How Fallout 76's Perk Cards and Level Up Works

The Basics

It all starts as you're leaving Vault 76. When you pick up the pile of Perk Cards on the table, you'll automatically level up to Level 2 and the Level Up process will begin.

In Fallout 76, perks are given as Perk Cards. All Perk Cards belong to a SPECIAL category, and you have a "deck" of available cards that are used by slotting them into your SPECIALs, based on how many SPECIAL points you have.

At Level 2, you start with 7 points available (one in each S.P.E.C.I.A.L.) and then you get to choose a point every time you level up (up to Level 50). At Level 2 you should have a total of 8 points, at Level 3 you should have 9 points, etc.



Your SPECIAL points determine how many Perk Cards that belong to the same SPECIAL you can slot as active cards. Almost all Perk Cards have a base point cost of 1, but some have a base point cost of 2. Also, Perk Cards have ranks, and each time you rank up a card, its point cost increases by 1.

Every time you level up (up to Level 50), you get to choose from a pool of available Perk Cards and add one of those cards to your own "deck" of cards.

At every level, new Perk Cards become available in the pool that you choose from. These new Perk Cards that become available for choosing at each level are indicated with bouncing "NEW!" text above the cards.

Also, at Levels 4, 6, 8, 10 and then every 5 levels afterward (15, 20, 25, 30, etc), you will also receive a Perk Card Pack. This Pack will include 4 random cards that be automatically added to your own "deck" of cards. Sometimes, the card you receive from a Perk Card Pack might have a higher level requirement than your current level, so you'll have to wait to reach that level in order to use it.

The Level Up Process

1) To start the Level Up process, open your Pip-Boy and choose Level up!

2) The first screen the game will give you is to pick a SPECIAL point. At the top, you'll see all your current points. It looks like this:



3) After choosing which SPECIAL you want to add a point to, you'll be presented with the pool of currently available Perk Cards to choose from that belong to the SPECIAL you just chose:



4) However, you don't have to pick a card from the same SPECIAL as the SPECIAL you chose to put a point into (although you'll usually probably want to). In other words, you can choose a SPECIAL point from one SPECIAL, and a Perk Card from a different one. You can use the "Filter" button to get the game to show you the pool of all currently available cards from any/all SPECIALs, and you can choose any card you like to add to your deck:



During this level up process, you can't choose just a SPECIAL point but no perk card, and you can't choose just a perk card but no SPECIAL point. You have to choose both in order for the level up to be completed.

At any time during the level up process, you can use the "Back" button to go all the way to the first step of choosing which SPECIAL point you want.

5) Once you've selected a SPECIAL point and you've selected the Perk Card you want, a confirmation screen will appear that will show you a close-up of the card with more details about it. At this point you can still use the "Back" button to go back, but this is your last chance to go back before your choices are made final:



6) Once you've selected a SPECIAL point, then chosen a Perk Card, and lastly confirmed your Perk Card choice, you'll end up in the regular Perk Card screen. In this screen, your currently active Perk Cards are slotted into SPECIALs in the top row. In the bottom row are all of the Perk Cards that are currently in your deck, which you can slot and unslot into your SPECIALs at any time: