Build Guide: Ghoul Rifleman with reverse onslaught (and Pistols / Revolvers)

skywalka

Published: 27.03.2025

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Builds

27.03.2025

Since March 18, 2035, you can now become a ghoul and receive new perks and abilities. This brings with it advantages and disadvantages. Along with the ghoul, a new mechanic has also been integrated into the live version of Fallout 76: Onslaught. This mechanic also opens up entirely new possibilities for both ghouls and humans.

This build for Riflemen (single-shot rifles) even allows for effective play with pistols. This is mainly due to the fact that pistols received significant buffs to their base damage in the last update and can now be played without the need for extra perk cards. However, you should make sure to use single-shot pistols or revolvers.

Base: Ghoul Glow & Non-Feral

In this build, we make sure our Ghoul Glow (green health bar on the HP bar) is as full as possible. If the glow gets low, we use Toxic Water or Toxic Goo. You should always have plenty of these with you and make them available on the fast track. Toxic Water can be obtained in many places, such as the Blackwater Mine, Radiant Hills, Toxic Valley, etc. You can also get Toxic Slime in West Tek and, in small doses, from the Slime Cooler (this season's 20 reward).

It's also important not to become feral. Feral is represented by the bar above the AP bar in the bottom right. The fuller the bar, the less feral you are. So, the bar should always be as full as possible. This can be achieved through chems and "The Fix," although we currently only get a few of these once in the Ghoul quest. Tip: The psychobuff fills the bar particularly well.

Armor

The armor is Secret Service armor with the legendary mods: Vanguards, Powered, Thru Hikers, and "Ranger's" in the 4th slot. By using 5x Thru Hikers, the build saves the Travel Pharmacy perk cards in Strength and Thru Hiker in Endurance.

It doesn't really matter which armor you use; the first mod can be anything else. I found Vanguards to be a good choice. Radiation absorption from the environment is very low, so I prefer to use Toxic Goo to gain radiation. Chameleon armor, for example, is also possible to further improve your stealth ability. Only Unyielding has no advantage here, since you're not playing with low health. The radiation is absorbed immediately, so you can't play Bloodied as a ghoul.

Legendary Perks

• Follow Through **** (Ranged damage from sneak attacks increases damage taken by the target by 40% for 10 seconds)
• Taking one for the Team **** (Enemies take 40% more damage when they attack you and you are in a team.) (Experience has shown that this legendary perk also stacks when you are hidden but the other team members are attacked, for example in events. )
• Legendary Strength**** (+5 STR and +5 STR skill points. Skill points are capped at 15)
• Legendary Intelligence**** (+5 INT and +5 INT skill points. Skill points are capped at 15)
• Legendary Agility**** (+5 AGI and +5 AGI skill points. Skill points are capped at 15)
• Legendary Luck**** (+5 LCK and +5 LCK skill points. Skill points are capped at 15)

By using legendary SPECIALs we can use more points in the skillset than was previously possible. The legendary SPECIALs supplement the points defined for the skillset in the loadout up to a maximum of 15 in the skillset. In addition, the points are applied but cannot be used for perks. For example, if you choose 12 PER in the skillset and have legendary PER at 4*, you still only get 15 points for perk cards, but you have 17 PER in the Pipboy with the active SPECIALs.

Mutations

Ghouls can have the same mutations as humans. There are no new ghoul mutations. However, ghouls only receive mutations from serums, not from environmental radiation. Accordingly, you don't need "Starched Genes" under Endurance, as you don't receive new mutations randomly, nor do you need to remove radiation with Rad-Away. Of course, you shouldn't use Rad-Away if you don't use the perk card, otherwise you'll remove random mutations.

Mutations are crucial for your gameplay, critical hit damage, intelligence, AP acceleration, and much more. The right combination is therefore important.

• Eagle Eyes (-1 STR, +5 WAH, +63% Critical Damage )
• Marsupial (-1 INT, carry capacity, +jump height)
• Egghead (-1 AUS, -1 STR, +8 INT)
• Herd Mentality (-2 SPECIAL alone, +3 SPECIAL when in a team) (so always play in a team)
• Herbivore (Eat vegetables with no disease with 2X benefit ) (Negates the effects of meat food)
• Speed Demon (+50% hunger/thirst while moving, movement speed +25, +reload)
• Bird Bones (decrease falling speed, -1 STR, +5 MOV)

Additionally I use:

• electrically charged
• unstable isotope

Ghoul Rifleman with single-shot pistols or revolvers

Single-Shot Weapons

This build uses an Enclave Plasma Rifle (sniper barrel, hence single-shot) with Furious, Vital, and VATS Optimized, and Pinpoint mods. A hunting rifle and a lever-action rifle with the same mods are also recommended. If possible, a supressor should be used.

Additionally, the Gauss Pistol and the Single Action Revolver, for example, can be used well with the same legendary mods.

For the rifleman variant, the weapons should be single-shot and use Furious as the first legendary mod. This gives us a base damage bonus on this build that scales up to a 150% bonus with the reversed onslaught mechanic. See also: onslaught: New Buff for all Builds

The other legendary and mechanical mods are variable, and you can customize them to your liking. The goal here is to reduce AP consumption, reload quickly, and also increase damage on critical hits.

Skillset / Perk Cards

The perk cards marked in italics are new Ghoul perk cards.
"High Glow Values" means a value of >=180. The glow is your Ghoul Shield, which reflects your hit point bar. So, if you have 240 HP and your Glow bar is filled to 75% or more, your value is above or equal to 180 and you have "high glow." If you have more HP, this percentage will naturally decrease.

Strength to 1 (+5 legendary STR):
Bandolier to 2 (Ballistic ammunition weight reduced by 90%)
Arms Keeper to 2 (All weapon weight reduced by 75%)
Arms of Steel to 2 (30% better accuracy than Ghoul)

Perception to 15:
Rifleman, Rifleman Master, and Rifleman Expert each to 3 (to increase single-shot rifle damage by +60%)
Tank Killer to 3 (to increase armor penetration by +36%)
Concentrated Fire to 3 (+3% damage / +20% accuracy per shot up to 20 stacks)

Endurance to 9:
Fireproof to 3 (Less damage from explosions and fire; not burn damage)
Lifegiver to 2 (More HP based on OFF)
Chem Fiend to 1 (Chems last slightly longer)
Glowing Guts(+300% more radiation from food and Drinks, e.g., poisonous slime)

Note: We don't need starched genes as a ghoul, as we don't receive random mutations and don't use RadAway (which can still remove mutations).

Charisma at 5:
Strange in Numbers (To increase the positive effects of mutations)
Inspiring (More XP based on CHA; which is unfortunately poor for ghouls); optional)
United Ordeal to 3 (+3 to all SPECIALs if another Ghoul is on the team)

Intelligence to 1 (+5 legendary INT):
Batteries included (since this build also plays Energy Rifles; optional)
First Aid (also optional)
Science Monster to 3 (+15% more damage if Glow is present and the character is hit)

Agility to 10 (+5 legendary AGI):
Covert Operative (More damage with stealth attacks with ranged weapons)
Gun Fu to 1 (VATs automatically jump to the nearest enemy)
Sneak to 1 (better sneak ability)
Escape (Hide faster when crouching)
Gunslinger Expert (+1% ranged damage to weak points per Onslaught stack, +3 max stacks)
Guerrilla Expert (Gain +1% reload speed per onslaught stack with ranged weapons, +3 max stacks) Stacks.)
Guerrilla Master (Gain +5% damage to nearby enemies per onslaught stack with ranged weapons, +5 max stacks.)
Gunslinger Master (Gain Onslaught stacks over time and spend them on attacks, +10 max stacks.) [Reverse onslaught]

Note [onslaught]: With the Guerrilla Expert, Gunslinger Expert, Guerrilla Master and Gunslinger Master perks, we increase the damage of Furious Weapons (+9 stacks) by an additional +21 stacks. This gives us a bonus of 30 stacks. Per stack, we receive +5% damage with Furious, so +150% bonus damage at 30 stacks. You can see the stacks as a number in the bottom right.

Luck at 10 (+5 Legendary Luck):
Class Freak (Reduces the negative effects of mutations by 75%)
Riccochet (Evade chance based on LUCK)
Better Criticals at 3 (Increases critical hit damage by +100%)
Critical Savvy (Critical hits only consume 55% of the bar)
Faulty Spots (+15% damage to weak spots)
Glowing Criticals at 3 (+50% bonus critical hit damage when the glow is high)

Note: As a ghoul, we receive a +150% bonus to critical hits from perks

Food Buffs

In order to get maximum damage on critical hits, this build can use buffs in appropriate situations. It makes sense to buff the damage on critical hits, as well as the ap acceleration / and max AP to be able to act better in VATS.

AP Acceleration:
Either company tea or the combination of corn soup and hard lemonade . Company Tea usually does not stack with other AP regenerating food.
Currently it stacks with hard lemonade, which seems to be a bug.
For situations in which you need more AP for a maximum of 25 seconds, you can also eat several canned coffee and thus get more AP in this time (no acceleration).

More damage on critical hits:
Blight Soup (lasts 30 minutes) or Sweet Mutaberry Tea (lasts 60 minutes) +125% critical damage in combination with Strange in Numbers (+ mutated team members).
Furthermore you can buff the critical hits with the magazine guns and bullets 3 with +100% more damage for ballistic critical hits to a total of +225% (blight soup +125% & guns & bullets 3 +100% = 225% ).
There are also chems to improve the damage: Overdrive also increases the damage from critical hits by +30% 

More ballistic damage:
You can also buff the general ballistic damage. You can use  psychotats (+25% damage) instead of Overdrive, small guns bobbleheads (+20% ballistic damage for pistols and rifles) and ballistic bock (+15% ballistic damage).
With energy rifles you can then use high-voltage yeast wheat instead of ballistics bock.

Max Damage on Critical Hits Combo:

1. Small Guns bobblehead (+20% ballistic damage)
2. Magazine: Guns & Bullets 3 (+100% damage on critical hits)
3. Company tea (more AP Acceleration)
4. Blight Soup or Sweet Mutaberry Tea (+125% damage on critical hits)
5. Overdrive (+30% damage on critical hits)
6. Ballistic Bock (+15% ballistic damage)

Overall: Ballistic Damage Bonus +35% (20+15), Critical Damage Bonus +255% (125+100+30)

If you want to buff yourself for Earle (A Colossal Problem), you can drink Mutfix before Ballistic Bock, both of which stack in this combination.

The calculated bonus cannot be observed 1:1 in the game. There are many factors that come into play, such as other players, the environment and the opponents. The legendary perks Aftermath and Full Deployment also keep the bonuses going up and down.

Gameplay

Hunting Rifle vs. West Tek

Lever Action Rifle vs. West Tek

EPR vs. Huntersville

Gauss Pistol vs. Whitespring Golf Club

Conclusion

The Ghoul is a good alternative to human full-life builds, as it has additional perk cards for better damage and even significantly more health thanks to the Ghoul's glow, which acts like a protective shield with the same values ​​as the hit point bar. You can also play this build well with the rifleman variant in 2 loadouts: Build Guide: Ghoul Commando with onslaught (and Pistols)

Both automatic rifles and pistols with onslaught, as well as single-shot rifles and pistols with the reverse onslaught, can be used very effectively. With these two loadouts, you can always switch depending on the situation and try out many different weapons, so it never gets boring. In boss fights, however, I would recommend the commando variant, as it is easy to maintain the rush with 20 stacks.