Fallout 76 – Wastelander starter Guide

What’s new/different

 
I’ve designed this guide because I didn’t see anything like it available in the guide section though there are plenty of “I wish I’d know this when I started” videos on youtube. These are basic game play suggestions to get you started regardless of your “build” or play style. No cheats or hacks. 
There are plenty of “get a bad a$$ weapon or power armor early” videos on youtube if that is your thing. 
 
When you wake up and make your character the first thing you want to do is play the guitar next to your bed. This is a new short term perk called “Well Tuned” that will help your action points refresh faster. Don’t waste time trying to loot your surroundings as you are not able to interact with them. Also clothing, hats and glasses do not add to your abilities like in Fallout 4 so don’t bother picking them up as they only take up space and weight. Grab your Pip Boy on the way out the door and follow the path/prompts from robot station to robot station. You will pick up some basic items at each station. 
 
The only deviation along this path is to take a left to go to the Overseer’s cabin. Access her terminal and play the holotape to start her quest. There is nothing else to do in the Vault. 
 
By the time you get to the door of the vault you should be prompted to level up. My recommendation is to add to the Strength special and use the Gladiator card. You will need the extra strength for carry weight and the shortage of ammo early in the game makes melee weapons a preferred option. There are good arguments for other perks but this is truly a build from the ground up system and you are going to have to focus on survival right off the bat. Yes, Intelligence adds to XP but following the tutorial quest line will give you the first 4 levels pretty quickly. I was able to scrounge enough scrap early on to keep me in stock so Luck is another one that can wait for a while though ammo scrounger does come in handy when you upgrade to higher caliber weapons. Also was able to find plenty of food and water so Endurance perks are not an immediate need. Same with stimpacs and drugs. The order in which you add these perks during your first 4 levels might depend on your play style and preferences. 
 
You will be leaving the vault, Well Rested, Well Tuned, Well Fed, Fully Hydrated and Rad free. 
 
 

Entering the Wasteland

 
Once you leave the vault you will not be able to return. The tutorial continues for a large part of the beginning of the game. Unless you are playing on a private server, you might encounter other players at this point. Sometimes veteran do gooders camp out at the vault entrance to “help” new players. This is a good time to learn the emoji system. A quick thumbs down should let them know that you don’t want to join up or need their help. Often players will leave a gift bag of armor, weapons or ammo for you to pick up. 
 
Turn to the left and go down the stairs and talk to the Pennington robot. Go through all the speech options. This is a new aspect to “76” or old if you played Fallout 3. Continue down the stairs to talk to the pair Pennington warns you about. Get the machete from them as well as looting their shopping basket. From now on scrap is king. Just like in Fallout 4 screws/adhesive/springs are important. New resources are gunpowder and lead which are necessary for crafting ammo. 
 
The easiest thing at this point is to go to the map and fast travel back to the vault entrance. Go to the right and you will see a corpse leaning against a lamp post. Loot the corpse for the a pipe pistol and some ammo. Equip your machete and start down the stairs. You will come across a couple of Liberator bots that shoot lasers at you. Run up and melee attack them. They will back away from you so chase them down. It should only take a few whacks to take them out. There is a bus at the bottom of the stairs to loot. Buses are more loot heavy than in Fallout 4. Loot and kill everything at the bottom level and go to the road block/check point. Search for loot around the tanks and concrete barriers. You’ll see a small bridge over a dry creek. You’ll see some plants to pick (soot flower and fire cap) Follow the dry creek bed to the south. 
 
You should see the outline for your destination the “moonshiners shack”. You will come across a campsite with a skeleton couple in the back of the truck. The shack is just past that. There might be a fight going on at the shack. Two moonshiners could be fighting wolves or ticks or they might have been overcome and you will need to melee them. In the first shack you will find your first work station. This is the place when you will want to scrap all your junk down to components to save on carry weight. Another new concept is when you scrap weapons and armor it will give you plans for mods. Also lots of food (radstag) and boiled water to make soups which will give you both food and drink. After totally looting, scraping and cooking everything then fast travel back to the vault entrance. 
 
 

On to The Wayward

 
From the vault entrance make your way back down the steps to the left past Pennington and couple watching the vault. Beware as soon as you pass them there will be two Liberators to deal with that can cause you some trouble. If melee combat is not working for you this might be the time to try your hand at shooting you pipe pistol and sneaking up to take out the first one at a distance. It might be a bit tough trading .38 gun shot with their laser shots so this might be time to use your first stimpac. 
 
A little ways down the trail look to your left for a two story observation shack. The bottom level has a cook station and the top level a banjo and a mouth harp. Re-buffing your Well Tuned bonus is a good idea. After thoroughly looting the shack return to the path and follow it straight to the end. It will dead end into a paved road. Turn on the road and follow it until it dead ends into the Overseer’s camp. Stay on the path and the road until you get there. You may be tempted to explore the lumber mill and farm house that you pass but you will have plenty of time for that later and the enemies there can be a bit tough for you at this point. 
 
At the camp you will find the Overseer’s cache that you are free to loot as well as other items around the camp and on the work stations. You will also encounter a new concept call the “stash box”. This is where you store your items and each box is linked so you have access no matter where you are on the map. Items are no longer stored in the work stations and each station is also linked to your stash box. You will have lots of time before you need to think about building your own portable camp. 
 
You will also be introduced to a new weapon and armor concept of leveling. Leveling in Fallout 76 is grouped in fives. You will see levels assigned to armor and weapons of 5, 10, 15, 20 etc. You need to have at least that level to equip that item. You will also get packs of random perk cards at each 5, 10 ,15 etc. levels. Now is also the time to craft yourself some leather armor. You probably have not scrapped enough weapons at this point to craft any mods. Also once mods are added to a weapon or piece of armor they are part of that item and can not be removed and added to new pieces like in Fallout 4. Keep this in mind if you find a mod (a cigarette carton looking box). You might want to wait to put it on a higher level items if you are close to leveling up. 
 
Now go across the street to the Wayward. Keep talking to the attacker “I’d like to join” and Mort will appear to finish him off. Ask about the Overseer and agree to help stop the attacks and you should be leveling up. My suggestion is to add to the Intelligence perk and use the First Aid perk card. Other options are Luck if you get the Ammo Scrounger or Charisma if you get Lone Wanderer. As you level up during the course of the “tutorial” segment, you are probably going to need to spread your perk points one each to the perks. When you get your perk card pack at level 5 is the time to start thinking about specializing your build based on the perk cards available and your play style. It’s a real waste to leave Special trait without enough cards to fill it. 
 

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