Fallout 76 Beginner's Guide: 10 best tips you should know
Fallout 76 is a truly massive game! Some new players get giddy with how many things it has. But don't worry, you don't have to learn everything right away. You should take things slowly, one step at a time, focusing on having good time with the game.
We've gathered 10 main tips that you should stick to you if you're just starting out in our short but informative Fallout 76 Beginners Guide. They are quite simple and give you the idea of what to pay attention to and what can be disregarded at first.
We hope that our advice will make your first adventure in post-nuclear Appalachia even more enjoyable! Let's see what those recommendations are!
1. Explore, learn, enjoy
First of all, remember that you play Fallout 76 to enjoy it. Hence, don't rush things – there's no pressure to achieve any level or whatever ASAP. Just explore, learn what the game is like, how its systems work, and get good vibes in the process.
That means that you shouldn't skip quests, at least the Main Story related ones. Side quests aren't that bad either, actually, so at least give them a shot. Listen to what all those NPCs around you have to say. You can extract tons of valuable knowledge from dialogues with them: both about the game's mechanics and the world's story.
Also, if it's your first character, we strongly recommend choosing the Fresh Dweller start for it. Thus you'll begin at level 2 and have a coherent introduction to the game. The other option, Battle-Ready Dweller is better for players who have already had some experience with the game. It gives you a 20-level with a pre-loaded kit right away which is great if you want to level up fast. However, as a new player that shouldn't be your number 1 priority.
2. Collect everything
One great thing about Fallout 76 is how valuable most of its loot is. Chances are there is at least one practical use for a seemingly worthless piece of junk that your character is holding in their hands. As you keep getting to grips with the game, you'll find more applications for all that loot.
At first you can at least carry all that stuff to the nearest vendor and sell all your junk items there as well as everything else you don't like. Extra caps won't hurt. A word of warning here, however: don't sell story- or event-related outfits as most of them can only be obtained once per character.
The ammo you get from the loot can be further used as your own projectiles. Just make sure to deliver the final shots with the weapon you want to get ammo for most. For some reason, the enemies tend to drop the ammo for the weapon they've been finished with.
Don't get rid of the food and consumables too fast either. The bonuses they give you can greatly improve your chances of surviving in the wilds and increase your effectiveness in combat. Just don't store food for too long since it can spoil. Eating spoiled food can cause a disease so you'd better just get rid of it.
As for valuable resources (mats & junk items), you'll learn how to use them properly as you learn more about the game and try out more of its activities. Most of them are good for crafting or single-use buffs.
Also, don't let the word "junk" deceive you. In Fallout it doesn't mean that you can just throw it away. It simply means that it can't be categorized as something else. Junk is your friend!
The best place to store your large pile of treasures is a stash box. You can craft it and place it in your CAMP. Also, you can find one at each train station and use it too. Here's what you need to know about it (video by FalloutTV):
Need help with starting out?
Get a strong character fast with the help of our Fallout 76 Starter Bundle! All the boosts a new player needs collected inside one simple product! Learn more about it!
3. Check donation boxes
It's a very important hint for a new player as they rarely learn about it early enough to make most of those boxes. In fact, the first donation box you come across is right at the stairway at the Vault exit. Just keep an eye out for a red box and you won't miss it.
Whenever you see a box like that, come up to it to check out its contents. It's not unlikely that you'll find some goodies inside. Here's a video that shows the location of them all (video by Goofy Hayden):
Donation boxes are containers that other players can put various stuff in. The idea is that experienced players put useful stuff that they don't really need into them, rather than just selling it to a vendor or scrapping it. It's a way to help new players and there are actually quite many players who choose to donate some of their possessions to beginners. So make use of that – and don't forget to donate stuff too when your character becomes wealthy enough.
4. Stay in a group
The 76 is the first Fallout game that is an MMO which implies that it expects players to interact with each other. But despite that devs also acknowledge that some players prefer playing solo. That means that you won't have a single problem with sticking to that playstyle is that's your thing. It's really great that this multiplayer game is versatile enough in that regard. That said, having a company is always beneficial even if you don't interact with them all the time. Here's how it works.
Public team in Fallout 76 offers buffs and there are several types of such teams. Casual team is deemed the most beneficial for most cases as it simply raises its members' intellect. Intellect is good for many things but one particular important bonus that it gives you is extra experience gains. It will likely not ruin your exploration pace, it just can make your adventures more rewarding.
There are also more types of public team available. Each of them is good for a particular purpose:
| TEAM TYPE | BONUS PER PLAYER | MAX TOTAL BONUS |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Ops | +25% XP for completing daily ops | +100% XP for completing daily ops |
| Exploration | +1 Endurance | +4 Endurance |
| Events | +25% XP for completing events | +100% XP for completing events |
| Hunting | +25% XP for legendary kills | +100% XP for legendary kills |
| Roleplay | +1 Endurance | +4 Endurance |
Another great bonus of a group is that you can fast travel for free with it. Your teammates are mobile waypoints that you can jump to at any moment without any fee. It's very convenient!
While you don't have to interact with teammates and most players will understand that you're in the team just for certain perks, it won't hurt to create your own network in the game. Fallout 76 is so much about cooperation and survival in the Wasteland. Doing that is always easier with a couple of reliable buddies. So maybe you should give it a chance and try establishing contact with those guys? If you feel like it, go right ahead.
Also, here's a video about public teams if you want to learn more about it (video by Fargassier):
5. Stay wary of bad players
First of all, we must say that Fallout 76's community is so surprisingly pleasant that it will catch you off guard at first. A stranger being kind enough to just pass some valuable stuff to you without expecting any caps in return? Or giving you a detailed explanation of some system you're puzzled with? Or showing you the way to a location you couldn't find by yourself? Yes, all those things and more keep happening all the time there. Players do really cooperate to survive and thrive in the post-nuclear war barrens.
But no basket is without rotten apples. And unfortunately griefers, scammers, and just toxic players are not completely extinct in the game. To protect yourself from malevolent players do these 2 things: activate Pacifist Mode in the settings and always trade things via a courier when you want to make a deal with people you don't know.
The Pacifist Mode will save you from unwanted PvP. Most of the time players who come to PvP to the low-level areas shouldn't be fought with as they are likely stronger than most new players. As your character dies, it drops all the junk items you've carried along and it becomes a reward for the winner.
Note that some activities auto activate PvP for your character: for example, workbenches. You won't participate in activities like that for quite some time so don't worry about them. The Pacifist Mode will guarantee you the protection from other players while you're leveling up.
As for trading with a courier, it's an important thing. In fact, we'd warn against trading with players you don't know or trust. But if you think you really have to, go ahead but make sure to use a courier for that. Don't just drop the thing you want to change for something else – a scammer can just run up to you to pick it up and flee. Courier gives them no such opportunity. Here's how it works (a video by TheDon ATR):
6. Builds don't matter at first
Some guides recommend thinking of what your perfect build should be before actually starting the game. We'd say that it's not the right order of things. Don't get us wrong, building a strong character suitable for a particular role is very important but all should come in good time. A new player barely knows what the gameplay of the game is and what weapons / playstyles they find most fun – how are they supposed to determine anything without having experience with it?
So we'd advise you to disregard builds at first. Just try out different weapons, regular & power armor, pieces of gear, gizmos, consumables, perk cards, and everything else. Learn the game by just doing things. When your character is strong enough and your priorities in the game are clear, you should indeed start referring to guides. But until then, just have fun.
However, if you still think that you should know something about builds, here's a beginner-friendly video with explanation of them:
Think it's time to work on a build?
We can help you! Check out our Fallout 76 Builds Boost to get the most fitting build for your character fast!
7. Don't miss an event
Events are public activities that award you with valuable loot, experience points, and just great emotions. You can see new available events on the map. A great thing about events is that you can just teleport to them fee-free.
Events often attract numerous players and together they complete the objectives. Sometimes there are so many willing & able players that not everyone even has a chance to shoot an enemy. Don't worry – you'll still get some rewards even if your contribution to the success wasn't significant. Even if players fail to complete the objectives, there'll still be some goodies to grab. So it's a win-win situation, never miss an event.
While it's always advisable to join an event no matter what, you shouldn't jump to them if you don't feel like. Events can appear too often for you to keep the steady pace of exploration and that can break the immersion some players like so much about Fallout 76.
Worry not: there'll always be another event shortly, so missing one won't be the end of the world. Although it's a great source of weapons, gear, XP, and other things, one or two missed events won't ruin your character. Enjoying the game the way you want should always be your top priority.
Here's a sneak peek at what events are like in Fallout 76 (a video by SequentialGamer_Fallout):
8. Don't waste caps on equipment
Avoid buying ammo from vendors (especially NPC ones) as much as you can. Ammo's always hideously overpriced and you won't want to part with your hard-earned caps so easily. Getting more ammo is easier in combat: finish the enemy with the gun you need ammo for (hopefully you have at least a dozen left) and it'll likely drop suitable bullets. The best way to go about it is to deal most damage with melee weapons and to use the gun only to finish the target.
In fact, sticking to a melee weapon in combat as often as possible is a good way to save enough ammo for formidable foes which the Wasteland has no shortage of.
Weapons and pieces of gear sold by vendors are no better. Most of the time their quality is mediocre at best and the price is outrageous for something so average. Trust us, you'll get the best weapon, power armor, and whatnot by defeating enemies, doing activities, and crafting – vendors are not on the list.
Short on caps?
We can help you with a quick top up! Get as many caps as you need (we're talking hundreds of thousands!) soon with our Fallout 76 Caps Delivery boost!
9. Build a camp later
CAMP is a part of the game that most players love so much. Building your own little place the way you want is a dream of many people. Many games give us that opportunity and Fallout 76 has it too. And it offers plenty of tools and objects to place at the CAMP. However, most of those countless options must be unlocked first. That means that if you're just starting out, you'll have very limited choice. And what you'll have available isn't likely to be worth wasting all those precious crafting items. So don't be in a hurry to build anything.
If you think the time is right and you have enough mats to build something useful, consider referring to beginner guides on how to build your first CAMP. It's a very vast topic and it deserves an article of its own, hence we're not going to give you all the details here. What you should know is that there are many things that should be taken into consideration: which zone to build the camp in, what location to pick for it, how far from existing waypoints it should be, what natural resources you should have as close to it as possible, and so on. Obviously, the starting zone (the forest region) will likely be most suitable for your first dwelling but still make sure to learn as much as you can about the process.
Here's an example of a video guide dedicated to CAMP building (made by TNG):
While it's not exactly a problem to treat your first CAMP as a toy that you can just test various things with, an important point to remember is that mats used for camp building are quite valuable and shouldn't be spent too fast.
10. Understand character statuses
Since Fallout 76 is about survival, prepare to do your best to keep your character safe and sound. The first statuses you'll likely encounter are hunger and thirst. Despite what you might think, they are not all those important. Your character won't die of starvation or dehydration. However, it'll get extra bonuses for being well-fed and hydrated so think of getting some food and drinkable water every once in a while.
There are more important things to consider though. 4 of the most widespread types of statuses are:
Radiation: it decreases your maximum health and applies other debuffs. It comes from all kinds of sources: irradiated enemies hitting you, standing in an irradiated area, eating irradiated food, swimming in contaminated water, and so on. You can remove radiation-related effects with RadAwat, while Rad-X can make you resistant to it for a while;
Diseases: they bring all kinds of nuisances: stats reduction, incoming damage increase, action points consumption increase, and so on. Your character can catch one by eating rotten food, drinking dirty water, being attack by an infested creature, etc.. Each type of disease has a respective cure that deals with it. Also, antibiotics often are quite effective too. There are also ways to get disease reisistance;
Addictions: this is a very unpleasant and unfortunate status to get. It comes from consumed chems – each chem has its own chance of causing an addiction. The debuff won't go away until you cure it, although consuming the chems you're addicted to can make its effects weaker. Addictol makes addictions go away as well as a couple of other items but none of them are easily found;
Mutations: unlike the previously mentioned statuses, mutations aren't just bad. Actually they are half-bad: they give you both a negative effect and a positive one. They can be caused by being exposed to radiation for too long – or you can provoke them yourself by consuming a serum. Mutations can be controlled by cancelling their negative effects and keeping just the good ones to power you up.
Statuses are numerous – but you don't have to memorize them all at once. Your understanding of them should form with time, step by step. Also, you should know that statuses can interact with your active perk cards: for example, some mutations can stay permanently and/or keep only the positive effect. Even your addictions can make you stronger with them.
So that was it! Hopefully you've learnt something new from our article! And if you think that you need a bit more help with your Fallout 76 experience, never hesitate to get in touch with us to request it!
Our catalog includes lots of useful boosting services that can make your experience with the game even more fun! We can help you level up faster, collect various stuff easier, and help in every other way you can imagine! Browse our Fallout 76 boosting catalog or contact us to learn more!
Success
Data
updated