Fallout 76 Players Discovered A Secret Dev Room, Got Banned

The nuclear option.

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Now Playing: Fallout 76 Fails To Deliver An Interesting World

Fallout 76 players have discovered a hidden area that is supposed to be reserved for developers, and Bethesda is reportedly responding with bans for those who exploit it. The hidden "dev room" can't be accessed through normal means, but it contains every item in the game, including some that aren't even released to the public yet.

Eurogamer reports that the developer room first began circulating a few weeks ago, but knowledge of how to access it has recently become more widespread. Inside is an human NPC named Wooby, notable because the game has no human NPCs. It also houses several containers of different sorted items--altogether accounting for every item in the game. One box labeled "All Scrap" even had plans for unreleased items like various paint jobs for the Power Armor. Fans have speculated that armor is planned for an upcoming expansion.

Players have reportedly attempted to sell the ill-gotten items on the Market 76 subreddit, which has already banned users for trying to do so. Meanwhile, Bethesda appears to be issuing bans to at least some players who use the forbidden area, though it's unclear if this applies to anyone who has entered.

This has led some particularly unscrupulous players to make mule accounts to grab the items and then transfer them to new accounts before the mule gets banned. While the recipient accounts have remained untouched so far, presumably Bethesda will be able to track these item trades too, so don't try this at home. A more permanent fix to disallow entry into the dev room is likely in the works.

This isn't a new phenomenon. Other Bethesda games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim have had their own dev rooms, made for developers to test new items, and players have found them through console commands on PC. Those were single-player games, though, so there was no real harm in letting players go buck wild with extra loot. Fallout 76, by contrast, has no console commands, but players found a break-in method regardless.

This is the latest in a series of headaches for Bethesda surrounding Fallout 76. The online game faced controversy over its canvas bags for special editions, then the fix for that problem led to a personal data leak. Most recently the new year rung in a new bug that disabled the nuclear launch silos, one of its bigger late-game features. Bethesda has continued to stay the course regarding support for its game, though, outlining upcoming features.


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