The wild, wild wastelands of West Virginia are vast, untamed, and unforgiving. Chances are that if 𝓰you're reading this, you've either been there or you're planning a trip soon. But you're fresh meat, aren't you? You've been locked up and tucked away in a cushy vault for your whole life. It's natural to feel a little apprehensive. We did use the word "unforgiving" for a reason, after all.
Okay, seriously now, even as a veteran Fallout survivor, Fallout 76 is going to throw you a few curve balls. Sure, it's going to lure you in with incredibly familiar Fallout 4 aesthetics and mechanics, but boy, are you bound for a rude awakening in several departments. While quite a bit of it looks, feels, and even plays nearly the exact same way it would in the previous Fallout title, there's still a lot to learn. And trust us, we learned a lot oꦆf it the♋ hard way.
Well, go ahead and boot up your Pip-Boy, because we're going to go over a few notes on how to adapt, survive and overcome! The vast wild🔥erness of post-apocalypse West Virginia is far from insurmountable, and we're going to go over twenty-five things we wish we'd known before we stepped out of the vault and onto the country roads. By the way, they definitely didn't take us home. They pretty much took usꦛ everywhere but home, just for the record.
Oh, and a special thank you to Jo♌ey for letting me include him in a few of these screenshots! Tha🗹nks, pal!
Just a little note before we get started, a lot of this was written during the Fallout 76 BETA runs. While most of it is common sense and knowledge, it's always possible Bethesda will decide to shake things up a bit after release. I mean, we are talking about Bethesda here. Anyway, onward, Vau𝕴lt Dweller. We've got some things to talk about.
25 ♐ You Can Change Your Face On The Fly
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but for someone like me, this ෴is huge. I know that I'm not that only one that can pour hours into sculpting my character's build, ensuring their cheekbones are just high enough, and making certain that scar is ju🎃st the right amount of faded.
You can swap your character's appearance at any time from the menu. It's just a few clicks away, and it is easily the most freeing experience I've ever had with a Bethesda g🐎ame. Too bad I'd already sunk an hour or two 🌺into perfecting my survivor. Still, no tracking down a plastic surgeon for me!
24 🌱 Time Stops For No Man ꦡ
You'd be surprised how difficult this can be to get used to. Whether you're looking at your map, your Pip-Boy, a computer termiꦰnal, or trying to swing a bobby pin into position to pick a lock, the game's still moving without you.
The VATS system is also rendered in real time now, working more like an aimbot than anything else.
It really pays dividends to favorite your weapons and healing items well ahead of time, and it pays even better to have a buddy watching your back. Failing that, make double sure you've cleared an area before you settle in to dig through a൩ terminal or check your map.
23 ❀🐷 When You're Down And Out...
Getting jumped and beat down by a surprise pack of ghouls ♌or a less than scrupulous survivor can suck, but Bethesda seems to keep the victim in mind here. You don't lose much outside of any jꦗunk or crafting materials you happen to be carrying, and if you're quick, you can get back to the spot where you fell out and recover it.
While it's nice that you a🔯ren't set back by much, if at all, it can definitely make the world feel a lot less risky when you're out exploring, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Where's the payoff if there aren't any stakes?
22 ꦜ Equipment Is Level Restricted ཧ
An annoying, but sensible move on Bethesda's part given the multiplayer setting we're operating in. This means you won't be able to have your hig🉐h-level friend hold onto premium grade gear for you to get started with, much less transfer it to another character to twink out your new guy or girl.
On the other hand, it definitely feels like a punch to the gut when we stumble across a rare piece of loไot only to find we won't be able to equip it for twenty to thirty more le🌼vels.
21 Pay Way More Attention ✃To Food Items
For those of you that liked running in survival mode, you'll know the ropes. But for the rest of us, well, purified waꦅter isn't just a cheap healing method anymore. It's worth its weight in gold. You're gonna need to eat and drink regularly to keep your thirst and hunger in check, or there will be consequences.
The thirst meter, in particular, has an annoying habit of running down incredibly quickly.
This one's a𒊎 balancing act. Food and drink items still restore health, but you'll also need to keep an eye on how many rads they're going to hit you with. You also want to be careful not to gorge yourself on uncooked meat from wasteland critters, as there's now a chance raw foods will also stick you with a disease. Oh, your perishable food can spoil, too.
20 ♉ Ghouls Got Gunꦫs
Well, not rea💫lly. They're a new breed of enemy called the Scorched, diseased humans that still remember a thing o🍌r two about handling a pistol or shotgun. They're not too rough on their lonesome, but big packs really can lay down the hurt with a hail of gunfire.
Of course, your regular, run of the mill feral ghouls are still there, and they don't seem to have evolved much from their previous iterations. They're creepy, quick, and chase you relentlessly. The Scorched provide a more tactical threat for you to handle iဣn your day to day struggle.
19 ♎ Caps Are Pretty Scarce
Long gone are the days of hoarding thousands upon thousands of caps, buying up whole cities' worth of ammunition and chucking ten missil🐲e launchers at a vendor to resupply your wallet. Caps are generally found in very small amounts, rewarded by the handful for events and quests, and items generally ꦦsell for very little to vendors.
So the solution here is simple. Save more often than you spend. Sure, it's gonna be tempting to grab that shiny new 10mm pistol when you encounter your first robotic merchant in Flatwoods, but you're gonna find one eventually, and you💙're going to wish you'd saved those precious bottle caps later on.
18 Other Players Wi🙈ll Hunt You If You Get A Bounty
Raiding, robbing, and sometimes just trolling from your fellow survivors is something♉ to be expected. And maybe, just maybe, you are said raider, robber or troll. Just keep in mind that Appalachia has a way of biting back.
Hostile actions will result in a bounty being placed on your head for all to see whenever they open the map.
They'll even be notified via a server-wide message. What's more is that if you've go🍷t a bounty, you can't see other players on the world map. You want to be careful here as you can get a bounty from taking items off a claimed workshop or a stray grenade hitting someone's CAMP buildings, and players are more than happy to bump you off for a small sum of caps. Speaking of raiding...
17 🙈 Raiding Ain't Easy
The thing is, unless you shoot back, the damage done to you by players is reduc🅺ed significantly. This number can be increased by pieces of legendary equipment with speಌcial properties that also reduce player damage.
You can further boost this number by keeping some of that sweet, sweet Med-X on hand.
After ꧂this, just pop a healing item or two whenever the damage begins to stack. Chances are your attacker is going to give up after fruitlessly expending absolute tons of ammo and effort just to make a dent in your health bar.
16 You Sﷺhould Respond To The Responders
The tough guys among us may be tempted to pass up the quintessential "good guy" faction of the West Virginia wasteland, but you'll be missing out on a bunch of quests that are not only rewarding, but provide you with a valuable tutorial on surviving in Fallout 76.
From cooking recipes to establishing your CAMP, the Responders' line of quests will help in getting you accustomed to what's new, and you'll be able to pick up some crucial supplies while you're running around and getting them do🌠ne. That isn't to say that it's necessary, but incredibly useful and rewarding for newcomers.