Fallout 76: The Best Perk Cards to Equip

The Best Perk Cards to Equip In Fallout 76

In Fallout 76, perk cards are an essential resource to help you survive the post-apocalyptic West Virginia wasteland and allow your survivor to gain new abilities or strengthen ones they already possess. Here are the best perk cards in Fallout 76.

Below, we’ve got a list of some of the best perk cards Fallout 76 has to offer, broken down by each SPECIAL stat. Underneath each list, you’ll find a more expanded description of why each perk card is worth taking with you during your post-Vault 76 journeys.

Though weapon specific perk cards can be very good (Rifleman, Gladiator, etc), we opted to make the list here more generalized so that it can appeal to the most players without taking into account specific character builds.

Best Strength Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Pack Rat
• Full Charge
• Strong Back

Pack Rat – In Fallout 76, you’ll be picking up a lot of junk, and this perk will help you not be so encumbered by all the random scrap you’ll be toting around. So go ahead and grab that extra desk fan – you can hold it all!

Full Charge – Being in power armor is clunky and running in it is even worse. With this perk card, you can sprint in power armor without a significant decrease in your fusion core power, which can be a blessing to help you get around more efficiently.

Strong Back – More carry weight? Say no more!

Best Perception Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Awareness
• Picklock (Basic, Expert, and Master)

Awareness – This high-level perk card allows you to see specific damage resistances in VATS. This can be incredibly useful to make sure your team equips the right weapon for the job so that you don’t waste all your precious ammo against a creature that is nearly immune to it.

Picklock (Basic, Expert, and Master) – This one may come as a no-brainer, but picking locks in Fallout 76, just like in previous Fallout games, is pretty important. Not only does cracking open a safe give you some free goodies, but you also get XP for each one you open, which can add up over time. If you don’t take this, make sure at least someone on your team does so you don’t miss out on locked-away loot.

Best Endurance Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• All Night Long
• Rad Resistant

All Night Long – While some players may love monitoring their hunger and thirst meters, it’s still a drain on resources throughout the game and can become detrimental if you aren’t paying close enough attention. This perk card helps you reduce hunger and thirst depletion, giving you more time between required snack times.

Rad Resistant – Radiation is one of the most lethal effects in Fallout 76, especially when you start entering more irradiated areas in the game. With this perk card, each tier will give you natural resistance to radiation, helping you stay healthier for longer.

Best Charisma Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Hard Bargain
• Inspirational
• Lone Wanderer
• Suppressor
• Tenderizer
• Wasteland Whisperer

Hard Bargain – Caps can be hard to acquire in Fallout 76, especially at the beginning of your adventure. The most reliable to generate some of this currency is selling to the various Vendor Bots in Appalachia, and this perk can help you get better selling prices for your items and will help you buy things like blueprints for lower rates as well.

Inspirational – if you play in a team this is a great perk that gives you a static buff to your XP gain. That means more levels, which means more perks, which means a better you, so make sure you grab it!

Lone Wanderer – Likewise, if you aren’t playing on a team, this perk card will give you a lot of bonuses just for being antisocial. The damage reduction alone is worth it as some encounters in Fallout 76 are balanced for group play instead of solo.

Suppressor – This perk is amazing at mitigating damage for yourself and your team, reducing the damage any enemy deals after you hit them. The scaling on this card is very good as well, allowing you to lower incoming damage by a decent amount, which will come in handy once you start facing down enemies like Scorchbeasts.

Tenderizer – Like Suppressor, this one makes your target take more damage after you attack it, allowing you and your teammates to rack up massive damage on an enemy by keeping your assault quick and unrelenting.

Wasteland Whisperer – Though this high-level perk card takes a bit of effort to scale up, it can be worth it for the simple fact that you can potentially tame monsters and send them to your CAMP to guard your base. After all, there isn’t anything more awesome than having a giant Radscorpion hanging out at your campsite with you.

Best Intelligence Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Gunsmith
• Hacker (basic, Expert, and Master)
• Pharmacist
• Power Patcher
• Power User
• Scrapper

Gunsmith – Modding your guns can be done easily, but you’ll need this perk card to access the more potent enhancements in Fallout 76. Just remember to break down any excess guns you find to unlock as many mods as possible.

Hacker (Basic, Expert, and Master) – Like lockpicking, hacking terminals can get you to hidden places, bypass tougher quest objectives, and unlock safes. Each time you hack you also get XP, so type away on those keyboards whenever you see them!

Pharmacist – RadAway is the only way to cure radiation in Fallout 76, so it can become a valuable commodity. With this perk, you can increase the potency of RadAway, making each use more worthwhile and reducing the risk of accumulating too much radiation.

Power Patcher – Once you get to the higher levels in Fallout 76, power armor becomes a more necessary asset for survival in the wasteland. With this perk card, your armor will withstand more punishment and you’ll be able to patch it up for cheaper as well.

Power User – Fusion Cores can be found scattered around in Appalachia, but each of them weighs three pounds so carrying around a bunch can be a major burden. Instead, this perk allows each to last longer, giving you more bang for your proverbial energy-charged buck

Scrapper – Though this perk card won’t get you a bevy of more adhesive or screws for breaking down junk, it does increase the chance of getting mods from breaking down weapons and armor. That alone makes it worthwhile, as unlocking some of the best mods in the game can be a simple matter of chance.

Best Agility Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Thru-Hiker
• White Knight

Thru-Hiker – Food and drink are things you’ll always be carrying around with you, so why not make them weigh less? This perk will be helpful all throughout your time with Fallout 76 as it makes all food and drinks lighter in your inventory which allows you to carry more of it.

White Knight – Repairing armor is a pain, pure and simple. With this perk card, your armor breaks slower and requires less scrap to repair, letting you take more damage before needing to return to an armor station for a break.

Best Luck Perk Cards in Fallout 76

• Bloody Mess
• Junk Shield

Bloody Mess – This perk card would already be great for the flat damage bonus is grants to all your damage alone. Seeing enemies splatter into a mess of parts and viscera is just the cherry on top.

Junk Shield – This perk card gives you damage and energy resistance just for carrying around junk, which you will be doing at almost all times. This perk becomes available early on but is always a useful one to have equipped.

Those are our picks for the best perk cards in Fallout 76. There are over 200 perk cards in the game though, so if your favorite didn’t make our list, let us know in the comments below! For more information on perk cards, check out our perk card list or how to upgrade perk cards.

If you need more walkthroughs, tips, and tricks for surviving in Appalachia, make sure to check out our Fallout 76 wiki.