Fallout 76 is a multiplayer experience in the irradiated Appalachian Mountains where you can explore the wasteland and fight enemies alongside your friends. Whether you choose to adventure with other players or face the wasteland alone, you should always have the best build available for your play style.
Let’s Get Special
Similar to other Fallout games, 76 uses the SPECIAL system, where you can invest points into different attributes to level up portions of your character. The seven attributes you can level are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, but you can only spend a total of 56 points as you level up.
On top of these attribute points, you can also invest and level up different cards which give you some obscenely powerful bonuses at max level. Overall, while these cards offer you many different ways to play the game, the community has fondly created six archetypes that can each have a few core cards.
Melee
A melee fighter focuses on using their fists, swords, daggers, or other melee weapons to dish out the majority of their damage. By investing in this build, your character will charge headfirst into dangerous situations, so it is no surprise most of your SPECIAL attributes will be invested into the Strength and Endurance categories.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| 15 | Three | 10 | Four | Eight | Nine | 7 |
The most important cards to maximize for this build are Blocker and Incisor in the Strength category, which will allow you to shred through armor while deflecting attacks. Investing in the Agility tree is also surprisingly important because you can upgrade Dodgy and Evasive, allowing you to spend action points to decrease the damage you take.
Commando
Commando is one of the most common archetypes in Fallout 76 as advancing this build allows you to utilize automatic assault rifles. Investing in Perception and Luck will maximize your damage output, but you’ll become a complete glass cannon.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| Nine | 10 | One | Nine | Nine | 8ght | 10 |
If you play as a Commando, then it’s no surprise you should level up both the Commando and Master Commando cards; they will net you a 20 percent increase to damage with assault rifles. You should also fully upgrade the Adrenaline card, found in the Agility tree, as this allows you to deal up to 60 percent more damage after you get kills.
The Commando class will chew through your ammo supplies quickly, so you will want to craft or purchase plenty of rounds before you head out on a long excursion.
Shotgunner
If you still want to meet your enemies up close and personal without using melee weapons, the Shotgunner build is the right path. Most shotgunners invest their perks into the Agility and Intelligence attributes to easily take down enemies in VATS, while dipping into the Strength tree for some added protections.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| 10 | Eight | Four | Seven | Nine | Nine | Nine |
The Strength tree has the most cards to fully invest in, such as the Shotgunner, Expert Shotgunner, and Master Shotgunner, as these will all increase your damage by 20 percent with shotguns. Furthermore, Agility cards like Enforcer will allow your shotguns to stagger foes more consistently.
Rifleman
A rifleman uses long-ranged weapons to take down enemies with a single shot, making them incredibly deadly, but also vulnerable to damage. If you choose this build path, dump the majority of your attribute points into the Perception category.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| Eight | 15 | Three | Four | Six | 10 | 10 |
As always, the cards named after your class should always be invested in, so upgrade the Rifleman, Expert Rifleman, and Master Rifleman for a combined 60 percent increase to rifle damage. Since you are attacking from afar, fully upgrading the Covert Operative card in the Agility tree will make your stealthy ranged attacks deal up to 50 percent more damage. These combined bonuses will allow you to one-shot nearly any enemy in the game, so long as you remain undetected.
Stealth
A Stealth build is capable of silently dispatching enemies with a few quick shots, all while never alerting other enemies to your presence. To complete a stealth build, you’ll need a silenced weapon, typically a pistol, and a serious amount of your attribute points in the Agility and Luck categories.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| Six | Eight | Three | Four | Six | 15 | 15 |
The bread and butter of this build are the Sneak and Ninja perks, which allow you to enter stealth faster and deal up to 90 percent more damage from stealth attacks. The Crack Shot card should also be upgraded, as it will increase the range of your pistols by 30 percent.
Heavy Gunner
Typically, most Heavy Gunners wear power armor to increase their Strength, and are the designated tanks while fighting as a team with other players. Other Heavy Gunners enjoy playing low-health playstyle, where they sacrifice Endurance for greater damage.
| Strength | Perception | Endurance | Charisma | Intelligence | Agility | Luck |
| 12 | Three | Six | 10 | Six | Eight | 11 |
As you have the most points invested in the Strength tree, you should focus on upgrading all three Heavy Gunner Cards, which will net you a combined 60 percent damage increase with heavy weapons. The One Gun Army card is also an exceptional choice, as the card increases your heavy weapon stagger by 12 percent. Considering most heavy weapons have an extremely fast rate of fire, this stagger is extremely likely to occur.
