Fallout 76 Best Perks To Start With and Level Up

Updated:

15 Apr 2020

If you play Fallout 76 then you know what perk cards are. Without them, our weapons would be caressing our enemy's cheeks lovingly, and our survivability would be nonexistent in this game of you versus the world.

Perks get better the higher in level you go, but there’s no reason or logic in waiting for those high-level cards to come around. There are plenty of really good and viable perk cards to make your early adventures less burdensome.

It’s time to discuss the mission parameters, lads. We’re going to be taking a look at perk cards that can be taken early on in your playthrough, in roughly the levels One to Ten area, during that period where the player is still in that soft and squishy Larval stage, and are worth keeping slotted and upgraded as you continue your journey.

Disregarding whatever meta builds are popular these days in the community, we’re going to be looking at utility and usefulness in the early game that will set the groundwork to follow and build upon.

Let’s get started.

20. Picklock
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Requirement: Level 5
This perk is required to pick locks above the Level 0 grade. This card cannot be upgraded with duplicates, you will need Expert and Master Picklock cards to open grade 2 and 3 locks.
Getting past locks is a valued skill, especially when it comes to getting into locked containers that might contain those highly coveted Technical Data’s needed for Forbidden Knowledge.

19. Happy Camper
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Requirement: Level 3
When equipped, the player gets hungry and thirsty a little bit less while in their capped Public Workshops or at their base camp, starting at 40%, and can be upgraded to 80%.
Your camp is your safe haven, and usually, when we’re at camp, it’s because we’re building something, upgrading, crafting, and whatever else we spend our playtime doing there. Not having to worry so much about our hunger and thirst while at home, lets us focus on other matters than survival.

18. Iron Stomach
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Requirement: Level 4
When equipped, this perk decreases the chance of catching a disease from food, capable of being upgraded to a 90% reduction.
A lot of foodstuffs found out in the wild comes with a chance that you’re going to catch a disease from it for a variety of reasons...Rotten and uncooked food for example, but sometimes we don’t have the luxury of choice when we’re in a spot and all we got is some Brahmin steaks that went off.

17. Serendipity
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Requirement: Level 5
While equipped, the player has a chance to avoid damage when their health is low.
A cornerstone of several builds you’ll find online, particularly those that only really come to life when you’re low on health. Snagging it early on in your personal development roadmap will give you time to get used to the effect and upgrading it over time to it’s Rank 3 variant of a 45% chance to go off, which is near a 50/50 chance, and I do certainly like those kinds of odds.

16. Can Do!
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Requirement: Level 7
When equipped, an extra “search” option will appear on food relevant containers and allow you to try and score an extra canned food item from it. This can be upgraded to an 80% chance.
If Mad Max has taught me anything, having a can of dog food can be a lifesaver, and being able to scrounge up more canned foodstuffs while out and about will save a lot of “oh great, I’m starving again” headache.

15. Action Boy/Action Girl
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Requirement: Level 2
When equipped, action points regenerate at a faster pace, from 15% to 45%.
Action Points factor into a lot of player actions. It’s used in VATS as a resource, it drains while you are sprinting and jumping around, and will also drain while walking around when you’re over-encumbered. Being able to get your action points back for when you need them is imperative.

14. Thru-Hiker
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Requirement: Level 7
While equipped, the weight of drink and food on your person is reduced, from a 30% reduction to 90%.
Weight management is a good thing to get under wraps in the early levels of the game, and the last thing you want to get weighed down by while out and about is the one thing you will need a lot of, more so than ammo...and that’s food and drink.

13. Good Doggy
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Requirement: Level 8
With this card equipped, Canned Dog Food, one of the more common varieties of canned foodstuffs, is three times more beneficial.
Some may scoff at the idea of relying on Dog Food, but it’s the apocalypse, and nutrition is nutrition. Combined with the Can Do! Perk to try and ensure your stock of Dog related goodness stays plentiful, your food management situation is pretty much well in hand. I would hope that Mentats are naturally mint-flavored though because I can only imagine your breath is going to be righteous.

12. Concentrated Fire
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Requirement: Level 2
This perk allows the player to target various limbs on an enemy in VATS (I recommend looking up with control toggles between targets for your platform of choice, it’s down on the right stick on the PC controller…), and focusing fire gains accuracy and damage per shot.
Mastering the controls behind Concentrated Fire early in the game will benefit those looking to score those sweet sneak attack headshot bonuses. It can be tricky until you learn what button controls switching between body parts, radically changed from the fluid means in Fallout 4 and previous entries.

11. Hacker
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Requirement: Level 4
While lockpicking is fundamental, Hacking can be crucial. The Hacker perk is the first step in the Hacking tree that allows you to hack Level 1 terminals.
Hacking allows you to access secure areas, take control of defenses, and also glean a lot of lore and terminal entries left behind before the war wiped everything and everyone out. Most players bypass these terminals as unimportant, I personally recommend taking the time to read them, as they really flesh out the game world.

10. Makeshift Warrior
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Requirement: Level 9
Melee weapons break at a slower rate, and also grants the ability to craft melee weapons of a graded tier, should you have the plans for those weapons. It can be upgraded five times from 10% to 50%.
One to take and keep in your back pocket for when you need it, for you out there that like to craft their own melee weapons rather than relying on enemy drops and loot.

9. Lone Wanderer
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Requirement: Level 4
When adventuring alone, you take less damage and buff to your AP regeneration, can be upgraded three-time from 10% to 30% on both bonuses.
A good card to keep on hand when you’re not in a team to get a leg up on the pile while out and about by your lonesome kicking dirt.

8. Natural Resistance
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Requirement: Level 10
You are less likely to catch a disease from the environment, can be upgraded three times from 30% to 90%
Diseases are a constant pain either from stubbing your toe on something and catching Rad Worms, or breathing in the toxic air of the Ash Heap. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Disease Cure.

7. Bodyguards
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Requirement: Level 5
Teammates gain damage and energy resistances while partied with you, however, you don’t gain these benefits. After all, they are your bodyguards. It can be upgraded four times.
Power in numbers makes things simpler and easier. It’s proven Vault-Tec science that granting boosts to your party greatly assists in achieving victory.

6. Hard Bargain
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Requirement: Level 7
Buying and selling prices at vendors improve. Can be upgraded three times.
While it’s nice to have a vending shop on your camp, people stopping by to peruse your wares is not a guarantee. For all other sources of income, you have to haul it to a vendor to cash in. This perk affects how much your items will sell to any vendor bot, who has been programmed to haggle like a jerk.

5. Butcher’s Bounty
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Requirement: Level 3
You receive a chance to harvest extra meat when you “search” an animal corpse. Can be upgraded three times from 40% to 80%
The Average Wastelander subsides on a steady diet of animal proteins and sodium-enriched pre-packaged goods, the former being more filling to your hunger bar.

4. Dromedary
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Requirement: Level 3
All drinks quench thirst by a larger degree. It can be upgraded three times from 25% to 75%.
One of those survivalist perks that make taking care of your needs more sustainable with few trips into your bag to guzzle a bottle of purified water.

3. Slow Metabolizer
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Requirement: Level 5
All food satisfies hunger by a larger degree. It can be upgraded three times from 25% to 75%.
Part two of our survivalist perks, following very much in the footsteps of Dromedary, but now pertaining to food, helping stave off those annoying hunger pangs.

2. Good with Salt
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Requirement: Level 9
Food in your inventory spoils at a slower rate while this card is equipped. Can be upgraded from 30% reduction in spoilage time to 90%
A necessity for people who are heavy into crafting their own supplies, because there is nothing more frustrating than spending a decent amount of time to gather the materials to make a couple of chems or items, only to find many of them have gone off while out gathering.

1. Weapon Boost Perks
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Rifleman (Lv.8), Gladiator (Lv.2), Gunslinger (lv.6), etc
These perks increase the damage done by the associated grade of weapon. It’s good to take one of these early to help the player specialize in their chosen weapon. More damage is always better.
For every weapon in the game there is an associated perk card to boost the damage done, which can be upgraded as you progress in level, from expert cards to Master Cards.

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