Advice for beginners

Advice

Pregame

• Read our quick summary of the Game Rules.

• Review the list of in-game Commands and the list of commonly used Abbreviations.

• Keep in mind that FOnline 3 is significantly different from the original Fallout games in terms of mechanics. Old builds, perks, weapons, quests, and NPCs may not behave the way you'd expect them to as everything has been rebalanced for multiplayer.

• Research and plan out your character's build. It is very easy for new players to treat this like a single-player Fallout game with no real thought put into builds. Rolling a poorly planned build will get you killed frequently and may severely limit your gameplay.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Think about your character's target SPECIAL, nine level perks, (keeping perk synergies in mind), and the class perk it will ultimately want to acquire ahead of time. The character planner may come in handy.

• Creating a well-rounded character (with all SPECIAL stats around 6 points) is one of the most common mistakes made by new players. No matter what the character is for, specialized builds are the way to go.

• You can delay choosing a level perk for a short while, but you must choose it before you reach the next. If you have an unallocated level perk and gain another one, that unallocated perk will be lost. Your last perk needs to be chosen before level 30, which is the level that unlocks access to implants.

• Some NPCs might have a Charisma or Intelligence requirement to talk to them, but it can usually be overcome with Mentats and/or Beer/Roentgen Rum.

• Drugs are an effective way of enhancing your build. Note that temporary SPECIAL points gained via drugs will not impact your character's available level perks.

• Communicate with other players. The best way to communicate with other players is Fonline 3's Discord server or in-game chat (press Enter to toggle the message bar; precede your message with /g and it will be sent to the global chat.

• You might be especially interested in Discord's #help channel where people share builds and other helpful guides such as this Season 5 guide which it is one of the most comprehensive starting tutorials available.

Basics

• When you exit the game, your character remains in-game for 3 more minutes before it disappears. In that time, other people can see you, kill you, Steal from you, and shove you into an Exit Grid, so be careful where you log out. Most players choose to log out while on The World map.

• Once you're in the game, you may want to know some useful Hotkeys. Hotkeys can also be seen in the game by pressing F1.

• You can also turn Hotbar on using Shift+F4 shortcut.

• Rockside is a starting area everyone ends up in first. Don't leave it as soon as possible! It's a place where you can level up very easily since experience gained is significantly faster than in the wasteland, scaling with each major patch.

• While you are in Rockside you can Reroll for free allowing you to experiment and test multiple builds much easier than it is outside.

• It is also filled with opportunities for leveling. Players can kill creatures, complete quests, and obtain gear significantly easier than in the Wasteland.

• Some classes require level above 100 and you won't find an easier place than Rockside to get those level in the beginning. It is generally advised to level up to at least 300-500 lvl as it will make game outside of it significantly easier.

• Remember, once you leave Rockside, you wont be able to return.

• First Aid is a critical skill as it lowers the cooldown required to use it while also increasing the maximum amount of hitpoints recovered from use. Ideally, a player should aim to have at least 200 First Aid as soon as it is available.

• To keep your gear from breaking, get Engineering help with armor, and adequate combat skill help with Weapons. Armor deterioration is directly affected by engineering skill and luck, whereas weapon deterioration is directly affected by the associated weapon skill (e.g., Small Guns skill reduces small gun deterioration rate). At Luck 20, equipped armor no longer takes damage.

• Outdoorsman is a valuable skill for newer players. Having a score of 100 will provide you significantly more encounter prompts while traveling on the world map, and will allow you to obtain the Ranger Support Perk which discovers all world map and all public locations. Outdoorsman skill also slightly increases movement speed on the world map.

• If you're choosing a ranged weapon skill (Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, or Throwing), be sure to invest in that skill to at least 180 and incorporate the perk Bonus Rate of Fire. It reduces the AP cost of your attacks by 1, enabling you to squeeze out more shots from your AP pool.

• Beware when you're in towns without guards (most Northern towns!). Players and gangs there will kill you without hesitation. You should try to do some quests to gain your first levels.

• Guards punish assault with deadly force but will ignore theft unless the thief fails in their attempt, in which case they will be attacked. Keep your most valuable items in your hands where they cannot be stolen. (Note that open carrying of weapons can trigger some NPCs to become hostile, so keep your weapon in your second hand slot or inside your inventory.)

• Pay attention to your reputation. In FOnline 3, your actions have real consequences.

Survive

• In the beginning, trust nobody. There are plenty of lowlifes looking to take advantage of fresh meat.

• If you do idle in a public area, do not bring anything you don't wish to lose.

• Random encounters are deadly at the start of the game. Even rats can kill you if you don't run fast enough, and guns will often explode in your face with gun skills under 100.

• Once you have your first weapon and gun skill of 200 or more, look for creature encounters. Human NPCs are tough for a new player to kill since they're armed. They also don't reward as many experience points as monsters. Spore plants, rats, silver geckos, radscorpions, brahmin, molerats, and pigrats, on the other hand, are perfect for a new player to target.

• Occasionally, you may run into various resources scattered around in random encounters. These raw resources can be turned into usable items and equipment. Look for a UI button that says "FIX" to see what your options are. Crafting your gear can often get your better results than looting it due to various item luck bonuses.

Grow stronger

• Obtaining a Folded Tent, by whatever means, should be your first priority. The wasteland is harsh, but having Tents makes it more survivable. Each character can have 10 tents. The first tent is a reward from the Quest. The location will show up after the player leaves Rockside.

• Once you hit level 24, you can craft your own Folded Tents. The raw materials you'll need are 5 Brahmin Hides and 1 rope, and you'll need 50% in crafting. You may find some of these resources sold by some traders, but the best way to obtain them is by harvesting them yourself in the wild.

• Once you have a tent, you can begin gathering resources for crafting and hunting for equipment. Look for NPC encounters commonly known as "versus encounters", where two factions fight and the victorious one is often the non-aggressive one, for example Vault City Patrol versus Raiders around Vault City. The town patrols almost always win, and once they're done looting corpses, you can loot the rest and get whatever is left over.

• The easiest way to level at the beginning is looting the Trash Cans in The Den, find a Melee Weapon, and go to the Strange Farm to kill rats. Get a Companion with 150 PP to help you as a meat shield. But remember, Companion kills don't give you XP. For a good hit rate, you need a minimum of 200% in a weapon skill. Better is 300%, or it gets broken very fast. To loot locked chests, you need 200% in Robbery. On Sundays, you get multiple XP bonuses, helping you level very fast. And as soon as you have a nice level to pick a Class Perks, your big adventure starts.

• Accumulate Currency. After your tent is built, begin saving up your currencies. There are many currencies among many factions in the wastelands, whichever faction controls a city, will enforce its Currency in it so it's a great idea to collect all types of them.

• Remember, not all currency is created equal. Economy is dynamic and value of each currency will change as events occur in the game.

• Do not spend currency at merchants. If you want an item from a trader, find out what that trader will buy and barter those items. Your funds are best saved for buying Vehicles, Bases, Harvesters, Junk Machine, Mining Machine, trading with players, and other things.

• A note on the economy. Most of the currencies in circulation are already in the hands of other players. To get around this, check back at the shops every hour because the storekeepers' supply of cash is periodically refreshed. If you get lucky, you can find individual traders who haven't been relieved of their wealth yet, and some of them carry upwards of 10,000 currency or more if wealthy players have made huge purchases there!

• When looking for rare items such as Implants, Bases, or rare crafting materials, be sure to check out the player shops located in NCR.

Loot for the Win

• "Infinity" Mines can provide good exp, loot, parts, and even Implants!

• Even better loot can be found in public dungeons; check out the loot table for details.

• Patrol hunting and contracts are two more great ways to get better gear.

You Can't Skill Wrong, Reroll is the Answer

• Players can always Reroll to fix a build or try another one.

• Remember that you can drastically reduce reroll's cost by having at least 150 Barter down to 10k caps. If you cannot reach it, use Learning alongside Barter books.
  

• • In Rockside, rerolling is free!