Fallout 76’s Worst Nightmare of an Enemy ‘The Scorched’ Were Almost Replaced by Something 100x More Terrifying

Fallout 76 is not the most acclaimed entry in the hit RPG series by a long margin. Apart from the game’s quality, which series enthusiasts almost always criticize, the state of the game at launch was nothing short of deplorable.

In addition to almost unanimously agreeing that the title was perhaps the series’ weakest entry, the community agrees that ‘The Scorched’ can be incredibly challenging to slay. But many fans might be unaware that a much scarier enemy almost replaced them

Fallout 76 recently shattered Steam Records thanks to the TV Show on Prime Video and Amazon Games giving away the title for free. Despite everything wrong with the game, per the community, the game once again became a talking point as it breached its all-time peak six years after its release date.

One of the most infamous enemy types in the game was ‘The Scorched.’ While they were incredibly terrifying on the outside, players disliked them because the rewards that dropped after killing them also diminished in value. Recently, the game’s lead Artist, Nate Purkeypile, revealed his original plans, and if they had been materialized would have made for an incredibly jarring sight for players.

Did you know that instead of having the Scorched in 76, I wanted people who had their heads cut off and replaced by Liberators controlling the body?

There were even concepts made for it and I made it work as part of a Game Jam. https://t.co/dSpjBmthpj

— Nate Purkeypile – The Axis Unseen 🤘🏹🔥 (@NPurkeypile) May 30, 2024

Like other games in the franchise, the game doesn’t shy away from grotesque and brutal visuals, especially with its enemy types. While the description sounds incredibly unsettling, it might have gone well with the game’s overall theme. Fans admitted so and asked the lead artist if there were alternatives to other enemies that didn’t make the game’s final cut.

Fallout 76‘s lead artist, Nate Purkeypile, also recently talked about his work to FandomWire. After his post on the Scorched on Twitter, fans asked if other enemy types changed before the final build was released.

As fans guessed, there were numerous other enemy types, which were then altered in the final product. For example, the infamous scorch beast queen was also not in Bethesda’s plans for the game.

The Interloper was one of the potentials. So was the giant Vulture that is stapled to Seneca Rocks

— Nate Purkeypile – The Axis Unseen 🤘🏹🔥 (@NPurkeypile) May 30, 2024

Purkeypile also stated that the plan with an enemy type like the Scorched was to have an enemy type capable of handling firearms but weren’t human.

I don’t think that was the plan but yeah the goal was always to get something that could use guns that wasn’t human

— Nate Purkeypile – The Axis Unseen 🤘🏹🔥 (@NPurkeypile) May 30, 2024

A user speculated that one of the reasons why the enemies were changed was because Bethesda wanted enemy types that would help with brand recognition. To which Purkeypile stated that this was indeed one of the reasons why.

That sounds… way cooler. Damn, a shame. Would you say this is a case of original ideas being made to yield in favour of brand recognition? The scorched look a lot more “on brand” as a ghoul variant than your proposed idea would, even though it was dope.

— Soupkitchn (@finbar_mueller) May 31, 2024

This is certainly not the first time that designs and ideas the art team brought up were later changed. But looking at the responses from fans, perhaps going with Purkeypile’s original plans would have been better.

What do you think of the concept that was discarded? Do you think it would have been a better enemy class? We would love to know your thoughts in the comments section below.