Fallout 76: 10 Best Perk Cards, Ranked (2024)

Perk Cards are a new system in Fallout 76 that replaces the traditional Perk system fans have gotten accustomed to in previous Fallout entries. Every level, players put one point into a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat and choose a card to unlock.

Cards can be swapped at any time to allow for flexible builds, but the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. investing prevents your character from becoming a demigod in the endgame unlike Fallout 3 and 4. With how radically different this system is, it can be hard to wrap your head around what perks are valuable and worth investing in. Here are the ten best Perk Cards you can use in Fallout 76.

Updated April 22, 2024, by Charles Burgar: Fallout 76's buildcraft scene hasn't changed much since our last update, but endgame content has considerably grown over the last few years. To help you create the perfect build, we've overhauled this article with additional information for each perk, including in-depth tables and more information as to how each perk works and why they're useful. Most perks were also reranked or replaced outright.

10 Concentrated Fire

V.A.T.S. has seen a radical shift in Fallout 76, morphing its role as a turn-based combat option into a percentage alternative to real-time aiming. Since V.A.T.S. doesn't slow down at all in this game, having high accuracy stats is key if you wish to use it.

Concentrated Fire solves this issue by granting a damage and accuracy boost every time you attack something in V.A.T.S. For three Perception points, this perk grants a massive 20% increased chance to hit after every shot for non-automatic weapons—4% for automatics. The damage bonus is a negligible 3%, but the stacking accuracy bonus is excellent for non-automatic V.A.T.S. builds. And for all other V.A.T.S. builds, you'll want at least one point in this perk to target limbs.

9 Crafting Perks

Similar to Fallout 4, you can spend hours crafting weapons, armor, and detailed C.A.M.P. sites in Fallout 76. Tons of crafting perks can be found in the Intelligence and Agility trees to help with this. Intelligence has access to Armorer , Gunsmith, and Science. All three of these perks allow you to forge stronger items and item mods. The higher the rank, the better things you can craft—excluding Armorer which just makes your armor cheaper and more durable.

Agility has some useful crafting options too, notably Ammosmith. This crafts significantly more ammo whenever you forge ballistic, energy, or explosive ammunition types. You can even stack this with the Ammo Factory legendary perk to create a surplus of ammunition with only a handful of materials. Set up a crafting loadout to make the most of these perks.

8 Fireproof

Some of the deadliest attacks in Fallout 76 are explosions and fire damage-over-time effects. Both of these damage types can be mitigated with Fireproof, an Endurance perk that you can earn at Level 27. At max rank, it reduces fire and explosive damage by a whopping 45%, including self damage.

More importantly, this perk gives a flat percent of damage mitigation. Perks that give physical or energy resistance use a formula that suffers diminishing returns as you increase their value, which you will inevitably experience once you have endgame armor. Perks like Fireproof, however, give a static 45% DR regardless of your gear. As a result, Fireproof is always a better option than the likes of Ironclad and Barbarian.

7 Team Medic

Team Medic might not be a best-in-slot perk for most builds, but this card becomes nothing short of S-tier when you share it. When shared with a party, anyone who uses a stimpak will heal the entire party, not just you. You don't need the max rank version either. If you have a spare Charisma point, throw this on, share it, and you'll seldom have to worry about healing in chaotic Daily Ops and other endgame activities.

6 Adrenaline

Damage increases are useful for any build in Fallout 76, which is why Adrenaline is a must for every damage-oriented build. This Agility perk grants a stacking damage bonus after every kill.

It grants up to a massive 36% damage boost after five kills, lasting 30 seconds. Kills refresh the duration as well, making the effect trivial to maintain. The 36% damage boost only requires one point in Agility, although further investment in this perk gives minimal improvement. Every build should put at least one point in Adrenaline. If you have a large excess of Agility points with nothing else to spend, feel free to max this perk to further improve your damage output.

5 Blocker

One crucial defensive layer in most endgame builds is Blocker. This card reduces all incoming melee damage by 45% at max rank, and as with Fireproof, this is a flat percentage that is calculated after your physical and elemental resistance. Since most enemies in Fallout 76 deal some form of melee damage, this is a substantial boost to your survivability. If you have the Strength to spare, Blocker is always worth taking.

4 Weapon Damage Perks

Listing every damage perk as a separate entry would take up the entire list, so we're going to consolidate most of Fallout 76's damage perks into one entry. Depending on the weapon you use, you'll want to use certain damage perks to bolster your overall damage, armor penetration, and more. Most of these perks come with Expert and Master variants you can use simultaneously, allowing you to drastically improve your damage output with your weapon of choice.

3 Serendipity

Serendipity is a staple of all Bloodied builds in Fallout 76, arguably one of the most popular build archetypes in the game. While under 35% HP, all damage you take has a percent chance of being avoided entirely.

At rank three, it's roughly a coin flip if something will damage you or not, drastically improving the survivability of Bloodied builds. Pair this with Nerd Rage and Unyielding armor pieces to become a high-damage killing machine.

2 Mutation Perks

Mutations are similar to traits from previous Fallout titles, granting a massive benefit with a major drawback. Unlike traits, you obtain mutations by either irradiating yourself or injecting mutation serums you can find across Appalachia.

Similar to our weapon entry, we want to focus on three perks that revolve around mutations: Starched Genes, Class Freak, and Strange in Numbers. Most builds use all three of these perks simultaneously to drastically improve the effectiveness of their mutations.

• Strange in Numbers gives a rather large 25% boost to the positive aspect of your mutations. While it states you need to be in a group with other players, creating a public party is all you need to activate this perk—even if the party consists of just you.
• Starched Genes is mandatory if you're using mutations, as it prevents your mutations from getting removed by using RadAway. It also prevents you from obtaining unwanted mutations, although mutation serums you consume can still grant new mutation effects.
• Class Freak is absurdly powerful if you have a lot of mutations on your character. Most mutations come with stat penalties, something Class Freak negates almost entirely. Pairing certain stat-altering mutations together with Class Freak and Strange in Numbers can be a net benefit for just about every character.

1 Weight Reduction Perks

Juggling your inventory is a core part of Fallout 76 and can prove frustrating early on. That's why weight-reduction perks are so important. Strength, Intelligence, and Agility have multiple perks that reduce the weight of certain item types—weapons, armor, consumables, chems, and ammo. You always want to equip these perks if your build has room to spare.