This past weekend at Quakecon, Bethesda game director Todd Howard, project lead Jeff Gardiner, and development director Chris Mayer released more information about Fallout 76. They have already given fans a taste of what’s to come at E3, but now they have released more details regarding the multiplayer aspect. The most important discussion was regarding how Bethesda would handle the leveling and skill system in multiplayer. For those that aren’t familiar with the critically acclaimed Fallout series, the level cap was unlimited because of the single player experience not needing balance. Let’s take a look at the leveling and skill system.

Perk cards have been introduced instead of the skill tree found in Fallout 4. These cards can be earned by leveling up, finding them throughout the wasteland, or trading with teammates. Similar to the pack opening of baseball cards, perk cards will be opened in the same fashion and will include a gold animated card, 3 regular perk cards, and a stick of gum. The perk card packs will be earned every 2 levels initially and every 5 levels after a certain point. These cards will help expose the players to the possibilities of the game that they would have never imagined. You can continue to earn card packs indefinitely by leveling and can swap them out. Each card has a certain amount of points it will cost from your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. tree and can be upgraded as well. Make sure to distribute cards properly when playing the game to survive the wasteland.

In terms of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. leveling, Bethesda has capped skill point distribution at 50 with 1 being the minimum in any category and 12 being the higher. Every time you level up, you will be able to distribute a point in one of the seven categories up until level 50. Strength is expected to increase carry capacity and melee and heavy weapons proficiency. Perception affects awareness and allows you to identify stealth and increase accuracy. Endurance will work similar to the single player games and will allow better survivability and mobility. Charisma is the most different as it will allow you to share perk cards with teammates and effect rewards and prices across the wasteland. Intelligence will help the crafter create and salvage and allow access to terminal hacking. Agility is the biggest question mark as V.A.T.S., the Fallout signature aiming system, is being removed. Luck will act the same, providing critical strike chance and chance to find caps and ammo.

There is still a lot unknown about Fallout 76, but the beta has been set to come out soon. If you are a fan of this series or a fan of large scale free roaming this is the next big game soon. Bethesda already has a good idea about multiplayer games with the Elder Scrolls Online still flourishing, expectations are high for the next installation of the Fallout series.