Unlocking the Secret Service Backpack: A Detailed Walkthrough for Fallout 76 Players
As a lover of Fallout 76 ever since stumbling out of Vault 76, I‘ve unlocked many end-game items – but few feel as rewarding as the Secret Service backpack. This huge, highly defensive pack with customizable mods took weeks of questing and reputation grinding to obtain.
Was it worth the effort? Absolutely! The quality-of-life improvement from reduced carry weight alone brings me joy whenever I fast travel across Appalachia with 400 lbs of looted gear. And I feel safer from surprise Deathclaw attacks thanks to the pack‘s innate damage resistances.
If you too want to experience the Secret Service backpack‘s glorious benefits, this detailed guide will walk you through the process step-by-step. I‘ll share indispensable tips from my journey, so you can avoid frustration and get your own top-tier pack faster!
Why Obtain the Secret Service Backpack?
Before we dive in, let‘s review why the Secret Service backpack is so coveted by Fallout 76 players:
Huge Carry Weight Increase
The backpack increases your max carry weight by 90 lbs – tied for highest bonus among available backpacks with the small sacrifice of some damage resistance tradeoffs.
Those 90 lbs make a massive difference in reducing overencumbrance issues since Fallout 76 loot fills up inventory quickly. You can carry home more legendary weapons, rare outfits, and scrap without having to sacrifice one for another thanks to this backpack.
High Damage and Energy Resistance
Unlike some weight boosting backpacks, Secret Service maintains solid defensive stats:
Ballistic Defense: 393
Energy Defense: 393These values surpass regular armor pieces. The pack provides protection rivaling early Power Armor sets, which proves extremely handy against the high-level enemies you‘ll encounter farming reputation.
Customizable Mods
You can add modifications like refrigeration, chemist, armor plating and more after learning plans sold by Samuel in Foundation.
Here‘s a comparison of popular mods:
| Mod | Effects |
|---|---|
| Chemist | Reduce chem weights by 90% |
| Grocer‘s | Reduce food/drink weights by 90% |
| Armor Plated | Adds DR/ER of actual chest armor worn |
Combining a chemist mod with the backpack makes carrying healing items and weapon boosters easy. The freezer variant helps food stay fresh longer when cooking buff combinations. And armor plating pushes damage resistances even higher – into the 500s!
The ability to tailor your Secret Service pack‘s capabilities makes it the most versatile high-level backpack around.
Step 1: Become a Pioneer Scout with "Order of the Tadpole"
The first step in all backpack questlines is joining the Pioneer Scouts by completing Order of the Tadpole. This lengthy multi-part quest sends you across Appalachia doing the following to earn Tadpole badges:
- Take the archery, cooking, athletics and other exams at Camp Lewis
- Revive another player
- Find and read Scout Handbook magazines
- Repair historical swords
- Kill different varieties of bugs, ghouls, mutants etc.
Finishing the Order and turning in badges converts you into a Tadpole. You then unlock crafting blueprints for the starting Small Backpack which raises carry weight 30 lbs.
Tip: I highly recommend server hopping Camp Lewis until the exams you need are available if struggling to progress. Repeat easier challenges like athletics and swimming to stockpile extra badges on case you fail tougher ones. Reviving players and killing creatures took me the longest.
While the Tadpole backpack helps initially, it has no damage resistance and limited mods. So after a bit of adventuring with it equipped, you‘ll be hungry for an upgrade…
Step 2: Ally with Settlers Faction & Improve Reputation
The Secret Service backpack plan is purchased from Samuel at Foundation settlement using Gold Bullion after achieving the Ally reputation rank with the Settlers.
Gold Bullion is earned from public events, daily faction quests, and trading Treasury Notes. You‘ll need around 3000-4000 total to buy Secret Service plans based on player reports. Treasury Notes stack slowly by playing, so begin accumulating them early!
Allies status requires lots of daily quest grinding, so partner with both Settlers and Raiders (split bullion) until you unlock everything you want, then focus on one for max reputation.
Settler Dailies:
- Vital Equipment
- Retirement Plan
- Photo Opportunity
Raider Dailies:
- Black Eye
- Disorderly Conduct
- Retirement Plan
I estimate it took me around 3 weeks of daily quests to reach Allies with both factions. Some days were skipped due to work schedules, but I tried to play 1-2 hours most evenings.
Tip: Always grab the Inspiration perk under Charisma before turning in quests! It doubles reputation gains to speed up unlocking Allies rank substantially. And check Samuel/Mortimer‘s inventory whenever bullion caps to avoid over-earning and wasting quest progress.
Step 3: Purchase Secret Service Backpack Plan
Finally, once you‘ve built enough Settler reputation and bullion, check Samuel‘s inventory for the Secret Service backpack plan costing around 2000 Gold Bullion.
Learn this, gather components (ballistic fiber, lead, silver,steel) then craft your shiny new backpack!
My recommendation is to upgrade to Buttressed chest armor pieces first for maximum armor plated mod benefits later. But revel in that sweet 90 lb carry weight boost right away!
Step 4: Grind Settler Rep Further for Mod Plans
You‘ll need to keep improving reputation beyond Allies to purchase Secret Service backpack mod plans from Samuel when they refresh.
I prioritized the Chemist mod to ease inventory woes, but refrigerator and high capacity are great too depending on playstyle.
These take several thousand extra Gold Bullion and weeks of grinding…but adding mods pushes the Secret Service pack to its full potential!
And that‘s the entire journey to unlocking Fallout 76‘s elite Secret Service backpack summed up!
The road is long, but richly rewarding. The effort invested makes finally obtaining this top-tier, high-capacity, defensive backpack for yourself feel like a true achievement. Especially when it enables hauling mounds of loot across Appalachia with ease on future adventures!
Let me know if this guide helps you get your own Secret Service pack, or if you have any other Fallout 76 backpack questions! I‘m happy to provide more tips.
Safe travels, dwellers!
