Fallout 76 introduced the long-awaited concept of mass multiplayer to the Fallout series as its first MMO. This fundamentally changed the way we experience Fallout in many ways. One such way is that the most dangerous threat yet has been added to the Wasteland: other vault dwellers.

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Not only do you have to contend with Yao Guai, Mirelurks, and Deathclaws, but now you have to constantly look over your shoulders for other wanderers. The introduction of Bloodied weapons offers a powerful offensive modifier to those who choose to use it, at a great defensive cost. Play on the edge with this high-risk, high-reward build, doing maximum damage at minimal health.

Updated July 15, 2023 by Andrew Scariati: Fallout 76 is brimming with builds and playstyles to test as you search for your perfect fit. However, Fallout 76's Bloodied build remains among the very best in the game, enduring countless updates and balance shifts. If you want a high-quality endgame set up then there are few better choices out there, so set yourself up for the most challenging encounters by using this bloodied build; Fallout 76's wasteland is waiting.

What Is the Bloodied Modifier?

"Bloodied" is a Legendary weapon modifier that is a relatively rare quality across all weapons. They can be found in Legendary weapons shops; however, this will cost you a significant amount of caps. Instead, we recommend farming enemies for Bloodied weapons.

You can also re-roll legendary perks on your weapons by using legendary modules and cores. Simply head to a workbench and modify the weapon to access the rerolling option.

The Bloodied modifier makes it so that the weapon can deal up to 100 percent of its original damage based on your missing health. This means that if you can keep your health low, your weapon can always do double damage. This, of course, is easier said than done.

Beware that, before your build is complete, it is very easy to be one-shot while pursuing the damage upgrade.

Best Armor For Bloodied Builds

Excluding Power Armor, Bloodied builds generally all look for the same perk when hunting for their ideal armor pieces: the Legendary Unyielding trait. Unyielding armor adds three to all skills while your health is below 25 percent.

If all armor slots have the Unyielding effect, you would get 15 extra levels in every stat while at low health.

Any armor with this Legendary effect will show great returns, but there are certain sets you can look out for each build.

Urban Scout Armor

This medium armor is great if you are running light armor. All the pieces together only add up to 17.5 in weight. The resistances are pretty great too, at 121 damage resistance and 115 energy resistance.

Forest Scout Armor

This armor set will start appearing in the wild after buying all the pieces from Whitesprings vendors. The Forest Scout set is classed as Heavy Armor and provides well-rounded resistances. It offers 145 damage and 108 energy resistance.

Marine Armor

This Combat Armor rivals the stats of some power armors. It offers 121 damage resistance, 88 energy resistance, and 18 radiation resistance. This armor is most easily farmed from Scorchbeasts if you are equipped to take them on.

All the armors listed above will only start spawning at level 45 and above, so get grinding!

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Ranged Bloodied Build

Bloodied builds are going to require different stats and Perks depending on what you want to run. Let’s start with a Ranged build. For maximum damage max out the following perks:

Also, max the appropriate weapon tree that aligns with your Bloodied weapon. There are many to choose from — make a decision early, so you don't waste Perk points. These perks will overhaul the amount of damage you can deal.

Bows and Crossbows have the most damage upgrades available, so keep this in mind when choosing a weapon.

Don't forget to invest in Gun Fu if you expect to be in VATs often. The idea of this build is to sneak attack as many enemies in as short an amount of time as possible. With all the appropriate perks and gun upgrades, each attack can deal 400 percent damage.

The best weapons for builds like this are Rifles, Bows, and Crossbows, as automatic weapons lose damage after the first shot.

Power Armor Bloodied Build

Power Armor builds are already defensively powerful. Adding the Bloodied modifier to the mix can give you the best of defense and offense. Additionally, this can be a fairly easy build to acquire, as it only really needs a single piece of armor.

To create this build, install the Emergency Protocols mod onto the torso of a piece of Power Armor. This mod gives the user a 25 percent movement speed boost and a 50 percent damage reduction when the user is below 20 percent health.

Power armor already halves all damage taken, so when used with Emergency Protocols, even the most defensively inadequate set of armor will turn you into an impenetrable fortress.

Many of the above Perks can be used in this build to maximize damage. Nerd Rage should be a default for any Bloodied build. Take a look at some of these perks specific to Power Armor that can make your experience smoother:

Melee Bloodied Build

This build is a little different from the previous two. It should still make use of the Nerd Rage Perk. However, this build does not utilize a Bloodied weapon at all. Despite this, you can still get a lesser damage boost at low health, and trade a bit of damage for durability.

For this build, you must use a fist-type weapon. These include the Death Tambo, the Deathclaw Gauntlet, Mole Miner Gauntlet, and the Power Fist. This is because fist-type weapons gain the most damage in a Strength build.

Next, you must ensure that the weapon has the Vampire trait. This trait drains enemy health when attacked and returns it to you.

The Ricochet Perk occasionally doubles the healing you gain, as shots that are returned to enemies take on the traits of equipped weapons.

You may find that the Power Armor and Ranged builds deal great damage, but are extremely easy to die with.

This build still utilizes the bonus damage at low health using Nerd Rage, but the hyper armor associated with the rest of the build can be buffed by the life-draining effects of the weapon.

To finish this build off, consider investing in these melee-based Perks.

How To Keep Health Low

The most important aspect of this build (as you may have guessed) is keeping your health at 20 percent or less for maximum damage. But what exactly does this equate to, and how can health be ensured to stay at appropriate levels?

First off, remember that 60 is generally the magic number for health in a build such as this. The consensus is that 60 HP or less is where maximum damage can be achieved.

The best way to make sure that health remains at exactly 60 points is to utilize radiation.

Fallout 76 features a radiation system where, as radiation builds up, it overtakes the health bar. Drinking water, eating food, or standing in irradiated areas will cause radiation buildup.

You can check your radiation and health levels in more detail in your Pip-Boy.

Put away the Radiation Suit and any Perk that will give you radiation resistance while you're setting up your HP/radiation split.

An added benefit of using radiation to keep your health low is that you gain even more damage from the Radicool Perk, which will be outlined in the next section.

Additionally, If you choose to take the Born Survivor Perk, a Stimpak gets injected automatically every 20 seconds when your health falls below 20 percent. This could buy you a few precious seconds and health points in a pinch, without putting you past your health threshold. You could also look around for a Stimpak Diffuser for a similar effect.

Be careful when using the Born Survivor Perk, as it can shred through your Stimpak supply faster than you realize.

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Best Damage Reducing Perks For Bloodied Build

All beneficial Perks for an ideal Fallout 76 Bloodied build will be listed here if you are interested in mixing and matching.

NEXT: Fallout 76: All Gatling Gun Mods And How To Craft Them