Fallout 76’s new battle royale mode is an absolutely gorgeous mess. Mashing together Fallout’s quirky setting with the trendy ’last man standing’ multiplayer format and then sprinkling some of that good, old fashioned “it just works” Bethesda magic over the top has produced what is perhaps the most gloriously ungainly title to brave the genre.
It’s everything you’d expect: Buggy, chaotic, and absurd in the most delightful way. However, those very elements can make it a bit overwhelming when it comes to getting serious and grinding out those Overseer ranks. The list below should help a bit in that endeavor. Here are ten crucial tips for upping your game and bringing home the wins in Nuclear Winter.
10 Use C.A.M.P. Blueprints
Utilizing the C.A.M.P. system is horribly underrated in Nuclear Winter, and utilizing it to maximum benefit is even rarer. The biggest and most necessary part of using the C.A.M.P. to your advantage is having solid structures blueprinted and ready to go.
Simply boot up your character in adventure mode, set down the CAMP module and put together a defensive structure that’ll work well in Nuclear Winter, then save the blueprint, as saved blueprints will carry over between both game modes. If your home C.A.M.P. is full, just claim a workshop and utilize its budget.
9 Become One With The Bushes
Bushes provide ridiculously effective camouflage in Fallout 76, and in particularly dense foliage your character will all but disappear unless your opponent happens to rest their scope on you. However, chances are that they’re going to just walk right past you.
For those with a defensive playstyle, crouching in the bushes towards the edge of each ring is a practically foolproof strategy guaranteeing a high placement and decent experience gain from each match.
8 Save Your Stealth Boys
Stealth Boys are probably the most absolutely overpowered aid item that’s available in Nuclear Winter, barring perhaps some mutation serums. They render the player totally invisible for a short time, so Stealth Boys should be hoarded and used wisely.
Using it to pick off an early game straggler might be tempting, but a smart player with a good sense of timing can effectively utilize one to take out an entire squad during the late game. Always weigh your options when preparing to use one, and try to avoid wasting it when your squad’s already got the upper hand.
7 Nukes: Plan Ahead
Being the lucky squad that racks up four nuclear codes along with a briefcase is great, and being the lucky person to launch it is even better. Of course, it’s better to use it before another squad gets the opportunity to take those goodies off of your corpse, but using it too hastily can be a huge mistake.
First, remember that the blast zone is going to be heavily irradiated. This can easily put your squad into a pickle if the next safe zone is covered by the blast radius, and your mates lack radiation gear. Second, all the possible targets will condense as the ring gets smaller, so saving it until the late game can be a match-winning call.
6 Take The Gun Runner Perk
Even if you’re not running a pistol build, snagging the Gun Runner perk is entirely worth it. It’s no Speed Demon mutation, but it’s a flat twenty percent increase to movement speed if a pistol is equipped, no questions asked.
It doesn’t even need to have ammo in it! Pistols are common, incredibly lightweight, and that extra speed boost will almost always come in handy. Whether it’s running away from a mob of angry opponents or outrunning the storm as it moves in, all you need to do is equip a pistol.
5 About The Dreaded Demo Frog Build
No one in their right mind went into this without expecting some truly hideous balancing issues, and Bethesda definitely didn’t disappoint. Enter the aptly titled “Demo Frog” build, which is essentially the game’s meta perk build as of this writing. The community has pretty thoroughly railed against it, so don’t expect it to stick around for long.
Combining the staggering 300% jump height increase from the Frog Legs perk with Demolitions Expert and Grenadier, all one needs to do is hunt down a grenade launcher to engage in terrifyingly absurd one-man aerial bombing campaigns. It’s totally overpowered and frustrating to fight against, but it’s a ludicrous bit of fun to be the player doing it.
4 Running Away Is A Viable Strategy
Chances are that you’ve been there. You thought you’d picked out a nice, quiet corner of the map to spawn into, only to find out half of the entire match’s population has decided to join you.
You spawn into the match with a temporary stealth field, and it’ll persist for a short bit so long as you don’t interact with anything. If the odds of surviving your spawn point are slim, use that initial stealth to rally your squad at the next location without getting killed by the match’s opening shots.
3 Think Twice Before Equipping Power Armor
Most would think slipping into a set of Power Armor during a no-holds-barred fight to the death would be a no-brainer. However, that really couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, there are some benefits. You’ll easily survive irradiated zones and falls, for instance.
However, it also makes you incredibly easy to notice. You’ve become a much bigger target, and you’re very loud. The armor’s nice and all, but it won’t hold up to sustained fire from multiple sources once you’ve been spotted. Unless you’re about to wander through a blast zone, it probably isn’t worth it.
2 Dispose Of Extra Gear Discreetly
Most players have a tendency to become a loot vacuum during battle royale scenarios, and understandably so. Having the right equipment is a big factor when it comes to going the distance and winning the game. But eventually, the restrictive weight limit will force you to offload your hoarded gear.
So when it’s absolutely necessary to discard some junk, do it in an out of the way location, or preferably a bush. Firstly, this prevents you from being ambushed while you’re picking through your inventory, and more importantly, it prevents opponents from finding and using your spare bits of gear against you.
1 Don’t Bring Flashy Cosmetics
Of course, everyone wants to bring their coolest outfits to the match. Even if they don’t place well or survive very long at all, they get the satisfaction of looking really good while doing it. But it’s really best not to go overboard.
A significant part of surviving until the end is making sure that you see your enemies before they see you, and reacting accordingly. You don’t really get that option if you’re the one wearing a gigantic Vault Boy head helmet that sticks out of any given piece of cover by three feet.
NEXT: Nuclear Winter: 10 Things We Wish We Knew Before Playing Fallout 76’s Battle Royale Mode
