Fallout 76 C.A.M.P. locations - where should you make your home?
C.A.M.P.s - the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform. Your always-with-you tool in Fallout 76 to build a shelter to survive with all the tools you need. This is true, but also an outright lie; in that, it’s 100% Vault-Tec certified (like everything else the corporation gives you).C.A.M.P.s are an integral part of the gameplay in Fallout 76, though over the years, their function has changed from being an absolute necessity to get the location “just right” to “get the location just right for you,” which is a big difference. Your very first camp won’t have a lot in it, but as you progress through the world and learn plans from quests, vendors, other players, and rewards for various tasks in the game, you’ll be able to go from a few simple wooden slats to a massive mansion or twisted horror show or a village or…
Or, really, your imagination (and the build engine) is the limit.You’ll discover pretty quickly that Fallout puts a lot of focus on this aspect of the gameplay and while for some people it’s a chore, for others, it’s a huge part of what makes 76 so great. Either way, the need to build a camp is just that - a need - and you’ll find yourself there on a regular basis. Don’t worry if it's your first C.A.M.P. isn’t a work of art; if you enjoy how things get built in 76, you’ll master the system in short order.
At their core, C.A.M.P.s provide a safe place for you that you can build and decorate to suit your needs. They are designed to hold all of your crafting stations, your stash boxes, your personal vendor, and assorted items that can give you a buff (like a bed, camp companions/allies, or items that generate radiation and others that cure disease.But where should you put one?
You can put our C.A.M.P. almost anywhere in the world. The game restricts you from putting it too close to a fast-travel location (which means you can’t build your base right over a Fissure Site, unfortunately) and you can’t have yours right where someone else does on any given active server. Outside of that, anywhere is fair game - although not all build locations are created equally.Keep reading to find a list of eight of my favorite locations, and two general spots to keep in mind!
10. South-Western Area in The Savage Divide
Location: South of Huntersville, north of the Foundation Outpost
In the old, near-launch days, putting your camp up meant carefully analyzing the cost it would take to travel from point A to point B, if it was safe from bad guys, or if there were a slew of resources. In a lot of ways, those things still hold true - but as the economy has basically become “free” for all intents and purposes, and you can fast travel to your camp, public events, and train stations for free, some of those concerns have fallen by the wayside.However, there are some events that will make you go, “Man. I don’t want to go all the way to X to store my stuff and recover.” Eviction Notice located at the Foundation Outpost is one of those events, and while it’s very true that you can find a Stash Box and a breakdown point for some of your gear just outside of the event itself, it might not hurt to consider this area.
Pros:- Close to a major public event with a lot of loot
- Near-ish to the Settlers themselves, if you’re so included to walk
- Clear skies and mountains for the view, plus you don’t run a risk of a lot of people having their own bases where you want to put yours
- People don’t put a lot of C.A.M.P.s in this area because it’s challenging to build on.
- While resources abound in the mountains, there’s not a lot else here for you.
9. The Mire (General)
Location: Around the lake, south of the Thunder Mountain Power Plant
In the mid-game, this is a surprisingly busy area. A lot of main quests and daily quests will have you working around in the strangler-vine covered muck, and if you regularly like to power up the regional power plants, being outside of Thunder Mountain isn’t a bad spot.The number one bonus here? Water. Lots of it. You can harvest dirty water out of the lake to your heart’s content, and there aren’t a lot of enemies or random encounters that spawn here. That said, it is near several other locations of interest, and good luck finding a flat spot that isn’t in the water itself.
All hope is not lost - you CAN build on/in the water; it just takes a little effort (and knowing the build system). A few well-placed foundations and ladders, and you can game the system just enough to put platforms right on the lake itself.
Pros:
- A lot of camp plans in ‘76 have weathered looks; from rotted boards to aged stone, anything Cultist or spooky fits in great with the local ambiance
- Water. There is so much water all over the Mire. You won’t have to fast travel out of the area to get the dirty water you need to make all kinds of recipes at your cooking station
- Out of the way. There’s not a lot of competition around here for a good base location.
- Once the mid-game is over, you won’t be back here very much. There are a few daily quests that take place in the Mire, and Heart of the Swamp spawns south of the major lake. Outside of that? Nothing of note occurs here.
- It’s really really really hard to get a spot that’s free of branches and overhangs that may restrict where your walls and foundations can go.
8. Whitesprings Golf Course - Forest Region
Location: Near the Whitesprings Resort
Here’s a shocker for you - wide open spaces with manicured lawns make for great C.A.M.P. sites. Even better, the Whitesprings is directly in the middle of the map so people will easily see your base when they’re looking at places to go, and the Resort itself is home to a bevy of end-game content and questlines.But there’s a downside… and it’s a big one.
Pros:- You’re in one of the busiest, if not the busiest, location in all of 76. Everybody sees you. Everybody knows where to find you. You’re near endgame content, a train station, and both the Enclave and the Responders.
- Flat. IT’S FLAT.
- There aren’t a lot of overhead obstacles either which means you’re going to spend less time poking around trying to make sure you don’t have any overlaps.
- It’s not an overly hostile area. While you’ll run into some creatures and raiders, there are fewer random encounters in this section than you’ll find out in the wilder parts of Appalachia.
- Literally everything I just said as a pro. Everybody knows it, everybody’s seen it, and it’s not uncommon to see five or six player-made bases here at any given time. This means that you may not be able to set up your base here, and that can be annoying.
7. North of Helvetia in The Forest
If you’ve got Atoms to spare (Fallout’s ‘store’ currency, acquired through various challenges and your real-world credit card), you can max out the total number of C.A.M.P.s you have up to five. You can only have one active at any given moment, but the extra slots allow you to build in more places so you can activate them as you see fit or need.
Directly north of Helvetia is a need (and so is the next entry on this list) for a lot of players.Every February, a special multi-week-long event called Faschnaut Day will spawn in the Forest Region every hour on the hour. The rewards vary from Legendary items to character costumes and C.A.M.P. plans, and it is hugely popular. However, once you’ve done it a few dozen times, it can get a little… repetitive.
But don’t worry - C.A.M.P.s can help with that.Pros:
- Once a year, other vault-dwellers gravitate towards this celebration (and it’s based on a real-life celebration in WV, too!), meaning that they’ll easily see your camp and your vendors.
- It can be useful to have someplace to go right there to store your stuff. Workbenches are available in Helvetia, but the ones in your C.A.M.P. are somehow a little more fun.
- If you place it in the right spot, you can be in the event without doing the event. I’m not someone to advocate that you go AFK to farm the event, but if you must, you must.
- Even for the Forest Region, it’s not hard to find a somewhat empty spot. Plus, if you build a ‘house’ style area, it can blend in with the town for added ambiance.
- I hate to say it, but this is another ‘everybody knows it’ kinda deal. If you give this a try, then… good luck!
6. Forest Region - South of Point Pleasant
Location: South of Point Pleasant, along the Ohio River
Fun fact: I live in WV! One of the reasons I love FO76 so much is that I literally live here (and they got the road conditions surprisingly accurate). Point Pleasant is about an hour from my house, and every year, I go down to fundraise for local charities at the Mothman Festival.Why do I say that though? Because this is one of the best places to put a C.A.M.P., bar none. I established a C.A.M.P. here a few years ago and haven’t looked back since. But… why?
At least once a year in 76, the Mothman Equinox drops and you get another major event that happens for a couple of weeks at a time right in Point Pleasant. Unlike the real-world Mothman Festival, deranged cultists come out to play through the city (okay, that’s a little more realistic than I’m going to admit) and you will walk out of here with loot-a-plenty. Being able to just walk down to your base makes a huge difference in convenience.Pros:
- If you build your camp on the river, you’ve got water; an inexhaustible supply of it.
- You can find snaptail reeds up and down the shoreline. These are used to make sugar, which is a component in a lot of 2nd-and-3rd tier recipes.
- It’s a great view. I use glass-wall shelters a lot, and there’s something relaxing about the edges of society.
- Not a lot of hostile behavior as long as you stay off the road. And you’re not far from a ‘treasure’ site.
- Not many. You’re out of the way from a lot of things for much of the year, and it may be a little harder for people to notice you.
- You’ll probably spend a little more caps on fast travel than you would if you were in the middle of the map, but caps are effectively free at this point in ‘76, so…
- Sometimes it can be hard to get a spot that’s just perfect, but that’s a difficulty for some of the better locations.
5. The Ash Heap (General)
Location: Specifically, south of the Rusty Pick
The Ash Heap is one of the first areas you’ll discover as you grow out of the Forest. It’s also host to two endgame bosses (The Imposter Sheepsquatch and the Ultracite Titan), the Nuka-World questline, a major span of the Main Quest, and several Public Events. It’s also home to The Rusty Pick and the Purveyor.But it’s really really really hard to find flat territory on. I know. I’ve tried.
Pros:- If you can’t build near a train station, building near The Rusty Pick is your next best bet. It may even be better, if you regularly unload your Legendary Scrip for weapons to resell on your own vendor.
- Not a lot of C.A.M.P. competition from other players.
- You’re in an endgame location. About a solid quarter of the major events that you’ll visit on a regular basis are in this area. About a fifth of the main storyline also involves the Heap, so you may have a base you can return to with regular frequency.
- While there aren’t a lot of overhead spots to give you a headache, getting flat land - and getting your ‘port in’ spot set right - can be a nightmare.
- It’s kinda cramped.
4. The Savage Divide - Unmarked
Location: North of Kerwood Mine, east of the National Radio Astronomy Research Center
Sometimes a location takes your breath away and you set up a location for no other reason than the fact that it takes your breath away. I actually hate to list this one because it is one of my favorite C.A.M.P. spots, but I trust that you’ll be kind. There are limited (if any) resources here, there are few locations of interest, and there are the occasional random higher-level encounters that pop up here (mutants, yao gai, radscorpions, scorched, wolves, ghouls, etc).But mannnnn that view is to die for. There’s a choice spot that has a circular rock formation at the very edge of a cliff where you can see the entirety of the Cranberry Bog from. You can see the cityscape of Watoga, the Cranberry Glade, and if you happen to be home at just the right time?
You can watch someone unleash a nuclear Hell on Appalachia to bring forth the Scorchbeast Queen (from a safe distance away). There’s something almost magical about seeing a nuke go off from there. Almost magical, but assuredly mad.
Pros:
- Good luck finding a better view anywhere in the game.
- Really, you can’t.
- Be ready to exploit the build system a bit to get a floating base off of the edge of the mountain. It can be done, but it’s a bit of a hair-tearing experience.
- Expect to be attacked at least once a play session. By the time you’re building here, you probably won’t care (and I love it when walking scrap and cooking resources come right to my door), but the random encounters here are less random and more clockwork.
- No water, no other resources of note in the immediate area that I’ve ever seen.
3. Cranberry Bog
Location: South-east of Watoga, west of Dropsite V9, south of Flooded Trainyard
I love this spot. One of my first C.A.M.P.s was built here, and as bad as I need to update it, it’s an old faithful. I’m not the only one, either. This area has a slew of useful things - resource nodes, diseased cranberries (for cranberry juice!), generally flat land, access to fissure sites a-plenty, and most importantly……just like the Ash Heap, welcome to one of the major parts of the endgame.
Pros:- Flat land and limited obstructions. By now, you know that tree limbs are the bane of your C.A.M.P.’s existence. There aren’t many here.
- You can step outside and grab diseased cranberries with ease. This helps to keep those exp-boosting drinks flowing, if you aren’t using Cranberry Cobbler or Cranberry Relish.
- You’re so close to Scorched Earth that the SBQ may attack your camp directly, which means your defenses will add onto the firepower. While not very important in the current meta, extra DPS is extra DPS.
- You’re also close enough that you can easily make the hike back to your base after farming flux and supplies in the nuke zone without spending a ton of time on a run.
- It’s a popular spot. You may not be able to activate your C.A.M.P. there just because.
- If someone is a little ‘iffy’ on their aim, your base may be in the blast zone. It’s nothing that can’t be repaired, buuuut…
2. Lead/Acid/Copper/Concrete Deposits (or your preference)
Location: Everywhere (seen in picture: an acid deposit west of Pylon V13 in the Cranberry Bog).
This is not one camp site as it is a veritable unending list of them. I can’t tell you where to put your camp with this idea in mind because it’s entirely about what you need. You may have seen that I recommend camps that are close to water sources; I use a lot of water. I make tea, soup, juice - everything. Those things take a lot of dirty water converted to boiled water.I used to need to set up my camps near veins of Copper or Lead that I could set up a mineral extractor on (a C.A.M.P. item that appears under your ‘resource’ tab) to generate passive raw materials. Your mileage may vary - maybe you need acid, concrete, or iron.
Again, while not “a” specific C.A.M.P. site, in the early part of the game, you probably don’t have an unending supply of ammo (yet) or junk to scrap (yet). If you don’t have Fallout 1st, the paid subscription to the game, you’re looking at a limited Stash box size, which means you may have scrap you don’t have room for - and may have to pick and choose what you can keep on hand.Ore, acid, oil, crystals, and concrete all have different looks. You’ll see them as you wander through the game, but specifically, you’re looking for “pits” in the ground rather than a piece of ore on a mound (see the above picture for an example).
Pros:- Raw materials are how you survive nearly every aspect of 76, literally
- If you’re always short on specific supplies, this is a good way to help boost your totals without having to ‘do’ anything but your day-to-day events
- In the early game, this can mean the difference between doing what you ‘want’ to do and doing what you ‘have’ to do to farm supplies
- Unless you’re willing to look outside the game for detailed maps, you’re not going to randomly walk into many nodes on your own
- The extractors have to be emptied on a regular basis, because they do fill up
- They also don’t generate supplies quickly
- Think of them more as a ‘feature’ than a ‘requirement.’
1. Across from Rail Stations
Location: Just follow the tracks.
C.A.M.P.s, as awesome as they are, currently have two major limitations: while you have some ‘allies’ you can buy from, you can’t sell to them. You can load up your NPC vendor with plans, drinks, weapons, and armor; but you don’t get caps until someone comes and buys something. Conversely, you can’t get rid of your legendary items for script, either.But the train stations of Appalachia offer both of those amenities. They do the two things C.A.M.P.s can’t, and you’ll spend a decent amount of time at them unloading supplies and unwanted material. Conversely, train stations don’t offer the full range of services C.A.M.P.s do - they only have one type of crafting bench (station dependent), they don’t have the Disease Cure props, beds, or other special effects your C.A.M.P. does.
In short, both are integral - but both are just slightly limited.The solution? Put your C.A.M.P. at a rail station. It’s a common idea; you’ll see this a lot around Whitesprings, for example (and strangely, the Sutton platform). People see your setup and they may stop by to visit more often, you have access to literally all of the NPC functions you may need, and it becomes a one-stop shop.
Pros:- Everything you need, all within a short walk!
- Rarer chances of random encounters, meaning fewer annoying attacks
- Better odds of natural player traffic to your NPC vendor or Shelter
Cons:
- It’s everywhere other people want to be. And where they want their own C.A.M.P.s to be.
- I’ve rarely seen in-the-wild resources near stations, unfortunately, except for plantlife
Enjoy this article? Have some ideas where to set up your home-away-from-the-Vault? Stick around, and explore these next three!
