Fallout 4’s survival mode is available for PC beta testing now as part of update 1.5, which will be available for consoles next month.
Survival mode aims to increase the game’s difficulty by adding realistic features such as disease, hunger, ammo weight, and no option to fast travel.
As one of the most fan-requested features for the game, Bethesda has explained how it came about in an update on their blog: “Two of our designers, Josh Hamrick and Jon Paul Duvall, used our internal Game Jam to visualize what an overhauled Survival Mode might look like in Fallout 4. Thanks to their Game Jam success, we then added several programmers, and they built out many of the ideas we’d all been setting aside while playtesting.”
Bethesda is also looking for feedback on survival mode, which you can provide here. Survival mode affects the game in the following ways:
- Strategy: Intensify decisions involving when to get into combat versus when to avoid it, and also make you think more about what gear to take into combat. Then back up those decisions with faster, more brutal fights.
- Exploration: Slow down the pace of the game and encourage players to explore the nooks and crannies of the world.
- Resource Management: Balance out items in the world that may be too easy to acquire or horde, giving players more to consider when planning their current loadout.
- Role Playing: Increase the realism of the world and the issues one might face there
Some of the changes include the limitation of only being able to save the game when your character sleeps, increased damage (both on enemies and the Vault Dweller), lower carry weight, and more. You can find additional details of what to expect from survival mode on Bethesda’s website.
How to access the Survival Beta
• Log into Steam
• Right Click on Fallout 4 in your Library
• Select Settings
• Select Betas
• A drop down menu will appear. Select Survival Beta Update
• Select OK
• Wait a few minutes and Fallout 4 should update
• When done, Fallout 4 should appear as Fallout 4 [Beta] in your Library