If you’ve been playing Fallout 76 since launch, there’s a good chance that you have at some stage received Canned Meat Stew. This item seemed to go out to all players in the server whenever somebody completed a particular in-game event. While it was a relatively minor consumable item, eating Canned Meat Stew offered players a very nice XP buff. However, it turns out that everybody receiving Fallout 76 Canned Meat Stew was actually a bug, and now it’s been patched!
The Fallout 76 Canned Meat Stew; A Bug Players Actually Like?
Players have been receiving Fallout 76 Canned Meat Stew for weeks; the item was meant to be a reward for completing the “Feed the People” repeatable event quest. This event occurs at Mama Dolce’s Food Processing, in the Forest region. However, what we now know was not intentional was for the food to go out to every player in the server. Rather, it was only ever meant to go to the players who were actual event participants. That does make sense, but for the last few weeks most players likely didn’t realise that this was a bug. Indeed, from the response at its removal, it seems many players thought it was actually a rather useful feature. Given the name of the event, it did rather seem that giving everybody stew was intentional.
Unfortunately, while the players may not have realised that it was a bug, Bethesda evidently did. The latest update introduced a patch, and now the event only grants stew to those who participate. Upon realising that the feature is no more, many players have vocally called for its return, even calling for Bethesda to; “unfix the Feed the People event.”
Giving everybody on the server a useful item did seem to be one of Bethesda’s better ideas for event quests, although sadly it seems that was not the case. Nonetheless, in this instance it might be worth Bethesda changing it back. While it may not have been intentional, the feature seems to have been a hit with fans and with a few tweaks and a little balancing, it could presumably return without too much disruption.