Fallout 76 is still very alive and well in 2023, despite having a rocky start that generated a lot of criticism. As of this year, Fallout 76’s five-year plan for continued development and support is well underway. There will continue to be many changes to Fallout 76, including quality of life and fine-tuning as well as major content updates.
Fallout 76 has had quite the history, although the community has held true to the game and also helped to shape it along the way. Feedback and playtests from playing in the Private Test builds of the game on PC are the dominant source of participation and contribution, although it’s not the community’s only platform for constructive criticism. Some Fallout 76 players on Reddit have recently been voicing their concerns over a particular grievance concerning in-game currencies.
In-Game Currencies in Fallout 76
Stamps are one of Fallout 76’s many different currencies. Stamps were introduced in the Pitt Update for Fallout 76 in September 2022 and more currencies have been introduced since then. The Pip-Boy lists 9 different currencies in the collections tab, though there are more that are classified as miscellaneous. One aspect of these in-game currencies has led to the latest controversy in Fallout 76.
The underlying controversy surrounding the various different currencies in Fallout 76 is that the majority of them are either outdated, obscure, and/or too difficult to actively acquire. Considering the fact that Fallout 76 has many daily limits on things like currencies, the in-game currencies can be unwelcoming or unrealistic for casual players and veterans alike to obtain. Fallout 76’s Stamps currency in particular is infamous for being the most difficult to earn, due to 2 different reasons. The limit to the number of activities that a player can initiate within a single day is half of the problem, while the costs of the items that can be bought with Stamps are also insanely high. The Stamps price to complete a particular set of items has been generating debate on Reddit within the Fallout 76 community ever since the update.
Fallout 76 Expeditions Are a Grind
The Pitt update introduced the Expeditions activity, which is the main way for earning Stamps. Completing Expeditions in Fallout 76 has a chance to reward players with exclusive items from the Stamps vendor’s inventory, although the chance to earn these type of rewards is not guaranteed. More reliably, players can earn up to 10 Stamps for completing their first Expedition of the day along with all the optional objectives within the activity. Completing Expeditions without the optional objectives still awards Stamps but at a reduced rate. Players can participate in additional Expeditions in a single day for up to 8 more Stamps. While players can technically earn infinite Stamps in a single day, Fallout 76 has no dedicated matchmaking feature, so the chance of joining additional Expeditions is entirely chance. Players have the option of using external matchmaking platforms to find Expedition opportunities, but this isn’t a common feature in Fallout 76’s community.
The Stamps price for a full set of Fallout 76 Power Armor craftable plans is what has been rattling the community lately. When the Pitt Update was initially released, the update dropped alongside the City Of Steel Scoreboard, which is Fallout 76’s stylized version of a battle pass. The City Of Steel Scoreboard offered the Union Power Armor set of plans incrementally throughout completing the Scoreboard. Once the City Of Steel Scoreboard ended, the Union PA plans were permanently added to the Stamps vendor for any player that had yet to earn them. The vendor’s total cost for the full Union PA plans set is 480 Stamps. Since Fallout 76 has no matchmaking feature, players who only complete their single Expedition with all optional objectives every day will take 480 days in real-time to earn enough Stamps to buy the set, with the absurd amount being the cause of community uproar.
Fallout 76 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
