At a certain point, you step outside the Vault and you begin to wonder: What if this is all a dream? What if we’re trapped inside someone’s twisted imagination? What if all we’re doing is playing some great game of life where we’re not winners or losers, we’re just characters in a video game?
And where did this coffee machine come from? It wasn’t here yesterday. There’s a tag on it from someplace called the Atom Shop. You’d only dreamed of such a place before; but now? Now you wonder if life is anything more than a twisted radiation-inflicted fever-dream.
The Atom Shop - A Superficial Paywall With Just Enough Use…
Real talk about how Fallout 76 keeps the rads flowing and the servers online: you can buy things in Fallout 76 with real world cash. The good news is that unlike other MMOs, FO76 isn’t a pay-to-win game. You don’t buy insanely overpowered weapons here. You buy skins, utility items, and gameplay enhancements. Spending real money in excess of what you used to buy the game is not a requirement.
But it does make life a lot easier. My personal take? I don’t mind paying for things if I’m enjoying it. I don’t mind rewarding the developers or the content creators. I’ve played MMORPG/FPS games since EverQuest 1, and the 76 shop is just fun enough…
You can gain “Atoms” to spend in 76 in one of four ways:
Reward for reaching certain levels of the annual Scoreboard.
Completing ‘world’ or other challenges (accessed through the ‘challenge’ menu in-game).
Receiving them as part of your monthly Fallout 1st Subscription.
Buying them outright with real-world cash from Bethesda.
The items that you can get in the shop? Some actually do unlock (or did, at one point) through Scoreboard ultimate rewards. Others are utility items that you get as rewards from doing basic daily and weekly tasks. Others are Atom Shop only.
Again, you don’t ‘need’ these items. But there are ones - such as the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. slots and C.A.M.P slots - that can open up how the game plays for you by giving you more options to easily (key word) change your loadouts or build new creations in the wasteland. If you like the game? Buy things. If you don’t? You’re not going to ‘lose’ 76 or be underpowered compared to anyone else.
Before You Go Shopping
This is important enough to warrant a subheading and mono-sentence paragraph without a joke in it: the items in the Atom Shop cycle in and out.
Credit where credit is due, Bethesda figured out that people are more willing to impulse buy items if they are only available for a few weeks or even a day at a time. As a result, some of the items below may not be available when you boot up the game next time. They cycle the items out roughly every week, with “new” or “featured” items taking the place of others. There’s even a tab for ones that are “vaulting soon.”
Even better on their part, they put a free utility item (caps, gold bullion, repair kits, scrap kits, lunchboxes, etc.) in the shop every 24 hours - giving you a reason to log in and see those deals every single day.
It’s a good play on their part, but it does make it frustrating if there’s something specific you want. Even worse, once you buy an item, it’s listed there for good - so I’m not actually able to tell you what’s on sale today or not since the things I’ve bought are listed there for good.
If there’s a thing on this list you want, and you don’t see it, you can always try emailing Bethesda customer support. Sometimes they’re willing to make a deal with you, sometimes not.
Oh, and one more thing:
Some of these items are restricted to buy unless you have a Fallout 1st subscription.
With all of those statements, cautions, and reassurances aside… grab your wallet, because it’s time to go shopping!
10. Shelters
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Shelters are a ‘you love it or you hate it’ deal. I love the couple I’ve managed to make look awesome; not a fan of the process to get them there.
Shelters are a fun but underused concept in Fallout 76. In a marked way, they exist only to provide you with extra room to build a base, a home, a hovel, or whatever else you may decide to come up with. You can get a free shelter on your own, and sometimes they come as Scoreboard rewards - but most of them are locked in the shop.
Shelters tend to fall into one of a few unique categories:
‘Vault’ shelters, which have the look and style of the Vault-Tec created safe zones
‘Underground’ shelters, which are open-area-ish locations on the outside world
‘Special’ shelters, like the ‘High Stakes’ casino-themed shelter or the Theater
There’s no right-or-wrong options here. Find one you like and build in it. Shelters also have relaxed build rules, though for some reason, they don’t allow you to put things like crops in them. They also don’t really have a point in the game except for building and a safe place to go afk (monsters won’t enter a shelter).
Notable Shelters Include:
Abandoned Dig Site, a huge underground shelter with fossils and more.
Abandoned Mine, an underground cave-style shelter with a water source in the back.
Vault Server Room, a huge shelter with tons of space to build.
High Stakes, a recent (December 2023) casino themed shelter.
Vault Atrium, a ‘vault’ themed shelter with a bedroom and more.
9. Santatron/Nuka Cola Quantum Collection Station
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Fair warning: all of them talk random phrases. The Santatron may be the most depressing, but one of the least annoying.
Collection Stations are useful scavenging points that send a Protectron of one form or another out into the world to gather materials. And by ‘in the world,’ I mean within a few meters of your camp. They’ll generate scrap over time depending on what commands you issue it - and those commands are earned by buying the bot in question.
Why we love them:
While all of them provide unique scavenging rewards, there are two that stand out above the rest.
The Nuka Cola station will harvest, well, bottles of Nuka-Cola. This is incredibly useful for weekly challenges that require you to collect or consume bottles of the wasteland’s favorite beverage.
The Santatron will collect ‘holiday gifts’ during the ‘Holiday Scorched’ events. It’s an extra source of legendary items, plans, script, and more.
They do get a little annoying, but the good outweighs the bad.
8. Enclave Mobile Relay Survival Tent
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I genuinely can’t express how convenient these are as a hoarder.
Unfortunately, this - and the other survival tents - are a Fallout 1st purchase. Why am I including it? Because of all of the tents out there, it arguably has the most use. Survival Tents are portable mini-camps that typically have a work station of some kind, a stash box, or other C.A.M.P. necessities. They can be placed without moving your C.A.M.P. - and ultimately?
Ultimately, that means if you’re over-encumbered, you can get a safe distance away from whatever location you’re at, set it down, and scrap your junk until you can fast-travel. This is a pure convenience item but if you have Fo1st, it’s a major one.
Why love it:
This specific tent comes equipped with a weapons bench (for repairs), a cooking station (for food), an ammo storage locker (to rearm or unload), a scrap box (for breaking down your junk), and a stash box (for everything else).
It’s not always for sale. I regretted not getting it my first chance, but I haven’t used anything else since I nabbed it.
Not all survival tents are created equal. Before you spend the atoms, make sure it has the functions you want. The Enclave tent serves my purposes, but it may not serve yours.
7. Slocum's Flavorful Coffee Machine
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Contrary to Futurama, ingesting large quantities of it will not allow you to run around putting out fires. It will, however, let you run around SETTING things on fire... especially if you use the Enclave Plasma Rifle with the Flamer Barrel attachment while chugging this down.
Here’s one that a lot of people swear by but I don’t get a lot of use from, myself. That said, it’s important enough to list it here because it plays heavily into one of the major meta-builds of the game: Bloodied Automatic. Which, typing that out, sounds absolutely terrible. How can coffee help you with being bloodied?
It’s all about the caffeine intake, apparently.
Why we love it:
Aside from the fact that it blends in great with any ‘diner’ or ‘kitchen’ style build you might come up with, the important part is what it makes.
Canned Coffee will instantly restore 300 AP and then continue to restore another 12 AP every second for 25 seconds (for another 300 AP) by the time it’s done.
AP is required to use VATS - and with VATS, your critical hits.
Load up on canned coffee, hotkey it, and trigger it every 25 seconds to keep your AP maxed out and your critical damage flowing.
More coffee equals more crits equals more damage equals dead wastelanders.
Mix it with a high-dps build and you’ve got the last drink you’ll ever need.
6. Lite Allies
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As an added bonus, they’ll help shoot at anything that gets near your camp.
As you explore the wasteland - particularly in the early game - you’ll run across a few interesting characters that you can eventually convince to join your cause and set up at your home away from home. But if you happen to go shopping, you’ll run into a slew of other wonderful people who may not provide you with the full set of bonuses that the ones you run into in the outside world…
…but they bring a lot to the party on their own. These ‘Lite Allies’ provide special items you can buy, stat boosts, and interesting bonuses that you can activate just by talking to them. Once you have them unlocked, you can put them in your C.A.M.P. and take advantage of everything they have to offer.
While all of them have their own use, there are three that stand out, and here’s why we love them:
Steven Scarberry easily tops this list. He offers a flat 5% exp boost, which is a major bonus if you’re trying to level up or work on the experience side of the annual Scoreboard.
Katherine Swan is vaguely annoying (and pro-limited-apocalypse), but she does offer a unique perk: ask her nicely, and she’ll decrease the weight of all of your energy ammo for a bit. If you use a lot of 2mm weapons, plasma cores, fusion cores, or other… it might be a perk for your wasteland travels.
Maul is a big beefy boi - but a friendly one. Maul likes meat, Maul likes to cook meat, and Maul likes to train. You can buy assorted meat items from him, and he’ll give you a strength bonus when you chat him up.
5. Fallout 1st Catch Up
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Miss a few free items? Want to get them - even if you have to pay?
As the name implies, this one is also a Fallout 1st exclusive. With your Fo1st subscription, you gain access to free items every month - but what happens if you pick up your subscription late? Well, now you have a chance to pick up some of them - for a fee, of course.
Why we love it:
‘Love’ is a strong word here; some of these items were free, some were discounted.
That said, they were taken out of the shop so if you didn’t get them - you didn’t get them.
This one cycles out approximately every 3-4 months so if there’s nothing in it you want, you’ll have to wait a bit
Still, you may want what it has. I’m not one to judge.
4. Greenhouse / Rustic Greenhouse Kit
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It’s just nice to see what’s coming at you.
This is the only C.A.M.P. build item I’m going to vehemently recommend. Why? Because it perfectly fits the rule of cool. Unlike other roofs, walls, half walls, angled walls, or the like, these are transparent. I mean, honestly - they’re glass. They’re insanely popular and a lot of people use them for their designs. If you’re creative, you can build anything from glass walkways to enclosed greenhouses, or naturally lit buildings of any style.
Why we love them:
It’s a glass wall. You can see what’s going on beyond it.
It works for everything from external parts of your home to closed-off sections.
The possibilities with them are endless. I use them in one way or another in every C.A.M.P. I’ve ever built, and most of my shelters
3. C.A.M.P. Slots
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Why settle for just one home away from home? It’s a big wasteland - build a lot!
Speaking of C.A.M.P.s, this is one of two items that are actual must-haves… and if you enjoy building a base at all, you’ll want to buy a lot of them. You’re limited on three extra slots for this, and they’re not cheap (around 500 atoms per).
But why do we love this one?
You’re naturally given two ‘free’ C.A.M.P. slots that save your location, layout, props, and existence of your C.A.M.P. That’s great, but you’ll find that a lot of things in this game are basically just decoration items for your home - and the game has limits on how much stuff you can put in any given C.A.M.P.
Buying the extra slots gives you more room to grow, more locations to set up at, and generally? If you enjoy building, it’s a chance for you to have even more fun.
Honestly, if you like to build things in 76 at all, this is a must-have.
2. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Loadouts
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Being able to auto-switch from a Heavy Gun build to Melee at the press of two buttons makes this worth it. Being able to have several different playstyles is even better.
Building not your thing? Prefer to mix it up with a variety of weapon types? Then you’ll need this: the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. loadout slots.
Why do we love it?
There’s a lot of ways to kill someone in 76, but not all of those ways use the same perk builds.
Having extra loadouts means that you can instantly switch between various playstyles - and as often as you want.
I, for example, have individual loadouts for rifles, heavy guns, pistols, melee, and C.A.M.P. builds. Eventually, I’ll buy another loadout for automatic weapons, too.
It’s just simply a must-have item so you can engage in multiple play-styles or to maximize your gameplay experience depending on the situation.
1. Fallout 1st
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I hate paying subscription fees, but I love paying Fallout. For me, it’s worth it. But is it for you?
It’s not an Atom Shop purchase - technically. It is, however, close enough. It’s one of very few things you’ll spend real-world money on (other than more Atoms and the occasional special-special offer). The big downside? It’s a monthly subscription.
Why we love it:
I didn’t pick up 1st for a couple of years myself. I didn’t feel that I needed it. I was playing daily, but I was spending a lot of time trying to manage my stash box and my weight limits and…
1st solves that. With the Scrapbox, you can dump all of your junk items into it - and I do mean all, with no max.
You also get the Ammo Locker, where you can store all of your spare (and heavy) ammo in at no penalty.
Monthly atoms land in your account every month, plus extra freebies.
You get a survival tent too.
If you play 76 on a daily or regular basis, it won’t kill you to subscribe. The rewards are worth it.
I - as the author of this article - am not being paid a commission by Bethesda to recommend this (or any of the other) purchase, to be perfectly transparent.
So, you’ve been shopping - or at least, you’ve got a wishlist. Before you venture out into the wastes, take a look at these other guides we have on Fallout 76!
Born on the outskirts of the Eldritch Mountains of Appalachia, Josh seeks to bring the magic of the (very) old into the minds of those willing to learn fantasy, magic, and the joy of building worlds.
Gamer Since:
1989
Currently Playing:
Fallout 76, Cities Skylines 2
Top 3 Favorite Games:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn, Cities: Skylines - After Dark, Total War: Rome II
