Talk:Feral ghoul/Archive 1

Tactics
Most Feral Ghouls should be dispatched from long range before they can do any harm. However, they have a tendency to attack from behind so carrying an assault rifle is a good opportunity because if they get close you simply enter V.A.T.S. and aim for their head (which has a mysterious tendency to come off, probably due to decomposition). Since they run in straight lines they aren't difficult to hit and the assault rifle is a good weapon for riddling them with bullets. Their movement patterns also make them prime targets for mines--they will run right into them if the path over the mine is the quickest way to get to the player. If you have a Laser Rifle or Hunting Rifle though, you'll have no trouble. With some basic Small Guns skill you can use a combat shotgun to easily dispatch swarms of feral ghouls, by strafing and shooting you can quite easily kill them without taking much damage. With decent skill, melee weapons are also quite efficient. They are actually quite easy to kill once the player has noticed them, but Feral Ghouls & all their variants have nearly silent footsteps & move at high speed. Once they notice an enemy they will snarl characteristically, but after that they make little noise. Some may make a loud raspy breathing noise as they run towards you, and serves to give away their presence if they run up behind you.

While the above is true for the first three "ranks" of ghouls, (although glowing ones can be a bit tricky for low level characters) the new-in-Broken Steel Ghouls Reavers are a whole different story. They are quite fast and tough, rivaling a deathclaw in durability, and are only a little slower. They also posses a nasty lunge attack similar in form to the Deathclaw and Yao Guai's. Even better, they can throw globs of radioactive goop at you and heal other ghouls like a glowing one. Finally, they are almost always encountered indoors and therefore one usually doesn't much space to run/dodge in. They will spawn in both Broken Steel specific areas and replacing glowing ones in the Wasteland at higher levels (15+).

In combat one can treat them like a durable but somewhat slower deathclaw. This means a Dart Gun to slow em' down and a high end weapon to put em' down. A Combat Shotgun would probably work, but a Plasma Rifle or better would be ideal. Yes "or better" does include the Fat Man. If fact since these guys usually show up surrounded by other, lesser, ghouls pulling out the Fat Man may be a very good idea. If one is of the sneaky type a minefield would also be quite effective.

As if all this isn't enough, at the moment (May 8, 2009) the Ghoul Reavers frequently glitch and become even more difficult to kill. They become very hard to hit and bullets will go straight through they and may hit friendlies. It is possible for you to hit the body part of another character from the body part you targeted on the Reaver that is impossible to hit.

This wiki is not monolithic and represents a variety of views and persons. I have beaten the game several times and now frequently cheat using the PC version on highest difficulty. For me Deathclaws are a bit of a challenge, but the only two that I am apprehensive about are the new mutants and the new ghouls, with the new ghouls in a seperate category. I have hit, squarely hit, a Ghoul Reaver with the Alien Blaster SIX times without bringing it down. Head shots are the most effective, but the nasty sob's vibrate, making these shots very difficult. If you wait until after adding Broken Steel to your game before trying the Dunwich building, you may have an unpleasant surprise.

Mass-spawning
Hello, am I the only one who find it extremely funny to wait to night, and then mass-spawning these. With bloody mess perk of course. It results in an extremely gory and fun battle :)

That sounds kinda fun... of course, there would also be mass xp gain.

Bug
I just got done MZ and all the feral ghouls turned from hostile to friendly but i am not wearing the ghoul mask or any other item that might effect how they act has anyone else had this happen Five Star Genral Of The Dead BigDog 03:09, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

First off, do you even have the ghoul mask? I may know whats going on.--Chipgambino 20:37, September 4, 2009 (UTC)

Controversy
Whether this suggests that Ferals only track through sight, or that their other senses have become dull enough not to recognize prey through movement or scent is unclear, but would explain why Ferals do not attack other, sentient, Ghouls. Their sense of smell will still serve them, but only at a very short range.

What should be of note to the player, regarding what was said above, is that Feral Ghouls are Ghouls that have simply gone crazy. Ghouls were once humans. The reason there are so many in the metro tunnels around D.C. is that after the bombs fell many citizens sought refuge in the tunnels( hence the multitude of desks, beds etc).

It can be concluded Ghouls hunt primarily by sight and sound, like all other creatures in Fallout 3. They don't hunt using other senses because they are human derived creatures. Because of this, the ghoul mask fools them because they see a "Ghoul" and do not (or cannot) use smell to identify them. --24.145.220.146 03:35, October 4, 2009 (UTC)

I figure ghouls hunt by sight/sound, I mean they don't even have a nose..(krymz1n 6-23-10)

Shiny Objects?
This part from the Behaviors section seems to be more of a discussion and is even marked as speculation. Didn´t want to outright delete it though... Golan2781 17:14, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

'''Although un-confirmed, Ghouls may be attracted to shiny objects (due to the items that may be found on their person; i.e. Butter knives, bottle caps, ammunition). This is, however, unlikely, because Ghouls also have non-shiny objects on them; i.e. Rad-away and Med-x, therefore, they may just collect objects. Or, this could be due to the possibility that they are pre-war ghouls and simply had these objects on their person when they became ghouls.'''


 * It sounds like someone's trying to make the game seem more complex then it really is. It's a load of crap. --Clean Up 22:18, October 4, 2009 (UTC)

There are some ghouls that stop and crouch in front of lights like Nuka Cola machines and rigged terminals, so its possible they are attracted to flickering lights, but even if they are, the point is too trivial to deserve space in the article. GuzzoF 01:33, March 29, 2010 (UTC)

Sleeping?
The article mentions that feral ghouls don't sleep because there are never matresses or anything around them. What, how does that make any sence? If they are feral and have lost the ability to reason wouldn't they figure sleeping on the floor is good enough? Does this meen that Bloatflies, Mirelurks, Radscorpions, Super Mutant Behemoths, etc. don't sleep? I am not saying get rid of the bit but change it so it makes more sence. Chaos ian7 16:06, March 28, 2010 (UTC)

Ferals on the Surface
Does anyone know where feral ghouls appear on the surface? I know it says that they prefer dark, cool environments to live in, so do they emerge from their tunnels during the night? I have seen a few around Dupont Circle and at Isabella Prouds camp, but I don't really think they appear on the surface much, do they?

They tend to also gather around radioactive areas, so that may be why they're underground a lot of the time. No name required June 23,2010 1946hrs

they also appear near the metro station you go into for the Tenpenny Tower quest, and at the Ark&Dove Resting Grounds oon point lookout.

Sexuality
Like Super Mutants, do ghouls retain their sexual organ's? –  10:06, May 28, 2010 (UTC)

Not sure if its a restoration project addition, but Typhon asks you get him: first, a Cat's Paw magazine, and then a Rubber Doll. You work it out :P Spoon Say Hi! 10:14, May 28, 2010 (UTC) Have a talk with Patches. He loses parts all the time down in Underworld. But with the ghouls being "boobless" i guess they do lose them...
 * They still have them. Unless they fall off! >:D Nitty Tok. 13:58, May 30, 2010 (UTC)