With the addition of multiplayer to Fallout 76, the simple mechanic of death and respawning has become very different. In previous Fallout games, dying meant immediately reloading the game from your most recent save. In Fallout 76, there is no saving or loading; everything is saved constantly on the game’s servers. That, coupled with the addition of multiplayer teammates, has brought a swathe of changes to the Fallout 76 respawn and death mechanics.
How Death and the Fallout 76 Respawn Mechanics Work
The first addition to the Fallout 76 respawn system is a mechanic that is commonplace in other multiplayer titles; the ability to revive your fallen teammates from a “downed” state. In Fallout 4, a player’s NPC companions would enter such a state instead of dying, and the player could revive them with a Stimpak. Now, players can do the same with their own human teammates; “When you fall in combat,” explains Bethesda; “you can be revived by other players if they have a spare Stimpak and move quickly enough to save you.”
However, if your allies don’t get to you in time, or if you’re playing solo, then you die and respawn; “If you are not revived,” continues Bethesda; “you can choose a respawn location for Fast Travel from the World Map”. It’s unknown if a dead player will have to pay to respawn at a location. Players do have to pay a small cap fee to fast travel in Appalachia save for three locations; Vault 76, the player’s own C.A.M.P., and the locations of any of their teammates. Respawning will occur in real-time, so events where the player died will obviously continue. As a result, players won’t lose any progress or experience. However, they do lose something.
“When you die,” says Bethesda; “you drop all your collected Junk (i.e. building components) and receive a quest on respawn to retrieve it”. Junk won’t include weapons, armour, consumables, or other important items. It will only include items used for building and crafting components. Dropped junk can be picked up by other players, however, so players should hurry if they want to get their junk back.
All of these new rules are merely the standard death and respawn mechanics, however. The new Perk Card system introduces a variety of options to change these mechanics during gameplay, if players make use of them; “You can earn and equip specific Perk cards to augment revive events,” explains Bethesda; “granting bonuses to you or your helper, allow you to revive players with booze, or even summon the Mysterious Stranger.”