Fallout 76 Patch Notes - 17th March 2026

Bethesda brought Fallout 76's servers down for maintenance at 10 AM EST today to push a targeted fix for problems that surfaced after The Backwoods update. It's a small patch, but the two gameplay fixes in here are the kind that needed to happen fast.

First up: the Chainsaw Flamer was hitting targets faster than intended, which meant it was dealing significantly more damage than it should have been. That's the sort of thing that warps a meta quickly. The other fix is arguably more dramatic. Reflected damage could one-shot the Scorchbeast Queen, which is supposed to be one of the toughest encounters in the game. Killing an endgame world boss in a single hit via a damage reflection bug is funny for about five minutes, then it just breaks the experience for everyone else in the event.

Credit where it's due: Bethesda moved quickly on these rather than letting them sit. According to the official Steam patch notes, there are also Pip-Boy fixes in this build. Full patch notes below.

Server Status: Servers are Back Up

Down for Maintenance, 10 AM EST.

Today we’re releasing an update to address some of the emergent topics brought up by the community after the release of The Backwoods update.

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where the Chainsaw Flamer would hit its target too fast resulting in more damage than intended being delt.
Fixed an issue where reflected damage could kill the Scorchbeast Queen in one hit.

Pip-Boy

Fixed an issue that prevented players from using shortcuts to increase the quantity of items they want to drop.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from closing the Pip-Boy with the expected “B” key bind.
Fixed an issue that prevented the scrolling feature from going back to the top of the list after reaching the bottom.
Fixed an issue that caused the inventory sorting feature to revert to default after exiting the Pip-Boy.
Fixed an issue where deployed Power Armor could be put into the stash by using the “New” Pip-Boy tab.
Fixed an issue where item stats were missing from the “Item” tab.

UI

Changed the Open Season Menu key bind on PC from “CTRL” to “Y”.
Adjusted the naming of several mutation effects that were confusingly worded.

Miscellaneous

Fixed an issue that caused Emotes, Loot Bags, and Survival Tents to be unequipped whenever the game is launched.
Players will no longer receive frequent “Waiting for response from server” messages when there are no server issues.
Fixed an issue which prevented players from extracting DNA from the Scorchbeast Queen during the “Heart of the Enemy” daily mission.
Fixed instances where the game could crash while scrapping legendary items or while in a Workbench.
Fixed an issue where replica Pip-Boy's did not show when placed in the Pip-Boy Display.

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