Atomfall: Do Enemies Respawn?

Atomfall has surprisingly difficult combat — and when you’re facing off against huge groups of enemies, it’s going to be a problem when they respawn. Technically, Atomfall does not have respawning enemies, but enemies will reappear anyway. The simple question is actually a lot more complicated than it sounds, and in our experience, we think we’ve figured out if enemies do (or don’t) respawn in Atomfall.

Do Enemies Respawn?

The short answer is: no. The more accurate answer is: yes, kind of.

• Enemies repopulate in areas after passing through a loading screen.
• This is only done in major bases like the Druids’ Camp, Protocol Camp, Wyndham Village, etc.
• Enemy patrols will respawn on all maps in totally random locations. Outlaws spawn randomly in Slatten Dale, Druids in Casterfell Woods and Protocol Soldiers in Skethermoore.
• Robots will never respawn if you’ve taken their Atomic Battery.

NOTE: You can reduce enemy population in the Setting Menu if you’re too overwhelmed.

Enemies you’ve shot dead will stay dead and areas you’ve cleared will be greatly reduced in enemy numbers, but more will appear eventually in the form of random patrols — or if you’re attacking large bases, some enemies will repopulate in the main headquarters of enemy factions. So, druids will respawn in areas like the Castle Ruins, but in greatly reduced numbers if you’ve wiped them all out. The same goes for areas like Wyndham Village, where Protocol Soldiers will always control the town even if you wipe them all out. In other areas, enemies only respawn as random patrols that will walk through areas.

Some enemies and locations DO NOT respawn. Robots never respawn once they’re destroyed so there’s always a limited number of them. Other creatures like infected mutants or thralls don’t respawn from underground areas once you’ve cleared them out. Enemies in bunkers, caves, or other interiors don’t respawn.

One thing to keep in mind is that NPCs don’t respawn — if you kill a Trader or civilian in Wyndham, that character will never return. They’re dead forever. Technically specific soldiers at specific locations will also permanently die, but new replacements will appear when you go through a loading screen instance.

It’s complicated, but basically the more dangerous the area, the more enemies will reappear after passing through a loading screen. This also only really happens after going through a loading screen, so if you clear out a large camp, don’t plan on going back after passing through a loading screen!

How To Reduce Enemy Numbers Permanently

Enemies will always spawn in different locations, so if you’re sick of dealing with giant patrols of enemies, it is possible to reduce their total population in the settings menu. If you’re playing on Survival difficulty than the number of enemies will be pretty high — fighting all those enemies early in the game is surprisingly difficult and you’ll be better off running. If you’re aiming to actually complete some exploration, here’s how to customize how many enemies spawn.

• To lower how many enemies spawn at any given time, open the Options menu.
• Under the Game tab, select Playstyle -> Advanced Options to fully customize your difficulty settings.
• Scroll to Enemy Population and change the settings — this permanently reduces the number of enemies that spawn randomly as patrols.

By default, on Survival Difficulty, this will be set to “Challenging” — which means that the groups are larger and packed with a variety of different strong enemies. Lowering the difficulty will make these groups smaller and with less dangerous enemies.

There are more settings here too. You can lower Enemy Accuracy so they don’t shoot you as often, or lower Enemy Aggression so you can walk around them without triggering attacks a little easier.