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The 10 Best Fallout 76 Mods

Published

9 months ago

August 3, 2023

What are the best Fallout 76 mods?

Don’t get us wrong, we enjoy Fallout 76, and it has a ton of potential to be an incredible game, but it still needs a lot of work.

While it has come a long way since its shaky release, 76 is still lacking in a few key areas that continue to frustrate fans.

Fortunately, the modding community has taken on the challenge of fixing the game so that it can be as good as Bethesda promised!

The 10 Best Fallout 76 Mods

First, it’s important to note that because Fallout 76 is a live service game, mods that add buffs or overpowered items are forbidden.

So, we’ve rounded up the best mods on the Nexus that enhance the gameplay experience without adding any unfair advantages for players.

If you want to improve your next playthrough, here’s our list of the 10 best Fallout 76 mods:

10. Glowing Items

Kicking off our list, we have a mod that makes it a lot easier to see interactive items in the environment.

This mod takes its inspiration from a mechanic in Fallout 4, one of the best Fallout games, by allowing you to tag items for easier collection.

In Fallout 4, when you’re in crafting mode, you can tag items you need more of, which will cause them to glow in the environment so you don’t pass them up.

When this is installed, you will be able to select the items as you would in Fallout 4, and then when you’re out in the world, they will be illuminated.

You can also choose a variety of colors to have them light up, including green, orange, white, yellow, and red.

The Glowing Items mod makes finding what you need so much easier, and it definitely makes stocking up on specific materials a breeze.

If you liked this system in Fallout 4, then you will definitely want to download this mod ASAP!

9. Easy Sorting and Tagging

The inventory systems in most of the Fallout games leave a lot to be desired, and often you’ll spend more time than necessary looking for a single item.

Fallout 76 is no different, as it uses the same system as Fallout 4, which already needed a bit of work, especially if you like things neat and orderly!

Fortunately, RatMonkey’s Easy Sorting and Tagging mod does what Bethesda didn’t and greatly improves the inventory system.

This mod adds over 20 unique tags to items and sorts them all into their own specific groups to make them easier to find.

For instance, if you open your aid menu, you will see your inventory items sorted by Aid, Alcohol, Chem, etc.

So now, you will no longer have to scroll through a mashup of everything in alphabetical order and can instead go straight to the category you need.

We love how organized this makes the inventory system, and it is definitely a mod that we can no longer play without!

8. Improved Health Bars

Some of the best Fallout 4 mods revolve around changing the user interface, and Improved Health Bars does something similar.

While the changes this mod provides aren’t a complete UI overhaul, it does make the health bar a bit easier to understand at a glance.

With this mod installed, players will see their health bar segmented into 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% increments.

A number on the side has also been added so you can see the exact percentage of health you have left at any given time.

Not only does this make it really easy to keep an eye on when you need to heal, but it can be incredibly useful for monitoring some perks and mutations.

For example, perks like Nerd Rage, which triggers when you’re under 20% health, can now be better prepared for.

Without this mod, you would have to basically guesstimate or wait for the perk to trigger, giving you little time to plan.

However, now that you can see when your health hits 20%, you can prepare accordingly to use the AP regen and damage resistance the perk provides!

The creator of Improved Health Bars has also made the Event Notifications mod, which allows all world events to display on your HUD.

We certainly love using these mods together, and these are great quality-of-life improvements that Fallout 76 really needed!

7. High-Detailed Map Plus

Fallout 76 has one of the biggest open-world maps in video game history, but unfortunately, its in-game map isn’t as great as it should be.

Fortunately, mod creator Ultimist has taken it upon themself to improve the vanilla map so it’s much easier to read and use to navigate.

Unlike the original map, this highly detailed map is crisp and vivid so that it’s easy to make out all of the smallest details.

This map uses 8k textures that do away with the faded blurriness that we’ve come to hate from the original.

High-Detailed Map Plus also comes with the optional ability to see all vendors and resource deposits!

All vendors and resources have their own unique colors, with vendors getting color-coded Nuka caps and resources with colorful dots.

Moreover, many of the icons on the map have been remade from scratch, including the overlay elements and roadsigns.

You can also choose to desaturate the map if you want it to be less colorful, which really makes all of the colorful icons stand out.

This mod is an absolute must-have in our option, and it has certainly earned a permanent place in our load order!

6. Appalachia Warfare

Now, you can’t add weapons to Fallout 76 to give yourself an unfair advantage, but you can modify the ones already in the game!

That is exactly what The Appalachia Warfare mod does, and it works by replacing the vanilla sounds with those that are much more realistic.

This mod is all about increasing immersion, and it replaces the original sounds for ballistic weapons, explosions, and distant gunfire with high-quality alternatives.

Now you can really feel like Appalachia is a true battlefield, and an ear-ringing effect has even been added for up-close explosions!

We like pairing Appalachia Warfare with Enhanced Blood Textures for even more immersion, though if you’re not a fan of realistic blood, it’s completely optional.

The Appalachia Warfare mod is by far one of our favorite realism mods, and we highly recommend trying it out for yourself!

5. Optimum Reshade

Look at anything from the best Dragon Age: Origins mods to the best mods for Code Vein, and you’ll see that reshaders are incredibly popular.

Fallout 76 isn’t immune from this, and Optimum Reshade is the best reshader mod that you can find for the game on Nexus.

This mod takes inspiration from Fallout 3 by making the world of post-apocalyptic Appalachia a little less colorful and a bit more dreary.

In a world where the bombs just dropped 20-odd years ago, the gloom definitely makes sense, and it gives a special sense of foreboding as you step out of the vault.

When this mod is installed, the world is much more desaturated, and the contrast is heightened to provide a darker appearance.

The contrast tweaks also make the little details of the world pop much more, so you can really see all of the cracks in the pavement or the grime covering buildings.

What we really love is that this mod also allows you to turn the reshader off by using the scroll lock hotkey.

So, if you get tired of this mod or want to see the difference in an area, you can easily toggle it on and off.

If you want your post-apocalyptic playthrough to feel much more grungy, this reshader is an absolute must-have!

4. High-Resolution Texture Pack

Comparable to some of the best Fallout 4 texture mods, this High-Resolution Texture Pack by Wessberg transforms the world of Appalachia.

What this mod does is port the Fallout 4 HD DLC into Fallout 76 in its entirety so that shared assets look as high-definition as possible.

It also brings back textures from before Wastelanders was released, which turned out to be a higher resolution than the current ones.

While it doesn’t overhaul absolutely everything in the game, it replaces a ton of textures that make the world really pop.

Now, we’re not sure why Bethesda chose to downscale so many textures following the Wasterlanders update, but we’re glad this mod fixes things.

It definitely makes the world of Fallout 76 look more like a modern game and less like a direct offshoot of Fallout 4.

While we’re excited about all of the new Fallout 76 updates, none of them are slated to make the game look as good as this mod does!

3. Better Inventory

While the Easy Sorting and Tagging mod definitely makes the inventory system in Fallout 76 more organized, Better Inventory takes things one step further.

This UI mod completely changes the inventory system in the game to make it much easier to navigate.

What it does is add several inventory filters that allow you to sort through different categories under a menu.

While Easy Sorting and Tagging sorts items by tags, this mod allows you to press a button to switch between filtered menus.

For example, if you use the control key while in your weapons menu, you can switch between all of your melee, thrown, and ranged weapons.

Similarly, you can switch between food, water, and chems in the Aid tab so you can quickly find something to eat, drink, or give you an edge.

Since opening your Pipboy in 76 doesn’t pause the game, every second counts, making this mod basically essential.

We also like that each filter also displays how much weight a particular group of things is taking up in your inventory.

Seriously, all of the best games like Fallout can learn something about inventory management from this great mod!

2. Perk Loadout Manager

The perk system in Fallout 76 is definitely unique, and while it isn’t terrible by any means, it does need a bit of work.

The Perk Loadout Manager is definitely a step in the right direction, as it allows you to save up to 12 unique card builds for any occasion.

For instance, if you’re going into a tough fight, you can import a previously saved loadout of perks that are tailored to give you an edge.

However, if you then want to switch to melee and have the cards for that build, you can import a previously saved loadout that prioritizes melee buffs.

Without this mod, you would constantly have to swap out individual cards and hope that you can remember what you’ve replaced.

Now, all you have to do is create a variety of perk loadouts that you can then switch between at any time with minimal hassle.

We really wish this mechanic had been included in the vanilla game, but fortunately, mod creator Keretus has got it covered!

1. Text Chat

Taking our number one spot is a mod for everyone who prefers text chat as opposed to voice chat, and we absolutely love it.

As the name suggests, this mod allows you to communicate via global chat, party chat, group chat, and proximity chat using text.

With this mod installed, you can easily swap between chats using the box that will be added to the top left of your screen.

What is really great about this mod is that it’s unobtrusive but incredibly useful, especially as it allows you to communicate with basically anyone else who has it.

Seeing as over 76,000 people have already downloaded this Text Chat mod, it’s safe to say you’ll have no shortage of conversation.

We also like that it allows you to communicate with players across the entire server, so if you have a question, absolutely anyone can answer!

Plus, this mod also gives you the ability to meet and interact with other players from around the world who could end up being your new Fallout 76 friends!

Summary

We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of the 10 best Fallout 76 mods and found some that you plan to use the next time you load up the game.

Although modding live games is sometimes tricky, none of our selections will put you at risk of being banned, as they don’t provide any unfair advantages.

The Text Chat mod, especially, serves as a great addon that doesn’t impact gameplay, and honestly, we’re surprised Bethesda hasn’t implemented something similar!

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 best Fallout 76 mods: