Preface... I have been playing Fallout 76 since Beta (on PS4, so I got shafted out of a few hours of beta time there). I initially started playing it all by my lonesome... which Bethesda told me I could do. To my surprise, shortly after the game came out, a couple of my friends actually bought the game, and we started playing. Then we meet a few really awesome players while playing FO76, and our group grew to about six of us. We're all 50 (with one exception). Here's what I learned playing the game since Nov. 2018... (these are MY observations and my friends seem to share some of them with me. Your actual mileage my vary!)

1) You need friends! Well, you need them the further east you travel from Vault 76. You'll probably be fine all the way up to your 30s and maybe 40s on your own, but things start messing with your sense of "fair" gaming once you get over 40ish. Also, if you want to launch nukes... well, screw it. You NEED people for that.

2) On the subject of friends... For the most part, I've predominately encountered decent people while playing. In fact, half my group are people I met while playing the game. Yes, there are ass hats that will still try to grief you and/or your camp, but more often than not, I get a friendly wave and a smile knowing they didn't try to swing their damn Super Sledge in my face.

3) Those country roads are not fair... and I don't really mean "hard" but more like this... I see a Super Mutant. He's a level 42 and I'm a 50 . Decent fight, it seems, but nothing to sweat over... then he hits me with his weapon and suddenly I've lost half my health. WT... absolute... F! My point here is, the difficulty of enemies at higher levels based on their level number (even taking into account any crown or legendary icons) is VERY misleading. Add to it the game seems to throw conditions on you at seemingly random... Ok, you're in battle. Well f&ck you, you're now thirsty, so, there goes a third of your AP. Nope, nope... you're hungry too... another third of your AP. At this point, vats is probably worth crap (if you're one of those rare people that even thinks it was worth something to being with) and your melee is a joke.

3b) Now, your thinking... no biggie. Just make sure everything is in working order before going into a fight! Brilliant! That's a gamer spirit right there! Well, F&ck you, 10 enemies have suddenly spawned in your vicinity while you took out your pipboy to check you stuff. By the time you noticed, waited the seemingly 5 minute animation for your character to put the pipboy away, and take out your weapon to fight, you gained about 100 rads and lost 50% of whatever remained of your health after that. But wait! There's more! The rads have given you a mutation! Is it beneficial? Do you really want to take your pipboy out at this point to find out? I mean, you have 10 level 60 radiated and diseased monsters on you... literally. OH! You're also diseased, and these monsters have already broken at least ONE of your limbs... probably two or three. You might think... "let me pop a stimpack and run!" Sure, if you're not being constantly staggered by an attack and can whip that stimpack out. Lets say you do... why can't you run? Over encumbered? Well, shiz sticks. Good thing you have friends near by to help... right? RIGHT? Guys? Where are you? Oh...

4) Mmmm... monster spawning. Bethesda's biggest middle finger to fairness (ok, maybe not. I've seen their PR disasters). You're in a mine with your friends and you JUST barely survived a hoard of 20 (wow, really? 20? F&ck me!) monsters. By "you" I mean "you", not your entire group. Someone was in the middle of that hoard spawn and took it like a champ... meaning they died screaming. So, you wait for them to respawn... outside. You have to wait for them to load OUTSIDE, THEN wait for them to load back into the mine. Great. Coffee break! Of course, when you come back from getting your coffee, the game camera is orbiting your now dead and defiled corpse, and the rest of your teams is screaming obscenities at both you (for dying... dumbass) and the team mate that just reentered the mine. See... apparently, Bethesda didn't realize that players could die one at a time, instead of as a group at once, soooo... a LOT of times, when a player loads into a location, the game respawns all of the monsters in that location. AWESOME! This isn't just for your party, either. You could be in the mine with a full group, then some rando solo scum loads in and BAM, a hoard has spawned around you, you're screaming, dying, and questioning your choice of video games.

5) Holy shiz, you're still here. Good on you. So, inventory. You've played the older Fallout games right? You know how inventory works, don't you? Well it's the same here, except you're inventory is constantly trying to ruin your game. Oh, and by "inventory", I include both your personal storage and your stash (that nice little blue box you build for your camp). If you don't want to feel like you're about ready to pass out after picking up a toothpick (let alone a pickaxe), you're going to want strength. What? You want an P.E.C.I.A. or L build? Ha! That's funny. Back to inventory... You need to break that hoarder mentality you honed in the old games. That'll do nothing but screw you over here... which is funny, because the game screams at you that you NEED stuff... lots of stuff... and obscene amount of stuff, then gives you freaking nowhere to put it! You're stash is full, your over encumbered because you just HAD to grab that tube of toothpaste, and some ass hat loads into your building, spawning EVERYTHING right on top of you, again. You died? Nice... go run back, fight all the monsters, and grab your junk. Seriously. Don't litter. We're not uncivilized. On the bright side, all of those bullets you used to clear the hoard to get your stuff probably lighted your inventory. You're no longer over encumbered!

6) Bullets. GAH! Never enough of them, or they weigh too much, or the vicious cycle of having to go find more, or find stuff to craft more, and needing to USE them to fight off the monsters in the area. "Use melee"! Fine, fine, yes... until your club, sword, sledge, dagger, toothpick snaps in the middle of combat. This is where friends come in... ESPECIALLY if your friends use different weapons then you do. Bum off them for your bullets! What about rule 5? Rule 5 is for losers. You know you're hording all the things and so are your friends. This means bullets. Share the damn wealth! ... that said, missiles can go f&ck themselves. I don't have the room in my shizzy little bag for even a handful, and they don't hurt enemies nearly hard enough to make it worth it... they will hurt YOU though, so, there is that.

7) Repairing armor costs MORE then making the bloody stuff! Why... oooooooh WHY... do I need ballistic fiber to repair my armor when I did NOT need it to make it in the first place?! So... my friends... rule 7 is, don't get attached to your armor. Scrap it, and make a new one. It will usually cost you less specialized materials.

7b) Legendary gear is often crap. Ok, ok... there's some good stuff, but, if you get that P.O.S. piece, you're stuck with dumping it (go ahead, open your pipboy. Those monsters wouldn't DARE spawn), or hauling ass to a railroad station to sell it... which makes legendary gear a half decent way of getting your traveling money.

8) Caps... Go to a railroad station, look at the plans the vendor has (under NOTES), and find something that looks good, whether that would be a new armor set or weapon (good idea) or camp buildings (terrible idea, which is why this is what I almost always buy... go figure). Yes, you will find plans in the wild, but rarely anything good, and you could go real world weeks between finding a plan you don't already know. So... once you see a plan you want, you now know how many caps you need. Go forth, and save! This is probably the closest to real life you'll get. The really good stuff costs more caps than you'll likely ever have on your person... freaking traveling expenses!

9) Perks are a boon and a bane. Boon because, well, they are perks. Bane because there's usually an assortment of things you want to fix about your character, from how long it takes before your prized weapon or armor piece shatters in the middle of combat, to how much they weigh, to how long it takes until your starving, to ... weight, weight, weight, hunger, thirst, weight, ability to do and take damage, weight, weight, hunger, weight, thirst, I can see in the dark? You'll be able to slot 50 points worth of perks (by the time you've grown big and strong like me) and when that happens you'll finally realize... you'll always be gimped. Always. It's ok. Yes, you are less of a gamer for it, but, that's ok... calm down. It's ok pats your back

10) So, you've been playing the game, you've made it to level 50! You might have even been badass enough to make it to 60, 70, or even 206 (dear lord, I saw a player at level 206 just last night!). It's about this point you will realize... yeah, this game is a right pile of shiz. Why am I still playing? I need help! Save me! I think I'm suffering from Stockholm or something! Oh... my friend is playing. Ok, I'll go in.