October 01, 2025
Fallout 76’s Burning Springs Update Adds Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul and New Vegas-Inspired Content The December update brings players to Ohio with deserts, raiders, bounty hunts, and a fully voiced Ghoul by Walton Goggins
Fallout 76 is about to get its largest expansion in years with the upcoming Burning Springs update, arriving this December. The new content takes players into a scorched Ohio wasteland inspired by Fallout 3 and New Vegas, complete with deserts, deathclaws, and raiders. Best of all, the update ties into Amazon’s Fallout series by introducing The Ghoul, fully voiced by Walton Goggins.
🌵 New Vegas Inspirations in Ohio
While Burning Springs doesn’t directly recreate locations from Fallout: New Vegas, the vibe is clear. Ohio is transformed into a charred desert landscape, filled with familiar monsters and dangerous raiders. Players will also find small nods to past games—like a dinosaur statue–filled abandoned minigolf course.
The main hub of the expansion is Highway Town, a new settlement that serves as the base for the update’s biggest feature: bounty hunting.
🎯 The Ghoul and Bounty Hunts
The centerpiece of Burning Springs is The Ghoul, voiced by Walton Goggins, who assigns players bounty missions across the region. These missions come in two forms:
- Grunt Hunts – smaller tasks to track down and eliminate tough enemies.
- Head Hunts – large-scale public events where players team up to take down boss-level targets.
This system adds a new layer of replayable content and ties Fallout 76 more closely to its expanding universe.
🛡️ New Gear, Factions, and Story Content
Alongside bounty hunts, the update adds:
- New weapons, armor, and fishing options
- A new camp pet, Hog Meat the pig
- Fresh factions and characters, including missions to spark a revolt against the Rust King
- Side objectives that let players earn favor by completing specific challenges (kills, critical hits, elemental damage, and more)
⚔️ Public Events: Team Up or Get Wiped Out
Burning Springs also introduces new public events, including:
- Gearing Up – collect gears in an enemy-filled arena and power up a machine before time runs out.
- Sinkhole Solutions – dive into a toxic pit and survive waves of mutants while dodging poison attacks.
These events encourage teamwork and raise the stakes for endgame content.
📅 Release Date and What’s Next
The Burning Springs update is set to launch in December 2025, aligning with the release of Fallout season 2 on December 17. The Ghoul will be available for testing on the public test server starting October 2, arriving as part of Season 23: Blood and Rust.
Looking further ahead, Bethesda has already teased that the 2026 expansion will “remind players why Fallout 76 is the best place to adventure with your friends.”
📌 Final Thoughts
With a massive new region, bounty hunts led by Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul, and plenty of new challenges, Burning Springs looks like the biggest step forward for Fallout 76 in years. Whether you’re a longtime Wastelander or returning for the Amazon series crossover, December is shaping up to be a huge month for Fallout fans.