The Appalachian Wasteland of Fallout 76 is packed with useful items for you to hoard over the course of the hundreds of hours you’ll play it. One of the best items you can gather is Fusion Cores. These are used as a source of energy for your Power Armor, allowing you to walk, run, and fight in it. Without a decent store of Fusion Cores, your Power Armor will be a hindrance rather than a help. This guide outlines how to recharge Fusion Cores, so you don’t need to keep crafting them, gathering them, and generally wasting time you could spend killing Scorchbeasts.
Recharging a Fusion Core in Fallout 76
At the time of writing, there are two ways to recharge Fusion Cores in Fallout 76. We’ve listed both below and have explained how they work so you know which one is best for you in the early and late game. Both are far easier than farming Fusion Cores, but you’ll get more experience from that activity than you will from these, so weigh up the pros and cons before diving in.
Recharging Fusion Cores with the Electric Absorption Perk Card
The first way you can recharge Fusion Cores in Fallout 76 is by unlocking the Electric Absorption Legendary Perk Card. To get this, you must reach Level 50 on a character to unlock their Legendary Perk Card Slot. After that, you can select Electric Absorption as one of the cards you equip.
With Electric Absorption equipped, enemy hits have a chance to recharge the Fusion Core currently slotted into your Power Armor. While the change is low even when at its maximum level of 20%, it’s much better than the alternative of dumping a spent Fusion Core. We recommend equipping Electric Absorption before taking on a few daily events in Fallout 76. This will see many enemies attack you and result in more chances for your Fusion Core to be recharged.
Recharging Fusion Cores with the Fusion Core Recharger
The second way to recharge Fusion Cores is by using the Fusion Core Recharger. This item was added to Fallout 76 with its The Pitt update. However, it’s only available as an in-game purchase from the Atomic Shop. It’ll cost you around $30 to buy because it’s lumped in with The Pitt Recruitment Bundle. If you own it though, you can plug your Fusion Cores in and get them to recharge with no effort on your part at all.
You will need to construct the Fusion Core Recharger at your camp. After that, connect the recharger to a power supply of 20 units to activate it. This device is equipped with four slots specifically designed for Fusion Cores. To recharge, simply insert any depleted Fusion Cores into the slots. The recharging process enhances the cores by 1% per minute, meaning a core at 50% will be fully charged in 50 minutes, and a nearly empty core at 1% will require almost two hours. After the cores are completely recharged, they can be taken out and utilized as necessary.
What are Fusion Cores for in Fallout 76?
Fusion Cores are high-quality, durable nuclear batteries previously employed in both civilian and military capacities before the Great War. Civilians used these cores to operate various devices, including automobiles and generators. In contrast, the military utilized them to power power armor and certain models of Gatling lasers. A universal core interface was developed to enable the use of cores from different sources in power armor frames, allowing for broader application. Additionally, Fusion Cores can also be connected to some melee weapons using jumper cables.