Fallout 76’s new expansion, Burning Springs, will be its biggest expansion yet, set to launch in December. Following the excitement of Amazon’s Fallout Season Two, Season 23 will coincide with the release of Fallout Season 2, which will be based on Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas.

In the last few seasons of Fallout 76, numerous innovations have been introduced to the Fallout 76 universe, continuing the story of Appalachia. There have been 62 major patches since launch, allowing for 23 major content updates free to Fallout 76 players.

In the upcoming season, players can look forward to a new Bounty Hunting system, a new CAMP Pet – Rad Hog, and two public events: “Gearing up” and “Sinkhole Solution”.

Welcome to Ohio!

Fallout 76 begins in its primary setting, Appalachia, West Virginia. The Burning Springs expansion, as with every expansion before it, supports the story of Appalchia. Burning Springs, however, is more focused on the multiplayer aspect of Fallout 76. From there, we proceed to Ohio, where Burning Springs is set.

Why Ohio? It is to expand on Appalachia and add to the map. Furthermore, to develop the lore to find out what happens to Ohio, which has been mentioned in Fallout widely and is considered a canon location. Ohio can be crossed using the Point Pleasant Bridge, uncovering new 20 points of interest and locations.

From the playthrough demo showing what to expect from Burning Springs, we enter Point Pleasant Bridge, which, despite its name, is a creepy bridge into the Ohio State Line. Everything about this bridge, with its decorative skulls, is telling us to stay away, but we don’t. As we reach Checkpoint Canyon, players fight against Raiders in Burning Springs. Both 1st person and 3rd person viewpoints are shown in this starting quest, “Phoenix in the Flame”, to take the raider base and go to the radio tower.

There, we are captured by the raiders and locked up. We strike a deal with the prisoners Eugene and Silas to stage a prison break, and we eventually get an audience with the Raider Leader, The Rust King. It has a very Mad Max vibe. Once you survive The Rust King’s ploy, you can have either Eugene or Silas as a cautious ally.

We proceed to Highway Town, where you can acquire bounties. The Last Resort is its main hub where we take tests of might to prove ourselves. In Burning Springs, we face off against the deadly beasts in the wastes, including taking on radscorpions, radroaches, and finally finding a bounty ghoul to take out. Once we finish the quest, you can take on more bounties.

Meeting with Eugene a little bit later, he conspires to assassinate The Rust King. He tasks you to recruit some muscle for the mission. In the livestream, we’re able to recruit one of them: Moose. As expected, he won’t come along easily without being given a task to find his son, Owen. During this quest, we head down to Athens, and you take on some local mutants while heading to Adrexeline. We end the demo to fast forward to The Rust Kingdom, where we take on armies of Raiders and even Deathclaws.

Burning Springs is a reminder of what players used to love in Fallout 3 and New Vegas; it captures the danger of those games. Fishing and CAMP locations in Burning Springs are available, as new fish and new local legends are present, where you can swim and you can fish. More benefits can be had if you are a Ghoul, which you’re able to become from the previous expansion.

Return of The Ghoul

The Fallout TV series has been influential for Fallout 76. Burning Springs, Fallout 76’s biggest update, is in tandem with Season 2. After season 1 aired, updates in Fallout 76 were mainly cosmetic. To make it more in line with Season 2, Burning Springs features Fallout TV series’ very own Walton Goggins, who played the role of The Ghoul.

How does The Ghoul fit the timeline? Fallout 76 is at the earliest point in the timeline, providing an interesting backstory for The Ghoul introduced at the end of the timeline in the Fallout 76 series. The Ghoul’s appearance in Fallout 76 came about organically, as the bounty hunting system became a great new feature to add. The creative directors pitched the idea, and Walton Goggins, who is a fan of the game, agreed. It ultimately became a collaborative project between Fallout 76’s creative team and Goggins.

That’s right, who’s more qualified to show players the joys of bounty hunting than THE bounty hunter himself? The Ghoul makes his way to Appalachia, and makes a base in Highway 10, specifically The Last Resort. There, you, as the player, can collect extra caps by conducting business with The Ghoul. You can take on lower-level bounties called Grunt Hunts that you can take on alone or with a smaller group of players.

If you want tougher contracts, you’re welcome to participate in Head Hunts, which are also public events where everyone can join. Players can’t go it alone, as you will be taking on a raid boss. Defeating these difficult marks earns you unique mods, outfits, and weapons, benefiting both humans and ghouls. The Ghoul’s Gun will be featured. As ghouls, mod rewards will be added for players playing as ghouls.

Bounty Hunting is a feature unique to Burning Springs. There are 20 custom locations. There is a steady stream of grunt hunts and one head hunts. Head Hunts can be theme-based, with the bounty having different goons accompanying them, such as raiders, mutants, ghouls, and even clowns. Bounties are endless. Highway Town becomes a hub for bounty hunters to gather. It’s a community gathering space.

During the livestream, we also got a preview of The Ghoul and a Grunt Hunt, where we’ll take on The Stealthy Outlaw at a Raider outpost. As the raiders get whittled down, they take on some of the stealthy ghostrunners until we take on the actual outlaw. After a grueling battle, we complete it.

In Ohio, The Bounty Hunts You!

The livestream featured two events, one of which is “Sinkhole Solutions”, where in less than five minutes, you and your team face off against hordes of radscorpions and other monstrosities like Oguas. To end each wave, the team must destroy the nests. The event is completed with the fall of the final legendary Ogua.

Finally, the second featured event is previewed: “Gearin’ Up.” You start by speaking to the Beastmaster. It involves equipping trained Deathclaws for The Rust King’s arena. You would then be tasked with gathering scrap metal while pushing back raiders and ghouls. As you complete the quest, you get to battle with the armored deathclaw against raiders. It becomes an escort mission from here. After taking on waves of shallygasters, you end up facing off against a Deathclaw Matriarch. The group makes quick work of the creature while keeping the deathclaw alive.

Finally, we were joined by Bill Lacoste, Production Director, and John Rush, Creative Director, to begin the Q&A session, which included a few interesting questions from the press and guests.

When asked if Fallout 76 Burning Springs had a recommended level, they confirmed that there is no new level. New players can enjoy the game for what it is. There are always ways to reach Burning Springs without a level cap. New players are still recommended to visit Point Pleasant and familiarize themselves with the story and the system. And when you’re ready, join a headhunt. Season 23 is being designed to build towards new players, to use loadouts, visit the workshop, and get the players to choose their own path.

New players in the vault will encounter The Ghoul without venturing to Burning Springs. And once they venture to Ohio, these new players are advised to take up some grunt hunts before taking on more challenging head hunts. Entry for the game is accessible to new players for the last few expansions. It will be easy to find Burning Springs.

Regarding updates for veterans, there will still be no crossplay or cross-save. There will be new music for the region, and gunplay will be tighter in Burning Springs. Regarding using nuclear weapons: nuking regions will have rewards except for Highway Town.

They will be shutting down Mile Point Zero, to be replaced by Highway Town. The developers are rethinking Skyline Valley, making it a more hostile area for players. Post-launch, the developers plan to cater to early and mid-range players, allowing them to complete 100 hours of gameplay with bounty hunts.

Fallout 76’s Season 23, Burning Springs, launches early December. Watch out for more updates on October 23rd!

Fallout 76 is now available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.