In this Fallout 76 Camping Guide, we will guide you on how you can build your own custom camps in Fallout 76. Apart from how to build camps, we will also share some great locations where you can build your camps and have a safe roof over your head in the wastelands. Camping is a very useful feature in Fallout 76 and you can also perform a lot of other useful tasks in your camp as well.

We have curated this Fallout 76 Camping Guide, in which we have detailed the camp building mechanic as well as the best locations so that you can pick the best location and build your camp. Our best locations are based on availability of resources, power and other useful things in close proximity of your camp location. We will also detail about what are the requirements for building your own custom camp and some tips on defending it from attackers.

Camping Guide – Fallout 76

Our Fallout 76 Camping Guide details everything that you need to know about camps in Fallout 76.

Starting Up

Right before you leave Vault 76, you will take your own portable camp with you which can be deployed into a fully fletched camp anywhere in the wastelands easily by a click of a button. The Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform or simply called as C.A.M.P. is your personal space in the wastelands and it provides you tactical support anywhere in the game.

You can deploy your camps by simply opening the Pip Boy and choosing the camp option there and then you can deploy the camp in any location of your liking. However, this is not the only thing. You can build the camp yourself. You will need to choose between floors, walls, roofs and other structures. You can also build different workshops in your camp so that you can cook and craft right inside your camp.

You will also need to defend it from attackers such as creatures, human attackers and other players in the servers since the game in online. You can build turrets and other defenses as well for keeping your camp safe. However, everything requires crafting materials so if you want to build a big camp, you will need a big budget and a big crafting component stock.

Understanding the Camp Menu

After selecting a location for your camp and putting down the basics, you can enter the camp’s area and hold down the ‘Build’ button to open up the C.A.M.P. menu. In the top, you will see a category scroller which shows the categories of buildings to choose from. Each category has a different number of building options for you.

In the left side of the screen, you can check different types of buildings available in that specific category. White icons can be built instantly while the greyed out options cannot be built yet because of lack of supplies or plans required for them. You can view the reason for not able to be built yet at the right side of the screen.

In the top right, you will see your Camp Budget which shows how much you can spend currently to build up stuff in your camp. As you build objects and more in your camp, the meter keeps filling up. Once it is full, you cannot build more things in your camp. Below the budget, you will get to see the description of the object or structure chosen on the left side.

Camping Components

Before you can build your structures in the camp, you will need to collect materials for their construction. There are three main components that are required for building up buildings and items in your camp. These are wood, steel and concrete. Apart from these, normal junk items can be used for other material requirements.

You should always keep a lookout for items like wood, concrete, copper, oil, screws, gears and steel. These are the most used components for building objects in your camp. More difficult to obtain crafting components include aluminum, circuits, springs, glass, ceramic, plastic and cloth. The rarest components include asbestos, fiberglass, nuclear material, lead and fiber optics.

Make sure that you always have a good supply of these resources at hand because you will need plenty of crafting components while expanding or adding new objects in your camp. If you not careful with your components, you will end up with incomplete resources while building the last building of your camp.

Apart from collecting crafting components, you will also need to find and collect plans for more advanced buildings and objects before you can build them in your camp. Initially, you will only have the plans for building the initial survival objects in your camp. So you must keep your eyes peeled for more plans as well as you explore the wastelands.

Building a Camp

Now that you are ready to build your first camp, we recommend that you are at least level 10 before you build your first camp. The main reason behind this is that being level 10 means that you have completed some initial quests, explored the game a bit and are familiar with basic mechanics and kinks of working in Fallout 76.

Before building the camp, we also recommend that you complete the Responder quests in Flatwoods and meet with Protectron in the woods north of Morgantown. He will give you some camp related quests which also serve as a good starting point for camp building. If you lack crafting components at that point, you can always come back later and complete them.

Laying down Foundations

The first step in building your camp is to lay down the foundations. You can choose between wood or concrete foundations. We recommend that you use concrete because it is more reliable than wood. Wood can be used in the walls so save them for walls. Make sure that the floor is flat or you can adjust the height so that the floor is equal in all sides and the foundation is not hidden for any part of the floor.

If you not happy with your creation, you can edit it and move it around to choose a more suitable location. You can also store it for later use. Building on slopes and uneven surfaces cost for resources than building on normal and flat surfaces so you need to keep that in mind. Add stairs at this point so that you can build the upper floors later easily. Once the foundations are laid, pick up your C.A.M.P. and move it to its center as this will be the center point for all your camp.

Building the Walls

The next step in camp building are the walls. Use wood to build walls around the foundations you just build. This will create a really nice cabin. There are three different types of walls that can be constructed in the game. You can choose from wall, doorway or a window. You can pick any from these three depending on your choice.

Do not cover the whole foundations with the walls. Create rooms as you like but we recommend that you leave some part of the foundation as an open area which could later serve as a porch or an area where you can later put your generator on. Plan for the future if you want to save your resources in the game. You can always add more foundation later in the game but why waste resources if you can save them by being efficient.

Constructing a Roof

If you do not plan to add an upper floor to your cabin now, you can always lay down a roof on your cabin to make it feel more safe. You can pick from a variety of roofs including standard flat steel roofs, to wooden roofs to proper built coned roofs. This will complete your main cabin and you can use it as your safe zone in the wastelands now.

Do not forget to add a door and some windows to make it look more like a home and less like a prison. They also give you light during the day time. You can add some shutters and open them or close them at your will. Enemies will be able to see inside from open shutters.

Setting up Outer Perimeter

Now that you have a basic cabin with a roof and some windows, it is time to mark your outside limits and to keep smaller critters away from your main cabin. You can set up a boundary wall around your cabin to mark your boundaries and then build other items inside this boundary to make your camp look more organized. Build up fences and add a gate to make it look authentic.

You can plant crops and harvest them in your camp for easy food materials such as corn. Build a cooking station, water pump and add some extra items such as folding table with chairs and a radio to give it some homely touches. You can add some fancy props such as scarecrows, flamingos and more to add to the fun as well.

Coming to more serious things, you will need to defend your camp from enemies. For that you will need to place some turrets and naturally, the turrets require power. Build a generator and place it in the back of your house where you left that small open area while laying down the foundations and connect it will the main wiring system.

Without connecting the wires, the generator will not work. After that, you can put some lights inside and outside your cabin so that your nights are not dark and dull. They also make your camp look very pretty. Adding a generator also means that you now have some power and can finally put some turrets around so that no one has the audacity to invade your camp.

Finishing Up

Your camp is now all set. You will have everything that you need in this basic cabin for your survival. For more added value, you can add some tables, floor lamps, wall posters and more inside your cabin. You would be surprised as to how much detail you can put into your camp.

Keep playing around and once you are done with the basics, find out more plans and expand your camp even further by adding workshops and crafting stations. You can add as many cabins in your camp as you like unless your budget allows it. Make workshops, defense towers and crafting stations.

Moving Camps

If you are worried about changing places later in the game, you can do so easily. If you want to pack up and move to a new location, you can simply go to your camp and locate or take a blueprint for it. Go to the new desired location and place it there.

For putting the camp back again, you will have three options. First, you can use the blueprint and put the camp back by making a few minor changes based on the terrain of the new location. Second, you can place the old camp as it is in the new location and then break it up manually and reuse the parts to build it again.

Third, if you do not care about your old camp, you can quickly scrap all of it and start over with creating a new camp again from scratch. This is the best option if your first camp was a trial and error build and you want to start with a new and better camp.

Multiplayer Camps

Since Fallout 76 offers multiplayer and you can play with your friend, you can have players working together to build the ultimate camp for themselves. Once of the players can handle building the food sources, one can manage the defenses while other can focus on building workshops and crafting stations. Combined effort will result in building the best camps around and will not burden a single player with all the hassle as well.

Attacking and Repairing Camps

Since players will always intrude on your camps or if you want to attack someone else’s camp, you can always go for it. You can destroy their fences, generators, defenses and even steal their collected resources such as crops and mined resources. However, keep in mind that this makes your Wanted and increased violent behavior towards others will keep increasing the bounty on your head.

Coming to camp repair and maintenance, your camp will always require maintenance. You can check at the camp menu and choose between individual objects to repair and repair all damaged ones. You will need crafting components to repair the damaged objects and structures in your camp so make sure that you have some in stock all the time.

Best Locations for Building Camps

Depending on your skill level, we will list down some locations below which are good for choosing to build a camp and we will also detail why these locations are good and how complex building a camp in that specific area is.

Beginner

These locations are excellent for players who are new to the game and are low level.

Near Stations and Workbenches

Earlier in the game, you may not the plans to build crafting stations and workbenches in your camp. Until you are able to build them yourself, it is advised that you pick your favorite workbenches and crafting stations and settle your camp near them because you will need to make food and water, create ammo, scrap items and much more.

Near Main Resources

As we mentioned earlier, the main resources while building a camp include wood, concrete and steel. You can make your camp near locations which are closer to masses of these resources such as ruined roads and forests. You can quickly go to these locations and farm up some wood and concrete quickly while building your camp.

Near Civilizations

The wastelands of Fallout 76 are full of different cities and towns which are fully functional and offer you tons of services. Setting up camp near them will be very helpful for you as you can quickly go there and avail different services such as merchants, workbenches and more. You also have less chances of getting attacked by creatures near civilizations.

Away From Enemies

Your camp needs to be a safe haven for you, not a target practice for your enemies. Make sure that you are setting up your camp away from spawn locations of creatures and other enemies of the game otherwise you will serve as early breakfast, lunch or whatever time is in the game for the creatures or other enemies all the time.

Near Power Sources

You will need Power and a lot of it to run many things in your camp. If you can find a spot near a power plant or any other power production facility, build your camp close to them and you can nip some free power from them. If the power plant is shut off, you can go in and get the power running yourself for some extra juice for your camp.

On Flat and Clear Surfaces

Save resources and try to build your camp on flat and clear surfaces. Building on steeps and harsh terrains will require more resources which is just pointless if you are just starting the game.

Expert

These camp locations are only suitable for high level players and experts who can take care of them on their own.

Opt for a Scenic Setting

The wastelands still offer some really breathtaking views and you can choose these locations as your camps. It is worth noting that these locations will not always offer much in terms of resources or close proximity to workbenches or crafting stations but at this point, you should have everything already in your camp.

Pick Steep and Irregular Surfaces

If you really want to create a hill house or a camp which is multilayered, you can pick a location which is steeper and irregular and build the ultimate mountain camp or hill side camp with many floors to move around in the camp.

Away from Friends

If you really want to challenge yourself in the wastelands, set up your camp in locations which are far from friends. This way your party might cover greater grounds but will be on their own in case an attack happens on any ones camp. However, such camps could work as forward operations base in harsh areas or simply a fast travelling location to a far off location.

Near Valuable Resources

Everyone knows that valuable resources in Fallout 76 are guarded by the toughest of the enemies and creatures. However, they also allow you to craft the best items in the game. Set up a camp and build a resource collector to start automatic mining of all the items. Keep them safe from other players, thieves and creatures and you will have a steady supply of rare resources.

Near Enemies

If you planning to set up a camp with some friends then why not set up a camp near an enemy spawn location and surround it with turrets. This is very good if you want to farm some XP and simply want some mayhem to ensue. Another trick is to set up a camp, nuke the camp and then return later to reap what your turrets killed for you after the explosion as new enemies spawn in these nuked areas.

Far from Humanity

The wastelands are huge and there are many areas which are empty and have nothing in them away from towns and civilizations. You can setup your camp in such locations and start your own little town with some friends. There is a decent location between Vault 76 and Flatwoods which can serve for a good secluded location early in the game.

For more Fallout 76 Guides, check out our Fallout 76 Apparel Guide, Best Character Builds Guide and Crafting Guide.

This concludes our Fallout 76 Camping Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.