
A guide for players who wish to rid themselves of their nose.
For the first time ever in a Fallout game, players can finally traverse the Wasteland as a ghoul. This update to Fallout 76 will give those who choose to undergo ghoulifcation a few great perks, which mainly involve taking advantage of radiation to heal and power you up.
Instead of having to carry around stimpacks and radaway you can now just jump into a toxic river or ingest radiated food to heal yourself.
If you want to try this out for yourself, then all you have to do is complete a short mission, and then you’ll be an entirely new person.
Finding Leamon Price
Once you reach level 50, or if you’re already above this level, you’ll get a new main quest pop-up. The Leap of Faith quest can be accessed in your Pip-Boy—the first step is just listening to a distress signal, which you can also find in your Pip-Boy in the radio section.
After finishing the transmission, the next step is to find the wounded scavenger (Leamon Price) who made the distress call. You can follow the quest marker or just head to The Whitespring Resort, go through the main entrance and go to the right towards the medical section. Here, you’ll find Price talking to a Responder Medic about his bad health. Poor Price was caught in the middle of what he thinks is a Raider skirmish when he was actually ambushed by Asher and some other ghouls looking for supplies.
While he didn’t get hurt during the fight, his trip to the doctor reveals that he has severe radiation poisoning from mining ore at Emmett Mountain. With just a few weeks to live, Price’s only hope is a mysterious radiation specialist located somewhere in the northern mountains.
But before you get that information, you need to ask Price about his broadcast and, eventually, offer to act as his bodyguard on his trip to find the radiation specialist and the cure for his illness. If you’re 8+ charismatic (like me), you may be able to get some dispensation for what’s going to happen next—I got a big rock.
Travelling to the Hillside Cavern
If you can fast travel to the Hillside Cavern, then that would be great. If not, you may want to gather some resources before you head off on your trip. It’s a long hike. I fast travelled to Fort Atlas but had to walk from there. I stopped by a couple of places to update my map while I was in the area while also avoiding all the nasty critters you’ll find up north, like a Sheepsquatch and a Scorchbeast. It was very stressful.
Once you make your way through all those pesky creatures, head to the Hillside Cavern’s entrance and make your way through the winding caves until you come across Price, who’s being held at gunpoint by Asher, a ghoul.
They argue for a bit until Parthenia, the ghoul scientist, shows up and tells Price that the only way to save him is to turn him into a ghoul. Price may seem uncertain at first, but with the right words of encouragement, he’ll agree to the procedure. The only catch is that Parthenia needs some irradiated ore from Emmett Mountain to complete the research. Offer to go with Asher to collect the ore, take the key from Price, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a ghoul.
Acquiring irradiated ore
You can fast travel to Emmett Mountain, but if you haven’t visited it yet, then just go back to Whitesprings Resort. It’s pretty close by, so it’s an easy journey to make. Here, you need to sneak into the side entrance to the mountain and meet Asher inside. The next step is to unlock the door for Asher and then kill some irradiated feral ghouls who come for you at the entrance. I only had to kill four of them, so it’s not a very hard task.
After this, you’ll meet Madeline Keene, a Scavenger, who finds you lurking around the entrance. I lied to her and said that I was a new trainee, but it doesn’t really matter what you say, as she’ll get scared of Asher almost immediately after your chat.
If your charisma or strength is high enough, you can save her, but I decided not to step in. I’m about to be a ghoul, after all, and I didn’t trust that she wouldn’t tell all her friends about Asher and me.
Accept the ghoulification
From there, you can fast travel (or walk—it’s your game) back to the Hillside Cavern and talk to Parthenia in her lab just beyond where you first met her and Asher. She’ll have the ore and everything she needs to make the procedure work. Then, you can decide whether you want Price to transform into a ghoul, completing The Leap of Faith quest.
This will then unlock a new quest: A Fresh Pair of Genes. At this point, you can head over to talk with Parthenia again when she offers to make you into a ghoul. If you agree, all you have to do is use the inhaler, which is on the table next to you and then head around the corner into the missile silo, where you’ll eventually pass out from radiation poisoning. You’ll eventually wake up and get to customise your ghoul’s new look.
It’s pretty straightforward, but I will warn you that some players are currently experiencing a bug that pauses progress and inhibits your ability to become a ghoul. The same thing happened to me, but I was able to complete the process after restarting my game, even if it meant my character was invisible for a short time.