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There are multiple reasons for taking the time to level up your food storage mule to level 55:
Legendary perk card slot unlocks at level 50
You can use the extra level-ups and perk cards to rank up your legendary perk cards
Easier to find Food, Drink & Chem weight reduction armour
Standard backpack carry weight is tiered, and the 60 pounds only unlocks at level 50
Many perk cards don't unlock until the high 40s
Max carry weight is approx 1907-1924 pounds
You can run any build, perk cards, mutations etc. while you are leveling up your mule. Once your mule has reached level 50, then clear their mutations and use the punchcard machine to move your perk points around as recommended below.
Avoid eating or using chems on your mule that increase strength. If your carry weight gets to [Max] then RIP. You will need to drop items until you get to below [Max], and items dropped at [Max] are destroyed by the game. You will need space to boost your strength or carry weight more with food or chems to get out of [Max] without dropping things. Eat a strength booster or pop some chems to get out of [Max] so that you can safely move items off the mule and get back down below max weight.
Remember, higher strength = more carry weight. A character's base carry weight is 150 pounds, and for each point in strength you gain +5 pounds carry weight.
Perk cards & SPECIALs
Full food storage mule perk card loadout can be found here.
In your SPECIAL loadout:
Make sure you have max Strength.
Use cards that reduce the weight of food, drinks, junk, and chems.
Use perk cards that give your character more carry weight.
Equip Good with Salt rank 3 under Luck to make your food last longer.
Legendary perk cards
At level 50 you are only going to have one legendary slot unlocked, so pick Legendary Strength. Rank this card up when possible to max it out.
Underarmour
If you have the patience, then Secret Service Shielded underarmour is the best, because it gives more strength. However, it is difficult for a lower-level character to get, because the plan is purchased with bullion rather than dropped from an event. The Enclave Shielded underarmour is the next best thing.
Armour
The ideal armour would be a full set of Unyielding with +1 Strength and Food Drink Chem (FDC) weight reduction on each piece.
Unyielding (full set) - for the +15 boost to Strength
+1 Strength (full set) - for the +5 boost to Strength
FDC weight reduction - as a backup in case your perk cards unequip themselves.
Realistically, a set of 1 star Unyielding armour will work just fine.
Note: FDC reduction caps at 90%, so if you have all of the perk cards listed in the perk card loadout equipped, adding a full set of FDC reduction armour will not change your carry weight. However, we do suggest running a set of FDC reduction armour as a backup in case your perk cards unequip themselves.
Mutations
Avoid any mutations that reduce strength, as they will affect your mule's carry weight.
We recommend:
Speed Demon
Herd Mentality
Marsupial
Scaly Skin
Carnivore
Healing Factor
Backpack
Complete The Order of the Tadpole questline to unlock the standard backpack.
We recommend doing these three badges as they are the easiest and the quickest to complete:
Pioneer Scout Badge Exam answers.
The standard backpack scales with your toon's level, so to unlock the max 60 pounds that a standard backpack provides, your toon will need to be level 50.
Personally, we run the high-capacity backpack on all our mules for the extra carry weight (plus it's easier to get the mod plans).
Note that the Grocery and Chem backpack mods from the Settlers and Raiders do not stack with weight reduction perk cards or Food, Drink, and Chem weight reduction armour.
Tips
Avoid keeping junk on your mule. Always store junk in your scrap box or in your stash box. If your mule is AFK and they die, you could lose the junk.
If you need alcohol to ferment faster or meat to spoil, don't keep it on you or your mule; put it in your/your main toon's stash box. Items will only spoil or ferment when that character is logged in.
Once your mule has leveled up and is ready to be filled, move them to a train station that has some high-level enemies nearby. If for some reason you need to move your mule, you can use the enemies to kill you. You can then respawn on a teammate ("death travel").
Craving buffs but short on time to make them yourself?
Let Buffs n Brew handle it! Place your food buff order, and our chefs will whip up your meal and deliver it straight to your camp's front door.
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This is a great beginner guide, thank you for putting the time in to write and share