10 Things to Do First in Fallout 76

10 Things to Do First in Fallout 76

• Create Your Perfect Character
• Choose Your Preferred Camera
• Complete the First Few Quest
• Take a Look Through the Perk Cards and Figure Out Your Build
• Stock Up on Food & Water
• Set Up a Good CAMP
• Turn On Pacifist Mode for a Better, Solo Experience
• Check Out Photo Mode & Make Some Pretty Loading Screens
• Buy Some Cosmetics from the Atomic Shop
• Venture off the Beaten Path

Create Your Perfect Character

Fallout 76’s character creator allows you to really mold your character’s face into whatever kind of stunning look you want. Want to be the West Virginia wasteland’s next top model? You can make a handsome guy or a beautiful gal. Want to make a hardened rendition of yourself to explore the wasteland with? Begin meticulously shaping their facial features to match yours. Or do you want to make an abomination of a human face? Well, you can do that, too.

While you can always head into the menus and change your character’s appearance whenever you like in Fallout 76, taking some time at the beginning to really nail down your look means you won’t ever have to bother doing this again. Unless, of course, you fancy changing your face midway through your adventure. An entirely normal thing to happen to someone exploring a radioactive wasteland.

Choose Your Preferred Camera

This one might seem like a bit of an odd inclusion, but Fallout 76 once again includes both third-person and first-person modes for you to choose between. While some may appreciate the immersion-focused view of first-person, others may enjoy being able to see their character going about exploring the world. As well as being able to see any enemies that may be trying to blindside and attack you.

Spend a quick bit of time trying out both camera views before settling on one. It’s easy to stick to the default, but if you never try the other, you’ll never know if you prefer it.

Complete the First Few Quests

Part of the fun of a Fallout title is exploring its massive wasteland teeming with secrets and surprises. That’s all well and good, but you’ll need to ensure you’re well equipped to take on the dangers, first.

Fallout 76’s opening few quests do a good job of introducing you to its thirst and hunger mechanics, its CAMP system, and generally get you nicely set up to take on a majority of what you’ll come across on your adventure. As such, while it might be tempting to immediately head off east to see what’s over in that direction, you’ll have a much better time getting the first few quests cleared out of the way, first.

You’ll still be able to enjoy exploring the nearby buildings, but following these first few main quests ensures you also stay in the low-level area of Fallout 76’s map. It might not be how you’ve done things in the past, but it certainly helps to get these cleared this time around.

Figure Out Your SPECIAL Build & Familiarize Yourself with Perk Cards

Fallout 76 keeps the SPECIAL stats that we’ve seen in Fallout games before, but this time its perks come in the form of Perk Cards which are equipped under each SPECIAL stat and consume perk points. They can be upgraded to provide enhanced benefits, but in doing so will also cost more perk points within that specific SPECIAL stat. It can be a bit confusing to get your head around initially, but check out our SPECIAL guide for a handy breakdown.

Once you’ve figured this out, it also pays to familiarize yourself with the Perk Cards in the game, which ones you have available, and the kind of character build you’re aiming for. While the ability to respec your SPECIAL is coming at a later date, for now, once you’ve invested a perk point in one of these stats, it’s there for good. Take some time to plan out exactly what stats are the most important to you, and which perk cards best cater to your play style, and you’ll find your adventures in Appalachia are far less daunting and troublesome.

Stock Up on Food & Water

The hunger and thirst gauges in Fallout 76 are arguably one of its most irritating aspects that will drag you away from exploring the vast expanses of the West Virginia wasteland if you’re ill-prepared. The best way to counter this is to ensure you’ve always got a hefty supply of dirty water that you can boil with the help of wood and a cooking station, or better yet do this before you head out so you’ve got plenty of fairly safe water to keep you hydrated.

As for food, you’ll want to farm some Brahmin and other wildlife in the wasteland and try and seek out any recipes you can find around the world. Cooking food will not only make it safer to eat, but will also reduce the speed at which it gets spoiled in your inventory. Plus, the Good with Salt perk within the Luck stat slows down the speed at which your food spoils in your inventory. A solid pick for an early perk to pick up at level 3.

Set Up a Good CAMP

After completing the first few main quests in Fallout 76, you’ll be run through a quick tutorial to set up CAMP and get familiarized with it. You’ll need a ton of crafting materials if you’re going to properly build it up and add workbenches, beds, and other equipment in there. It’s definitely worth doing, though, as there are a number of things you can build at CAMP that’ll make your life in the wasteland that little bit easier.

A bed elevated off the floor allows you to restore health without running the risk of contracting disease. Workbenches allow you to scrap junk items for resources, repair weapons and armor, and craft new ones. Water purifiers enable you to have a constant, fresh supply of water, and planting your own crops can provide a sustainable food source you can utilize in cooking for more beneficial meals.

Turn On Pacifist Mode for a Better, Solo Experience

The shared world experience to be had in Fallout 76 isn’t going to be for everyone. After all, coming across a set of power armor only to be shot clean in the head with a sniper from a player stalking you in the distance is going to be pretty heartbreaking. Pacifist mode enables players to essentially disable the PvP element of Fallout 76, allowing you to enjoy exploring Appalachia to your heart’s content, while ensuring you only have to worry about the different creatures of West Virginia’s wasteland, rather than other former Vault 76 dwellers.

This is something you’ll only need to worry about from level 5 as PvP is disabled until this point, and you can access it from within the game’s settings if you decide this is the best option for you.

Check Out Photo Mode & Make Some Pretty Loading Screens

Fallout 76 actually makes pretty damn good use of the pictures you snap in its photo mode. Any you take are then randomly rotated through and used as loading screens whenever you choose to fast travel, head inside a building, or load or leave a game world.

The terrain of West Virginia’s wasteland is simply stunning, too, and provides ample opportunities to get some absolutely stunning shots. You can pose with your character or remove them entirely if you’d rather just focus on the scenery.

Buy Some Cosmetics from the Atomic Shop

The Atomic Shop enables players to buy additional emotes and cosmetic items for their time in Fallout 76. If you’re playing on Xbox One, you’ll get 500 Atoms for free for simply picking up a copy of the game. These are the currency for the Atomic Shop, but you’ll also earn them by completing challenges for doing all kinds of things in the game itself.

Once you’ve accrued a few hundred Atoms, be sure to browse the Atomic Shop. The emotes you have to begin with are pretty limited, so getting yourself a few more might help you to communicate with other players you come across in the wasteland a little more effectively.

Venture off the Beaten Path

We mentioned it before, but now that you’ve got the first few main quests completed, have a fairly substantial CAMP all set up, and have stats and perk cards that accommodate your play style, you’re now all set to venture off the beaten path and properly explore the West Virginia wasteland.

Keep in mind the further you venture from Vault 76, generally, the higher the level of enemy you’re going to come across. Either be ready to quickly dash out of a battle if you do want to go exploring the furthest stretches of the world here, or bring some friends to provide some much-needed backup.