Some bad shit went down in Vault 51, and the only way to find out about it within Fallout 76 is by playing countless hours of its battle royale mode, Nuclear Winter. Many of Fallout 76’s best stories all take place long before the player shows up. To learn about them, players need to read journals, hack computer terminals, and study the landscape to try and piece together Appalachia’s pre-apocalyptic history bit by bit. The same goes for the mystery of what happened to Vault 51, a location that remains locked to players exploring the open world. Last month, it finally became accessible, but only to players who put dozens of hours into Nuclear Winter, the recently-added battle royale mode. Everyone else is forced to learn about the game’s new lore by watching YouTube videos or pouring over wiki entries, a frustrating choice for a game that usually rewards exploration over tedious grinding. Advertisement Inside the vault lies a labyrinth of living quarters, common areas, and gardens, most of which are locked behind laser grids when you first start out. Only after players reach a high enough Overseer rank by competing in matches do the other areas begin to open…