What it's like to become a Ghoul in Fallout 76

During a visit to Bethesda Game Studios in London, I spent a couple of hours running around as a Ghoul in Fallout 76. After years of player requests, the ability to Ghoulify yourself is coming to the multiplayer survival game in 2025, with a treasure of new content and features alongside it.

Ghoulification

To become a Ghoul in Fallout 76, players will need to reach level 50. After doing so, they’ll be able to access a quest in which they help an NPC become a Ghoul. During the quest, players are given the option to turn into a Ghoul themselves. It’s possible to revert to being a human, but that can only be done once for free.

When players become a Ghoul, they’ll be able to customize their visual appearance, including skin color and texture.

Becoming a Ghoul comes with a swath of gameplay changes that’ll transform how you explore the wasteland. The most important change is that Ghouls are completely immune to the negative effects of Radiation. In fact, Radiation actually heals Ghouls and provides them with buffs. Fallout 76 is adding 32 new Perk Cards specific to Ghouls, which can be combined with existing Perk Cards to create unique playstyles.

Going feral

Ghoulification comes with the removal of the Hunger and Thirst meters. They’ve been replaced with the Feral meter, which is maintained by consuming Chems. If the Feral meter is depleted, players will go feral, triggering negative status effects such as reduced accuracy and health. However, players will receive a bonus to melee damage while feral.

Being a Ghoul has ramifications outside of combat, too. Many NPCs will interact differently with Ghouls, opening the door for new narrative paths. The Brotherhood of Steel in particular is not fond of Ghouls, creating a new hurdle for players looking to interact with that faction. During one quest, I disguised my Ghoul status to avoid issues with an important NPC. Dealing with the consequences of being a Ghoul is the price players pay for enjoying all of its perks. That said, Fallout 76 does offer the option to rid yourself of Ghoul status and revert to being a human. Players can do this once for free.

Ghoulish

Fallout 76 will add the ability to become a Ghoul in 2025. For more on the latest Fallout 76 updates, stick with us here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_