In Fallout 76 leveling your character is much different than previous Fallout games. Instead of putting points into specific attributes, Bethesda has created the Special System that works with cards that you use to give your character specific abilities. Every time you reach a new level in Fallout 76 you’ll be given the opportunity to increase the number of cards that you can use in one of the attributes below.
- Strength – Affects how much you can carry, melee damage.
- Perception – Affects awareness of nearby enemies, weapon accuracy in V.A.T.S.
- Endurance – Affects health, action point drain and resistance to disease.
- Charisma – Affects ability to lead and help others through sharing perks. Increases group rewards in quests and better bartering.
- Intelligence – Affects ability to hack terminals, condition and durability of items you craft, and what you get from scrapping
- Agility – Affects number of Action Points in V.A.T.S. and ability to sneak
- Luck – Affects recharge rate of Critical Hits and durability and condition of items you loot.
Like other Fallout games while you’re playing you will be notified when you hit a new level. Once you do you can access the level-up menu by accessing your Pip Boy. Once you’ve got the Pip Boy pulled up you can then press Y/Triangle to open the level-up screen at which point you’ll be greeted with a screen that asks you to pick one of the items above to increase. When you increase any of the categories above that attribute will have +1 spots that you can slide a perk card into. These perk cards range in value. If a perk card has a number 2 on it, it will cost you two slots within that attribute.
The cards you can choose from depend on the cards that you get out of Fallout 76 Perk packs. At the very top of the Perk selection screen you can see how many slots you have available next to each letter will be a number. This number is how many slots there are to use and you can use any combination of cards to fill those unused slots. Each card that you use has to match the letter of the slot you are trying to put it in, and you have to have enough free spaces to use it.
Getting Perk Packs happens when you level up in the game. At the beginning of Fallout 76 this happens frequently and as you get higher and higher level in the game you will start getting Perk Card Packs less frequently but they will still be tied to when you level up in the game.
