After loving my playthrough of Fallout 4 in 2020, I gave Fallout 76 a try and immediately fell in love with it.
Fallout 76 is a massive online multiplayer game with lots of content for you to explore.
It’s filled with tons upon tons of missions, quests, PVP, and PVE activities that will take you at least 200 hours to complete.
As a solo player, I’ve been enjoying this game for a couple of years now. I still jump into the game from time to time.
In my first couple of playthroughs, I managed to pick up a few great tricks that helped me to go from level 0 to 60 in a short period of time.
If you’re new to Fallout 76 or trying to survive in Appalachia, I can guarantee these tips will help you avoid rage-quitting the game and have more fun in the game.
1. Don’t Loot Everything
The first advice I give to anyone when playing any survival or online multiplayer game is to loot everything. But not when playing Fallout 76.
Much like Fallout 4, Fallout 76 is filled with stuff. Mostly junk and useless crap. Sure you need those junk for crafting and repairing, but don’t pick up everything.
Don’t pick up every weapon. Don’t pick up every armor piece. Don’t pick up all the crap.
Because your backpack has a carry limit. And this leads to tip #2.
2. Manage Your Inventory
Since you have limited inventory space, both on your backpack and your stash, you have to manage it really well.
Don’t store everything you think is valuable. Sell some and store only the legendary items. This goes to weapons and armor.
Get rid of nukes and missiles if you don’t use them. They take up so much weight.
Just make sure to make space for the best and most valuable stuff.
3. Don’t Sell, But Scrap
Selling prices in Fallout 76 is ridiculous. It’s actually more profitable if you scrap them instead.
Scrapping weapons and armor unlocks weapon and armor mods. And gives you resources to build more stuff. It’s better than trading a weapon for a couple of Caps.
4. No More Manual Saving
I actually spent a few minutes in the game looking for the manual save button.
Coming from Fallout 4, I was used to quick saving the game before engaging in combat and doing stupid stuff.
But in Fallout 76 there’s no manual save. The game uses auto-save. So don’t pull off stupid stunts if you don’t want to deal with consequences.
5. Gather Wood
Wood plays a major role in Fallout 76. You need it to not just build stuff but also for cooking as well.
So right from the start, collect wood. You don’t have to go looking for wood. It’s everywhere. Just go near a fallen tree trunk and collect the stuff.
6. Learn To Cook
Cooking is a vital part of Fallout 76 because the game has a very annoying hunger and thirst meter.
You need to constantly eat food and drink water to keep those meters up. Otherwise, you’ll lose AP points. It can be really annoying when this happens during combat and in the middle of a mission.
Every time you kill some creature, collect meat, and go find a cooking station to cook them. And be quick about it. Because raw meat get spoiled very fast and you can’t eat them when it’s spoiled.
You can collect purified water by building a water purifier at your base.
7. Grab These Must-Have Perks
These are some of the best Perks you should unlock at the first chance you get:
- Action Boy/Girl
- Lead belly
- Lone wanderer
- Marathoner
8. Crouch Often
When you’re nearing an area filled with enemies, make sure to crouch. Crouching is a handy feature that allows you to know when enemies are near you. Or whether you’re hidden from their view.
I also use this after killing all the enemies in an area to make sure that I killed all the enemies. Crouching will say Cautious if there are any enemies left in the area.
9. Enemies Scale To Your Level
Fallout 76 received an important update that brought enemy level scaling to the game.
This enabled enemies to scale to player level no matter where they go. Which means if your character is level 20, all the enemies you encounter will be at level 20 as well.
It wasn’t used to be like that and it was quite frustrating because you were locked off from some areas of the map until you level up your character.
Thankfully things are now better. But keep in mind you will still encounter high-level enemies in some areas of the map.
10. Finish The Missions
It’s tempting to take on all the missions, side missions, and daily missions. But don’t!
Keep only one mission activated on your Pip-Boy and stick with it until you complete it. Otherwise, you’ll have a whole mess of missions and you won’t be able to tell which one’s which and where you left off.
11. Plan Your Build
There are tons of weapons and armors in Fallout 76. Don’t equip everything you get your hands on. Plan it carefully and equip the ones that match your playstyle.
For example, there are mods with great perks and high rating armor pieces with bad perks. Just because there’s a star rating doesn’t mean it’s the best.
Check out my beginner build guide for more info.
12. Use The Right Weapons
Most Fallout players will tell you to ditch the Pipe pistols and rifles. But I say keep one in your inventory. Scrap a few to unlock mods. And then mod a Pistol to boost damage.
Keep that modded weapon to shoot the annoying mole rats and wolves. It will help save your ammo.
Also, keep a good Pump-action or an automatic shotgun for close-range. As well as a good rifle for long-range attacks.
Keep in mind that different weapons do different amounts of damage depending on the enemy type.
13. Sneak Attacks Do 2X Damage
When you’re Hidden from the enemies your weapons do double damage. I usually take down entire camps of enemies using nothing but a rifle from a far. And it’s usually one-shot kills.
14. Build A House With A Bed & Stash
The building aspect is one of my favorite things in Fallout. But, in Fallout 76, you need to buy and acquire blueprints before making cool houses. Only the wooden ones are unlocked for free.
Nevertheless, build a wooden house. It will act as your base. Keep it small. Don’t try to build giant buildings. Just a 4×4 would suffice.
Then craft a Bed and a Stash. You need sleep and the stash helps you store all the items you gather.
15. Plan Your CAMP Location
Once you explore the map you’ll discover that it costs a ton of caps to fast-travel from one location to another.
To save me a few caps, I usually place my CAMP somewhere in the middle of the map. So if I wanted to travel across the map from one end to another, I would first travel to my camp for free and then travel to the other location for half the price.
16. Open a Shop
Once you have a camp setup at a good location, you should consider opening a shop to sell stuff to other players.
This is a great way to make some extra caps on the side. Just don’t get greedy by selling stuff at ridiculous prices.
17. Use Vaults To Fast-Travel For Free
Another great way to save caps while fast-travel is to travel to Vaults. It’s always free of charge to travel to Vault 76, Rusty Pick, and now the ATLAS Observatory. Keep this in mind when planning your CAMP location as well.
18. Try To Explore More
Some of the coolest places in Fallout 76 is not even shown on the map. They only appear while you explore the world. So be sure to go off track and explore some of the areas.
There is so much to discover in this game.
19. Visit User Vendor Shops
If you’re running low on ammo or want to buy blueprints for cheap, try visiting a user vendor shops. They appear as big green bottle caps on the map.
Some of these shops actually have free .38 ammo in bulk. I mean in hundreds. Those can be used with your Pipe pistols.
Make sure to visit these shops often for great deals.
20. Save Your Caps
Just because shops have cool stuff, don’t spend all your caps on them.
Caps are a very rare find in the world. The only decent way to earn caps is by completing missions. And that’s tough.
So save up your caps for later. The best weapons and armor appear only when you hit Level 45.
21. Sell Junk For Caps
Selling stuff through your vending machine is great but you’ll have to wait a long time to empty your inventory.
If you need to free up space in your inventory fast, go to an NPC vendor, like the ones you see at train stations. And sell everything to them. It’s a great way to earn some caps.
22. Watch Out For Diseases & Mutations
There are diseases and mutations in Fallout 76. You can catch a disease by getting attacked by a radioactive creature and many other ways. These are like de-buffs for your abilities. They go away after a couple of hours.
Mutations can be both cool and weird. I once got a mutation for constant health regen after swimming in a lake. It was cool while it lasted.
My advice is not to seek them out. Just stay safe out there.
23. Your Items Break
So in Fallout 76, your items can wear off. When you use them often, weapons and armor will lose their own health and eventually break.
You need to repair them using an armor and weapon workbenches often to keep your build healthy.
There’s nothing worse than breaking your weapon in the middle of a fight.
24. Tag Aluminum, Copper, & Plastic To Search
These are the most used elements you’ll need for repairing your items, modding, and even crafting ammo.
Keep them tagged for search and actively collect them wherever you go. They are quite hard to come by.
25. Go For A Loot Run
After a while, you’ll run short of resources to repair and build stuff. This calls for a loot run.
I usually do a loot run every now and then to stock up on stuff. I love it. It’s just visiting areas and collecting junk.
Make this a habit and you’ll never run out of stuff to craft ammo and repairs.
26. XP Farming
If you want to level up fast, use this map by Twitter user Angry Turtle. Follow the route and defeat the enemies to earn XP.
This will come in handy especially during Double XP events. You can follow my leveling guide for more info.
27. Get Some Sleep Before Heading Out
There’s a reason why I told you to build a bed.
Sleeping gives you a temporary XP boost. So sleep for a few moments before you head out into battle and it will give you more XP.
28. Want To PVP? Get To A Workshop
When you’re just getting started, it’s best to stay away from PVP.
But, if you really want to feel the action, get to a Workshop and defend it. Workshops are PVP areas. And other players will come to claim the workshop once you’re there.
29. Complete Challenges
Atoms are the currency used in the Atom Shop. It can be bought with real money. But, you can also earn Atoms quite easily from completing in-game challenges.
30. Raiders or Settlers?
Much like in Fallout 4, there will come a time when you have to choose between factions to support.
I actually decided to side with Raiders. In Fallout 76, they are the coolest and most rewarding. But it’s totally up to you.
31. Keep An Eye Out For Events
Events will pop-up even when you’re in free-roam. And you’ll automatically start events even when you don’t want to.
That’s OK. Just ignore them. Sometimes, even staying in the event area can give you rewards whether or not you participate.
But if you’re new, just ignore them. You can do events once you reach end-game.
32. Don’t Worry About Power Armor
Power armor in Fallout 76 is also locked behind specific levels. So you need to be like Level 30 or 40 to equip a power armor.
So don’t worry about seeking power armor. You’ll come across plenty later.
33. You Can Craft Ammo
That’s right! You don’t have to run around looting corpses to find ammo. You can craft them at a tinker’s workbench.
Ammo is fairly cheap to craft in terms of resources. I usually only craft the ammo that’s harder to find like shotgun shells and arrows.
34. Let There Be Light
This is a small tip for folks not familiar with Fallout 4. You can actually turn on a torch/light by holding down the button for Pip-Boy. It’s the Circle button on PS4.
There are many dark areas in Fallout 76 and this light can help you find your way around.
Did I miss anything? Please leave a comment and share your tips with fellow travelers.