How Fallout 76's Perk Cards Work

Bethesda's Fallout 76 panel during QuakeCon 2018 went into the details of the multiplayer RPG's new perks that take the form of perk trading cards.

We knew before that the perks feature would be discussed in some manner during the Fallout 76 panel thanks to Bethesda's previous announcement, and though we didn't get to see specific perks that are new to the game, we now have a better understanding of how the system works overall. Unlike previous games where players level up and select a perk that permanently stays in a collection of perks among others, players can now swap out their perks to fit different playstyles with the perk card system.

Once players level up, they'll be able to allocate one point to a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. category, the seven different stats that govern the character creation in all the past Fallout games. After deciding where you want the point to go, you can then pick a perk card that boast different abilities pertaining to combat, speech, and much more.

These perks have different "costs" associated to them that limit what you can bring. Bethesda's studio leader Todd Howard was hesitant to call it a "mana" cost, but he likened it to that system in the sense that you need to have enough points available to select the perk cards. If you've got three points put in Strength, for example, you can equip both a two-point card and a one-point card. If you wanted to equip two two-point cards though, you'd need to put another point in Strength to give a total of four points.

There are hundred of perk cards to choose from, Bethesda said, and you'll sometimes get more than one at a time. Through special perk card packs that are given out occasionally, you'll get several perks at once, some of which you might not be able to use yet. These perk card packs are given out every two levels until level 10 with the card packs being awarded every five levels from then on. You can't put any more points into your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats after level 50, but you can keep choosing perks to allow for more customization.

Check out the video above for a visualization of how perks work, and you can read up on Fallout 76's controversial PvP elements here.