This article is missing an image. You can help Nukapedia by uploading it.
“Few creatures, real or imagined, terrify West Virginians quite like the Wendigo. Possessing alarming speed, razor-sharp claws and an insatiable hunger for raw flesh, it is truly the stuff of nightmares.”— Fallout 76 loading screen
Wendigos are humans that were mutated by radiation into deadly cannibalistic creatures with emaciated bodies that reflect their insatiable hunger.[1]
Characteristics
Biology
Wendigos resemble gaunt, emaciated humanoids with ashy gray skin, long bony arms, a pot belly, a skull-like face topped with scant strands of long, stringy hair and mouths filled with long, jagged teeth. They have large claws on the tips of each finger.
They exhibit similar characteristics to ghouls, such as radiation resistance. They do not engage in combat with ghouls when they're near.
Gameplay attributes
Wendigos are fast and can deal a large amount of damage in a very short amount of time. They get close and can be hard to hit without V.A.T.S. if using a firearm. Wendigos will not run away if the player character climbs onto objects or furniture, but will continue to screech. During combat, wendigos may let loose a piercing shriek that doesn't damage the player character but will possibly attract a horde of feral ghouls to their location.
Variants
Wendigo
Section needed
This section is required but has not been written yet. You can help Nukapedia by writing it.
There is a possibility for a wendigo to spawn at Hawke's Refuge. It is one of three creatures that can spawn in a small cavern off of the main cave. The other creatures that may be found there are a withered feral ghoul or a putrid glowing one. It will always be one of these three.
There is a miscellaneous quest to kill a Wendigo while wearing a clown costume. Completion of the quest requires wearing both the clown outfit and clown hat. Although the quest marker suggests going to the Wendigo Cave, any wendigo located throughout the game will also be acceptable.
Wendigos have an acidic bite. When the player character scraps a wendigo's teeth, they gain acid from them.
Edie's note, found on a woman's corpse on Wendigo Cave, tells of her and her partner, Morris Stevens, committing cannibalism. After being exiled from the Gourmands for eating fellow gang members, a short amount of time later he became greedy (in folklore, a sign of becoming a wendigo), and began to watch her. She is discovered dead and Morris is not found; only his holotape, Morris's end.
In Algonquin folklore, a wendigo is a malevolent spirit that is frequently associated with winter, coldness, famine and starvation. It possesses and transforms human beings who have committed sins such as selfishness, greed, gluttony, murder and especially cannibalism. The spirit then forces them to consume human flesh, turning them into a monster with an insatiable hunger for it. The wendigo are also part of the traditional belief system of many Algonquin-speaking cultures, such as the Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Saulteaux, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi and Innu peoples. Though the folklore among cultures varies somewhat, the wendigo is commonly seen as an evil, cannibalistic, supernatural entity.
