Fallout 76 Wasteland Survival Guide

This will be a guide to Fallout 76 from the base mechanics to static(not moving from game to game) gear spawns I use to how to receive quests and playing through the quests on video(minus very basic fetch and retrieve quests, dailies/repeatables, and quests that either require another player or that glitched for me).

Game Mechanics

CAMPs

Your CAMP is your base that you can place down from your pip boy anywhere not outside the map or in the bounds of a named location, and fast travel to it or your teammate’s CAMP at any time for free unlike most locations in the game. Please check the Map And Fast Travel section for the list. As the game gets updated I will update here however at the current moment the most optimal places to put your CAMP based purely on fast travel seems to be in the bottom right of the map. However, the very bottom right of the map has a very high level boss spawn and that area is often nuked, so you shouldn’t put it too far down, the top left of the map is only really useful for events, and the top right of the map has environmental dangers you need a gas mask for which are explained in the environmental hazards section. As for the things you can do with the CAMP there are quite a few. You can place down workbenches which allow you to scrap items and make armor, weapons, bullets, and materials once you have the plans for the different workbenches. You can place down vending machines then power them with a generator to be able to sell items(would highly recommend selling ammo and unique plans in the vending machine because you cannot sell ammo to NPC merchants and players will pay a lot more than merchants if a plan is rare). You can also place down a punch card machine in your CAMP that you can use to reallocate your SPECIAL points and make different perk builds.

Advised CAMP layout: There is one layout for the vault shelter..

Vault shelter layout: Make sure the vault shelter or the doors leading to it are locked so anyone who enters has a bounty. Place punji boards on the first staircase landing. Place walls all around the staircase then make ceilings connected to those walls and place turrets on those sealings. Place walls on both side areas of the stair case(may need to use half walls to have them fit). In the room farthest from the door, place floor decor items(I used Helvetia plants) on top of each other to block the doors and windows which you can move out of the way whenever you want to enter. Place a wall with a door on the entrance to the room. Now the vault shelter final room should be as secure as a room can get, so make it your best room. Vault shelters also stay the same for all CAMPs.

Death(Junk Dropping)

In Fallout 76 death is not too much of a hindrance as the enemies retain damage dealt and you restore health but it does have 2 things to plan around:

Once you die all of your junk(resources for building things in your camp and/or crafting or repairing weapons, armor, and clothing) is dropped on the ground. As long as you put your junk in the stash boxes located around the map(the map below shows all stash boxes on the base game map), this damage is very minimal although other players can pick it up.
When you die you will use the same mechanics as fast traveling to respawn. You will always be able to respawn at your CAMP and the free fast travel locations listed in the Map And Fast Travel section, but all other locations require caps unless you are in the direct proximity of a location that you have discovered. If you do not have the caps you are forced to respawn at a free fast travel location, so if you are going to die it is best to sprint towards the closest marked location to respawn there.

Map And Fast Travel

In Fallout 76 you can pull up your map to see your current quest markers, discovered locations, and drawings of select locations yet to be discovered. You can also fast travel between all of your discovered locations as with the other Fallout games although in Fallout 76 it requires a number of caps dependent on how far away the location is.

Free Fast Travel Locations:

Base Game Map(Sorted Top To Bottom, Counting Any Location That Can Fast Travel You Into The Main Map)

Radiant Hills(Only Unlocks After Level 50 During The Leap Of Faith Quest)

The Crater

The Rose Room

Vault 76(Unlocked By Default)

Fort Atlas

The Whitespring

Foundation

The Rusty Pick(Gas Mask Required-Environmental Hazards Section)

Nuka-World On Tour(Gas Mask Required-Environmental Hazards Section)

DLC Maps(Sorted Top To Bottom)

Highway Town(Burning Springs DLC)

Dark Hollow Manor(Skyline Valley DLC)

Environmental Hazards

Certain biomes like the Mire(top right) and the Ash Heap(bottom left) have toxic environments that can give airborne disease if you don't wear a gas mask. A gas mask can be found at the The Charleston Fire Department(location shown below) in a box directly inside after entering that also contains an overseer's log. Many Atomic Shop masks also act as gas masks. There are also base game apparel items given by the Fire Breathers quest started at the fire station(Firebreather's Helmet), the Vault 79 quest(Chinese Stealth Armor Helmet), and through the Mistresses Of Mystery quest started by finding a body in various locations(Veil Of Secrets). The guide on how to get the Firebreather's Helmet is under the first quests category-"Quests-Base Game Main Story." .The quest is named "Into The Fire."),

Hunger/Thirst/Sleep/Music/Chems

Sleeping in a bed for long enough and playing music for long enough give you bonuses and the bed heals you slowly. As far as other buffs, Fallout 76 does have a hunger and thirst system. It won’t detract from you too much if you don’t eat or drink and is completely eliminated if you are a ghoul, but instead eating and drinking just gives you buffs. You also can cook food at cooking stations for better food benefits. As with Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas you can also take chems for temporary stat boosts but at the risk of addiction which gives debuffs.

PVP(Player Versus Player Combat)

By default you should spawn in "pacifist mode" which makes it impossible for players to initiate combat with you. However if you go to settings and disable pacifist mode then if you shoot at a player and they shoot back(or vice versa) they and their team members will be able to damage you. I would highly advise keeping pacifist mode on at all times. When Fallout 76 first came out I was a lot lower level than my friend, so I would pick fights with high level players while my level 500 friend was sitting invisible(Chameleon legendary effect) somewhere nearby then when the high level player shot back my friend would one shot them. This still works so it is not worth the risk.