It’s only been a few days since the release of the online-focused Fallout 76, but a few crafty players may have figured out ways to streamline the process of launching nukes. Leveraging cipher-cracking techniques, collaborators on the game’s official subreddit began devising strategies to figure out the required passphrases faster, enabling successful nuke launches without a full set of code fragments.

Fallout 76 is the newest entry in Bethesda’s beloved franchise, shifting focus from solo play to instanced online-only exploration. Strangely, the game contains no NPCs or dialogue trees at all, establishing any of the other players (up to 24, max) on a given server as the only available options for conversation. While there has been considerable negative response thus far, the game launched successfully this week after a few extended beta sessions. After Reclamation Day, console and PC players began exploring the world of Appalachia, combining forces in-game and on forums to figure out the best techniques for survival.

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The mechanic of launching nukes in Fallout 76 is considered something of an end-game process, and the laborious requirement of collecting randomly-dropped codes is a method meant to extend that pursuit. Now, per Kotaku, Redditor Waffle_cop has hastened that process with their program NukaCrypt, a simple GUI-based app which can provided decrypted possible keywords to launch a nuke without a full set of codes, partially gaming a system and providing more opportunities to enable late-game content.

Fallout 76 Nuke Launches Code Fragment

Launching a nuke in Fallout 76 creates a special server-wide event that all active players can take part in (similar to a raid in other online games), and may even kill any players unlucky enough to be caught in the initial blast. Still, the nuked area features unique and fearsome enemies that will probably be untenable for lower-level explorers, but they can at least attempt to enter these zones and score some epic loot for their trouble.

It’s clear that Bethesda designed its coded system with the intention of nuke events emerging at a slower clip, but none of these streamlining methods can be considered a hack; they’re just an example of the resourcefulness of Fallout 76's online community. NukaCrypt and other cipher-cracking approaches may help players launch nukes sooner, but they still need to engage some late-game content and areas to access the necessary silos, and they’ll have to obtain some of those related codes.

Time will tell whether Bethesda responds to these developments by changing their system but, for now, Fallout 76 players should look out for these raid zones, and otherwise keep their eyes on the sky.

More: Fallout 76 Tips, Tricks, & Hidden Secrets to Know

Source: Kotaku