Fallout 76’s Backwoods update brings Bigfoot and needed upgrades

What’s old is new again in Fallout 76‘s next update, Update 66: The Backwoods, which launches on March 3. During a virtual developer demonstration, the Bethesda team showcased the upgraded events, new items, and the arrival of Bigfoot as one of the game’s most chaotic enemies yet.

While last December’s Burning Springs update greatly expanded the Fallout 76 map, production director Bill LaCoste previously told Polygon that the team was looking inward at the events in the game that have grown stale since they were first introduced years ago. The end result is that roughly 50 activities and public events have now been upgraded to make them more interesting and challenging.

While the event upgrades are easy to see on the surface, with more enemies and challenges to complete, they’ve also been made far more lucrative for longtime players. While events previously offered a set amount of XP for completion, Bethesda is implementing a sliding scale to more amply reward higher-level players.

Along those lines, enemy difficulty can now be scaled, with some event baddies capped at level 125. Rewards will be upgraded as well, with more caps and better loot for those with higher levels. There’s also a heinous new twist that could upend your event victory if you’re not paying close attention.

The signature feature of The Backwoods is the introduction of the “uninvited guest.” The mechanic gives a chance that a new final boss will spawn at the end of an event. Typically, the uninvited guest will be a three-star legendary creature that drops the appropriate loot upon defeat.

There is another uninvited guest, though. Bigfoot is coming to Fallout 76, and he’s as huge and mean as you’d expect. Unlike the other uninvited guests, Bigfoot is a four-star legendary creature. Sure, he’s no Scorchbeast Queen, but wiping him off the map isn’t going to be as easy as taking care of a Mirelurk or Snallygaster. He’s armed with an uprooted tree that deals a good amount of melee damage. Don’t miss his secondary attack, though, in which he pulls giant ticks off his back and throws them at you. It’s gross and awesome. And luckily, if you do manage to kill Bigfoot, he will drop four-star items, which is an exciting thing to chase.

Just make sure you move quickly, though. While the three-star uninvited guests have no time limit, this massive four-star cryptid is a different story. Bethesda has a five-minute timer on Bigfoot. If you don’t vanquish him before then, he disappears into a cloud of dust, and you’re left without a prize — and that’s if you’re lucky enough to spawn an uninvited guest.

According to Bethesda senior system designer Kevin Wienecke, Bigfoot will have a higher-than-normal spawn rate shortly after The Backwoods launches. However, the default will see him appear roughly once an hour. In the press demonstration, Bigfoot appeared at the end of the Moonshine Jamboree in the Mire region of the map. However, there are a number of other events where he can appear as an uninvited guest.

Update 66 will also bring a range of content to Fallout 76 with the arrival of a new season, Rip Daring and the Cryptids from Beyond the Cosmos. That means new cosmetics, events, and quests to keep players busy until the next update arrives this summer. Bethesda has outlined the major events in a blog. And while Bethesda wouldn’t confirm what other cryptids we might see this season, based on Bigfoot, we can’t wait to see what makes its way to the Appalachian Wasteland next.

Fallout 76‘s free Update 66: The Backwoods arrives on March 3 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.