Gaming
Games
How to get off to a great start in Fallout 76
Where should you go first? Find out with our Fallout 76 tips guide.
Set 25 years after the bombs dropped and irradiated the world, Fallout 76 moves the action to the Appalachian wasteland. Here you will be able to explore and rebuild the wasteland together with other players, while fending off waves of mutated monsters from Virginian folklore and previous Fallout games.
In order to get you ready for reclamation day and exiting Vault 76, we’ve put together this handy tips guide to getting started in Fallout 76. It will point you to the areas where you should head first, teach you about PvP, and will explain the function of perk cards, alongside other new mechanics. So go grab your Pip Boy and let’s get ready to explore the wasteland together.
1. What should you do first?
Level up quickly by initiating questlines
© Bethesda
Upon stepping out of Vault 76 for the first time, it may be tempting for you to want to wander off and do your thing right out of the gate, but there are a few questlines that you should initiate first. These include Personal Matters, where you must locate the Overseer’s holotapes, and the Responders’ questline. Both of these can be found in Flatwoods.
These quests act almost like a soft tutorial for the game, introducing you to the crafting mechanics and directing you to some significant locations, so they are well worth taking the time to do early on. They also help you to level up fairly quickly too, which is a requirement if you want to reach level 5 and start engaging in PvP.
2. Levelling up and perk cards
You can combine multiple versions of the same card to improve
© Bethesda
Levelling in Fallout 76 works slightly differently this time around. The game still operates on the Special system (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck), where you can pick and choose which specific attribute that you want to level up, but it also adds a card-based system on top.
Each perk card in the game is tied to a specific attribute and will give you a buff, such as increasing the power of your unarmed attacks or enhancing your weapon durability. Cards are obtained through levelling up and you will only be able to place a certain number in each slot, which will depend on what level you are at in that specific ability.
Also, it should be noted, that if you get multiple of the same card, you can combine them to improve its effect, which is useful for further improving your character.
3. Understanding buffs
Weigh up the pros and cons of mutations
© Bethesda
There are several buffs that you can take advantage of in the game. For example, food and drink isn’t just used to top up health, but can activate separate buffs for being well fed and well hydrated. These will increase your resistance to disease and improve your AP regeneration and max HP respectively. So it is definitely worth keeping them active whenever possible.
In addition to this, you can also contract mutations out in the world from spending too much time in irradiated areas. These mutations have their own benefits, but will also come with some negative side effects too. For instance, the talons buff increases your bleed damage by 25 percent while also reducing your agility. So, when you receive a mutation, weigh up the pros and cons first before trying to remove it. If you don’t like what you see, you can always pop a Radaway and reduce your radiation level to get rid of it.
3. How to find weapons and ammo
There are a few ways to obtain weapons in Fallout 76. Most areas will have pipe pistols or pipe revolvers simply lying around on top of tables and in containers for you to pick up. But you can also craft and upgrade weapons at workbenches, if you have enough scrap.
The best method we’ve found, however, is finding and defeating Scorched enemies. Scorched enemies are essentially ghouls who are still cognizant enough to use weapons. They stand guard outside of key locations and carry some fairly decent weapons on them, like shotguns and hunting rifles, which you can then loot off their bodies.
They are also a pretty low-cost way of farming bullets, too. Just be careful not to alert more of them than you can actually handle and try not to fight them inside of buildings, as it is easy to get overwhelmed.
4. Building camps
You can move your camp in Fallout 76
© Bethesda
The settlement construction from Fallout 4 also makes a return in Fallout 76, but with a few key changes. Now you are able to construct bases almost anywhere in the world and you can move your camp around rather than being confined to one space forever. So if you don’t like your initial location, you can simply make a blueprint of your base and place it down somewhere else instead. Though you do this at the cost of a few caps.
Another thing that is important to note about building camps is that when you are travelling between servers your base will travel with you. But if that area is already taken or built upon, all your items will be stored, so you can rebuild. This is a huge reason why creating blueprints is so important, as it will help you to quickly re-establish yourself, should your base be blocked on a specific server or destroyed.
5. How to make the most of Workshops
While wandering out in the world, optional quests will appear where you need to kill hordes of enemies in order to claim a workshop. Workshops are areas that have their own resource pools, rather than relying on your own scrap. They are intended to only be a temporary base, so you shouldn’t try to build on them too much.
Instead, what you will want to do is build up some defences and just enough generators to get the workshop up and running. Each workshop will produce a special type of resource, whether that be fusion cores or some kind of food. So it is well worth seeking out if you want to stock up. Just be warned these areas tend to attract not only enemies, but other players hoping to stake their own claim on the land.
6. Taking on other players
You will have a bounty placed upon you if you kill other players
© Bethesda
PvP is another brand-new addition to Fallout 76, with each player killed netting you a small amount of caps. But before you go around shooting every stranger you meet, there are a couple things you should know first.
For starters, if you shoot another player and they don’t shoot back, you will do less damage to them. This is intended to stop players from griefing and means that sometimes the best course of action is to keep your gun holstered, as opposed to shooting back.
It’s also important to know that those who kill other players in the game will have a bounty placed on them, which you can see on the map screen. The fee for this is paid out of their own pockets, so if you want to engage in some PvP you can track them down in return for more caps.
7. Take on events
Fallout 76 isn’t all about shooting your fellow wasteland wanderers though. You can also team up to take on events. These usually appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you stray close to some of the larger buildings, but you can also sometimes see them on the map indicated by a golden circle.
Events task you with a number of different objectives, like fending off waves of protectrons or funnelling ingredients into a mixer, and come with rewards in the form of scrap and other items. So if you check and see a lot of players congregating around an event, make a beeline for it and try to help them out. There will be some rewards for it.
