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Discover everything you need to know about how to play as a Ghoul in Fallout 76 including its unique mechanics and perk cards.
Fallout 76’s major update has arrived that will let you play as a Ghoul. Once you hit a specific level, you will get a new quest in your pip-boy called Leap of Faith. This quest takes you to a new section of the Savage Divide. Throughout your journey, you’ll come across new characters who will aid in your transformation into a Ghoul. If you choose to turn into a Ghoul, you will be able to customize your looks with all new character customization options. Along with your new appearance, you have access to new Ghoul-specific abilities like the Glow system and the feral meter.
As well as a host of new Ghoul exclusive perk cards, allowing for a ton of new character-build possibilities. Some factions don’t like to interact with Ghouls, so you will need a disguise to work with those factions. If you miss your smooth skin and find that life as a Ghoul isn’t for you, you can switch back to being a human through your character screen on the main menu. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to play as a Ghoul and how to revert into Ghoul including some tips and tricks.
How does Playing as a Ghoul Work in Fallout 76?
You receive a sequence of side quests called Leap of Faith and A Fresh Pair of Genes after reaching level 50. Completing the quest allows you to turn the Vault Dweller into a ghoul if desired. Once you’re converted into a Ghoul, you gain access to several perks and abilities. This allows you to use radiation, while multiple NPC factions have unique reactions to or no interaction with Ghoul. You will notice many changes to perks, dialogue, interactions, and resistances. While many perks are unique to Ghouls, others are restricted to humans. Ghouls will also need to procure a disguise from Jaye Vo in Radiant Hill to interact with some factions. If you want to change back into a human, you may do so on the Main Menu.
However, your ability to become a Ghoul will be restricted. To increase your glow, you need to stand in toxic water near nuclear waste or fisher sites. You can also drink toxic water, toxic goo, or glowing blood packs. Before picking the perk cards, you need to decide whether you want to be feral or non-feral. The Feral mater on the bottom right of your screen tracks how close you are to going full feral. The lower the feral the more feral you are. If you don’t want to be feral, then keep this bar up. If you’re non-feral, you will get more strength, endurance, and health points. If you’re completely feral, you will lose health points, endurance, charisma, AP, and 300% gun accuracy in exchange for 150% more melee damage.
Glow Meter
The glow meter functions as a form of overhealth, extending your survivability beyond your normal health pool. You can replenish your glow meter easily using toxic goo located in the food and drink section of your pit boy. This works similarly to a stimpack. Keeping a stockpile of goo means you’ll always have an instant way to restore your health and glow. You will need a lot of goo, so find an easy spot to stock up like WestTech before your adventures. Additionally, radiation from environmental sources, nuclear zones, and rad-based damage from enemy attacks will contribute to your glow meter. This makes rad-heavy areas much less threatening and often beneficial.
Builds
With the unique mechanics of Ghoul, some standout build options work especially well. First is a full health build. Using the glow meter for extra health makes this build strong for survivability. Paired with the new perk cards for ranged builds makes this playstyle a serious contender. The second is a melee feral build. Keeping the feral meter empty to maximize the 150% melee damage boost. Each playstyle offers unique advantages depending on whether you prioritize tankiness, damage output, or stealth.
Ghoul Perk Cards
Now that you can play as a Ghoul, you want to check the additional 28 new Ghoul-related perk cards and the two new legendary Ghoul cards available to add to your build. This allows you to fully make the most out of your character in Fallout 76. New Ghoul-specific perk cards are equally split across the SPECIAL with four new cards added to each. However, do note that once you are a Ghoul, you will lose the ability to use 21 of the existing perk cards that only work with humans.
Strength
Strength is a measure of your raw physical power. It affects how much you carry, and the damage of all melee attacks.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arms of Steel | 70 | 1 | Your sturdy arms allow you to handle ranged weapons better, increasing accuracy by 15% |
| 2 | Your sturdy arms allow you to handle ranged weapons better, increasing accuracy by 30% | ||
| Bone Shatterer | 90 | 1 | Your melee weapon attacks have a 15% chance to cripple a limb. |
| 2 | Your melee weapon attacks have a 30% chance to cripple a limb. | ||
| 3 | Your melee weapon attacks have a 45% chance to cripple a limb. | ||
| Brick Wall | 100 | 1 | When your Glow is high, it makes you immune to staggering attacks. Cost: 2 |
| Radioactive Strength | 80 | 1 | Expend a moderate amount of Glow to deal 50% more damage with power attacks and bashing. |
| 2 | Expend a moderate amount of Glow to deal 100% more damage with power attacks and bashing. | ||
| 3 | Expend a moderate amount of Glow to deal 150% more damage with power attacks and bashing. |
Perception
Perception affects your awareness of nearby enemies, your ability to detect stealthy movement, and your weapon accuracy in V.A.T.S.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breathe It In | 60 | 1 | Rad resistance is reduced by 50. |
| 2 | Rad resistance is reduced by 100. | ||
| 3 | Rad resistance is reduced by 150. | ||
| Eye of the Hunter | 85 | 1 | Your vision grants you +20% accuracy in V.A.T.S. from a slightly longer distance. |
| 2 | Your vision grants you +25% accuracy in V.A.T.S. from a longer distance. | ||
| 3 | Your vision grants you +30% accuracy in V.A.T.S. from a very long distance. | ||
| Glowing Hunter | 75 | 1 | Traces of glowing blood now have a 50% chance of appearing on animal corpses. |
| Rad Reaver | 100 | 1 | Dealing with non-automatic melee damage provides a small amount of Glow. Cost: 2 |
Endurance
Endurance is a measure of your overall physical fitness. It affects your total Health, the Action Point drain from sprinting, and your disease resistance.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chem Diet | 55 | 1 | Chems are 25% more effective at reducing how feral you are. |
| 2 | Chems are 50% more effective at reducing how feral you are. | ||
| 3 | Chems are 75% more effective at reducing how feral you are. | ||
| Glowing Gut | 80 | 1 | Irradiated food and drink grant 100% more rads. |
| 2 | Irradiated food and drink grant 200% more rads. | ||
| 3 | Irradiated food and drink grant 300% more rads. | ||
| Radiation Power | 50 | 1 | Expend a small amount of Glow per hit to deal 10% bonus damage to targets. |
| 2 | Expend a small amount of Glow per hit to deal 20% bonus damage to targets. | ||
| 3 | Expend a small amount of Glow per hit to deal 30% bonus damage to targets. | ||
| Thick Skin | 60 | 1 | Your body now takes 3% less damage from Ballistic attacks. (No power Armor.) |
| 2 | Your body now takes 6% less damage from Ballistic attacks. (No power Armor.) | ||
| 3 | Your body now takes 10% less damage from Ballistic attacks. (No power Armor.) |
Charisma
Charisma is your ability to lead and help others. It allows you to share your Perk Cards (CHA must be greater than or equal to 3 times the point value of the card you wish to share) and also affects your rewards from Group Quests and prices when you barter.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feral Presence | 80 | 1 | While Feral, reduce your target’s damage output by 15% after you attack for 5 seconds. |
| 2 | While Feral, reduce your target’s damage output by 30% after you attack for 5 seconds. | ||
| Glowing One | 70 | 1 | Holding large amounts of Glow provides Glow to nearby ghouls on your team. |
| 2 | Holding large amounts of Glow provides greater Glow to nearby ghouls on your team. | ||
| Moral Support | 70 | 1 | When on a team, you become Feral 50% slower. |
| United Ordeal | 60 | 1 | While in a team with another ghoul, you gain +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. |
| 2 | While in a team with another ghoul, you gain +2 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. | ||
| 3 | While in a team with another ghoul, you gain +3 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. |
Intelligence
Intelligence is a measure of overall mental acuity (+2.072% XP per INT), and affects your ability to hack terminals, the condition and durability of items that you craft, and the return you get from scrapping.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bomb Scientist | 80 | 1 | Expending Glow makes your thrown grenades deal +20% damage. |
| 2 | Expending Glow makes your thrown grenades deal +35% damage. | ||
| 3 | Expending Glow makes your thrown grenades deal +50% damage. | ||
| Mad Scientist | 60 | 1 | Energy weapons expand a small amount of Glow per attack for 10% Damage. |
| 2 | Energy weapons expand a small amount of Glow per attack for 15% Damage. | ||
| 3 | Energy Weapons expand a small amount of Glow per attack for 20% Damage. | ||
| Rad Specialist | 70 | 1 | Increase Rad intake by 15% on Armor & Power Armor, Double if wearing a matching set. |
| 2 | Increase Rad intake by 20% on Armor & Power Armor, Double if wearing a matching set. | ||
| 3 | Increase Rad intake by 25% on Armor & Power Armor, Double if wearing a matching set. | ||
| Science Monster | 100 | 1 | While you have Glow, gain 5% bonus damage for 10 seconds upon getting hit. |
| 2 | While you have Glow, gain 10% bonus damage for 10 seconds upon getting hit. | ||
| 3 | While you have Glow, gain 15% bonus damage for 10 seconds upon getting hit. |
Agility
Agility is a measure of your overall finesse and reflexes. It affects the number of Action Points in V.A.T.S. and your ability to sneak.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action Ghoul | 50 | 1 | The power of Glow makes your AP regenerate 15% faster. |
| 2 | The power of Glow makes your AP regenerate 30% faster. | ||
| 3 | The power of Glow makes your AP regenerate 45% faster. | ||
| Gun Tricks | 80 | 1 | Your enhanced reflexes allow you to reload weapons 10% faster. |
| 2 | Your enhanced reflexes allow you to reload weapons 20% faster. | ||
| 3 | Your enhanced reflexes allow you to reload weapons 30% faster. | ||
| Hyper Reflexes | 100 | 1 | When your Glow is high, gain a 10% Evasion chance. (No Power Armor) |
| 2 | When your Glow is high, gain a 15% Evasion chance. (No Power Armor) | ||
| 3 | When your Glow is high, gain a 20% Evasion chance. (No Power Armor) | ||
| Jaguar Speed | 60 | 1 | You now sprint 10% faster when your Glow is high. |
| 2 | You now sprint 20% faster when your Glow is high. |
Luck
Luck is a measure of your overall good fortune, and affects the recharge rate of critical hits as well as the condition and durability of items you loot.
| Name | Level | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battle-Genes | 80 | 1 | Gain 2 HP per second while in combat. |
| 2 | Gain 4 HP per second while in combat. | ||
| Faulty Spots | 75 | 1 | Weak point damage is increased by 15%. Cost: 2 |
| Glowing Criticals | 100 | 1 | When your Glow is high, Gain 20% bonus Critical damage in V.A.T.S. |
| 2 | When your Glow is high, Gain 35% bonus Critical damage in V.A.T.S. | ||
| 3 | When your Glow is high, Gain 50% bonus Critical damage in V.A.T.S. | ||
| Wild West Hands | 65 | 1 | 12% chance to instantly reload your entire magazine when empty. |
| 2 | 24% chance to instantly reload your entire magazine when empty. | ||
| 3 | 36% chance to instantly reload your entire magazine when empty. |
Legendary Perks
| Name | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Action Diet | 1 | On kills, heal 2 HP and reduce how Feral you are by 2%. |
| 2 | On kills, heal 4 HP and reduce how Feral you are by 3%. | |
| 3 | On kills, heal 6 HP and reduce how Feral you are by 4%. | |
| 4 | On Kills, heal 8 HP and reduce how Feral you are by 5%. | |
| Feral Rage | 1 | When Feral, all Glow perk abilities cost 20% less Glow. |
| 2 | When Feral, all Glow perk abilities cost 30% less Glow. | |
| 3 | When Feral, all Glow perk abilities cost 40% less Glow. | |
| 4 | When Feral, all Glow perk abilities cost 50% less Glow. |
Ghoul Guide in Fallout 76 Explained
To transform into a ghoul, you’ll need to complete the quest line leap of faith, followed by a fresh pair of jeans. These quests introduce the process of ghoulification, giving you insight into how and why you’re mutating. Once you progress through the required steps, your character will fully transition into a ghoul. Then a character creation screen will pop up, allowing you to fully customize your ghoulish features. Becoming a ghoul is a permanent change unless you manually revert. So be sure you want to commit before completing the quest. After that, you’ll have access to all the benefits and drawbacks of being a ghoul. As a ghoul, radiation no longer harms you but it heals you. Instead of slowly killing your character, rad exposure will now regenerate your health. Radiation also ties directly into the glow meter which is a new system layered over your standard health bar.
Feral Meter
The feral meter determines how well you’re maintaining your mental state. This meter fluctuates based on chem usage. The more chems you take the less feral you become. Keeping your feral meter filled comes with benefits such as buffs to health and AP as well as boosts to all special stats. On the other hand, letting the meter run low or empty results in debuffs including reduced AP and lower perception. However, there is one major upside to an empty feral meter. Melee damage increases by 150% when fully feral. This creates an interesting trade-off. Players using melee builds can intentionally keep their fail meter at zero to maximize damage. The ranged players may prefer to keep their fail meter high for overall buffs.
Hunger
As a ghoul, your character no longer has to eat or drink. The hunger and thirst meters are completely replaced by the feral meter. This means you won’t need to worry about well-fed or dehydration penalties anymore. However, food and drinks can still provide benefits. Certain perk cards like Glowing Gut enhance how many rads ghouls get from food and drinks. You will still be able to take advantage of buffs from food and drinks as well.
Perk Cards
Playing as a ghoul comes with some fun gameplay possibilities. So, let’s take a closer look at the unique perks for Ghouls. Ghouls gain access to 28 new perk cards as well as two legendary perk cards that tailor their gameplay experience. These include buffs and mechanics like the following.
- Ranged combat perks- buffs for weapon reloads and long-range damage
- melee perks- enhancing melee, especially for players keeping a low feral meter
- Survivability perks- increased glow regeneration and rad-based healing improvements
- Rad-based consumption perks- modifying the effects of radiated food and water.
These perk cards help shape different build styles allowing players to lean into specific strengths.
Disguises
Ghouls in Fallout 76 are not welcome everywhere. Certain factions like the Brotherhood of Steel and Foundation will refuse to interact with you. This restricts your ability to fast travel to inside of their faction hubs. To get around this, you can use disguises. This is sold by a vendor named JO located in the new Radiant Hills area on the map. Wearing a disguise will hide your ghoulish appearance, allowing you to interact with people as if you were still a human. However, once you’re done using a disguise, you’ll need to return to the vendor to have the disguise removed. This means you won’t be missing out on any content but disguises could add a challenging element to playing as a ghoul. Plan accordingly before heading out into the wasteland.
Dialogue
As a ghoul, you may notice changes in how NPCs interact with you. Some characters may comment on your appearance. Certain dialogue options may be unavailable if an NPC refuses to talk to ghouls. However, outside of faction restrictions these changes are mostly cosmetic and won’t impact quests in major ways. This means that while you might get a few rude remarks you won’t be locked out of any major storylines just for being a ghoul.
Get Back to Human Character
If you decide ghoul life isn’t for you, you can return to your character menu and select to transform back into your regular character. So, if you ever want to switch back to being human, you can do so at any time for free no matter what. This process is straightforward as you select revert to humanity via the character menu. All ghoul-related mechanics like the glow meter and feral meter will be removed. No matter how many times you become a ghoul returning to humanity will always be free.
Revert to Ghoul
However, you change your mind later and go back to your ghoulish ways. The only way to do this is by purchasing a ghoul re-transformation pass from the atomic shop for 1,000 atoms. This allows you to return to your ghoul state whenever you want. You don’t have to redo the entire quest line or reacquire perk cards. This cost applies every time you want to regul after your first transformation. However, atoms can be tricky to come by. So, if you’re on the fence about becoming a ghoul keep the cost in mind.
Pros and Cons
Let’s go over the pros and cons of ghoulifying your character. This allows you to decide if it’s the right choice for you. Radiation is no longer a problem. Instead of being harmful, rads now heal you and fuel your glow meter. No hunger and thirst meter as you no longer need to eat or drink to survive. This allows you to free up inventory space and simplify gameplay. You gain a High health buff as the glow effect provides overhealth, making high health builds even stronger. You are immune to diseases as you can’t contract diseases from food, water, or environmental hazards.
On the other hand, some cons to consider include. You are still susceptible to chem addiction. Even though Chems help manage your feral meter, you can still get addicted to them. Since radiation no longer damages your health bar, you can’t take advantage of bloodied perks or low health damage boost. You also gain movement speed penalties and disguises. While disguises help you access areas otherwise restricted to ghouls they come with slight movement speed reductions. Being a Ghoul also grants you a Permanent -10 charisma. Due to this, certain dialogue choices may be unavailable and prices at vendors will be higher. So be mindful when making your choice and ultimately just have fun with it.
Ghoul Tips and Tricks in Fallout 76
Here are all the tips and tricks for Ghoul in Fallout 76.
- Sprint toward enemies like a Feral Ghoul if you’re using a melee.
- Use the Ghoulish perk to convert radiation into healing. This makes rads beneficial instead of harmful.
- You can equip Power Armor with Radiation Coils to spread radiation to nearby enemies.
- Some factions in the game don’t like to interact with ghouls, so you’ll need a disguise to interact with them.
- Keep your Feral meter high to deal more melee damage.
- You can revert to human from the main menu in the character selection area.
- You must try now Ghoul perk cards that enhance your ghoul abilities and open up new build opportunities.
- It’s best to consider Adamantium for carrying weight if you’re running regular armor.
- Use Chems to enhance your Feral Meter.
FAQs about Fallout 76: How to play as a Ghoul
What is Ghoul in Fallout 76?
Ghoul in Fallout 76 are humans that are mutated by the radiation of the nuclear wasteland. Becoming a ghoul is a permanent change unless you manually revert.
How to Become Ghoul in Fallout 76?
You’ll need to complete the quest line leap of faith, followed by a fresh pair of jeans after reaching level 50 to transform into the Ghoul.
How many perks are available for Ghoul in Fallout 76?
There are 28 Perks and 2 new Legendary perks for Ghouls in Fallout 76. You can get these new Perk cards from Perk card packs or by selecting your level-up Perk.
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