10 Beginner Tricks To Know Before Playing Fallout 76 (2024)

Once you step into Appalachia, it's hard to tear yourself away from the city, which is now a shadow of its former self. There's always one more quest to embark on, one more weapon to craft, or one more wacky encounter waiting just around the corner. Fallout 76 has all the gritty, radioactive look of Fallout 4, but with an MMO twist . So, as a Fallout series fan, you can team up with friends to tackle everything that comes your way, from Scorchbeasts to Super Mutants.

But for newbies, jumping into Fallout 76 can feel like stepping into the sunlight for the first time after spending your life in a cave. It's exciting, but also a bit overwhelming. There's so much to see, do, and figure out that you might find yourself almost wishing for a manual. Even some age-long Fallout fans will wish they knew these tips before they hit the road.

10 Death Is Not The End

You know how, in some games, death feels like the end of the world, and you're sweating bullets just trying to stay alive? Well, that’s not exactly the case in Fallout 76 . Getting killed in Fallout 76 is more of an inconvenience than a catastrophe. If you do bite the dust, you just respawn pretty close to where you were, with most of your stuff intact.

Granted, you might lose a bit of your junk if you die, but that’s about it. So, if you are attacked by say a bunch of Mole Miners, you don’t have to break a sweat fighting them off. Instead, just respawn a few ways back, stroll right back into that mine, and give the Mole Miners a piece of your mind.

9 You Are Short-Changing Yourself By Selling Legendary Weapons To Regular Vendors

Selling legendary weapons to regular vendors is like trading your brand-new Lamborghini for a rusty old bicycle. Of course, you will get a few caps when you sell your three-star Combat Rifle or one-star Leather Chest Piece to a regular vendor like Grahm or the Responders. And caps are nice and all, but there’s a way better option.

You can trade your legendary loot at a Legendary Exchange Machine for scrips. With scrips, you can buy yourself Legendary Modules from Purveyor Murmrgh over at The Rusty Pick. These modules allow you to craft your own legendary items or re-roll legendary effects on gear that you actually want to use.

8 You Can Save Stash Weight With Extra Power Armor Chassis

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If you just toss a bunch of legendary Power Armor pieces into your stash, they will gobble up your storage space faster than you can imagine. To prevent that from happening, you can slap your legendary Power Armor pieces—like the helmet, arms, legs, and torso—onto an empty Power Armor Chassis. Once you do that, the whole Power Armor set will take up a lot less space. It’s like organizing your closet—suddenly, everything’s neat and tidy, and you’ve got room for more of the good stuff.

You can often find those extra chassis just lying around the wasteland, especially in places like the Garrahan Mining Headquarters or the Charleston Trainyard. And if you are lucky, you might even stumble upon one at a player’s C.A.M.P. who’s offering a spare.

7 Avoid Staggering By Holstering And Unholstering Your Gun

When you take a big fall or get hit hard in Fallout 76, you might stagger a bit. This stumbling is short, but also long enough to mess up your flow, which can be annoying if you are in the middle of a fight or trying to make a quick getaway.

Thankfully, there’s a nifty little trick to avoid that stagger altogether. If you holster and unholster your gun in a very fast manner just before hitting the ground, you can skip that stumble and keep moving like nothing happened. It’s like telling gravity, "No."

6 The Sulfur Spring Area Helps Restore Your Health

The Whitespring Resort is one of those places in Fallout 76 where you can almost forget you are in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The Whitespring Resort has a sulfur spring area that gives you a brief respite by restoring a bit of your health.

The warm, sulfuric waters are kind of like a natural hot tub in the game—they can soothe your wounds and make you feel a bit better, but they won’t wipe away every disease or ailment.

5 You Can Use Junk To Fix Your Weapons At A Workbench

If you’ve been sweating over broken weapons and armor, thinking you need to fork over caps to keep them in working order, here’s some good news: you can just use the junk you find scattered all over Appalachia to repair your stuff at a workbench!

So, let’s say your trusty Combat Shotgun is starting to wear out after taking down a bunch of Super Mutants. Instead of panicking about where to find the caps to fix it, you can head to a workbench—like the one at your C.A.M.P. or any public workshop—and use your junk to repair it. Those screws from a desk fan are perfect for tightening up a shotgun.

4 Gather As Much Wood As You Can

Wood might not seem as flashy as finding a legendary weapon or stumbling upon a cache of caps, but gathering wood is one of those things that’ll save you more times than you’d think. Wood comes in handy for building and maintaining your C.A.M.P.

Want to build some new walls or add that extra floor to your shelter? You are going to need wood. Planning to craft some workbenches or lay down a new foundation? Wood’s your best friend. Wood is also needed to ensure you don’t starve out there. And unless you want to risk catching a disease by eating raw meat, you will need wood to cook it over a campfire.

3 You Can Fast Travel To A Few Locations For Free

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Fast traveling in Fallout 76 costs a few caps, but if you know where to go, you can travel for free, no matter where you are on the map. One of such locations is Vault 76, which is pretty much where you start the game, and it’s always free to fast travel back there.

You can also fast travel to your C.A.M.P. for free. So, think about the best location to site your C.A.M.P.—maybe near a spot you often visit or somewhere that’s hard to reach otherwise. Also, while most train stations will cost you caps to travel to, a few specific ones, like the ones you have discovered and unlocked, will sometimes have a free fast travel option.

2 You Can Choose To Make Your C.A.M.P. Visible Or Not

Remember, Fallout 76 is an MMO game, so if you are the social type, you can choose to make your C.A.M.P. visible to everyone on the map. Let’s say you have vending machines stocked with legendary items, having your C.A.M.P. visible is a great way to attract customers and trade with other players.

On the flip side, if you’re more of a lone wolf or just want to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Appalachian wilderness without any unexpected visitors, you can hide your C.A.M.P. from the map. To make your C.A.M.P. visible, find your C.A.M.P.’s icon on the map, and toggle the visibility setting so that your C.A.M.P. is "Visible".

1 Pick Your Public Events Carefully

Even after playing nonstop for days, you sometimes just can't get enough of Fallout 76 because of how engaging it is. There's this urge to be in the middle of every public event, especially the ones that offer juicy rewards, but you have to pick your battles carefully. In the early stages, you might not have the best gear, or you’re just trying to get your bearings, so skipping events isn’t just an option—it might be a smart move.

Events like “Blackwater Mine” or “The Unstoppable Monster” can be pretty intense if you are just starting out. The great thing is that you can still snag some rewards from these challenging events without being on the front lines. By simply hanging around the event area until it ends, you can earn rewards if the event is completed successfully.

Fallout 76

2.5/5

Action

RPG

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating: 54/100 Critics Recommend: 9%

Released

November 14, 2018

Developer(s)

Bethesda

Publisher(s)

Bethesda

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