Fallout 76 players are using a script to spawn in NPCs
Fallout 76 players who cannot wait for NPCs to officially arrive are using a cheating suite to create their own.
When Fallout 76's Wastelanders expansion launches next year, it'll add the first official human NPCs to the game's barren world.
Saying that human NPCs don't exist in Fallout 76's world is not entirely accurate, of course, as players discovered one NPC hidden in a dev room. Wooby, the human NPC, was found in the same room alongside every other object in the game's world. Clearly, players weren't meant to access that room.
Nearly a year later, Wooby has found new life thanks to an unofficial set of item spawning scripts. A group called Dupers R Us used these tools to not only set Wooby free, but also add NPCs from other games like Fallout 4, as well as create their own.
"Their functionality is actually incredibly high," Dupers R Us member Thegeminaii told Kotaku about NPC AI. "They will wander around your camp while idle, and in combat they will relentlessly chase their opponent, taking cover and retreating when necessary."
As they point out, however, these NPCs do not have all the functionalities you'd expect just yet. And, for some reason, all spawn with just their underwear.
There are other applications for the same cheats, of course, which others have used to spawn in the Brotherhood of Steel's Prydwen airship from Fallout 4, as well as NPCs from that game like Preston Garvey, and Brotherhood of Steel soldiers.
None of this is official, of course, but just like Prydwen, don't be surprised to see a random NPC show up in your game.