The new NPCs introduced in the Fallout 76 Wastelanders update have apparently turned to a life of crime and begun stealing weapons from dead players.
As our sister site PC Gamer spotted, one player posted a video of them dying during an escort mission of sorts. When they die (around one minute in), they respawn without their beloved plasma Gatling gun equipped. After tearing through their inventory to find it, they return to the scene of their death and find that their escortee, Marion, is now using the exact same plasma Gatling gun. The evidence is plain as day, officer. There's thievery afoot.
This might seem funny - and let's be honest, it is - but it's also a serious problem. Because like many Wastelanders NPCs, Marion is functionally immortal. If an NPC in Fallout 3 stole your loot, you'd just kill them and steal it right back. In the immortal words of James Acaster: "Finders, keepers, shut up." But this player can't kill Marion, and they can't even trade with her to haggle for their stolen gun, so their plasma Gatling gun has been permanently lost. This is a pretty big deal when you consider the work that can go into acquiring powerful weapons, especially Legendaries.
Several players have shared similar accounts on the Fallout 76 subreddit, with some claiming to have had entire Power Armor sets stolen by NPCs, and Bethesda says it's now actively investigating the bug. Hopefully, it can straighten these NPCs out quickly before they get their hands on a Fat Man or, worse, nuclear launch codes.
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