If you want to earn your Swimming Badge for the Tadpoles, you’ll need to brave a radioactive lake with some resident Mirelurks. Here’s how to best the Lake Tadpole Swimming Test in Fallout 76.
How to start the Spruce Knob Lake Swimming Challenge in Fallout 76
To get your Swimming Badge in Fallout 76, you first need to start the challenge. This swimming challenge is exclusive to Pioneer Scouts, a pre-war club of survivalists. So head over to their camp in Appalachia if you aren’t a part of their group already.
This swimming test is located at Spruce Knob Lake, which can be found here in the image above.
This area has a Mirelurk infestation thanks to the presence of a Mirelurk Queen, so be very careful when entering the region.
Before you start the challenge, you’ll need to have a swimsuit equipped. A few swimsuits can be found around the hut outside the lake, in the Footlocker and in a Portaloo, so don’t worry if you don’t already have one.
With the swimsuit equipped, you’re ready to begin the Tadpole Swimming Challenge.
Head over to the speaker on the small wooden pier between the lake and the hut, but don’t activate it yet. There are a couple of things you’ll want to do before you activate the challenge to make completing it much easier.
How to complete the Spruce Knob Lake Swimming Challenge in Fallout 76
The Spruce Knob Lake Swimming Challenge isn’t too difficult in Fallout 76 by itself, as all you must do is swim to five floating buoys in the lake and back again. However, the Mirelurks and the radiation make this challenge particularly difficult.
Before you start the challenge and step foot into the lake, make sure to consume a Rad-X. This will prevent the lake’s radiation from robbing you of all your health.
Then, start fighting the Mirelurks. Honestly, they’re pretty easy to defeat, as long as you aim for the squishy bits underneath their shells. This may attract the attention of the queen, but you can ignore her. As long as you thin the herd, you’ll have a much easier time quickly dashing through the challenge.
As the Mirelurk Queen is at the far end of the lake, you can perform half of the challenge without any threat from it.
Once most of the Mirelurks have been killed, you can interact with the speaker to start the challenge. You will have five minutes to swim to and touch the five buoys.
The lake is pretty shallow, so you’ll be mostly running to the first few until you get the attention of the Mirelurk Queen. She is more intimidating than she is powerful, so focus on the challenge by hitting the rest of the buoys, then return to the speaker to conclude the challenge.
When the challenge has been completed, you can run away as quickly as you can to escape the wrath of the Mirelurk Queen and her offspring. Or you can try your luck at defeating her if you’re high enough level and have good enough gear.
Now that you know how to get your Tadpole Swimming Badge, make sure to remember to take your Rad-X. Otherwise, you’ll become a ghoul before you know it.
