Fallout 76 Burning Springs Update Guide | New Map Expansion, Season 23 Changes, Quests, Mods & Events
Posted: Dec 04, 2025 Views: 27
On December 2nd, Fallout 76 received its biggest update since Wastelanders in 2020, Burning Springs, which includes the largest map expansion to date.
Simultaneously, Fallout 76 also launched Season 23, Blood and Rust, a Raiders-themed update. Aside from the constantly crashing servers, the update is quite impressive, with both the new map and the story being top-notch.

Burning Springs Size
- PC (Steam): 28.8 GB
- PC (Microsoft Store): 39.3 GB
- Xbox: 41.9 GB
- PlayStation: 40.8 GB
Major New Additions
The new area is located west of West Virginia, in the southeastern countryside of Ohio, accessible by crossing Point Pleasant bridge.
This area suffered not only from a nuclear explosion but also from environmental contamination by the local Abraxodyne Chemical plant. The area is now a barren wasteland, filled with toxic water and sandstorms blanketing everything in a toxin called Rust.
Highway Town, built on an elevated highway, is the area's new social hub (and a last refuge for survivors, where players can rest and resupply). Last Resort saloon, located at the end of Highway Town, is also the starting point for bounty hunting missions.
Enemies in Burning Springs area show a significant increase in difficulty, possessing more hit points and attack power, leading to longer battles and requiring more careful healing. It's challenging for casual players, but the main storyline is short and can be completed even after several failures.
This area is unexpectedly dangerous for its proximity to the starting area, The Forest, and may pose a threat to new or low-level players.
New Main Quest
Once players reach level 30, listening to Ohio Distress Signal will unlock Burning Springs main questline.
This short story revolves around a wise and savage Super Mutant, The Rust King, and he is the ruthless ruler of Burning Springs.
He will give players several quests, which can be completed in about 2-3 hours. However, the questline is clearly just the beginning of a continuous narrative, similar to Act 1, and more content is expected to continue the story in the future.
The main reward for these quests is unlocking new clothing blueprints. It's recommended to treat them as a fun experience and not rush to complete them.
Bounty Hunting
Bounty Hunting has two modes: Grand Hunt and Head Hunt. Both can be accepted from NPC Walton Goggins in Highway Town.
Grand Hunt is a repeatable way to encounter legendary enemies on the farm, mainly used to unlock the newly added legendary effects. It is not difficult and is suitable for players with a certain level of equipment to farm repeatedly.
Head Hunts require 5,000 Fallout 76 Bottle Caps or completing Grand Hunts to unlock. They are very difficult, with three-star legendary enemies protected by two two-star followers. Therefore, each Head Hunt usually requires multiple players to cooperate to complete, and the rewards are very generous, with a chance to obtain unique plans, etc.
New Legendary Mods
New Legendary Mods, exclusively dropped by Bounty Hunters, are categorized into 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star mods. All new mods are listed below:
New 1-Star Mods:
- Feral (Melee Weapon)
- Sniper's (Ranged Weapon)
- Adrenal (Weapon)
- Adrenal (Armor)
- Lucid (Weapon)
- Lucid (Armor)
New 2-Star Mods:
- Pick Pocketer's
- Pain Killer (Armor)
- Rushing (Armor)
- Elementalist's (Armor)
- Fierce (Armor only, not Power Armor)
New 3-Star Mods:
- Glowing (Weapon)
- Healthy (Armor)
- Reflex (Armor)
- Active (Armor)
- Barbarian (Melee)
Public Events
In addition, two new public events have been added: Gearin' Up and Sinkhole Solutions. Sinkhole Solutions is a quest about Radscorpions and destroying their lair, while Gearin' Up involves arming up deathclaws. These two Public Events will alternate.
Season 23: Blood And Rust
Milepost Zero is closed. Blueprints for it are now available for trading with three merchants in Highway Town, including Vault 63 laser carbine. Additionally, a pennant will be released to all accounts during the first week of Burning Springs update, and any character who completes it will reward the player with 2K Gold Bullion.
- New legendary fish and local legendary fish available for fishing.
- Dirty Laundry, involving collecting 150 Abraxodyne Intel Briefcases.
- Radhog, a raider-themed camp pet, will be available in Atomic Shop.
- Dom Pedro, a new hand cannon.
- Added Social and Performance categories In Emoji Wheel, optimized categorization for equipping more emotes.
Gameplay Adjustments
Primarily improved C.A.M.P's quality of life, with bug fixes and quality of life improvements in combat, UI, graphics, sound, quests, weapons, workshops, etc. Numerous gameplay issues have been fixed.
Gleaming Depths
Gleaming Depths adds a weekly challenge. Completing all stages rewards a 4-Star Legendary cache containing a 4-Star Legendary armor, power armor, melee weapon, and wrench weapon. Raid rewards have also been redistributed, with better rewards for deeper progress, to prevent players from repeatedly farming the first boss, EN06.
Combat
- VATS adjustments have significantly reduced hit rate fluctuations and aiming issues.
- Fixed an issue where the cryo slow effect was incorrectly applied to non-PvP players.
- Fixed Hack and Slash. Legendary effects may harm players outside of PvP.
Known Issues
- Camp items from Blood and Rust season may not appear in the "New" section of the build menu after being claimed.
- The fire attack of the boss target Cletus Brimstone deals excessive damage and has an abnormally large area of effect.
- Text is missing from some terminals.
- For Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian players, crafting requirements display various Unicode character blocks.
Burning Springs provides good new content for regular players and lays the foundation for more content in the future. If you are a new player looking to try it out, given that Fallout 76 has been running for 7 years and frequently offers discounts, it is recommended to wait for a sale.
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