Season 16 of Fallout 76 has seen drastic changes in how rewards are earned and claimed. With “Dance with the Devil” well underway, feedback from the community shows the changes leave a negative impact on the game. This is how the new rewards system is a Deathclaw to gameplay in Fallout 76.
Fo76 Season 16 Rewards System Forces Excessive Grinding
The development team altered how Seasons work in Fallout 76 when Dance with the Devil, Season 16, began. Previously, you increased your Seasons level as you played, completed dailies, weeklies, and other challenges, and got rewarded for moving along a S.C.O.R.E. Board from level 1-100. At the end, you’d get a bonus for reaching the end square that included Atoms.
Shifting away from the playing board style rewards setup, a page based system was implemented. Along with the pages came another currency, Tickets, the game’s fifth. You still earn S.C.O.R.E and up your Seasons stage, but now you earn Tickets each level up, instead of getting a set reward.
Well meaning enough, this allows you to select which rewards you want to claim depending on what page you’ve unlocked. The page has a variety of items, exclusives for Fallout 1st members, and skins, with each page unlocked offering rarer rewards. Using your Tickets, you can claim whatever catches your fancy, or save up for a larger purchase later on.
As the season progressed, however, players started to take notice that there was no way to get all the rewards by just getting their level to 100. Reddit user A-L-F-R-E-D noticed that they still had rewards left to claim even after getting to 100. This change comes from needing Tickets to obtain the Fallout 1st rewards, normally included as part of the subscription in previous seasons.
Now, you need to reach 150 to claim everything that’s offered in a season and get the bonuses. Not only are there 50 extra levels to obtain, but the repeating S.C.O.R.E mission ends at level 100, making it much harder to earn those levels.
Flabbatorix created another Reddit thread noting that things seemed more grindy and less fun than in Season 15. Going through the various pages, starting from page 1, every single time, they wanted to claim an item because tedious. Having to go above and beyond level 100 made other commenters feel as if they only had the privilege of using their Tickets and getting rewards, instead of it being a present for being active during the season.
On top of that, there are less rewards than previous seasons. Some form of item, skin, or currency would be given at every level up on the S.C.O.R.E board. Now, it breaks down to approximately one reward every three levels. Even the overall creativity of the design feels like a let down.
Community Approval for Pages Reward System in Fallout 76
The change has left the community feeling let down and forced to continuously grind for what they were previously given. A poll created by Reddit user apocalypstik10 shows that 61% of voters are unhappy with the pages system. The comments even show that those who voted “yes” may not dislike it, but aren’t necessarily wowed by it either.
As a long-time player, I find myself less likely to look through the pages to see what I may want at the higher levels. I don’t check on my progress, I’m unmotivated to level up and I am rarely interested in the items available as rewards. This differs greatly from other seasons, where I found an item I liked that motivated me to play, like Lite Ally Steven Scarberry.
Claiming rewards on the Scoreboard was fun, and each individual season had an interesting design filled with potential Easter eggs and story teasers to speculate on. This is what I loved about Rip Daring, the board had images of the Blue Devil and Ouga two seasons before they were announced.
Overall, the community has shown that the excessive grinding, additional currency, and uninspired design of the pages Seasons system isn’t loved. Forced play for the sake of rewards that are barely wanted hurts gameplay overall. In the end, people will stop playing instead of working at collecting every reward in a season.
If the dev team listens to their fans, then some changes have to be implemented in Season 17. Whether that’s reverting to Scoreboard, changing how many Tickets are rewarded when leveling up, or adding more items as rewards, something has to give. For more, check out our Fallout 76 guide hub.
