Fallout 76 World Pets: Release Date, Pet Levels and Buffs

Fallout 76's World Pets update arrives on 1 December. It turns C.A.M.P. pets, which until now stayed at your camp, into companions that travel with you across Appalachia, fight beside you and level up. Bethesda has been testing it on the Public Test Server (PTS), on PC over the summer and again since late October, now on consoles too, so a lot of the detail is already public. Here's what's confirmed, with the caveat Bethesda gives itself: not everything on the PTS is guaranteed to ship.

When does the Fallout 76 World Pets update come out?

On 1 December. Bethesda first promised the update for "this Winter" in its directors' letter on 30 September, then gave the date with the World Pets overview trailer on 22 October. The console test posted on 29 October also says the update is planned for 1 December.

Do you need to own a pet already?

Yes. Any C.A.M.P. pet you own can become a travel companion, and Bethesda says that at release you'll only have the pets you've already obtained. On the test server every account gets one pet of each species, but that's just for testing. Bethesda hasn't said whether the update adds new ways to get a pet. The Deathclaw pet, for example, came out in June in a Deathclaw Bundle on the Xbox, PlayStation and Steam stores.

Which pets can follow you?

Dogs, cats, radhogs and Deathclaws, and the PTS notes also mention mechanical pets such as the RoboPaw Steel Dog. In the trailer's words, you can name your pet and customise how it looks. You summon it from a new Pets tab under Stats in the Pip-Boy.

What can World Pets do?

On the test server, you give orders through the interact button or the emote wheel: Stay, Neutral (follow), Attack and Protect. Pets fight in melee (dogs bite, cats and Deathclaws scratch, radhogs ram) and only attack enemy NPCs. They never attack other players or other players' pets, and radiation and diseases don't affect them.

Every species has the same health, which grows as the pet levels up. A pet that takes too much damage goes down and needs a Stimpak to get back up, and other players can use one on your pet too. Pets can't follow you into Raids or Shelters, and they can't swim underwater.

How do pet levels work?

Your pet earns XP whenever you do while it's out with you, up to level 200. Levels are per species, so levelling one dog levels all your dogs. Rewards include more health and damage, extra carry capacity, better passives, outfits, backpacks and player titles. Bethesda has made the first levels quicker during testing.

What are the pet buffs?

Each species has two passive buffs: one that finds an item and one that improves rewards from an activity. You can equip two at a time from the Pets page in the Pip-Boy and swap them whenever you like (not in Power Armor), and once learned, a buff works with any species.

• Dog: Stimpak Fetcher (finds Diluted Stimpaks) and Bounty Sniffer (an extra Legendary item from Grunt Hunts)
• Cat: Baits Finder (finds Improved Bait) and Mega Bits (extra Fish Bits when you catch a fish)
• Radhog: Goo-Getter (finds Toxic Goo) and Rad-Dration (finds High-Radiation Fluids in Nuke Zones)
• Deathclaw: Dark Titan (finds Black Titanium) and Fun-Festation (extra Legendary items from Infestations)

What else is on the test server?

A return to Skyline Valley, which Bethesda hasn't dated separately. It has reworked the region's landscape, lighting and weather, added a collectible questline that starts with a jar holding a brain, and made the Trading Post a hub for bounty hunting with Marshal Canton. Hideouts, tougher bounty encampments with four difficulty levels, are being tested too but are listed as coming in spring 2027.

In Bethesda's other online world, The Elder Scrolls Online's Markarth DLC went free this month.