The Fallout 76 First Contact main quest is the first quest which you’ll gain after stepping out of Vault 76; after the completion of Reclamation Day. From the vault doors, head down the steps to find a Mister Handy near the body of a Responder. Speak to the robot to pick up the quest. First Contact is a great quest to start with, as it will teach you about most of Fallout 76’s core mechanics.
How to Complete the Fallout 76 First Contact Main Quest
Once you acquire the First Contact quest from the robot, you’ll be given an objective marker. Head away from Vault 76 along Route 88 East. Cross a bridge, and you should find the Overseer’s first C.A.M.P. just off the road. This campsite already has most of the game’s different crafting stations, all of which can be freely used by players. Take a look at each of these to get to grips with the game’s different Workbenches and the Cooking Station, and how the crafting/cooking mechanics work. In the camp, you’ll need to craft a weapon and a piece of armour to complete two miscellaneous quests.
Note that the C.A.M.P. also contains one of the Overseer’s caches. Looting this will start the side quest “Overseer’s Mission,” and also give you the Overseer’s Log Holotape. After you do that, listen to the holotape, which will give you an idea of what the Overseer is doing.
Joining the Responders in Flatwoods
Once you’ve completed all the objectives at the campsite and listened to the Overseer’s Log, you will learn that she was on her way to Flatwoods. Make your way towards the next objective site down the road, where you will find the town. As will quickly become apparent, Flatwoods was a base of operations for the Responders, one of the game’s factions. Make a beeline for the church, which was the local Responders Command Post, to find a second Overseer’s Cache and another holotape to listen to.
Having heard the Overseer’s suggestion to help the Responders if any are left alive, you should now cross the street and enter the Flatwoods Tavern. At the back of this building you can find a pair of self-registration terminals, set up to allow new recruits to register with the Responders. You can use one of these to register yourself as a volunteer, which will give you your next objective; find Kesha McDermott. You can look her up in the Responder database on the same terminal. At the same time you will also complete the First Contact quest, earning you a Hatchet, a Paramedic Jumpsuit, a Healing Salve Recipe, a Photo Frame for the game’s Photo Mode, and some random ammo.