Welcome back!
We’re excited to bring Pets back to the PTS! Which means the PTS is now Pspsps-TS once more! This go around, we have some new features that bring more depth to the experience of adventuring with your furry or rough-skinned friends.
Before getting into what’s new, let’s recap the feature for those who might have missed out on the original announcement.
Pets takes your C.A.M.P. Pets and turns them into… just pets! CAMPanions who will travel and fight alongside you on almost any adventure you go on. Accessible through your Pip-Boy, you can summon a Dog, Cat, Radhog, or a Deathclaw to be your partner. Through direct interactions or the Command wheel, you can order them to Attack, Stay, Follow, or Protect and they will deal damage to any enemy foolish to cross your path.
Today, we’re introducing two new systems to the experience. Pet Leveling and Pet Passives.
How to Participate in the Pspsps-TS
All players who own a copy of Fallout 76 on Steam can participate in our Pspsps-TS. To install the Pspsps-TS, open your Steam library, and install “Fallout 76 Public Test Server”.
As a general reminder, not all the content you see in the PTS is guaranteed to be released with the update that we’re testing.
Pet Leveling
The new Pet Leveling UI can be found by navigating to the Pets tab in your Pip-Boy and pressing the “Right Stick” on your controller, or “X” on keyboard, to open the Pet Leveling Progression menu.
Anytime that you earn XP with your pet summoned allows them to gain XP as well. They can reach a max level of 200, unlocking HP/DMG increases, increased player carry capacity, Pet Passive improvements (more on that below) as well as rewards such as Atoms, Caps, Player Titles, and more.
Don’t worry about having to level up each individual type of Dog you have though. Pets are leveled on a per species basis. Meaning that leveling your German Shepherd will bring all your dogs up to the same level. So, feel free to swap that German Shepherd out for the RoboPaw Steel Dog whenever the mood strikes.
Pet Passives
Each pet has two passives. One that grants you a useful item, and one that improves rewards in a specific type of activity/event.
After unlocking them, these serve as small buffs that you receive while your Pet is active. The passives are themed to the pet you’re currently adventuring with (for example, Cats can find Improved Bait for you).
Earned by leveling up, these passive buffs have multiple stages that improve the buff as your pet hits higher levels. Below, you’ll find a list of pet species and their passives. Pets earn their passives at Level 5 and 20, and see improvements to these buffs at Level 40, 60, 85, and 120.
Passive Buffs are displayed in your Pip-Boy under the Effects tab.
Dogs
Passive: Stimpak Fetcher
Dogs find Diluted Stimpaks. The amount of Stimpaks increase as the passive is leveled up.
Passive: Bounty Sniffer
Dog finds his owner an extra Legendary Item when completing a Grunt Hunt. Starts with 1★ and then increases to 3★ as the passive levels up.
Cats
Passive: Baits Finder
Cats find Improved Bait. The amount of Improved Bait increases as the passive levels level up.
Passive: Mega Bits
Cats grant their human extra Fish Bits after catching a fish. The number of Fish Bits gifted by the cat increases leveled.
Radhog
Passive: Goo-Getter
Radhogs find Toxic-Goo. The amount of Toxic-Goo found increases as the passive levels up.
Passive: Rad-Dration
Radhhogs find High-Radiation Fluids as they spend time in a Nuke Zone. The number of High-Radiation Fluids found increases as the passive levels up.
Deathclaw
Passive: Dark Titan
Deathclaws find Black Titanium. The amount of Black Titanium found increases as the passive levels up.
Passive: Fun-Festation
Deathclaws find extra Legendary Items when completing Infestations. Starts with 1★ and then increases to 3★ as the passive levels up.
Gameplay Changes
Pets no longer block V.A.T.S.. All shots now pass through Pets with ZERO harm to the pet nor your chance to hit.
While a Pet is active, you can now utilize the Ping System to tell your Pet what to attack.
Known Issues
The button icons for renaming your Pet and the new Pet Progression Menu are incorrect. R3 (push in right stick) opens Pet Progression, L3 (push in left stick) allows you to rename your pet.
Pet Progression is currently behaving as account-based, not character based. Progress on a pet on one character on the same account will carry over to another, even though the UI doesn't display it as such.
When you have an unlocked pet reward opened in the Pet Progression Menu, and you swap to another pet, it will show the reward as unlocked until you move your cursor off that space.
Pets may be invisible for a few moments after fast traveling.
Pet Passives are activating more frequently than anticipated.
If you see your pet fall through the world, please tell us where!