Bethesda Fixes Fallout 76 Atom Glitch, Takes Back Extra Atoms From Players

A Fallout 76 glitch that had dumped a bunch of premium currency on a limited number of players has been fixed, and Bethesda is taking back all the extra Atoms it had accidentally doled out. While the corrective move only affected a small portion of the Fallout 76 player community, it seems to have upset a much larger chunk of the fan base.

Fallout 76‘s Fallout 1st subscription service is a paid membership program that bestows numerous benefits upon players of the online post-apocalyptic action-RPG. For the price of about $13 per month or $100 per year, becoming a Fallout 1st membership gives players access to exclusive cosmetic items, unlimited storage, and Season Pass content and rewards, as well as the ability to create private and customizable worlds.

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Fallout 76 Pulls the Plug on the Free Atoms Glitch

One of the other benefits of a Fallout 1st membership is a monthly delivery of 1,650 Atoms, a premium currency that can be used in a few different ways, including spending them on items in the Atomic Shop and using them to skip S.C.O.R.E. rank-ups in Fallout 76. However, the team at Bethesda recently discovered that some Fallout 1st subscribers have been able to collect this bonus stock of Atoms “multiple times” within the same month. Corrective measures have been implemented to prevent this bug from spreading to more players, and a post by a community manager on Reddit states that players who had previously been able to access the rewards multiple times per month should no longer be able to do so.

What’s more, Bethesda will be reclaiming any Atoms that were inadvertently distributed via this glitch. Around 1,000 different Fallout 1st subscription accounts have been identified as having benefited from the error, and plans are in motion to take back any Atoms that were provided to them in excess of what they were owed via the subscription’s regular terms. As a result, players who were affected by this glitch and have already spent more Atoms than they received in excess of the usual amount may end up with an Atom balance of zero, though they will not lose any of the beneficial rewards from the Atoms they have already spent. Multiple players have reported that they had already seen thousands of Atoms disappear from their accounts before the official announcement was even posted.

The community manager mentioned that the issue had only been brought to Bethesda’s attention less than a week before the problem was corrected, but their post also states that some players had been able to make multiple claims on the monthly rewards over “previous months.” The error has only affected a small portion of the player community, yet the response to Bethesda’s corrective measures appears to be overwhelmingly negative. Although most will personally see no benefits from it, the consensus opinion in the comment section shows that the Fallout 76 community favors letting affected subscribers keep any of the extra bonus currency that was given to them. Additionally, many fans felt it was telling that a free currency bug was able to be handled so quickly after being noticed, while other issues affecting Fallout 76‘s gameplay can take significantly longer to address.

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Bethesda may be able to win players back over with the release of Fallout 76′s 76th update. Creative director Jon Rush has been hyping up the release, and while he won’t share any details on what will be included, players should expect to see a ton of new content, and possibly the largest expansion the game has ever received since its launch in 2018. There is no exact release date for this patch, but if the game’s update schedule holds to form, it will likely be arriving in 2027.