the upcoming update is a massive weapon rebalance that is almost exclusively focused on buffs. The .44 Revolver, 10mm Pistol, 10mm Submachine Gun, and Assault Rifle are some of the weapons getting big damage boosts as part of the next PTS patch, together with the Combat Knife, Crossbow, and the Crusader Pistol. Even some of the more niche options—like the Alien Blaster, Baseball Grenade, and the plain old (wooden) Board—are getting substantial base damage buffs promising to make them significantly more viable. This particular set of changes marks a continuation of Bethesda’sefforts to buff underperformingFallout 76weapons that started in 2024.
Manual Aiming and V.A.T.S. Changes Are Coming to Fallout 76
The next PTS update also aims to rework aiming. Manual aiming is expected to become significantly easier due to several changes Bethesda has implemented on a per-weapon basis. These include reduced recoil, slower recoil buildup, narrower cones of fire, and less camera movement during weapon actions in first-person view. The update also introduces additional zoom levels for medium and long-range scopes. Separately, the patch will overhaul theFallout 76V.A.T.S. system, implementing a new formula for calculating hit chance that will on average increase the likelihood of hitting everything but the most distant targets.
Enemy resistance and health rebalancing will also be part of the upcoming package, aiming to account for the increased player power that the update enables. Meanwhile, the PTS patch will finalize Bethesda’s ongoing Perk rebalancing by replacing the Heavy Gunner set with new Perks that are geared toward spending ammo to activate various bonuses. By popular request, the update will also include a Perk to shorten the spin-up time on heavy weapons like the Minigun. Melee and Bow Perks are undergoing some changes as well, which are outlined in Bethesda’s latest patch notes.
Fallout 76 Combat Balance PTS Update Patch Notes
Manual Aim Improvements
We’ve made changes to all ranged weapons to improve players’ ability to hit targets outside of V.A.T.S..
These changes vary per weapon and include:
Laser and Plasma Weapons
Weapons with laser projectiles typically are more accurate and have less recoil than ballistic weapons. Plasma projectiles are usually somewhere in between (same for Alien Blaster/Disintegrator).
Explosive Launcher
V.A.T.S.
The formula for calculating hit chances in V.A.T.S. has been rewritten to be more consistent and intuitive. Overall, hit chances with most weapons will be higher. Distant, smaller, and more difficult enemies will sometimes be harder to hit.
Explosion Changes
Explosion Force Reductions
We’ve reduced the impact force of many explosions so they no-longer push corpses and objects as far. We’ve also made adjustments so the impact force of certain explosions was more appropriate to the size and scale of each explosion.
This change does not affect the damage dealt by these explosions.
The following thrown items have had adjustments to their weight:
Weapon Bash Damage
Bash damage has been increased for the following weapons, making weapon bashing much more practical. This synergizes with the changes to Stock and Bayonet mods listed below.
Bash damage now scales with weapon level, so the values below are for the weapon’s maximum level. Lower levels are scaled proportionally.
Weapon Ranges
We’ve adjusted the range for most player weapons to shore up some of the shortest-range weapon types such as Shotguns and to help differentiate many weapon classes that previously coalesced into about 204-288 feet of range when modded.
Explosive launchers’ range is primarily derived from their projectile, so these numbers serve as a rough guide for their effective range.
Mods can have a strong impact on weapon ranges, so the numbers listed here are for the base weapon/short barrel.
Weapon Mods
The vast majority of melee and ranged weapon mods have been updated to have more consistent and intuitive effects, and to offer additional choices for a variety of play styles.
There are far too many changes to list (well over 1,000 mods updated), so instead here’s some highlights for common mods.
The effects listed per mod are relative to the base version of the weapon, and not relative to the prior version of the mod.
Stub Barrels
Stub barrels now make a weapon easier to use while moving at short range.
Medium & Long Barrels
While the longer range for Medium and Long barrels makes it easier to hit targets both in manual aim and VATS and preserve more of your damage when firing at distant targets, they’re now a bit more difficult to use on the go.
Muzzle Mods
Bleed, Fire, and Poison Mods
Changes have been made to Fire and Poison mods to offer better damage over time. We’ve also made changes to some of these mods to convert more of their original damage to Fire or Poison. Mods that add blades to weapons now more consistently have a Bleed (physical) damage over time effect. The damage from this effect has been greatly increased.
Receiver Mods
Mods which change the ammo type of a weapon have been modified to better reflect the increase or decrease in ammo strength. Stronger ammo will typically have higher AP costs, lower durability, and be harder to control in manual aim. Weaker ammo will typically have lower AP costs and be easier to control and maintain. Now the choice of which ammo to use on a weapon is more about whether you want a more comfortable, lower-maintenance experience with a weaker ammo type – or instead push the weapon further with stronger ammo at the cost of increased difficulty of use and more expensive maintenance.
Similar to ammo type conversion mods which use a stronger ammo type, Hardened receivers now have additional recoil and higher AP costs.
Critical receivers now also increase a weapon’s AP cost.
Stocks and Bayonets
Paired with the damage increases on the weapons themselves, switching from a Grip to a Stock or adding a Bayonet (or both!) will greatly improve Bash Damage.
Prime Receivers
Prime Receivers have been modified to be vastly more powerful, but overall more expensive to use. Not only will players need to more actively seek out Ultracite ammo (see the Ammo Changes section below), but weapons with Prime Receivers will be a bit harder to handle than before. The major changes for Prime Receivers are as follows:
Semi-Automatic to Automatic Weapon Mods
In addition to the earlier Base Damage, Sneak Damage, and VATS Critical Attack damage changes from the Gone Fission update, Automatic mods for Semi-Automatic weapons also have the following changes (relative to the un-modded weapon):
Ammo Changes
Gauss Weapons and 2mm EC
We’ve made a few changes with the goal of easing the high ammo cost of using a Gauss Minigun. - The crafting yields and contextual ammo drop rates for 2mm EC ammo have been increased. - Gauss Pistol now uses 2 ammo per shot and has an 18-round clip. - Gauss Rifle now uses 3 ammo per shot and has a 15-round clip. - Gauss Shotgun now uses 5 ammo per shot and has a 40-round clip.
Ultracite Ammo
As mentioned above, Prime receivers are now much more powerful. Ultracite ammo is now geared towards being specialized ammo that players use when they need a large boost in firepower over regular ammo.
Rad Storm and Glowing Creature Changes
In order to increase the availability of materials used for crafting Ultracite ammo, we’ve made the following changes:
Enemy Adjustments
Since many low-performing weapons have received significant damage increases, median player damage is now much higher. To account for this, we’ve adjusted the health and resistances of the following creatures.
These creatures also have additional contrast in their resistances to better highlight their strengths and weaknesses vs. each damage type.
Perks
In this update, we are finishing up our re-balancing of weapon Perks which include the heavy, melee, thrown, and bow weapons.
We are also standardizing Perks and Mods that grant the ability to automatically revive. Perks with these effects now bypass going into the downed state, have a 100% chance to occur, have a cooldown, and require the use of a healing item such as a Stimpak.
In addition, all effects that apply buffs to other players you revive will apply to yourself when self-reviving. The order in which these effects can occur is fixed:
