In Fallout 76, players can try changing the post-nuclear landscape with the help of their friends. In addition, thanks to the series’ signature touch, Fallout 76 offers this wild experience with quite an interesting storyline.
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Factions play a huge role in the political climate of Fallout games. It’s these organizations that determine what happens to people traversing the land outside Vaults. Aside from scientists and soldiers, civilians actually form factions of their own.Payers know the Responders as a volunteer disaster relief faction hoping to help local communities thrive in this post-apocalyptic world. However, for players interested in joining them, what else does this faction offer?
10 One Of The Oldest
Fallout 76 serves as a prequel for the entire series.The game takes place in 2102, just 25 years after the cataclysmic Great War. Similar to other factions, people formed the Responders in response to the devastating effects of the War. However, it seems the first Responders formed the faction out of necessity.
Fallout lore places the Responders’ founding date at around 2077, at the brink of the Great War. This factor relies on the fact that it’s Appalachia’s emergency staff that made the initiative to help civilians as best they could. This makes the Responders one of the oldest factions in the game. Why they haven’t had any presence in other Fallout games makes for an interesting question.
9 Crisis Relief Is Paramount
Players who heard of the Responders for the first time might think of the Red Cross and other relief organizations. For the most part, they’re correct about this assumption. In Fallout lore, the Responders served as Appalachia’s emergency and disaster relief organization that assisted the area greatly during the Great War. Whereas other strategy games had factions at war with each other, the Responders showed how some factions focus more on the people affected by these conflicts.
Albeit volunteer in nature, the Responders eventually evolved into a faction of their own, making sure to train anyone who needed survival training. Their efforts after the Great War eventually led them to make settlements of their own. As such, players can find remnants of Responder settlements across West Virginia.
8 Morgantown Airport
Fans who explored much of the new areas in the Wastelanders update might stumble upon the Morgantown Airport. They might notice how the location has deep ties to the Responders. That’s because Morgantown Airport served as the Responders’ second home after raiders ruined their settlement in Charleston.
Raiders led by David Thorpe stole miniature nukes from the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel. Thorpe used these devastating weapons to blow up Summersville Dam in 2082, almost wiping out the Responders. Thankfully for the Responders, some of them survived the attack that would most likely devastate an entire city. These survivors end up in Morgantown Airport, which ended up becoming their permanent settlement.
7 Uneasy Alliances
In a world as harsh as Fallout‘s, factions need allies to survive. Thanks to Morgantown Airport, the Responders easily found themselves at an advantage. As Morgantown Airport lies around a central area, they became a “hub” of sorts for factions such as the Brotherhood of Steel and the now-extinct Free States. Moreover, their Airport and raider camps share considerable distance, giving the Responders time to recover and create a settlement.
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For the most part, the Responders’ access to essential supplies, medicine, and food forged their relationships with the Brotherhood and Free States. Unfortunately, differing principles made these alliances at the time extremely fragile. In fact, it’s the breakdown of these alliances that served as one of the nails in the coffin of the Responders’ presence in a Post-War environment.
6 The Scorched Plague
In Fallout 76, the Scorched Plague “transformed” its victims into beings that lost their self-consciousness, instead of being linked to a hive mind. Unfortunately, they retain their ability to wield weapons and rudimentary functions, proving fatal to those who encounter these scary creatures. Moreover, the Scorched Plague forced the Responders to form the Fire Breathers team and cooperate with other factions to fight this threat, as well as hostiles such as raiders.
Unfortunately, it’s the combined threats of the raiders and the Scorched that led to the downfall of the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel, which left the Responders alone in the fight. While the Responders did try to launch their project to find a cure, it proved too late in the timeline. In 2096, raiders and the Scorched eventually wiped out the Responders’ territories.
5 The Fire Breathers
Players who hear such a cool team name will likely want in on the action. Interestingly, it’s the action that exactly spelled the game of the Fire Breathers among the Responders. At the time of its conception, the Fire Breathers served as the “forward team” the Responders would deploy to the toxic Ash Heap. In there, the team should try reaching out to towns affected with its toxic wastes. However, the division soon evolved into a team trained to survive in hostile environments and fight threats of the faction.
Interestingly, when the Responders named the team, they wanted Fire Breathers to envision themselves like the Navy Seals or the Green Berets.
4 Not As Advanced
Like most Fallout factions with a certain “theme” or motif, the Responders remained consistent with their “volunteer team” image. Interestingly, this aspect also reflected with the kind of approach the faction had with its technology and tools. In fact, most of the Responders’ gear and tech across their existence relied on refurbishing recovered tech from firefighters, medical personnel, and police officers in the area.
The lore made it evident that the robots and automatons the Responders utilized often broke down and needed constant repair. Fortunately, despite the rather shoddy nature of their tech, the Responders managed to survive great threats such as raiders.
3 Robot Sentries
Despite the rather “old tech” nature of the Responders, they did make use of their resources carefully. The Responders made the Forest Watch as a means to watch the Appalachian Forest region. This Forest Watch was comprised of a network of robots tasked to monitor the region. They also served as a warning system against threats.
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Moreover, the justification for making the Forest Watch seemed very sound. Due to the low numbers of the Responders at the time, there had to be a means to watch their territories without dwindling their numbers. Considering the persistent problem of supplies and raiders, the Forest Watch seemed a smart choice.
2 A Lasting Legacy
Despite the Responders being wiped out in 2096, people still wanted to take up the mantle of the Responders. In 2103, Heather Ellis stumbled upon the history of the Responders and decided to lead its revival. Thanks to Heather, more survivors from her initial Settlers group and Vault 76 inhabitants took up the mantle of the Responders once more.
Due to Fallout 76‘s overarching story, it’s safe to assume that the Responders’ story isn’t over yet. And thanks to the arrival of other factions in the Appalachian area, it’s worth pondering whether history will repeat itself.
1 Substitutions Work
The Responder police uniform serves as one of many “gears” players can wear that symbolize their membership within the Responders faction. This uniform resembles 1950s police uniforms, coming with a blue shirt (complete with red pocket flaps and straps), black pants and tie, and even a badge. Interestingly, an ordinary police uniform variant also exists, this time a gray version of the Responder police uniform. According to lore, this ordinary police uniform represents the Pre-War uniforms worn by police in the Appalachian area.
IPlayers who wear this uniform can succeed the “Level up while…” daily challenge associated with the Responders. In that particular challenge, players need to wear Responder gear while leveling up.
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