With the start of a new season in Fallout 76 and the advent of new mechanics, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the best ways to increase your XP gains. If you’re below 100 on the season leaderboard, this guide might help you find a way forward.

Here, let’s talk about XP bonuses you can get, how to get them, and then I’ll cover the methods you can use to accumulate XP, including the best methods for low-level players to start farming.

Boost Your Intelligence

But before that, let’s cover how to boost your intelligence as much as possible. Because after testing with many players, we found that each point of Intelligence now gives you a 3% XP bonus, instead of the previous 2% XP.

Optimize Armor

The first step is to optimize your armor. A complete Unyielding Set with a +1 intelligence, the second star gives you +4 for each piece, which means that five pieces can help you increase your intelligence by an additional 20. Regardless, focus on getting a complete Unyielding Set so you can play in it.

Then, once you have that, focus on getting Unyielding Set you want for the second or third star, as these will also give you an intelligence bonus. You can get plans from containers, enemies, and events that happen in Cranberry Bog and Mire. However, it is RNG based.

Luckily, most Fallout 76 items are sold by Free States and BOS vendors. But Shield Linning that gives you a +3 bonus is hard to get, and you have a slight chance of getting it from Queen of the Hunt event. If you don’t have it, don’t worry, it’s perfectly possible to use other Linnings to get +1 or +2 intelligence without losing too much.

Equip Mutations

Next, you need to get Egg Head and Herd Mentality mutations, then equip Class Freak to minimize the negative effects, and equip Strange in Numbers to enhance the positive effects. These two mutations will give +10 intelligence.

Join A Casual Group

Of course, you can also choose to join a casual group with a total of four members. Once your relationship is maxed out, you’ll get +4 intelligence.

You can also boost your natural intelligence to 20. The normal max is 15, but you can also equip the legendary intelligence perk to get another +5 intelligence. Keep in mind that you can only have 15 perk slots per attribute, so doing that will waste 5 perk slots. You can change your attributes, though, by pressing R key in your active profile at Punch Card Machine at every train station or camp.

Also Read: Fallout 76: What Relationship Do You Want To Have With Hugo Stolz In Skyline Valley?

XP Bonus

Next, let’s look at the methods that can maximize your XP gains.

Inspirational Perk

The simplest and most long-lasting perk is Inspirational perk, which gives you a +15% XP bonus. If you’re still at a stage where leveling is important, you should consider having this perk on all the time.

Double XP Weekends

Fallout 76 occasionally has Double XP Weekends, and when they’re on, every player gets a 100% XP boost. You don’t have to do anything other than play during these times, so these weekends are an ideal time to grind for XP and a season score.

Mothman Tome Camp Items

If you also participated in Mothman Equinox event that took place a few weeks ago, you may also have Mothman Tome Camp items, which will give you a 5% XP bonus.

You can get the same bonus from Steven Scarberry once a day, and you can also get the same bonus from Path to Enlightenment event. Note that they will overwrite each other, and you can only have one active. So if you have Mothman Tome, then you should use it.

Lunchboxes

By far, the biggest and most important XP bonus item is Lunchboxes. Each one gives you a 25% XP boost, and you can stack up to four, which means you can get up to 100% extra XP. You can get them at Foundation or Crater Gold vendors.

Leader Bobblehead

Finally, there is Leader Bobblehead, which gives you an extra 5% XP, but it can’t be used with Intelligence Bobblehead. They are either one or the other, with Intelligence one being slightly better. But the difference is not huge.

Running West Tek

Okay, now that we know how to maximize XP per enemy, let’s talk about how to get the most XP in the shortest amount of time, and that’s running West Tek.

Once you’ve completed the quest to uncover the secrets of West Tek, the location will become instanced, and enemies will reappear every time the instance is reset. This means you can run through, kill every mutant, walk out for 1 minute or so, and then come back to kill again. Basically, you can kill an unlimited number of high-level enemies.

But if you use Nuka Grenades, you can get more XP per minute. The secret is that Nuka can walk through walls, so they are most effective at killing enemies in areas with obstacles and walls. This isn’t something new players can do easily, though.

Best Way To Grind XP For Low-Level Players

Low-level players sometimes also need to grind XP to move up the scoreboard. This is obviously not possible with West Tek, but you can use Atlantic City Expeditions instead. The reason for this is that XP rewards here are not scaled by level. After completing a full team Expedition, everyone gets 20,000 XP, even level 1 players.

20,000 XP isn’t amazing for a high level character, but for a level 1 character, it will skyrocket your level. Even better, enemies in Atlantic City Expeditions scale by level. So you can leave Vault as a level 1 character, join an Expedition, and do a fair amount of damage to the enemies.

Regardless, if you have to grind for XP or want to get through the scoreboard faster, I hope this guide helps. Good luck, and I hope your brain doesn’t get tired from grinding over and over again.