In late January,Fallout 76finally removed Legacy and illegal weapons from the game. Different generations of Legacy weapons have existed in the game despite being periodically removed from the available loot pool, until a recent update that took the community by surprise. Before the update, it was believed that Legacy weapons would permanently remain inFallout 76for those who obtained them when the weapons were available.
The update was introduced before theNuka World On Tour updateinFallout 76’s public test server and was implemented on public servers soon after. WithFallout 76gaining a massive amount of new players lately, it’s likely that this update went over a lot of heads, although for veteran players it’s a major ordeal. The Legacy removal update also removed all instances of hacked/modded weapon traits injected into the game by the community, as well as developer test weapons.
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Legacy Weapons in Fallout 76
There have been a few generations oflegendary weapon effects inFallout 76that have been retired by now on particular weapons, thus becoming Legacy weapons. The latest weapon roll to become a Legacy is the Quad trait on energy weapons that use core-based ammo types. One Legacy weapon roll though, in particular, brought notoriety to term, the Two-Shot Explosive energy weapons. What makes TSE energy weapons so powerful is the way that the two legendary weapon effects modified the projectiles.
Energy weapons inFallout 76each have unique projectiles with related quirks, likely as balancing tradeoffs. When the TSE legendary weapon effects were present, the projectiles essentially reaped the additional benefits of ballistic and explosive projectiles, instead of just energy damage. TSE Legacy weapons were problematic forPvP inFallout 76since the traits were giving infinite range and incredible damage to weapons that were meant to have balanced limitations in those regards. The most common energy weapons for the TSE roll were the Gatling Plasma modified with a shotgun-like beam splitter and the Flamer. These two automatic weapons were infamous for having insane damage across either an infinite range or a barrage of bullets.
Legacy weapons have been publicly acknowledged as one ofFallout 76’s collector’s itemsby a few developers in the past, and it is believed by the community that this was the unanimous consensus. The Legacy removal update was a shock to the community, and immediately polarized players who either did or didn’t have any Legacy weapons. Players who never obtained Legacy weapons during their availability would commonly turn to TOS-violating methods to obtain duplicated Legacy weapons on external marketplaces. Both the prospect of Legacy weapons selling externally from the game and their unmatched power in the game likely contributed to their removal.
Fallout 76 Removing Legacy Weapons
Some players are finding out the hard way that weapons in their collection are illegitimate, as the update affected more than just the infamous TSE Energy weapons and Quad core-ammo Legacy weapons. On Bethesda’s Public Discord, on the day of the update, players were reporting thatFallout 76’s Explosive legendary weapon effect across a variety of their weapons had been affected by the update. Weapons classified as Legacy or illegal had their incompatible weapon trait(s) removed, and then the corrected weapon remained in players' inventories.
A rise inFallout 76players using perspective-consuming explosive weapons is credited to be part of protests against the removal of Legacy weapons. Other fans opposed to the change have reportedly either canceled theirFallout 76subscriptionor refrained from playing the game, showing that removing Legacy weapons was seen as an abrupt decision for the game that hit longtime players the hardest. At the same time, the update targeted and invalidated the TOS-violating monetization scene that is prominent in the game’s community, and it helped make the meta a blank slate where new players can thrive as well.
Fallout 76is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
