How to prevent yourself from being eaten
An Introduction to Fallout76
impre
Jan 05, 2020
The point of this article is to present foundational aspects of managing PvE encounters. The map is divided into several regions, each with unique biome, each ruled by its own ruleset. The basic principle is: West - easier, East - harder, North - easier, South - Harder. You begin the game in the Forest, and north from you is the Toxic Valley. These two regions are level-locked to rather low levels. These are the only regions which are "manageable" for low level characters and if you intend to play solo initially, this is where you should stick first 15 levels, after which you should head south, to Ash Heap.

Fallout76 Regions Map

Upon dying, you lose all the junk items you have on you - which means that if you have just stored them in your stashbox, the death is mostly inconsequential. Stash often, be aware how much stuff you have on you, and plan accordingly. There are certain locations that will help you find other in-game locations. If you get to the top of observational towers, stand near the fence and look on the horizon, you'll see "survey area" action that will save nearby locations on map. All the "command centers" and train stations tend to have some maps in them. Upon inspecting pins on those map, you can learn positions of other locations.

Watchtower, inspect the horizon

Inspect the pins, Photos: Dworkop_elo

You don't need to kill the things you want the rewards from - you only need to "tag" them, which is to deal enough damage that the server manages to register it (its noticable mostly when super-low-levels try to tag end-game bosses etc, in regular cases it simply means deal any damage). Loot from monsters is separate for every player, so if the server registered that you've tagged an opponent, loot is yours and cannot be stolen. Other regions of the game are not level-locked. This means that the level of opponents is calculated based on input from player characters that visited this area recently, and the highest levels are preferred. A common complaint of new players is that they were tasked with killing some ghouls at golf club, and there's 50 of them, and they're level 68 - this is because this particular building is one of games hot spots for farming, and the level of monsters is defined by the player already clearing them out. If you're smart, instead of trying to kill these opponents, you'll be luring them out of their sleep, guiding them to nearby high-level players for them to eliminate, you'll tag these monsters with a bullet or two (or a molotov if there's a nice group), and instead of wasting 15 bullets to kill a low level opponent for 40 exp, you'll be getting 100+ exp per bullet.

Photo: DownInnMexico

First phase of the training is that you're racing to level 31. At level 30, you unlock Starched Genes perk, at level 31 you max it. This perk allows you to "freeze" your mutation status. More info about mutations is here, but in short, what you need to know now is that if you mutate smartly, you get way more efficient, and training your character becomes easier as you're now able to reach elevated locations where no feral might reach you. The UI in Fallout 76 is... eccentric. Be aware that there are certain options often displayed in the bottom, quite easy to overlook, quite often critical. For example, when you level up, you first select the special stat you want to boost, and then select the perk. You don't have to pick a perk card from the special you just took, you can change the perk card filtration with the buttons denoted on the bottom. It took me forty levels to realise that. Don't waste your time on perfecting your CAMP until you reach higher levels. You'll want to learn the map, understand the benefits, form precise expectations, or unleash artistic freedom - for the last one, your tools are initially quite limited, and tying yourself to the ground will not help you. Instead, build an ugly hanging abomination that starts with 1x1 foundation block and then stairs, then place the tools that you need above, and decorate it with turrets. I had my CAMPs over various deathclaws nests thorough initial phase of the game. These uglies needed hundreds of bullets, but I wasn't spending them, the turrets have free ammo. Each time I returned home I had free deathclaw meal, some resources, some experience.

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The game is often being adjusted under the hood, and to have precise results, its necessary to periodically retest everything. If there's something that you think should be retested, or you want to share:

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Article by imprezobus