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Fallout 76: How to Play Online With Friends and Form Teams

We show you how to play with friends and form Teammate alliances and partnerships.

Nothing marks out Fallout 76 from the other Fallout games more than the ability to play online with friends and tackle the wasteland together. Here we'll cover how to play online with friends and become Teammates, whether in your server or theirs.

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How to Join and Invite Friends in Fallout 76

Fallout 76 has hundreds of servers, duplicates of the Appalachia wasteland into which players are randomly assigned when they start playing. Each server can hold between 24 and 32 players at once, meaning it's overwhelmingly unlikely that you'll get paired with a specific person unless you choose to. We'll outline how you can do that below.

You can add friends through the social tab attached the map. | Joel Franey/USgamer, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks

How to Add Friends to Your Friends List

The vast majority of social actions take place, appropriately, in the "Social" tab of the menu. To access this, press the Start/Options button to open up the Map, then press RB/R1 to access the Social tab. This'll be split into three sections: "Friends," "Team" and "Recent". To add a friend, go to the friends tab and select the search box at the bottom, then type in your friend's Bethesda.net username. They should come up, whereupon you select their icon and Add Friend. If they accept that, they'll now permanently be added in your Friends list! Hooray!

How to Join Friends and Form a Team

Once you have a friend in your friends list, you can form a party of Teammates that holds a maximum of four players. You'll also have to be level 5 and up to do this, but don't worry - you can do this early on, especially if you're killing a lot of enemies or focusing on quest completion. Here's the process to form your own team:

  1. Go back into the Social menu as shown above.
  2. Select the friend you want to play with.
  3. Choose "Join World" from the drop-down menu.
  4. Once you're in their server, you can choose "Invite to Team" from the same drop-down menu.
  5. Assuming they accept the invite, you're good to go!
Once you hit level 5, a whole new range of online options open up. | Joel Franey/USgamer, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks

How Do Teams Work?

Once you're in a team with other players, there's several benefits to this system, aside from the helping hands who can help you bring down tougher enemies.

  • The person who started the team, known as the "Team Leader" shares some of their tasks and quests automatically with all other players. If they help complete this tasks, they'll also get caps and experience as a reward, as though they had been given those tasks.
  • When one player in your team fights another outside of the team in PVP, all team members automatically become enemies of that outside player. All for one and one for all.
  • Team members can use the map to teleport to other team members for free, which can be helpful considering how big the world is.
  • Once you run out of health, you'll be downed before dying. Team members can use stimpaks to revive you.
  • Loot is not deleted when another player takes it - which means everybody can empty the same container once and nobody has to go without.

Does Fallout 76 Have Crossplay?

No, at time of writing Fallout 76 does not have cross-platform play, meaning that those who prefer one kind of console will be limited to playing with others on that same console.

Watch on YouTube

If you want more Fallout 76 content, USG is here to provide. Check out Mike's review of the game here, or see how Bethesda plans to reinvent the game in the Wastelanders update.

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