Fallout 76 Player Recruits Volunteers To Find Fabled 'Hidden Ending,' But Finds Only Disappointment

Though one fan initially believed that Fallout 76 had a hidden ending, players have recently discovered that this theory was wrong.

Fallout 76, as players will know, didn’t have the smoothest launch. Remember when Grand Theft Auto Online and Pokémon GO first hit, and every sentient being in the known universe tried to log in at once? Both were festivals of bugs, glitches, and crashes. Fallout 76 could probably outdo them both, however.

Since the title’s release last November, it’s been one controversy, catastrophe, and catastrophic controversy after another. Lowlights include the support site leak that compromised players’ personal data and the whole Collector’s Edition canvas bags debacle. We also can't forget the sorry incident of Bethesda erroneously banning the game’s most dedicated player (Glorf12, who registered 900 hours of gameplay, was accused of cheating).

All in all, Fallout 76 hasn’t quite lived up to the game that preceded it, the stunning Fallout 4. The troubled online action RPG is definitely still capable of generating some intrigue, though, as the (sadly fruitless) recent search for a secret ending made clear.

Now, if any game could use a secret ending (or any ending at all, really), it would be this one. As players will know, after defeating the "final boss," the cycle just continues, pitting you against the Scorchedbeast Queen again and again for loot rewards that are totally disappointing.

Earlier this week, as Destructoid reports, a player (by the Reddit handle International_XT) put forward their shocking theory: that something super special might happen if all 14 fissure sites (including the Prime one where the Queen is fought) are nuked in one session.

It was quite an ask, and our intrepid hero International_XT sent out a call to arms. Players flocked to the cause, and it all generated a huge amount of hype - at least far more than Fallout 76 is used to. At one point, Bethesda Community Manager Lady Devann popped into the thread, remarking, “If it is a secret thing, it’s a well-kept one that even I don't know.”

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Sadly, and inevitably, it all seems to have been for naught. Elsewhere on Reddit, z3rosun stated that they closed all other fissures (and they remained closed) before taking on the Queen, miraculously all on the same server. However, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

They admitted that they didn’t manage to defeat the boss (they were playing solo at the time), but they went on to say that another group of six followed the same method and defeated her, getting nothing for their troubles either - besides the usual Grade A loot, naturally.

Now, granted, there was slim to zero chance of any secret ending anyway, since the game has been thoroughly datamined. Still, the whole affair got people interested in Fallout 76 again, and that’s not something you see every day.