With Fallout 76’s next “megaton-sized” update teased for December 2025, players are already dreaming about where Bethesda might take the game next. And thanks to some changes spotted on the PTS, like the long-blocked Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant now opening up, many believe the game’s next frontier could be Ohio.
Naturally, the Fallout community has wasted no time turning the Buckeye State into a post-apocalyptic playground. On Reddit, Ohioans and fans alike are sketching out what horrors, oddities, and local legends might define a radioactive Midwest wasteland.
Highway Signs and Holy Shrines
The top request? A ruined recreation of Ohio’s infamous “Hell Is Real” billboard, looming ominously over I-71. As one commenter joked, “The Hell is Real sign better be prominently featured or what are we even doing here.” Others insisted it should appear multiple times across the map, Raider-style.
From there, the religious kitsch only escalated. Fans lobbied for a resurrected “Touchdown Jesus” statue, though one player quipped, “Touchdown Jesus has been dead for awhile,” prompting another to reply: “It’s a video game and the man had a reputation for not staying dead, so…”
Chemical Mutants and Space Bases
Ohio’s industrial history is fertile ground for Fallout-style monstrosities. Players imagined mutated horrors spawned from DuPont and Procter & Gamble plants (“deathclaws that bleed acid”), toxic wastelands around the Fernald uranium facility, and a still-functioning Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hiding alien tech beneath the rubble. One fan even suggested NASA’s Glenn Research Center could be a secret Vault.
Rust Belt Ruins
Then there’s the decay of Ohio’s beloved amusement parks and malls. “Abandoned Cedar Point would be cool as hell,” one fan wrote, picturing a drained Lake Erie beside rusting rollercoasters. Others pointed to Idora Park in Youngstown, Chippewa Lake Park, or even SeaWorld, which is now home to “mutant orcas chasing water skiing raiders.” Add in the cavernous remains of Union Terminal in Cincinnati or the eerie Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, and you’ve got instant Fallout set pieces.
Sports, Snacks, and Local Lore
Of course, no Ohio expansion would be complete without cultural quirks. Players envisioned Buckeye-obsessed Raider tribes battling Michigan holdouts, the “Columbus Crew” reimagined as bandits dressed in construction gear, and the eternal misery of Browns fans carried into wasteland lore.
Cuisine got its due, too, though not flatteringly. One fan reimagined Cincinnati’s most polarizing dish with a grim twist: “Skyline Chili is people!” Another offered up Grandpa’s Cheese Barn as a dungeon full of “radioactive cheese and snacks.”
And because Fallout thrives on folklore, Redditors demanded the inclusion of Ohio’s strangest legends: Frogmen lurking in irradiated rivers, Melon Heads leading cults of enlightenment, and eerie island communities on Lake Erie practicing “questionable traditions.”
While Bethesda has yet to confirm whether Ohio is really coming to Fallout 76, the community seems to have no shortage of ideas. From mutant mascots to endless highway construction sites manned by feral ghouls, the Buckeye State may be the perfect next stop on Appalachia’s post-apocalyptic border.
