When you have completed Reclamation Day, collected your stuff and opened the Vault doors there is a lot to take in when you first start the beginning area’s of Appalachia in Fallout 76.

This guide will help take you through some of the starting things you should do when you begin your journey, and it does not include trying to pick a fight with the biggest monster you can find.

Get a weapon

A simple one and one that would make sense but on our first playthrough during the B.E.T.A we struggled to find a weapon so this one is at the top of the list.

You’ll have next to nothing in your inventory when you first venture out into the wasteland, so finding something blunt or sharp you can wack things with is a useful first goal to complete.

When you first head towards the first Mr. Handy outside the vault you’ll travel down some steps and if you head left, you should find a corpse of Responder. This one is a little special as it will always hold a Machete which means you and your friends will be able to claim one and not have to worry about the instancing of random loot.

Pro Tip: always have a melee weapon your inventory, even in the later stages of the game you can easily run out of ammo.

Do the main quest line

Although it might be tempting to head from the Vault into the great unknown, the starting selection of quests serves as a useful tutorial on how the game works. The first Overseer’s Camp is not that far away and will have a stash that holds some useful loot to build some armour and another weapon.

Flatwoods is also just down the road and offers as a first “base” so to speak with a merchant robot and some additional side quests which can help get you plans, recipes and some more ammo, Stimpaks and loot.

Do look at our walkthrough to find out more about the different quests and missions you can take.

Loot everything

Just like Fallout 4, you’ll be making your C.A.M.P settlement, weapons, ammo and pretty much everything out of junk you have scavenged in the world.

So…it goes without saying that you should be picking up pretty much everything you find that can be broken down into their base components.

Pro Tip: if Junk is taking up too much space, breaking down items into their scrap base components will lighten the load a little. You can do this at any crafting stations, workstation or your C.A.M.P.

Remember though, you and your stash including the CAMP has an overall limited so you won’t be able to go too mad but you should be fine if you break everything down.

Pro Tip: invest in some perks which reduce the weight of items like food and meds as it will help you be able to pick up more in the long-run.

Keep an eye on your hunger and thirst

Something new to Fallout 76 is that your character does need some TLC every so often by eating and drinking to keep your health and thirst meters at a decent level.

If you fail to keep these up you will see penalties on your character such as reduce AP points.

Pro Tip: food that is not canned or purified will spoil. Raw meat and vegetables will lose their CDN (condition) very quickly so make sure you stop by a Cooking Station and make fresh meals out of the ingredients, or stash the ones you want to save.

A lot of food will also not only keep those pesky gauges fuller but also provide additional bonuses like extra S.P.E.C.I.A.L points for a limited time or resistances.

Remember to level up and choose perks

Something that can be forgotten easily is to remember to actually level up when you have enough experience points.

YOu’ll get a notification that you have gone up a level but you still need to open your Pip-Boy and choose to level us (Triangle or Y on consoles). This will allow you to choose a perk card and the SPECIAL stat it applies to with level up by one point allowing you to equip it.

Pro Tip: also open your perk packs, they do nothing be sealed away and you can get some of the rarer perks by opening them up.

If you find the game is starting to get a little too hard then check to see if you have levels you need to sort.