Fallout 4 Survival Mode Leaks

Leaks happen all the time in the gaming world--keen fans will dig through data files, over-eager developers might let a detail slip, friends might give other friends outside the company a little peek that spreads out of control in a hurry… it’s inevitable. What changes, however, is how a company will react to these leaks. Some deny them, some refuse to comment… it’s pretty unusual for a company to own up to them, though.

But that’s what Bethesda did when they saw some Redditors had uncovered the features of survival mode, which was supposed to be a secret. Instead of denying it, they tweeted the reddit thread and complimented the sharp eyes of its audience. Classy move, Bethesda, but the real news here is all the added content that Survival mode will bring, and all the changes it’ll make to the established Fallout formula. Some of them will be new, others, recognizable from the survival mode in Fallout: New Vegas, but regardless they’ll all put a little extra edge in your Fallout 4 experience.

Here’s what they found on Reddit:

• You can now only save by sleeping on a bed for longer than an hour
• Combat does more damage to everyone. Additionally, you get ‘adrenaline’, which lets you do more damage, every time you kill something. But you lose adrenaline every time you sleep.
• Fast travel is disabled, enemies no longer show up on the compass, and the rage of points of interest are reduced.
• Bullets and ammunition now have a weight. Additionally, carrying too much weight will damage your endurance and adrenaline, as well as wound your legs and do damage.
• You have to keep yourself well rested, fed, and watered to survive. As you get hungrier, thirstier, and fatigued, you suffer penalties such as less action points, damaged stats, less resistance to sickness, and eventually, you start losing health.
• Oh, and you can get sick by exposing yourself to dirty stuff. This will reduce your stats and have a plethora of other bad effects.
• Crippled limbs no longer auto heal after combat.
• Companions no longer automatically get up after combat and will go home if not healed.
• Different beds offer different qualities of rest. A sleeping bag might let you save but it won’t keep you rested.
• Enemy and loot re-appears in cleared zones at a much slower rate.

And that’s the jest of it! Looks like a real challenge to survive the wasteland now… and endurance seems all the more useful, all things considered. Just be careful of disease when you start cannibalizing super mutants.