Fallout 76 has a new bug that breaks your armour when you reload

Fallout 76, the gift that keeps on giving! Or in this case, it’s the equivalent of that one Christmas when my aunt gave me a beach towel as a gift. Not even a good beach towel either, Pep Stores brand and guys I’m not joking. Imagine the look on my 10 year-old face when I unwrapped a frigging towel and it’s the thought that counts my ass. Anyway, traumatic Christmas memories aside it looks like Fallout 76 has yet another feature thanks to a recent patch.

Here’s how it works: Over on reddit, players are reporting that certain armour effects of the legendary variety are being entirely busted like a silly myth whenever they reload their weapons. It’s not happening to everyone, but there’s enough consistency across the board to make this a worrying issue. YouTuber Jas Thomson revealed the bug in action, taking an armour setup of 519 damage resistance, 343 energy resistance and 25 radiation resistance out for a spin.

Thomson whipped out a gun, fired a shot off and then reloaded. His armour then had stats of 414, 238 and 25 despite their condition remaining the same.

The bug appears to have entirely random effects depending on the afflicted player, with some reddit users saying that even their primary effects are being hammered. Others have a theory that the latest patch sought to fix an issue regarding the use of legendary weapons that has now backfired somewhat. According to PC Gamer:

One theory making the rounds is that a fix to a legendary weapons issue in the new patch—”Reloading a weapon that has the ‘+250 Damage Resistance While Reloading’ legendary effect no longer negates the effects of that weapon’s primary legendary attribute”—might be related to the trouble, but at least one player claimed that their Unyielding armor benefits disappear no matter what gun he uses.

There’s also talk of harpoon and handmade weapons breaking down quicker than before, although Bethesda says that they have their top men on the case.

Top. Men. For anyone who is afflicted, the current workaround suggests unequipping and re-equipping the affected armour to reset its resistances, or crouching when reloading to nip this bug in the bud.

Last Updated: December 12, 2019