Although the post-apocalypse is often depicted as a lawless setting, Fallout 76’s post-nuclear version of Appalachia is a much more respectful environment, relatively speaking. Not only are there unwritten rules in Fallout 76 for players to follow in upholding the community’s traditions and multiplayer etiquette, but there are also cardinal sins that players will want to be aware of and avoid at all costs.
Unlike in the single-player Fallout games, there aren’t many permanent mistakes that players can make regarding their character’s progression or the main and side quests in Fallout 76. The major quests still can’t be replayed without starting a new character, but their outcomes and consequences are generally much less drastic because of the game’s nature as a multiplayer experience. Instead, Fallout 76’s DNA as a pseudo-MMO means that the game’s cardinal sins are generally in how players interact with other players on public servers.
Most Fallout 76 Players Have Never Met These NPCs
Despite originally not having any human NPCs, by now there are several secret and rare NPCs for players to encounter in Fallout 76.
The Biggest Sins of Fallout 76
Killing New Players in Fallout 76 With Kindness
Since way back in the early days of when the game first released in 2018, it’s become a tradition for longtime/high-level players to seek out newer players on the map and gift them helpful items, making the game more accessible for newcomers by mitigating the early game difficulty curve of Fallout 76. Despite the good intentions of this cycle of generosity, though, excessive gifts can potentially ruin other players’ experience. Ultimately, Fallout 76 can only be experienced for the first time once, so players should be mindful not to be overly generous to newer players to the point of spoiling this experience by gifting meta legendary weapons, armor, and other high-end resources.
Public Teams in Fallout 76 Have Different Expectations
The different Public Teams in Fallout 76 will provide unique buffs for every player on the team, though these buffs aren’t the only reason to join a team. More importantly, Public Teams are effectively the only form of in-game matchmaking for endgame activities, like the new Gleaming Depths raid. So, depending on the team, there are certain expectations for players to participate in these teams.
The main exceptions to this are Exploration and Casual Public Teams, where it’s common for players to have little to no intentional interactions with each other, as the main purpose of these teams is to benefit from additional Endurance or Intelligence SPECIAL attributes, which translates to additional health or increased XP in Fallout 76, respectively. Otherwise, players who join Expeditions, Raids, Public Events, or Daily Ops Public Teams should plan or participate in the associated endgame activity, or be prepared to be removed from the team.
Sharing Perk Cards That Cure or Mitigate Radiation Can Harm Teammates’ Builds
While on Public Teams, players can share Perk Cards in Fallout 76 depending on their baseline Charisma attribute. Overall, it varies from player to player which Perk Cards would be best to share, since identical Perk Cards can’t stack, and some may have no noticeable effect on players' builds. However, sharing Perk Cards that affect other players’ radiation damage is often considered a form of griefing and may get players kicked from a Public Team. This is because these Perk Cards can break Bloodied-Unyielding meta builds and Ghoul glow builds, since these builds rely on maintaining high levels of radiation.
Fallout 76’s Legendary Mod Buffs Have an Obvious Culprit
The sudden timing of the upcoming balancing changes anticipated for Fallout 76’s summer 2025 update is likely no mere coincidence.
Avoid Unnecessary Risks of PvP in Fallout 76
Don’t Forget to Turn on Pacifist Mode
In the moments immediately following the end of a Public Event in Fallout 76, there are bound to be some enemies still lingering around that might need to be killed so that players can fast travel. However, after a Public Event ends, there are no longer restrictions in place for players to trigger PvP when accidentally hitting each other with splash damage or stray bullets. So, these first few moments immediately following a Public Event, where players will naturally be carrying junk collected from the activity, are the perfect conditions for players to PvP, willingly or not. Consequently, the best way to avoid accidental PvP duels is to leave Pacifist mode on, and only turn it off for intentional moments.
Pacifist mode is activated by default for new players.
Make Frequent Stops to Stash Junk Resources
Even if players have Pacifist mode on and never willingly participate in PvP in Fallout 76, players will always drop their junk resources when killed. Not to mention, Pacifist mode doesn’t protect players from trap CAMPS or PvP in Workshops, so the best way to keep junk resources from being stolen by other players is to store them in the personal stash box, and to do so often.
The Case For and Against Fallout 76 Bringing Back Scoreboards
Despite the controversy, there are fair arguments both ways for whether Seasons should permanently replace Scoreboards in Fallout 76.
Trading Etiquette in Fallout 76
Selling Items from the CAMP Vending Machine While at Max Caps
With new updates for Fallout 76 frequently adding new content, like endgame activities and legendary mod crafting, and updating the rewards pool for popular Public Events, there’s almost always some new kind of endgame currency sink for players to spend their Caps on. Consequently, players who are approaching the 40,000 Caps limit in Fallout 76 should consider storing their CAMP vending machine to avoid selling items for zero profit.
Trading Outside the CAMP Vending Machine Without Using a Third-Party Courier
Because there’s a limit on the amount of Caps players can have, some of the rarest items in Fallout 76 often have an assigned value that exceeds their worth in Caps. For these items, players typically use other forms of currency or otherwise trade one unique item for another. However, the in-game trade menu in Fallout 76 isn’t designed for using other currencies, so players will need to rely on the honor system of simultaneously dropping the items on the ground. This inevitably leaves room for malicious players to scam others out of valuable items. To avoid scams, players should consider hiring the services of a third-party courier from Fallout 76’s r/Market76 community Subreddit, where the community maintains a live reputation system for all public trades, as well as a ban list for known scammers.
Fallout 76
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 54 /100 Critics Rec: 9%
