Fallout 76 remains unique as the live-service multiplayer title from the Fallout series. As a way to encourage prolonged involvement from players, Fallout 76 limits the in-game currencies available in a single day. Each currency is uniquely useful throughout the game and factors into prices in the separate economy of the player-to-player market and trading. With player vendors and trades not restricted to any daily limit, this platform enables players to continue business unbothered by any maximum capacity, except for the weight limit on players' vending machine and Stash. An increasingly common way for players to exchange items without adding any weight to their Stash or vending machine is by storing the loot in containers across the open world, anticipating other players will find it as a dead drop.
Weight management is such a core mechanic of the Fallout 76 experience, requiring assortments of perks, legendary armor effects, armor mods, and personal storage containers to help lessen the load. The Fallout 1st subscription service available for the game has improved the struggle of managing weight with additional storage boxes beyond the player's Stash. During Fallout's anniversary, Bethesda gifted Fallout 1st trials for free. Despite this, dead drops remain a popular way to subvert the weight system.
Fallout 76 Players Leaving Dead Drop Gifts
Players at the maximum level in Fallout 76 have been known to help low-level players by dropping gifts, free of charge. This practice helps mitigate the known difficulty curve for players around level 40 and is also a generous way for collectors to share their wealth with casual players. Given the daily currency limits and players' weight limits, this habit of gifting has extended to players dropping anything and everything just to manage weight. Some players have taken to social media to raise awareness for the practice of gifting through dead drops, even designating specific locations.
The blue suitcases are containers nearby NPC vendors. Before Fallout 1st added the unlimited capacity storage for ammunition, it was common to leave ammo in these dead drop locations. While the ammo box is a well-received addition to Fallout 1st, additional changes are overdue for Fallout 76.
Loot Surplus Highlights Need for Changes
This surge of legendary dead drops is mostly due to the frequency and generosity of event rewards from the latest content update, Nuka World On Tour. Throughout December, Public Events from the update occur at the top of every hour with additional chances every 20 minutes. Completing Events will reward every attending player with a unique 3-star legendary weapon, which is the most valuable of legendary weapons when turned into scrip at a legendary recycling machine. Players can quickly jump up to scrip's daily limit by recycling legendary loot stored in their stash from another time, and when the daily limit is reached, players can store loot for the next day in an ongoing cycle to acquire the daily scrip limit with minimal grind.
The only restriction to storing legendary loot is the 1200 units of weight capacity for the player's Stash. With Fallout 1st subscribers able to access additional storage containers for scraps and ammo, the cycle of front-loading legendary loot is at its worst right now, providing the incentive for players to gift excess loot in dead drops rather than store or sell. While there's no easily balanced answer to address the current abundance of loot and the practice of dead drops, hopefully it will be addressed within the current 5-year plan for Fallout 76. The daily scrip limit remains a topic of discussion among the player base as weight limits and abundance continue to entice gifting instead of selling.
Fallout 76 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
