To watch our full interview with Jon Rush and Bill LaCoste about the Fallout 76 fishing update, watch the video below or click here.
Every open-world game needs fishing, and after almost 10 years, it’s finally come to Fallout 76 with its latest “Gone Fission” update. While the expansive game has continued to expand since its launch, it’s just been missing one element: the ability to fish. Sure, the fish may be loaded with rads, but hey, it’s all in the act. The Fallout 76: Gone Fission Update is available free for all players. The update brings the highly anticipated and much-requested summer pastime to the Wasteland after 21 Seasons.
At Summer Game Fest Play Days, we got the chance to “fish” with Fallout 76 developers, Jon Rush and Bill LaCoste, about their time on the game, why people love fishing, and ultimately what players can expect when they start fishing. This new update turns every place that players can swim into a place where they can fish. To fish with the Fallout 76: Gone Fission Update, players will use different bait to abide by changing weather conditions, hold onto their fishing rods, and explore to find new locations.
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To kick things off, we asked why Fallout 76 fishing was important in the game’s lifespan. John Rush started, “Fishing was something that we wanted to do for a while, and we’re just kind of looking for the right opportunity on the roadmap and timing-wise, to get that out.”
Rush continued, “Having fed our elder players with a bit of content earlier with raids and with the ghoul, we felt that the summer of this year would be a great time to cast a net over the entire wasteland. We let people rediscover Appalachia by seeing what they pull out of the waters located all over the map. Because wherever you can swim, you can fish in Fallout 76, so a lot of exploring to do, a lot of fishing, a lot of new fishing spots to discover.”
“Gone Fission” is the summer update that Fallout 76 devs have been waiting for the right time to add.
But while fishing seems like the logical next “summery” step for the game, we asked the developers why they think Fallout 76 fishing was a highlight for fans. More importantly, why do players of open-world games just like fishing in general?
Jon Rush explained, “Well, I mean, as players of [Fallout] 76 ourselves, and lots of other games too. While they noted that “Gone Fission” was the perfect summer update, the details that you uncover while fishing are really the winner for players. I’ve always enjoyed fishing in games.”
“I don’t know why, I think it’s probably because of the exploration, you know?” Rush continued, “It’s the ‘what’s around the corner’ kind of aspect to it, or just all the mysteries surrounding [the water], all the discovering you have to do. Does the time of day affect it? Does the weather affect it? Does the location affect it? So for me, [fishing] in games is a lot of fun, and bringing that into 76 just made a lot of sense.”
LaCoste added, “We got some local legends you can catch as well. I think the one thing we like to call out too is that this is also one of the only games where you can actually build out your own fishing village, right? You know, it’s not just one little spot on the map, two spots on the map, or only specific spots you can fish anywhere there’s water, or you can swim in this game. And so people are now going into the seasons, getting all the stuff in the seasons, or building out fishing camps.”
He said, “People are coming in together as social groups and public teams and just fishing together and enjoying the whole time, and we’ve got some really good bonuses in there too. If you have a weather station that has a rad storm, that’ll increase your chances of getting a bowling fish. If you have a thunderstorm weather station, that’ll increase your chance of getting some of the rare fish. So we also have upgrades to the rods themselves and upgrades to bait. So, I got normal bait, improved bait, and superb bait there, too.”
Fallout 76 fishing is looking to hit a collector sweet spot for players.
Season 21: Gone Fission Update will come with new fishing challenges. When completed. These challenges reward players with fishing rod upgrades and scaly new C.A.M.P. items. While those challenges help keep Fallout 76 fishing grounded in the game, so does what you can catch in the water.
“Bringing [fishing] together with the Fallout world itself gives us a lot of leeway here. We can go pretty crazy with some of the things you can catch in the game that are irradiated. And just fishing together [with others] and enjoying the whole time,” LaCoste said.
“We can, we can come up with some crazy looking fish that have been, you know, nuked hundreds of thousands of times in the game so far. And what’s happening in those lakes? Well, this is what’s happening. We don’t have to stick to a lot of the common and regular stuff. And most people don’t want to just fish out a perch, right? You know, they want to see what’s in Fallout. They want to get a piranha. They want crazy piranha and glowing piranha, and that’s what they get.”
Any angler looking to make the most of the beloved MMO pastime can try various combinations to hook a variety of catches—common fish, one of 12 prized Axolotls available each month, and Local Legends fit for an Appalachian tall tale. But the real catch with Season 21 is finding the extremely rare axolotl.
When we asked the developers about the Legend of the Axolotl, Jon Rush had something to say, and it was pretty much that we can’t confirm or deny if axolotls are evil. “I am very interested in the Axolotl. I’m not sure if I would call it love or fear. There’s something behind those eyes that’s a little unsettling. Everybody thinks it’s cute. I think that’s how it pulls you in—it’s a little evil thing. So, Axolotls are like a super rare catch that we’ve added to the game. Each month, a new Axolotl unlocks.”
But with Fallout 76 fishing becoming such an expansive part of the game, we had to ask how the developers adjusted the rest of the gameplay loop. How did they balance player priorities with such a huge addition? Rush answered, “I think the key element of fishing is, you know, a lot of our players are collectors. They collect things, and they like to finish those collections up. So that was the note we wanted to hit.”
Fallout 76 fishing’s big prize catch is the axolotl, who may be hiding evil instead of cuteness.
Rush continued, “This is kind of some, it’s more of an explorative adventure-type feature. So as far as the balance goes, you know, of course, we’ve got our common fish, uncommon fish, rare fish, legendary type fish. So that the balancing act there was finding out what the proper like drop rate would be for those under different circumstances and criteria like what type of fishing setups you have, which Mark rod you have, what time of day, and what location, so a lot of play testing to sort of feel out what the right values were. That’s probably the biggest challenge [to] balance.”
Once you fish, if you don’t eat them, decorating with your catches is the next step. For now, players can use plaques to commemorate their time with Fallout 76 fishing. But we had to ask, with the game investing so much in player housing customization, would aquariums be next?
Rush answered, “Tha’s been discussed. We like giving ways for our players to show off things they’ve got and accomplished. So right now you can display your fish on different walls [with plaques]. They’re displays. So you know, there may be a more humanitarian way of displaying live fish that would be in the works.
Fallout 76 fishing is a game-changing addition and one that players have wanted for some time. And as of right now, the response to the Season 21 update is a happy one. Want to hear the rest of the conversation with Jon Rush and Bill LaCoste? Watch the video below.
Fallout 76: Gone Fission is available on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. Fallout 76 is also available on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra.
