5 Common Misconceptions About Fallout's Ghouls

[@mnesia3817]

i think the reason why some ghouls need water/food and some don’t is because it’s not like the radiation effects every ghoul the same. like dean domino mentioned that he doesn’t even know if he needs to eat at all but he just does it

[@kauske]

It could also be they believe they need it, and seek it out. Hard to know if you can starve to death or not if you don't test it, and why would you test it if the result could be death? It could also be that they can survive off both food, or ionizing radiation, since they do seem to be able to sustain off of radiation in many cases.

[@gabrielbattais4185]

@@kauske or maybe they don't have to eat and drink but still feel the hunger and the thirst, that would explain the ferals, if you are dead hungry for many years i can imagine that could drive almost everybody insane feeling you have to eat but never being able to die from it

[@walmartiancheese4922]

Or maybe it’s just bad writing since everyone in the necropolis fucking dies from thirst if you take their water chip

[@Rameon]

@@walmartiancheese4922that’s not exactly bad writing, Bethesda wanted to retcon a lot of things for their own lore. They technically add onto the original games by continuing the series but they are also very willing to ignore those first games.

[@danielnunez1587]

@@gabrielbattais4185 ghouls don't go feral because they go crazy, they go crazy because the radiation turns their brain to mush

[@jorenbaplu5100]

About whether they need to eat or not, i think they don't physically need to eat but still feel hungry and still think they need to eat. More out of habit and instinct than actual need.

[@greattower1650]

If you think about it, is one of the only things that they preserve from their old lives.

[@anthonycaruso1781]

I think it would be kind of absurd to claim that gouls don't need to eat or drink. There's no known organisms that can survive with no food or water, some can survive on very little, some can go into a kinda hibernation mode when resources are scarce. But they all still need it to be active, energy can't come from nowhere, if you wanna move your arms and legs, you gonna get that energy somewhere. I guess they could get that energy from radiation, but I'd think they at least need water to calalyze the reaction.

[@MrFlip2247]

@@anthonycaruso1781 considering there are multiple perks that use radiation as a form of powerup id say it definitely comes from radiation.

[@ReleasedHollow]

Yeah, like Billy in the fridge was stuck in that fridge for 200 years. I'm sure his supply of sugar bombs and instamash ran out in that amount of time.

[@Salted_Fysh]

@@anthonycaruso1781 we're talking about a world in which being exposed to radiation makes you immortal while also giving you the worst kind of skin disease imaginable which doesn't make sense in the first place. Nothing about Ghouls has anything to do with biology so I don't think it's much of an issue to just accept that they don't need food or water while we're at it.

[@Xstacy]

I think the reason why the player character can take so many rads before dying and not mutating is a gameplay aspect. Same with how you gain certain mutations when meeting the criteria. For example, you can get 600 rads then return to Moira and gain a mutation but if you gain 600 rads when not doing the quest you don't gain a mutation.

[@Headlessgenie]

You got the mutation due to her treatment

[@freedoomer2524]

@@Headlessgenie that’s what he’s saying

[@jmsgridiron5628]

What does the mutation do?

[@smward87]

@@jmsgridiron5628 Crippled limbs automatically heal if suffering from rad poisoning. It's...not great and more a novelty than actualy being useful because you're trading one inconvenience for anoher.

[@jmsgridiron5628]

@@smward87 fair enough. Sounds like a "pick your poison" kinda situation. Doctors bags and stimpacks work just fine so that seems pretty useless or at best, situational.

[@k9vendettathewolfofmordor529]

Still intrigued on how the dunwich stuff plays into ghouls. How the artifacts seem to be a beacon for feral and how the artifact in 3 straight up can ghoulify people

[@FalonGrey]

I mean, it seems Lovecraftian at the very least, so I'd imagine it's either normal Ghoulification, or a far darker, and far older way of preservation the Lone Wanderer just assumes is Ghoulification. Then it's just a stronger mental presence, even in a relatively mentally healthy 19 year old, so it'd no doubt attract, and receive worship from a brainless feral ghoul.

[@5RndsFFE]

It doesn’t, it’s just ghouls are fallouts pseudo zombies and the spookiest things they could put in the lovecraftian Easter egg zones.

[@David_Axelord]

@@5RndsFFE They missed a great opportunity by not putting a giant centaur in there, maybe with some alternate attacks.

[@Bella_The_Chef]

@@5RndsFFE you are simplifying things way too much

[@LainVics]

Perhaps radiation is intrinsically linked with the eldrich forces of eastcoast fallout. Like how the first episode of hbos chernobyle was described as having a Lovecraftian feel, the radiation is similar to something eldrich. You can't feel it, can't see it, can't sense it until it's already killing you, the best you can do to stop it is just protecting yourself, and even then out best is only barely keeping you alive. So perhaps when the bombs fell, an aperture was opened unto the world of the Abyss and let loose the forces of that realm on earth

[@samiamtheman7379]

How ghouls exactly function has always been inconsistent too. This is most likely because Interplay wanted radiation zombies in the game first, and thought of how they were supposed to function after the fact.

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

I wanna know if this is also a misconeption: Ghouls are basically zombies I'm not so sure. 'Zombie' implies that they came back from the dead, though I was always certain Feral Ghouls are a result of radiation and mutation destroying their minds, pretty much turning them into mindless animals. Also, Ghouls still bleed, which means their hearts still beat, and their blood vessels didn't stop. Not to mention, you can hear them breathe

[@manuelmoralez2257]

Ghouls are zombies They can die and literally come back to life

[@Cheerybelle]

@@manuelmoralez2257 Ghouls can't reanimate themselves. ...but Glowing Ones can reanimate dead ghouls and irradiated corpses. It's less an intrinsic aspect of ghouls and more a special property of Glowing Ones.

[@manuelmoralez2257]

@@Cheerybelle that would still make them a zombie 🧟‍♂️

[@manuelmoralez2257]

@liamsteam walsh they healed other ghouls since I believe the first game but resurrection I believe was brought in by fallout 4

[@Cheerybelle]

@@manuelmoralez2257 I suppose. Some feral ghouls could be zombies, but not all feral ghouls are zombies.

[@Ryuko-T72]

Question about Eddie Winter. Did he stay in that room for 200 years or did he leave at all? If he left, is the raider gang that you fight through to get to him his gang?

[@peterprime2140]

It's pretty ambiguous but based on his dialogue, he does seem to have left the bunker, so the gang might be his.

[@NiCoNiCoNiCola]

@@peterprime2140 sussy pfp

[@unusual_sandwich]

I'd assume they're his gang because if not they'd eventually break in and kill him

[@branbelen8528]

its based off a guy howie winters who was in the winterhill gang wars back in the day, long story short he dies lol

[@marcosnore8763]

@@peterprime2140 I just wanted to thank you for linking the source of your profile pic, I was having a hard time these days and I really needed it to "walk/wank it off" with anime titties

[@Werewolf_Korra]

I think that, like the actual undead, Ghouls have a variety of subspecies. Like Marked Men, Cancerous Commonwealth Ghouls, or the more common Necrotic Ghouls. The need to eat is more of a suggestion than a necessity. Dean Domino is even dubious on whether he has to eat. It is possible that the stomach, while still intact, still sends signals. Feral Ghouls trapped in underground places like metros and military bases certainly can't gain access to food or water. As for the brain rot, I think it's a combination of endurance and intelligence. The ghouls who last longest tend to be either intelligent or driven. They have something to keep their mind sharp. Oswald, Jason, Dean, and Desmond come to mind.

[@FalonGrey]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that even in Fallout 1, there was a ghoul being used as a something of a bit of a circus freak, and was locked in a coffin.

[@manuelmoralez2257]

Dean said he thinks he needs to eat not that he actually does He actually supports the case they really don’t but do so out of fear / habit

[@sayethvexus8332]

(I'm sorry if someone else pointed this out already, but I didn't see it in a cursory glance at the comments.) Another example of radiation not turning a human into a ghoul would be the case of Trash from New Vegas. In the south of the Mojave Wasteland, just a bit southeast of Nipton and the Caesar's Legion safehouse, there's a location called the old nuclear test site. Inside there is a shack, and inside the shack is the corpse of a young redheaded woman called Trash, who has kept a "Die-ary" of her attempt to turn herself into a ghoul using the ambient radiation found in that area. Obviously, given that she died before turning into a ghoul, it didn't work.

[@france_stoneshore2150]

Thing about the ghouls and how some need food and others don't. Mutations aren't exactly.... consistent.

[@oake6180]

A creature still needs to eat something or there body simply ceases to function especially after 2 centuries, no mutation can fix that

[@Squirmychair]

This is probably the best explanation for it I’ve seen

[@CloneScavengerVulpin8389]

In other words not all mutations produce the same results.

[@imma5761]

Ehh, its kinda poor explanation considering we are not really using real world science in the games anyway. Sure, genetic mutations indeed work in different way and can be very specific for every individual(considering heavy amounts of radiation and FEV and whatever else could affect DNA) but honestly, they just wrote ghouls as it fitted into their stories. We are trying to find some explanations but Bethesda would have given one if they had one. Simple as thatm

[@incredibleflameboy]

My theory on ghoulification is based around the thyroid. If you have hypothyroidism you're more likely to become a ghoul which explains why they speak so slowly, appear depressed even when they live the good life and all have the common raspy voice.

[@A.R._Ironstar]

A theory I have to explain both child ghouls, and ghouls not needing food or drink. Radiation can sustain them, regenerating their cells and preventing death, but it can not cause the development of new tissue. We know from Fallout 3, with Carol in Undeworld saying that she was a little girl when the bombs dropped, and she ghoulified in the months following, that ghouls can indeed grow and develop, go through puberty and all that jazz, while ghoulified. This is seemingly contradicted by the Kid in a Fridge quest in Fallout 4 though, with Billy having been locked in the fridge since the bombs dropped, and ghoulified within it, and is still a child. (his parents also being ghouls seemingly hinting at a genetic component as a requirement for ghoulification). Its not a contradiction however, when you consider radiation as a sustaining force alone for ghouls, able to repair cell damage but not create new cellular structures itself, since new material is needed for the body to grow. The difference between them, is that Carol had access to food, and water since the bombs dropped, and due to that was able to grow up. Billy only had radiation effecting him, enough to sustain him, but no new material to cause the development of new muscle tissue, bones, produce hormones, etc. So, a ghoul doesn't REQUIRE food and drink, if they have a source of radiation they can use to regenerate from at least periodically, it will sustain and regenerate them. But without somewhat regular radiation, they would require food and drink. Not every ghoul seems to know this though, but at the same time it also explains why feral ghouls tend to congregate in areas that generally have some background radiation close by as well, laying dormant for years, or in some cases centuries, while the radiation sustains them and staves off death, they are drawn to it because it simply keeps them alive.

[@EighmyLupin]

One thing about Black Isle is that the people telling the story never really agreed on what was canon and what was not and often changed their minds about story elements. A lot of retcons Bethesda gets blamed with weren't even retcons they made, but instead either a retcon one of the old devs made on their forums or FO Bible or them going with the opinion of a different dev than what most the fan base did.

[@Subject_Keter]

Tbh Fallout 1 and 2 feel like a dream with how it ties and works together. It makes sense but it hasty and they kinda want to focus on other stuff.

[@GrouchyRaccoon]

The Children of Atom bring up so many questions. Is seems as though they're entirely immune to radiation, but they're not Ghouls. It could be that they're just at the early stages of ghoulification but then you'd expect to find a lot of Ghouls in their ranks and there just isn't. It makes you wonder if Atom really is actually keeping them alive...

[@hamby2232]

I thought of it as a mutation they developed, because it seems like there's a specific factor that allows people to turn into ghouls, paired with the fact that you only see these people after ~200 years post war it's possible that over that long of consistent but not lethal radiation exposure, they've developed a mutation to resist or filter out radiation, or at least the negative effects

[@battlesheep2552]

I would presume that "Atom's Blessing" is just a naturally occurring adaptation to radiation that developed after 200 years of people trying to survive a nuclear apocalypse.

[@yocobef2186]

Gorsky was complaining about the government coming to take him, I strongly believe he’s prewar

[@thinkingboi9508]

Yeah but couldn't he just be a nut job and think the government was after him even if it did not exist?

[@Toxic_Korgi]

I think his point was that he didn't turn into a ghoul until after the war and he got stuck hiding down there.

[@antonfowler6582]

Yes he definitely is pre war he was building a nuke in his basement to destroy the electric tower he believed was sending signals to his brain .

[@HamanKarn567]

Desmond is one of my favorite fallout characters I hope he returns in a future game.

[@azraelwolfsblood2902]

Another misconception is that people think ghouls don’t need to eat or drink to survive yet in fallout 1 you can kill everyone in necropolis if they go without water after a few weeks

[@doomfistmain5515]

At this point ghouls dietary needs are a massive plothole

[@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz]

I wouldn't have misconception, id say inconsistentcy in the games. FO1 says they need water, FO4 says they don't.

[@h1de]

There's also that lady outside of Bunker Hill who was running experiments and turned herself into a ghoul. Her house is not too far from Bunker Hill and you can listen to her tapes.

[@Werewolf_Korra]

People get mad at Bethesda for the Fridge Kid and the more supernatural elements, but that stuff was always in Fallout. Nirnroot being on the Prydwyn is no worse than recruiting an AI named Skynet to your team.

[@____________838]

@Vargen Fjorton or just by saying “Bethesda”

[@Agent_Frank_Horrigan]

Fridge kid was definitely not in the fridge for 200 years

[@Werewolf_Korra]

@@Agent_Frank_Horrigan no, because it's a fictional game where green goo turns you into the Hulk and radiation makes you immortal

[@Agent_Frank_Horrigan]

@@Werewolf_Korra I know it's ridiculous and also a bethesda game, but how is Billy in a fridge for 200 years? and his parents are still at their house? And they haven't left to look for him in all 200 years? They should have been long gone in my opinion. My theory is that Billy went adventuring and found that fridge, the slavers came by so he hid in there, the we come by and hear him, help him out, and take him to his parents. But knowing how lazy bethesda could be I'm sure it's exactly as told.

[@Descriptor413]

@@Agent_Frank_Horrigan My assumption that he was just in a knocked out hibernative state for 200 years, much like how feral ghouls seem to be sleeping when you come across them, and that he just woke up as you were coming across him. Billy's parents just might not have found him because they didn't think to look in that particular fridge.

[@newperve]

It's amazing how many attempts to become immortal there were pre-war. Memory transfer, F.E.V., cryogenic suspension and getting that weird serum from a madman in a mental hospital. And that's just in the Boston area. It's almost like there was an unhealthy obsession by those in power to live forever.

[@alvar5720]

These long videos are so entertaining please make more of them

[@christopherlinindoll1104]

Really well done. Thanks for the great content.

[@FalonGrey]

You should cover The Great War, or Power Armor Misconceptions if you haven't already. I'm not sure where I heard it, but Power Armor was supposedly originally made so that a soldier could tear apart a tank with his bare hands, rather than carry heavy ordinance.

[@napatora]

not so much tear apart a tank but essentially become a tank, ie instead of vehicles they could use mobile individual soldiers to carry comparible ordinance, like carrying and firing a minigun which would be impossible without the armor

[@5RndsFFE]

It wasn’t literally tear apart a tank, not even in the slightest. But rather, MBTs have a relatively even trifecta of mobility, firepower and survivability, infantry do not. Power armour was to take the MBT principles and apply them to the infantry so that you’d have all the advantages of infantry (especially when fighting a logistical war abroad in urban and mountainous terrain) without any of the drawbacks such as humans being squishy meat sacks filled with fluid. The 12.7mm HMG is a great anti infantry weapon, however it’s crew served and not very mobile. Enter the power armour suit, now your HMG is not longer crew served due to weight and is also highly mobile.

[@Christopher-eq1rn]

You might be thinking psycho. Was meant to make US soldiers more aggressive, but through a combo of buffout and psycho soldiers could tear apart metal barehanded

[@Nyghtking]

One correction: It seems to be implied that Isabel and Jason were killed by a glowing one, because Isabel had gone a little nuts and found out that if she slathered radioactive material on her suit it would attract a glowing one, she did this a few times before covering Jason's suit without telling him so when he went with her he would see the glowing one she would talk about. You then find Isabel and Jason's bodies near where the ghouls are.

[@Noblesix84]

My personal theory about whether or not Ghouls can survive without food or water is this: While Ghouls can survive on just latent radiation, referencing their ability to heal when exposed to rads, it's not a pleasant experience. I imagine they'd spend their time on the verge of starvation and dehydration, but never actually die so long as there was enough radiation around.

[@jesseharlan2884]

I've always liked the theory that Ghouls are a product of the humans that survived the New Plague. This Theory basically states that there are three groups of people. First, those that caught the New Plague and died from the symptoms. The second group of people who caught the New Plague and survived... and the third and smallest group of people who never caught a new plague. Ghoulification occurs when the second group is exposed to large amounts of radiation causing the dormant mutation left behind by the new plague to activate. Though it is a origin point of much of Fallout lore It's relatively obscure, so for those who might not know the New Plague was a highly virulent contagion that was easily spread from person to person starting in the 2050's. The first publicly known cases were in 2053, It was also known informally as the "Blue flu" or known as "Limit 115" by the the West Tek researchers trying to find a cure. West tek never found a cure to New Plague but through their efforts they did invent the Forced Evolutionary Virus. By the third outbreak of the New Plague in 2077 an unknown whistleblower leaked information of F.E.V.s existence to the public. This led to widespread civilian protests and foreign governments accusing the U.S. of being responsible for the New Plague in the first place. The most likely explanation being that the new plague was never a plague at all but a premature variant and predecessor to FEV that escaped a West Tek lab sometime in the early 2050's. Nine years after the second outbreak in 2062 the US government found out it was an engineered virus and forced control of the West Tek research facility over to the US Military in 2071. Instead of closing down the facility the US military saw the possible benefits of the FEV and started a secret super soldier program.

[@Clownie_Smiles]

Long Covid gives you super powers!

[@boxylemons7961]

This really has nothing to do with the video itself, but I love how the picture for pre-ghoul Eddie Winters looks like Ray Liotta. R.I.P.

[@averageperson5845]

You could say that people become ghouls because of a special gene in their biology

[@hamby2232]

The ghoul gene was always cannon to me

[@Commanduf]

Incase anyone wondered, the ghoul from the thumbnail is from a series of fallout 3 mods no longer available on the nexus "Macintrolls" mods/retextures, you can find archives online.

[@gerald1495]

nice to see actual gameplay in the back and not just massacring friendly NPCs lol

[@reginleif6703]

I’m always up for listening to someone talk about ghouls.

[@NUCLEARDODO]

i think i remember in fallout 3 its said somewere that there is a genetic abnormality in some people that allowes for ghoulification

[@battlesheep2552]

I remember there is a quest in FO2 about a ghoul that was plagued by flies because he excreted some sort of pheromone. I think aside from the immortality, the radiation immunity, and the necrosis, ghoulification can have a lot of different effects, which explains why some need food while others dont, why some turn feral while others stay perfectly lucid after 210 years, why some become glowing ones, etc.

[@JoshuaAndres]

Thank you for clearing up the misconceptions about the ghoul community

[@ZarloSkald]

A 5 misconceptions about super mutants would be cool! Great content as usual!

[@cross19]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who wiggles the Bobby pin like mad when I unlock something lol

[@CloneScavengerVulpin8389]

Hancock is proud to be a ghoul.

[@ChopperBruce]

Second here; this will help a lot with a tabletop campaign I might actually get to run after the semester ends

[@blooddoctor2721]

*Bathes in radiation* All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle.

[@MRZ1234ify]

was just looking for a new video to watch lol

[@Cornkernal2101]

Love the longer videos

[@memeticvs6017]

Possible theory- Could be that the origin of a ghoul could not have as much to do with the rads as with the humans themselves. Could be some kind of 'gene' or 'predisposition'. Either way, the mystery of it also helps the experience of these games, where the player *might* find an answer that would fit their interpretation. Btw, cool vid!

[@bubbaboi9728]

I've always liked the idea that whether or not someone becomes a ghoul is just based on their genetics

[@realspartan5206]

I think the thing about ghouls is about your biology pre-rad exposure, certain genes carry different activators for ghoulification, explaining how radiation sometimes isn’t enough for ghoulification, and how high doses of rads doesn’t necessarily mean feralization, And how some ghouls can survive with low need for food and water, and how some still need it, and how some ferals feast on creatures

[@mushroomsoup2866]

about ghouls not needing to eat - both of the examples here are ghouls who were stuck in place. It is possible that ghouls have some kind of hibernation-like ability (whether they do it consciously or not, or even know its happening) that drastically reduces their need for food/water. Ghouls who are roaming around, expending energy, definitely still need to eat to recuperate that energy. I mean shoot, if Billy in the fridge was hibernating for 200 years, that would explain why no one has ever heard him or freed him before. He woke up because he's reached the end of his energy reserves and needs to eat now or he'll die.

[@markcarpenter6020]

I forget of it was fallout 3 or 4. But I seem to recall that it's not just large amount of radiation that turn people into goals but large amounts of a specific type of radiation. They never say what type that is though. That could also explain the differences in ghoul biology. Different ghouls got different levels of exposure which caused inconsistencies in their mutations. Some may have only barely gotten enough to become a ghoul so have to eat and drink. Some got a lot and became glowing ones. Others may have been exposed to high levels of other kinds of radiation as well which causes them to become feral, etc. Unlike the pre war ghouls who were created in a lab the ones created by accident wouldn't have been given the specific amount of only the specific kind of radiation to create a stable ghoul

[@YoKhai1221]

I’ve always hypothesized that there are multiple sub-species of Ghouls. - Which is why some can seemingly survive on Radiation alone, or why some can keep sentience after. turning into a glowing one. (And let’s not forget the “Born-ghouls”)

[@ethan520427]

I like to think that ghouls who don’t go insane have a high charisma stat

[@stormhawkdude]

Y'know what I wanna see in the next game, or at least some time soon in the franchise; The transformation from Nonferal to Feral Ghoul of an NPC. Like Caesar's brain tumor but on a well-liked character Have it be a questline about a Ghoul trying to achieve some dream he's had for the last some-hundred plus years but try as he might he hasn't been able to or it was too dangerous the times he's tried. Sure he's hired mercs and scavengers to help him but still the process has been so achingly slow. You the Player start helping him find parts or clues and slowly as the questline marches forward he just subtly becoming more and more unhinged until the last quest where you get him the final piece, he asks for some time to work on it and come back later, and four days later you come back to have to put him out of his misery, with a tape apologizing if he attacks you and thanking you putting him down and for helping him with his life's goal. It doesn't have to be a definitive "Here is the *EXACT* way that every single Ghoul in the world will turn feral and we will not accept any more questions about the process." but it'd be an interesting discussion on how *could* one degrade from abhuman to near-total Zombie.

[@Matt-md5yt]

glad you did this my friend

[@joshm7335]

I didn't even know about some of these misconceptions until watching this video. And it makes me laugh to think even game developers can't agree on specific background details about their own game.

[@revanamell1791]

Mortimer in Fallout 76 mentions he was hit by a blast of radiation on the day the bombs dropped. My guess is it's a human gene that's not universally present. You're winning, or losing depending on your perspective, the genetic lottery if you have the Ghoul Gene. it'd be interesting to see some experiments on Ghouls conducted. Even random stuff like skin grafts to restore their former appearance.

[@theokieredneck4369]

Willow out side of the underworld says "super mutans don't harm us they see us like next of kin or something"

[@norikofu509]

Outstanding Channel!♥️

[@incorporealfear]

Love your videos my dude

[@____________838]

My personal theory about the propensity for ghouldom is due to the use of Radaway…

[@komi3806]

In the misconception number 3 you could have used Trash as example, a woman on fallout new vegas located on Nuclear Test Shack who tried to become a ghoul but died to radiation poisoning.

[@JanoschNr1]

Ghouls are the aftermath of turning cameleons with FEV and radiation into Deathclaws, that learned info got used for SM and Ghouls.

[@hamby2232]

I have a theory on whether or not ghouls need food and water, i would say: yes, however, i thought that maybe if they are left without any food or water entering their system, their bodies shift to a sort of "low power mode" where they can survive off of ambient radiation, they basically turn themselves into a battery or a power plant Cause they're in a nuclear wasteland, ambient radiation is everywhere!

[@nathanbrute9075]

I thought Hancock got ghoul'd by drug abuse?

[@antonfowler6582]

He took ONE DOSE of a pre war drug according to his own words and woke up as a ghoul

[@nomadwolfox2140]

thx for your videos

[@gabebrii2347]

fallout channels on their way to make a 10+ minute long video speaking about things every fallout player already knows

[@villings]

l_ove your v_ideos, n_orte!!

[@BreakerX42]

I think it's simple why the eating differences are a thing. It's just that certain ghouls are mutated enough past eating while others havent

[@nyarizsolt4525]

GAI factory has ghouls as test subjects. They were testing on ghouls before the bombs too.

[@Igor_servant_of_Philemon]

I know this is a bit farfetched and probably nowhere neae true but I have the following headcanon: Ghoulification isn't directly caused by radiation to the human body. It's caused by radiation and mutation of the New Plague. People who are infected by it (with or without sympthoms) may get turned into ghouls as a way of how the virus mutates, creating a symbiotic relationship where the new plague nourishes and rejuvinalizes the host (thus no aging nor food required). That doesn't mean that the host doesn't get hungry as leftover human basic needs are often psychologically engrained in us. The virus itself was wide spread around the world in 2077. And perhaps over the decades/centuries until the fallout games, the virus either mutates naturally to become less lethal, to the point of no longer killing its host, or the people built a certain immunity to the virus, which lowers the sympthoms and decreases the spread, explaining why not everyone can ghoulify. Pre-war people might have been under medication, which allowed them to keep their infection a secret as public knowledge of it would turn them into outcasts. The doctor who turned Winters into a ghoul might have known about the reaction of the virus to radiation by testing, or it was a lucky accident that winters had it undiagnosed. What do you guys think about that idea?

[@aspiringschizo]

"Magic 1000 rads number" this is by no means confirmed by devs to my knowledge, but I think it's because 1000 rads is generally considered the lethal dose for a human, so potential fun fact lol

[@TheTSense]

One of the major points in Fallout is that the NPCs are not allknowing stand-ins for the game creators. Lou in Fallout 1 THINKS there is mutated airborne FEV that prevents people from becoming first gen supermutants, that also causes Ghouls. And everything he uncoverd points to that direction and it is enough for him to tell you about it as fact. ZAX however, the Super AI that made FEV, tells you that is impossible. The player is told two different things by two different NPCs and is supposed to figure it out, looking at who they are and what they actually know. A lot of people these days just write everything that NPCs say off as facts given from the devs directly. Father is not your 60-year-old son. The Brotherhood does not want to genocide all Ghouls and Supermutants. The Enclave does not want to genocide ALL Life. The Railroad does not know what they are doing. The FEV Eden gives you will in fact kill you. Aliens did not start the Great War. NPCs not only lie, they also guess. And they sell you both as facts. Think god damn it.

[@tychner4959]

Funny thing the first thing you started talking was the ghouls and talking about the fact the nukes dropped on the 23rd and today it's the 23rd

[@kevkevplays5662]

You know what they say What doesn’t kill ya but probably should makes ya immortal

[@mollymorin8004]

Or crippled

[@threedawg]

This was good thank you

[@rocketr8968]

Maybe Ghouls don't need to eat or drink water, but they slowly degrade if they don't (Since Ghouls in Fallout 1 were like zombies, whereas Seth's body looks like it would fall apart if it weren't for the armor he was wearing). Eating protein and drinking water allows them to either stop or slow the degradation process.

[@Salted_Fysh]

About 2: None of the reasons you mentioned exclude the possiblity of Ghoulification being caused by FEV. The Master didn't want a pure human because making Supermutants was impossible otherwise. It didn't even have anything to do with radiation, it was about the exposure to FEV every human had after the bombs dropped and distributed FEV all throughout the air and acting like a short of vaccine. Using an unexposed human was the only reliable method he knew to make a Mutant where the intelligence rises alongside the physical traits quite unlike the ones where the physical traits increase but the mental ones degrade. Ghouls reacting to concentrated doses of FEV like poison in Fallout 3 can also be explained the same way - organisms with high FEV exposure react negatively to further doses of FEV. You're also disregarding the fact that both Curling-13 and the modified FEV strain in Fallout 3 were specifically engineered to be lethal with Curling-13 being just as lethal to pure humans as to mutants.

[@donthespotter6550]

I knew that Harold wasn't a ghoul I knew all of these 🙂

[@andyfriederichsen]

If radiation heals ghouls, that means their bodies can turn radioactive particles into molecules the human body can use. However, I doubt they or at least most of them could survive long without water or oxygen. As for why someone becomes a ghoul, i personally think it's a mutation that is either basically random or a result of someone's pre-mutation genes.

[@beowulf.reborn]

Yeah, I'm sticking with FEV having _something_ to do with the Ghoulification process. It adds a _sliver_ of plausibility to the whole thing, without having to fundamentally changing the way radiation works. FEV is the handwaivium of the Fallout Universe, and it should stay that way.

[@webbnixo1380]

Harold ate an apple before FEV and the mutation acted on both him and the apple seeds in his stomach. No evidence for this but I like the idea.

[@theofficialtastynacho0898]

harold is a harold

[@wilomica]

Also there was a few prewar Deathclaws! Even before 2077 the environment on Fallout Earth was pretty messed up.

[@antonfowler6582]

A number of creatures were engineered before the bombs dropped useing FEV mole rats and death claws being two of them

[@tylerbivins9807]

Would be cool the implemented a feature to where if you're exposed to too much radiation you're f***** your a ghoul for the rest of the game

[@Xegethra]

04:39 I always thought it funny that they wrote this...we are all irradiated, now...right now to degree, just by being on Earth alone. But I guess the writes didn't think this, or ignored it just to make that plot point.....if Fallout happened for real, every one for The Masters subjects would have failed because of it. We even glow, we just don't have the eyes to see it...but we have the technology to. I guess it should be too much radiation won't work as there is no purity.

[@Mrwilliam22120]

What's the music in the background ?

[@Paladwyn]

I wonder, after watching the Stimpak video, that perhaps these two things are related indirectly. What if humans, many years back, harnessed nanotech and used the bots for medical purposes. These bots ended up residing in humans, even through reproduction. Using the body for replication to keep active. Using a stimpack merely helps fuel, or activate the nano bots, which otherwise would remain mainly dormant to conserve energy, thus increasing the healing capabilities of the individual. Now how does this relate to ghouls? What if during high radiation exposure, that some strands of the nanobots seem to kick into overdrive, keeping the individual alive even through "death", corrupted, fuelled through the radiation. I mean, it's just as plausible as anything else, I guess.

[@finnianramsey4634]

There is a character named trash in fallout new vegas and she tries to ghoulify herself with steady radiation but dies instead.

[@popguy2815]

Ghouls eat but they also can live indefinity without food; makes no sense.

[@zavalanovakidue]

I know it's kind of unrelated to the video but what's the perk that makes marked scraps be covered in green?

[@thinkingboi9508]

Considering he was near infinite ammo, it is possibly a mod It could be the top hat tho

[@zavalanovakidue]

@@thinkingboi9508 fair. Still, thanks

[@th0rn3]

i don’t remember off the top of my head what it’s called but i think in the perception tree there’s a perk that causes containers to glow when they have an item that can be scrapped for a material you’ve marked for search

[@Toxic_Korgi]

I believe it was the second perk I scrapper, it highlights items with marked components.

[@madnesdoes]

I want to be able to play as a ghoul in fallout 5

[@RyuKaguya]

# 6 what makes a ghoul go feral. many say its just more radiation rotting the brain to the point of going animal but some ferals can speak like in 3 or vegas hell some live in heavy radiation zones and dont even notice or care. Feralization is the biggest ghoul mystery

[@Naxaky]

Can we get a geme like fallout:pre-war like u r with vault tec living normal life taking warious missions and as the final mission u r the one who launches the nukes Something like this

[@jonahmeyerpeter3385]

Thank you for not being restarted and putting the electric O for every O in a thumbnail like just about eeeeeveryone else, it's supposed to MEAN something in the fallout name.

[@Rat245]

The ghoul at the end sounds like saul goodman

[@spencernelson1580]

Harold does what Harold does because, Harold is Harold.

[@SwankyKitteh82]

Harold isn't a ghoul. He and Gray are failed supermutants that survived their mutation. This suggests that there are aberrations even in the supermutant creation process. Most likely for the same reason that some humans simply do not become ghouls with radiation exposure, it's probably genetic. Specific genetic markers are more successful than others. Furthermore, most failed supermutants die as a result of the sheer torturous levels of pain during their transformation, while others become so misshapen that they cannot function and need to be euthanized. Which again, is probably on some level genetic, but is also (as stated in canon) a result of prior long term radiation exposure and damage/corruption of the subject's DNA.

[@fabicontin]

Would be an great plot/side-quest in Fallout 5 if we could start becoming a Ghoul by being exposed to rad or any other way. Players woud love the shit out of that

[@EbayUserGreen]

Basically if you want to be a fucking ghoul it can be summed up as "Spin a 50/50 wheel and see which you get! Ghoul or Death!"

[@kylecochrane4450]

To bad the player can't become a ghoul after taking high amounts of Rads imagine passing out only to discover you turned into a ghoul and possibly be alienated by certain factions or settlements as a result

[@luissantiago5163]

Awesome! Cheers

[@ajalpha3409]

Desmond was a ghoul pre war whoa

[@spruceleocad513]

i noticed that lootable stuff was highlighted in ur fallout 4 game can u tell me how please??

[@peterprime2140]

In your junk tab, you can mark either junk or components. In order for the glow effect however, you need the scrapper perk.