Wendigo

Wendigos are cryptid creatures found in Appalachia.

Background
Wendigo is a mythical cannibalistic monster native to the northern forests between the Atlantic Coast and the Great Lakes region of North America. In post-apocalyptic West Virginia, the term is used to refer to a particularly terrifying humanoid monster lurking in the backwoods of the region. 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.

However, this monster is far from a myth. Wendigos are slender, tall creatures but they are usually slouching down or crouching. Their hands are exceptionally large, with long skinny fingers. They are among the most vicious mutants in Appalachia, capable of closing distance and tearing enemies apart with high speed. Despite alleged pre-War sightings, it appears the population of wendigos in the region is descended from a banished head of the Gourmands, a cannibalistic raider tribe, who took shelter in the wendigo cave where he was twisted by the radiation within into a mutant possessed by dark cravings.

Biology
Wendigos appear as gaunt, emaciated humanoids with ashy gray skin, long bony arms, and a large abdomen. Their skull-like face has short strands of long, stringy hair and a mouth filled with long, jagged teeth. On the tips of their fingers, they have large claws. They make a signature breathing sound when alerted and sound much like the rustling of dry foliage when moving.

They appear to have some relation to feral ghouls, the extent of which is unknown. They exhibit similar characteristics, such as radiation resistance, and the two species appear to be ambivalent towards each other. There even appears to be some symbiosis or cooperative hunting between the two, as feral ghouls are attracted to the wendigo's call. A wendigo seems to summon them to help flush prey out or fight foes too strong for it to defeat alone. Wendigos have an acidic bite and scrapping their teeth yields acid.

Certain wendigos have mutated into far more dangerous mutants. Gaining two extra heads, extremely long legs, and increasingly disproportionate limbs, they are known as a "wendigo colossus."

Gameplay attributes
Wendigos are fast and can quickly deal a high amount of damage. They will try to get close as possible, making them 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 may attract a horde of feral ghouls to their location.

Though rare, one can occasionally witness wendigos perched atop tall and out-of-sight locations, which allows them to ambush prey. One such example can be seen with wendigos that perch on trees overlooking the central roads of the Mire. At higher levels, wendigos will frequently appear as a boss-type enemy for groups of ghouls. They reliably drop up to eight loose screws, with a rare chance of dropping up to 11 screws.

Wendigo
The base variant of the creature, with most of the attributes described above.

Ravenous wendigo
A more powerful wendigo variant with a reddish, fleshy appearance. Its darker, muddled colors can easily make the creature blend into dimmer or more urbanized environments.

Glowing wendigo
One of the strongest variants, it bears a charred appearance and has a soft green glow. This variant also has a chance to spawn in a wendigo horde made up of two or three wendigos.

Scorched wendigo
A charred, fleshy wendigo with dark red eyes infected with the Scorched Plague. All regular wendigo variants have a corresponding Scorched variant with the same stats, abilities, and items. They may become Scorched when attacked by scorchbeasts or the scorchbeast queen, becoming allies with other Scorched creatures.

Wendigo spawn
The strongest variant, it is identical to the glowing wendigo. They appear almost exclusively alongside wendigo colossi, and are called to support them in battle. Three of them can be found inside Monongah Mine by themselves during the event A Colossal Problem.

Wendigo colossus
A three-headed, extremely tall wendigo added in the Wastelanders update. It is only encountered in nuclear blast zones and is always accompanied by multiple wendigo spawn. The wendigo colossus' scream can frighten the player character, causing them to flee uncontrollably.

Locations
A wendigo can appear in the following locations:
 * Pylon ambush site
 * Willard Corporate Housing
 * Garrahan Estate
 * Fort Defiance
 * In the solitary confinement block of Eastern Regional Penitentiary
 * Haven Church
 * Lewisburg
 * Freddy Fear's House of Scares
 * In the R&D section of Garrahan Mining Headquarters
 * Mountainside Bed & Breakfast
 * Big B's Rest Stop
 * KMAX Transmission
 * Seneca Rocks Visitor Center
 * Watoga Emergency Services
 * Drop Site C2
 * Drop Site G3
 * Firebase LT
 * Sal's Grinders
 * Wendigo spawns will appear in extremely high numbers during A Colossal Problem.
 * Up to three consistently spawn on the road south of Abbie's bunker, by the truck suspended by vines.
 * Groups of wendigos can appear between the Whitespring golf club and a fissure site.
 * 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.
 * Reliably found inside the wendigo cave.
 * The Nightstalker (legendary glowing wendigo) will always appear at the end of the One Violent Night event.
 * The wendigo colossus has a 1 in 15 chance to spawn when nuking any assault-type random encounter.

Challenges

 * Kill a wendigo in the wendigo cave (daily).
 * Take a camera picture of a well-fed player inside the wendigo cave (daily).
 * Possum: Photographer - Take a camera picture of a wendigo (lifetime).

Named wendigos

 * Morris Stevens - the former leader of the Gourmands raider gang, devolved into the "progenitor wendigo" following his exile from the gang for eating fellow members.
 * Camp counselor Nia - a unique wendigo encountered during the Campfire Tales event.
 * Scott Conroy - a former cryptid hunter turned wendigo, found in the sunken remains of a church as a leveled diseased wendigo.
 * "The Nightstalker" - a legendary glowing wendigo that killed the Sons of Dane.
 * Earle Williams - A unique colossus encountered during the A Colossal Problem event.

Appearances
Wendigos appear only in Fallout 76 and the update Wastelanders.

Behind the scenes

 * Regarding the design of the wendigo colossus, Nathan Purkeypile stated that "I wanted another huge creature and we had some old concepts of a bigger Wendigo when we were figuring out the initial Wendigo. So we iterated on that idea to make it even freakier and more unique."
 * 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 is 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.