According to Bethesda, the most popular food item in Fallout 76 is Canned Dog Food. The information was recently revealed by the studio via a “Vault-Tec Statistics,” Tweet. While it may seem strange that players have apparently eaten more Fallout 76 dog food than literally anything else, there are actually a few good reasons to explain this unusual appetite.
A perfect snack when you're on the go! What's your #Fallout76 food of choice if not dog food? pic.twitter.com/VGD9MT77UC
— Fallout (@Fallout) December 29, 2018
Fallout 76 Dog Food: The Most Popular Food Item in the Game
Eating and drinking is more important in Fallout 76 than in any previous Fallout game thanks to the addition of survival mechanics. Now that players actually have slowly depleting hunger and thirst bars, there is a constant need to carry food and drink around. As a result, the game’s cooking mechanics are much more important, and it also helps to explain the popularity of Fallout 76 dog food. The benefits of canned items are significant, as they’re food items which you don’t need to cook, but more than that, they have a number of extra benefits.
Thanks to being in a can, dog food doesn’t spoil. That means you can carry it around as long as you want and it’ll never go bad. Most other food items, especially those which you cook, will degrade or become unhealthy over time. Additionally, there is no risk of contracting a disease when eating canned food.
Overall, Canned Dog Food restores 10% of your hunger, which isn’t very much. It does, however, restore 25 HP while only giving you 1 Rads; this is a fairly good trade-off compared to a lot of other food items. So, overall it’s a fairly good item, but not amazing. Certainly not as good as Canned Meat Stew, but thanks to Bethesda patching that item’s glitch, players don’t have such ready access to that XP-buffing stew anymore. These qualities alone don’t explain why dog food is more popular than everything else, however. There is one additional reason for that; the “Good Doggy” Perk Card.
“Good Doggy,” is a level 8 Endurance Perk Card. If you have it equipped, it makes Canned Dog Food three times more beneficial! That means each can will restore 30% of your Hunger. Moreover, it actually makes dog food a more effective healing item than a Healing Salve for many characters. Although it isn’t as effective as a Stimpak, it’s certainly a very valuable backup healing item; explaining why players have apparently developed this unusual taste!