It gets more challenging to define a specific path for leveling up after Level 10. Your choices will depend on a number of factors, such as your build, what Perk Cards you have received randomly through Perk Card Packs, and which quality-of-life issues are most important to your gaming style.
As with everything else in these tip guides, there is an underlying assumption that you will be following some kind of role-play approach to moving through the game's storyline, so the focus will not just be on maximizing damage in combat. The bias is more toward the defensive than the offensive, it assumes a more limited use of fast-travel, and a very slow acquisition of legendary weapons and armor.
My previous tip guides for the first 10 levels suggested the following perks for levels 2-10: Pharma Farma (Lvl 2), Born Survivor (Lvl 3), Lone Wanderer (Lvl 4), Licensed Plumber (Lvl 5), Green Thumb (Lvl 6), Traveling Pharmacy (Lvl 7), Thru-Hiker (Lvl 8), Lone Wanderer Rank 2 (Lvl 9), and Scrounger (Lvl 10). The final SPECIAL distribution at Level 10 was S = 2, P = 2, E = 1, C = 3, I = 3, A = 3, L = 2.
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| Gilman's Lumber Mill with Flatwoods Lookout Tower in the Distance |
Level 11 New Perk Cards
The new Perk Cards available from Level 11 are: Basher (STR), Hydro Fix (END), Bloodsucker (CHA), and Gunsmith (INT).
Basher increases damage by 25% when using a weapon to bash an opponent. However, bashing damage is generally low and even with this Perk Card isn't likely to approach the damage possible just using the ballistic damage of the gun. In a test of my Level 5 hunting rifle on Scorched, the bashing damage was 14 HP while the ballistic damage was 45. Even with a 25% increase from the perk the damage would likely only be 18 HP vs. 45. This might be improved a bit more with a bayonet or a bashing stock, but in general, without a high strength, bashing is not likely to ever provide better damage than firing a weapon.
Hydro Fix reduces the effects of increased thirst caused by taking chems. This is not an important enough issue to be worth taking a Perk Card for it. Water is plentiful, especially in the Forest Area at low level.
The Bloodsucker Perk increases the amount of healing from Bloodpacks by 50%, reduces the radiation from Bloodpacks to zero, and allows Bloodpacks to quench thirst. Bloodpacks can be crafted once Tick Blood is obtained, which can be found at the Moonshiner's Shack, Gilman's Lumber Mill, and various other locations within the Forest Area. It also requires Antiseptic. Even so, the benefits are almost certainly not worth the use of a Perk Card to obtain them. A Bloodpack only heals 75 HP with this perk, which is not terribly different from several of the food items mentioned in Tip Guide 4 that can heal 60 HP. Stimpaks heal 60% of total damage (a minimum of 153 points) and Healing Salve, which is easier to craft in large numbers than Bloodpacks, will heal a minimum of 51 points.
So, if you are a ballistic build and making use of pipe weapons, Gunsmith is a no-brainer at Level 11. Rank 1 of Gunsmith allows you to add most of the available mods to your pipe weapons (Pipe Bolt-Action, Pipe Revolver, or the basic Pipe Gun), with the exception of recon scopes and prime receivers. This, of course, assumes that you have unlocked the mods through scrapping of pipe weapons along the way. At Rank 2 (possible to achieve from Level 12) you can begin adding most mods to a limited number of other weapons, such as the 10 mm Pistol and the 44 Pistol, and many useful mods to the Hunting Rifle. Rank 2 also allows crafting of special arrows for the Compound Bow after obtaining the correct plans. A major advantage of this Perk Card is that you can craft suppressors for your pipe weapons if you have unlocked the mod, making it less likely enemies will be drawn to you from a distance or when out of sight when you fire your weapon.
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| Awesome Tales Comic Books in a Display |
Level 12 New Perk Cards
The new Perk Cards available from Level 12 are: Pannapictagraphist (PER), Rejuvenated (END), and Mystery Meat (LCK).
Pannapictagraphist is one of a series of cards that provide a directional audio notification when your character is near a specific type of object. In many places, the objects are purposely obscured so that they are difficult to find without help. In the case of this version of the perk, it is magazines that are the target object. The game has 11 magazine series with various numbers of issues from 5 to 13, and you can see what each one does for you here. Most of these magazines have relatively minor effects that last for a short duration, much like the bonuses from eating certain foods, except that the magazines are much more rare and some of the bonuses are a little better. Examples are 25% less damage from robots, +15% damage to various opponents, 20% harder to detect while sneaking, +6 AP regeneration, slow hunger and thirst by 30%, etc.
If you find a magazine with an effect that fits your build, it might be worth holding onto. A particularly good one in the early game is Tumblers Today #3 that lets you picks lock of 1 tier higher than your Perk Cards permit. But most players either sell these magazines, or collect and display them at their CAMPS. In general, most of the effects are too situation-specific to be useful except in very specific circumstances.
Rejuvenated used to be a decent Endurance card in the game when the character was well-fed and well-hydrated. The baseline without the perk card was +25 HP and +25% disease resistance for being well-fed. Well-hydrated came with +25% AP regeneration and another +25% diseases resistance. Each rank of this perk card increased the numbers for HP and AP regeneration by 50%, and added 5% to disease resistance. So at Rank 1, the character would have a combined +37 HP, +37% AP Regeneration, and 60% disease resistance. However, around the time of the Steel Dawn DLC release, the negative effects from dehydration and starvation were removed, and the baseline positive effects were buffed. So now, the baseline is +35 HP, +35% AP regeneration, and 70% disease resistance for being both well-fed and well-hydrated. The additional effect for the Rejuvenated Perk Card after the baseline buff is now only an additional five points in each category. That makes this perk no longer worth the Perk Card slot, especially because the positive effects decline as you get hungrier and thirstier.
Mystery Meat seems completely pointless to me. This perk card allows Stimpaks to generate edible meat tissue! It might sound like a kind of auto-cannibalism, but what it gives you is random meat from animals. In my opinion, there are plenty of animals around to kill and harvest meat from, so this perk is a waste of a perk card slot.
So at Level 12, I would either rank up one of your cards that you already have, or look back for a card you didn't take when it first became available and take it now. For example, if you use a hunting rifle, a 44 pistol, or a 10 mm pistol, you might take Gunsmith Rank 2. If you haven't gotten Lockpick or Hacker yet, you might consider taking one of those. Or perhaps a quality of life perk would be useful, such as Thru Hiker or Pack Rat. In my view, the most valuable weight management cards available at Level 12 are (in order) Traveling Pharmacy, Thru-Hiker, and then Pack Rat. Pack Rat is last because it is relatively easy to scrap junk items and you don't have to be carrying them all the time, as you normally would with Stimpaks, other meds, and food.
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| Excavator Power Armor |
Level 13 New Perk Cards
The new Perk Cards available from Level 13 are: Sturdy Frame (STR), Magnetic Personality (CHA), Scrapper (INT), and Marathoner (AGI).
Sturdy Frame makes your armor weigh 25% less. This might be more valuable later in the game, when you start wearing non-leather armor, but in the early game when wearing light or heavy leather armor, this perk will likely save no more than 5 or 6 lbs (see here for a list of base weights for armor pieces of various types). By contrast, ranking up your Traveling Pharmacy or Thru-Hiker cards could save 10 lbs or more, unless you frequently store excess chems in your stash box, or you carry around the bare minimum of food because you don't use food as buffs. The best way to compare would be to calculate your armor's weight and divide by four, then check the weight of your character with your Traveling Pharmacy, Thru-Hiker, or Pack Rat Perk Cards engaged, and not engaged, to see how much they are affecting weight. The best time to do this would be midway through an outing when you haven't stashed items in at least an hour.
Magnetic Personality is a team-based Perk Card that increases Charisma by one point per teammate per rank. If you are running a solo role-play runthrough, it is useless, although if you have Fallout 1st it is possible to create a team in a private server and get team benefits (at least in some cases) without teammates.
Scapper is probably the best new card available at Level 13. It generally increases the amount of the most common ingredient when you scrap an item. The increase is usually somewhere between double and four times the normal amount, and typically applies to steel, plastic, and wood resources. The amount is increased slightly with increasing Intelligence as well. So a Laser rifle might produce four (4) molded plastic without the perk, but 10 molded plastic with it engaged. A missile launcher might produce six (6) steel without the perk, but 20 steel with it. If your character does a lot of crafting or repairs, this is a very important perk to have. It is fairly easy to burn through a large supply of steel when doing a lot of crafting, repair, and building.
Marathoner is a useful perk when running long distance, because it reduces the AP cost when sprinting by 20%. However, it is limited only to situations when you are sprinting. It would probably be better overall to take Action Boy/Girl instead, which increases AP refresh speed by a slightly lower 15%, but applies in all situations in which AP is needed, including jumping, VATS firing, etc.
If you are not suffering from a shortage of scrap, then taking another card from past levels or ranking up a card that has proven helpful would be the best way to go. If you use the hunting rifle, 44 pistol, or 10 mm pistol, then Gunsmith Rank 2 would be a good choice.
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| Bloodbug at Aaronholt Farm |
Level 14 New Perk Cards
The new Perk Cards available from Level 14 are: Barbarian (STR), Exterminator (PER), Cola Nut (END), and Luck of the Draw (LCK).
Barbarian increases damage resistance. At Rank 1, it increases damage resistance by 2 points for every point of Strength. Unless you are a melee build, at this point you probably have a Strength of 3-5 max, so the effect would be 6-10 additional points of damage resistance. Damage resistance is complicated in Fallout 76. See the table and explanation here for an idea of how it works. The larger the difference between the damage ability of the attacking weapon and the damage resistance of the defender, the lower the impact of the added damage resistance, and vice-versa.
Using the table referenced above, we can lay out a scenario to estimate what the effect would be from Barbarian at Level 14. If you were attacked by a Scorched using a Level 10 Hunting Rifle with no mods, the rifle would potentially do 50 damage per shot. With only the Barbarian perk and four points of Strength, you would have a damage resistance of eight (8), which would give you about 8% reduced damage, or about 4 points less.
If you were wearing armor with 25 damage resistance but no Barbarian perk, then you would take about 36% less damage, or about 32 points because of the armor. Adding Barbarian to the armor's protection would increase damage resistance by eight points to 33. But according to the table, the estimated damage reduction from Barbarian's increased damage resistance would be less than three points of reduced damage (ca. 10% of the total). The calculus might change with much higher Strength, and Strength can certainly be buffed with the right foods, armor, and weapons, but without these, the impact from Barbarian, especially at Rank 1, is pretty low. Rank 1 of Lone Wanderer, by comparison, gives 10% damage resistance all the time, along with bonus AP regeneration.
Exterminator essentially reduces the damage resistance of insects by 25%. Because the most common insects tend to be relatively weak (e.g. Radroaches), this perk is best used only situationally if you happen to receive it in a perk pack.
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| Some of the Cola Types Available in Game |
Cola Nut doubles the impact of any Nuka Cola product. In the early game, the Nuka Cola products most likely to be encountered are Nuka Cola, Nuka Cherry, and Nuka Quantum. Nuka Cola normally heals 40 HP and rehydrates the player by 15%. So with this perk at Rank 1, the impact is 80 HP (still less than a Stimpak) and 30% hydration. Nuka Cherry would heal 200 HP and give 50 Action Points. Nuka Quantum would heal 400 HP and give 200 Action Points. The added healing and AP could be very helpful in battles with large numbers of enemies or very strong ones. But for the role-player in particular, Nuka Colas will not be found all the time, so carrying this Perk Card around permanently is a waste of a slot. If the card should happen to drop in a Perk Pack, it is best used situationally when the player has several bottles of cola at once, or when preparing for a very risky battle. An example might be trying to kill the Deathclaw on Deathclaw Island or openly attacking the Raiders at West Virginia Lumber.
Luck of the Draw provides a chance for weapon damage to be repaired with each successful hit. According to testing reported here, it can potentially double the life of the weapon before it needs a repair, depending on the type of weapon used. It also seems to help guns last longer than Gunsmith does, even when Gunsmith is ranked up higher. However, if your build is mostly rifles and pistols (non-automatic guns without explosive rounds) the impact is reduced. If you have a spare point in Luck, or are willing to move Perk Cards around depending on the purpose, then this might be a useful card, but probably not worth spending a level increase to take it unless repairing of weapons is getting in the way of enjoyment of the game.
This is another level at which taking a Perk Card that came available at a previous level, or ranking up a Perk Card you are already using, may be the most advisable course of action. You might also consider putting a placeholder point in Charisma so that you can use two points when you get to Level 15 for the Field Surgeon perk.
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| Executioner's Automatic Handmade |
Level 15 New Perk Cards
The new Perk Cards available from Level 15 are: Commando (PER), Cannibal (END), Field Surgeon (CHA), Armorer (INT), and Ninja (AGI).
Commando boosts the damage from automatic rifles by 10%. This is essentially the same as the Rifleman Perk for non-automatic rifles. Stealth commando builds are quite popular in Fallout 76, so it might be tempting to start working toward it starting with this perk, but there are some challenges associated with the Commando build that should be considered. First, there are only two automatic rifles available to a player at Level 15 - the 10 mm Submachine Gun and the 5.56 Handmade. The Handmade is a great weapon, but is a rare drop, difficult to scrap for the mods you want, and uses an ammo type that is not as common in the early game.
The 10 mm Submachine Gun is more common and uses common ammo, but it uses quite a lot of it. In the early game, it may be challenging to keep up with the amount of ammo used if the Submachine Gun becomes a primary weapon. At this stage, it is probably better to keep the automatic weapons for special, highly challenging encounters, and hold off on the perk card until higher levels.
Cannibal is an interesting Perk Card, because it allows the character to feast on the bodies of certain enemies (Human, Ghoul, Super Mutant, Scorched, or Mole Miner) instead of eating regular food. If used well, along with a few canned goods, it may mean that the player can do without Thru-Hiker to keep weight down, though water remains an issue. Since the Wastelanders DLC and the introduction of human NPCs, the usefulness of this perk is improved. However, my recommendation would be to only take this perk if you do not plan to use foods for buffs. Also keep in mind that there are some parts of the map with a lot more creatures, and a lot fewer humanoids, so a supply of 5-10 canned goods as a backup would be a good idea.
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| Stimpak on Truck in Front of Aaronholt Farmhouse |
Field Surgeon is an important Perk Card for role-players who only allow their characters to suffer a limited number of deaths. It works in tandem with Born Survivor to increase the chances of surviving a close call. Field Surgeon speeds up the healing rate of Stimpaks to help the character get out of danger faster, especially while still taking damage. A regular Stimpak with no help from perks will heal 10% of hit points per second for the first two seconds, then 2% of hit points thereafter for the next 20 seconds. Field Surgeon increases the rate of healing substantially, though I couldn't find any data on exactly how much faster. But I have noticed while playing that if I forget to equip the card, there is a very noticeable difference when Born Survivor engages. I suspect that this card with Born Survivor has at least cut deaths in half. It does require two points in Charisma, so you will either need to plan ahead, or put a placeholder in Charisma at Level 15, then take the card at Level 16.
Armorer allows crafting of additional armor mods. At Level 15, the types of armor that can be created by the character are Light and Heavy Leather Armor, Light and Heavy Metal Armor, and Trapper Armor. New mods allow changes such as improvement of carry weight, lightening the weight of armor pieces, stabilization of the arms, and so on. Although this perk does not need to be engaged all the time, it is an important one to have available to maximize the effectiveness of an armor set. The perk becomes even more important when Combat Armor becomes usable after Level 20.
Ninja is a perk for stealth melee builds. It increases the damage caused by sneak attacks with melee weapons to 2.3 damage instead of the regular double damage. It would have greater utility once the Sneak perk is available at Level 20.
Field Surgeon would be the perk I would choose at Level 15 (assuming you are also carrying Born Survivor) because of how helpful it is at avoiding death when hit points are low. My character only has nine lives, according to my role-playing rules, so avoiding death is paramount, especially once a character has progressed as far as Level 15.
Whether obtained by choice when you level up, or as random drops through Perk Packs, these are the most important 15 Perk Cards or rank ups to have at Level 15 in my view: Pharma Farma, Born Survivor (Rank 2), Lone Wanderer (Rank 2), Licensed Plumber, Green Thumb, Traveling Pharmacy (Rank 2), Thru-Hiker, Picklock, Gunsmith, Scrapper, Field Surgeon.
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