Vault 94 is Fallout 76's first instanced dungeon

Fallout 76's upcoming vault raid is the game's first instanced dungeon, Bethesda has revealed.

This means the raid will prevent other players who are not on your team from interrupting and affecting your mission.

In a post on Bethesda.net, the developers discussed Vault 94, which goes live alongside patch 12 on 20th August on PC. Bethesda said it will open the vault on console soon after if vault raids on PC run smoothly.

Vault 94 offers some of the most challenging experiences in the game, Bethesda warned, and while you can try it alone, the developers recommend you assemble a full team of level 50+ characters.

The instancing also means Bethesda has better control over the state of the vault "to ensure every experience is just as fresh as the first time you stepped into Vault 94".

"To sum it up: The raid is just for your team, the encounters are just for your team, and what is inside the vault is just for your team."

So, what's Vault 94 all about? It's situated on the border between The Mire and The Savage Divide. It was once home to a utopian community charged with restoring the Earth's natural abundance in the wake of the Great War. The vault's doors opened one year after the bombs fell. Now, the dwellers are long gone and the vault has been overrun by nature. But there's something nasty inside.

"Daring Appalachian explorers will need to brave many perils if they wish to save Vault 94, find out what became of its former residents, and recover the precious resources hidden within," reads the official blurb.

To try the dungeon, assemble your team and tune in to the Vault 94 emergency Broadcast radio station. Inside are three separate missions. One mission is available at any given time and lasts for one week. Each mission returns every three weeks. The first mission is called Dead in the Water and is available as soon as the vault opens. Meltdown and Washout go live on all platforms on 27th August and 3rd September respectively. Expect the vault to seal shut for three hours each week as one mission comes to an end and the next is prepared to go live.

Missions come in three difficulty modes: novice, standard or expert. Novice isn't timed, while standard and expert have time limits and more challenging encounters. If you run out of time or your squad wipes, you need to start over. As you'd expect, the more difficult the mode, the better the loot. If you complete missions on standard or expert, you'll get plans that let you craft new vault armour sets, such as the Strangler Heart set, pictured above. Complete missions in any difficulty and you'll earn Vault 94 steel, which is a new resource you need to craft the vault armour. (Vault mission rewards can be earned once per difficulty mode, per mission, per day.)