needing help for a new player

[Lonemankane]

So like the title says am trying to understand 76's loop, i got up to level 32 by picking level 20 from the start but have a problem that well i have no clue what to do with myself so to speak, like trying to understand what i can do to make myself reload weapons faster or get caps fast to buy the items in the stores that is tied to blueprints and so on

[HuntingFever]

1: Reload speed is a mixture of base weapon stats, Skill Points, Weapon Mods and what perk cards you equip. Also, picking Lv20 from the get go is a bad idea for new players, because most of the tutorials are skipped due to the game thinking you already know everything. You're much better off starting at Lv2 and working your way up slowly to Lv100.

 

2: The fastest way to make money, is to build and power a vending machine at your CAMP, then stock it with high value items that people want e.g. rare plans from Seasonal Events, Mutations, commonly used ammo types (such as 5.56mm and Flamethrower Fuel), Stimpacks, Legendary items etc. etc.:

 

 

Having the Hard Bargain perk card equipped will also help, because then you will earn a little bit more when selling things to NPC vendors.

Edited May 8 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Lonemankane]

1 hour ago, HuntingFever said:

1: Reload speed is a mixture of base weapon stats, Skill Points, Weapon Mods and what perk cards you equip. Also, picking Lv20 from the get go is a bad idea for new players, because most of the tutorials are skipped due to the game thinking you already know everything. You're much better off starting at Lv2 and working your way up slowly to Lv100.

 

2: The fastest way to make money, is to build and power a vending machine at your CAMP, then stock it with high value items that people want e.g. rare plans from Seasonal Events, Mutations, commonly used ammo types (such as 5.56mm and Flamethrower Fuel), Stimpacks, Legendary items etc. etc.:

 

 

Having the Hard Bargain perk card equipped will also help, because then you will earn a little bit more when selling things to NPC vendors.

 

Ah, I mean I learned some things by doing another character but the main thing am finding strange and hard to get used to is the single action reload, it just takes forever and I wanted to use it because like new vegas I want to do mostly no plasma or any other type of energy weapons  just normal ballistic firearms and plus I have a thing for just double barrel, single action and lever action rifles

[HuntingFever]

38 minutes ago, Lonemankane said:

 

Ah, I mean I learned some things by doing another character but the main thing am finding strange and hard to get used to is the single action reload, it just takes forever and I wanted to use it because like new vegas I want to do mostly no plasma or any other type of energy weapons  just normal ballistic firearms and plus I have a thing for just double barrel, single action and lever action rifles

It takes a very specific build to make those types of guns good, especially in the endgame when everything is a giant bullet sponge. The current meta is for either a Bloodied build of some description or a Full Health Power Armour one that uses the Auto-Axe or other Melee weapon since most other weapons and builds are worse than useless after Lv50. I almost never see anyone using a rifle or standard ammo weapon these days, it's almost always one of the following I see people carrying:

 

Gatling Laser/Plasma

Auto-Axe/Chainsaw/Powerfist

Fixer

Combat Shotgun

Holy Fire Flamethrower

Enclave Plasma Thrower

Cremator

Auto-Grenade Launcher

 

Bethesda have done a terrible job of balancing this game, which in turn has lead the community to specialise in only using a tiny number of builds and weapons, because most of the gear in this game is garbage and not worth using. Melee in particular is so broken, it's not funny - I use an Auto-Axe and Power Armour with a ton of Stimpacks on a hot key so rarely ever go down these days because virtually everything dies almost instantly when I cut into them. My current build is also able to make decent use of the Cold Shoulder Shotgun, Holy Fire Flamethrower and the newly added Cremator.

Edited May 8 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Lonemankane]

5 minutes ago, HuntingFever said:

It takes a very specific build to make those types of guns good, especially in the endgame when everything is a giant bullet sponge. The current meta is for either a Bloodied build of some description or a Full Health Power Armour one that uses the Auto-Axe or other Melee weapon since most other weapons and builds are worse than useless after Lv50. I almost never see anyone using a rifle or standard ammo weapon these days, it's almost always one of the following I see people carrying:

 

Gatling Laser/Plasma

Auto-Axe/Chainsaw/Powerfist

Fixer

Combat Shotgun

Holy Fire Flamethrower

Enclave Plasma Thrower

Cremator

 

Melee in particular is so broken, it's not funny - I use an Auto-Axe and rarely ever go down these days because virtually everything dies almost instantly when I cut into them. My current build is also able to make decent use of the Cold Shoulder Shotgun, Holy Fire Flamethrower and the newly added Cremator.

hmm maybe i should use use the chainsaw i found and double barrel to do a kind of evil dead sort of build then

[HuntingFever]

5 minutes ago, Lonemankane said:

hmm maybe i should use use the chainsaw i found and double barrel to do a kind of evil dead sort of build then

Most Shotguns are complete garbage once you hit Lv50 so aren't worth using unless it's something like the Cold Shoulder which slows certain enemies on contact. Also, there are some great Chainsaw and Auto-Axe build videos on Youtube .

Edited May 8 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Lonemankane]

2 minutes ago, HuntingFever said:

Shotguns are considered to be trash by the community, that's not worth using outside of a few exceptions such as the Cold Shoulder.

ah odd, i thought they would be just as good as other weapons or like in other fallout games, just pick the type of gun you like and go for it

[HuntingFever]

Just now, Lonemankane said:

ah odd, i thought they would be just as good as other weapons or like in other fallout games, just pick the type of gun you like and go for it

Nope. Fallout 76 is an entirely different beast to the other Fallout games when it comes to build diversity or rather the lack thereof. Outside of certain builds, most weapons are little better than peashooters once you get further into the game and start encountering the higher level enemies and areas. I used a Shotgun until approx Lv50-60, then gave it up because I was doing virtually no damage and the expense of buying and trying to find/create more ammo was crippling me financially due to how many caps I was losing every day. Once I learned of the Chainsaw meta that had been discovered, I looked up a build then went all in on it and haven't looked back since. I still use traditional weapons occasionally when certain challenges call for for them but for the most part, they're either on a display rack in my CAMP or buried in my inventory since I have no use for them otherwise.

[Lonemankane]

5 minutes ago, HuntingFever said:

Nope. Fallout 76 is an entirely different beast to the other Fallout games when it comes to build diversity or rather the lack thereof. Outside of certain builds, most weapons are little better than peashooters once you get further into the game and start encountering the higher level enemies and areas. I used a Shotgun until approx Lv50-60, then gave it up because I was doing virtually no damage and the expense of buying and trying to find/create more ammo was crippling me financially due to how many caps I was losing every day. Once I learned of the Chainsaw meta that had been discovered, I looked up a build then went all in on it and haven't looked back since. I still use traditional weapons occasionally when certain challenges call for for them but for the most part, they're either on a display rack in my CAMP or buried in my inventory since I have no use for them otherwise.

I find that is odd, why would they not let all weapon types be well you know powerful in their own right if they are to the level and so on? like even borderlands and so on does it like this, any weapon regardless works, i mean i think maybe a shotgun and chainsaw build might work but not sure. I mainly go for the type that uses normal firearms, mostly snipers for taking out big enemies and shotguns and mags for lower tier types

[HuntingFever]

10 hours ago, Lonemankane said:

I find that is odd, why would they not let all weapon types be well you know powerful in their own right if they are to the level and so on? like even borderlands and so on does it like this, any weapon regardless works, i mean i think maybe a shotgun and chainsaw build might work but not sure. I mainly go for the type that uses normal firearms, mostly snipers for taking out big enemies and shotguns and mags for lower tier types

It's because Bugthesda are idiots who know nothing about how to balance an MMO and stop power creep.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

On 5/8/2024 at 11:36 PM, Lonemankane said:

ah odd, i thought they would be just as good as other weapons or like in other fallout games, just pick the type of gun you like and go for it

Shotguns are good as a support weapon for melee /strength based builds in the early /mid game when you're being bombarded with bullets from all directions and you want a little bit of range to reduce risk. That's when you're mainly dealing with low powered enemies like scorched or ghouls. However, shotguns become utterly useless as you approach higher level content - too slow and not powerful enough to be worth that slow speed.

Flaming chainsaw (and, I suppose, the auto axe) with the dual bar mod is like if you had the speed of a submachine gun but the strength of 2 two-handed baseball bats. It's just objectively the best meta because it does the most damage in the shortest amount of time and, most importantly, takes minimal effort to build. I love watching people pump bullets into a boss on Daily Ops only for me to come and clean him up in seconds lol.  It feels like trolling but it's not because Bethesda made it this way for some reason. And my build is non bloodied so you can imagine how cracked it will be with the right mutations.

 

Even before you get the chainsaw or auto axe at level 20, melee weapons are very strong and - because you won't need ammo - the only thing you need to worry about is durability. Bloodied rifle and commando builds are useful in the sense that they are low risk while still dealing decent damage. You don't have too get close and you don't need power amour (you can have a melee build without power armour but you really need the vampiric perk so that you're not as reliant on stimpacks). The problem with commando/rifle builds is that they're a heavy resource investment. In addition to ammo, a lot of the perks that make them good only unlock at higher levels, and they take so much caps and/or luck in terms of getting the right armour that I can't see how it could be viable in the mid game. They're also less effective with bosses (melee and big guns shine there). 

 

If I were you I would go with the melee route that HuntingFever suggested and then once those melee related trophies are out of the way you can use your current build as a springboard to make whatever build you desire.

 

The below video I came across is great for those just getting into commando/rifle because it doesn't require legendary perks. That said, it's still best left until you're at least level 50. Lastly, you can make do with non named standard rifles, you just need to mod them with good legendaries on both the weapon and armour. 

 

 

Edited May 11 by Vault-TecPhantom