Anyone who has played a Fallout game will recognize the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system. This system represents the player's stats and each letter of the word represents a different stat. That system has been brought back in Fallout 76 along with the perk card system.
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As an added bonus, players now have access to legendary perk cards. These are accessed later in the game and help players more than the traditional perks. Players need to be careful which ones they choose for their character because it costs points to remove them. When added, however, they make a huge difference.
How To Unlock Legendary Perk Cards
Legendary perk cards are unlocked in a similar way to the start ones. Standard perk cards are unlocked as players level up. Each time they gain a new level, they get a new perk card. Legendary perk cards first start appearing when a player reaches level 50. Overall, players will be able to unlock 6 legendary perk cards over time. Each new perk card is unlocked at a different level milestone; 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, and 300. Once a player has unlocked all six of the legendary perk slots, the slots will be unlocked for all other characters they create.
Ammo Factory
Ammo is something that any player who uses a gun will need at some point. There is already a perk that allows players to craft more ammo and one that gives a chance at doubling the amount. The legendary perk card, Ammo Factory, lets players craft even more ammo. Starting off, this card will increase the amount of ammo a player crafts at one time by 50%. When fully upgraded, this 50% bonus increases to an incredible 150%.
Hack And Slash
The Hack and Slash perk is great for players who are working with a melee build and stick with a melee build. After all, some players switch between melee and gun builds. This perk, at the base level, gives players a 20% chance for their VATS melee attacks to do area damage.
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This is great whenever a player is surrounded by a group of enemies like Ghouls. When maxed out, that 20% chance increases to 50%. That means every other attack will be doing area damage.
What Rads?
Players who have a hard time dealing with radiation resistance will be thankful to get the What Rads perk. To start, this perk grants players 50 Radiation resistance. This bonus is increased to 300 when the card is fully leveled up. On top of giving a player radiation resistance, this card also allows the player to heal themselves from radiation. At max level, this card allows the player to heal 6 rads per second.
Collateral Damage/Far-Flung Fireworks
Whichever perk a player chooses is based on their build type, but both cards do the same thing. Collateral Damage makes it so whenever an enemy is killed with a melee weapon, they have a chance to blow-up and deal damage to nearby enemies. Far-Flung Fireworks has the same effect, but with ranged weapons. Each of these perks is useful for dealing with groups of enemies and is excellent for crowd control. When maxed out, both of these cards give a 20% chance for the effect to activate.
Exploding Palm
Exploding Palm is the unarmed version of Collateral Damage and Far-Flung Fireworks. The reason why this perk is better is that it doesn't make enemies explode when killed.
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Instead, this perk gives a 10% chance for a player's fist to explode every time they hit an enemy when unarmed. The chance of these explosions increases to a maximum of 20%.
Master Infiltrator
Fallout 76 is a game based around exploration. This is why there are three perk cards that allow players to pick locks and three perk cards for hacking computer terminals. Wouldn't it be nice if all those cards were just rolled into one? That is why the Master Infiltrator perk exists. This card, at the base level, allows a player to pick any level lock and hack any level terminal. It also auto-unlocks all 0 level terminals and locks. When maxed out, this card allows a player to auto-unlock anything that is able to be unlocked. It is amazingly useful for any player who loves to explore and doesn't want to waste precious perk points on lockpicking cards.
Taking One For The Team
This perk is great for players who enjoy some good old-fashioned teamwork. At the base level, this card makes it so enemies take 10% more damage if they attack the player while on a team. This means more damage output for teammates and an easier time taking out enemies. When maxed out, this card makes it so that enemies who attack the player will take 40% more damage from teammates.
Stat Bonus Cards
There are a total of 7 perk cards, one for each of the stats that players have. It is impossible to rank any of these cards higher than the others because it all depends on a player's playstyle. At first, each of these cards adds one perk point to whatever stat it represents. These cards can be upgraded to add 5 additional points to whatever stat it is for. These cards are great for getting some extra perk cards on a player's character. Of course, all stats max out at 15 so the cards won't allow a player to go past that number.