Hello and welcome to the next guide in our Fallout 76 Cryptids series. In this series of guides, we will take a look at some of the various Cryptids found within Fallout 76, and also go over everything from lore, variants, and spawn locations. That said, in this guide, we will be focusing on the Fallout 76 Mothman and everything there is to know about them.
Fallout 76 Mothman: Real-World Folklore Overview
The story of the Mothman dates back to the 1960s when sightings of the strange creature started to ramp up in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. During this time, numerous residents started reporting seeing an extremely tall, at least 7ft humanoid-like creature with huge wings at various locations around Point Pleasant. Furthermore, each report tended to have varying descriptions of the creature’s size and wingspan. However, one key detail that was the same in each reported sighting was that the Mothman had huge terrifying red glowing eyes.
In the years that followed, Mothman would terrify the citizens of Point Pleasant leading to the legend of this strange beast to be segmented forever in folklore. Also, various theories surrounding the origin of the creature have sprong up, with some believing Mothman to be an omen of tragedy and death, a vengeful curse, an alien, or just simply a mutated monster.
The first of these theories, the omen of death one, started to gain traction due to the countless sightings of the creature just before tragic events that would lead to a huge loss of life. Some of the most notable examples of these sightings include The Collapse of the Silver Bridge and Freiburg Mine and even the Chernobyl disaster. This theory is also more widely believed, as apparently after the collapse of the Silver Bridge all sightings of the creature and other phenomena ceased in the area.
Moving on, the curse theory stems from a reported 200-year-old curse from a Native American Chief called Cornstalk who stated that a great spirt will haunt the land and the area will be forever corrupted after he and his son were murdered at a fort by British soldiers. Now the alien theory is believed because of reported sightings of aliens, ufos, and men in black who questioned people regarding the Mothman. Furthermore, various witnesses also reported being threatened later to stay silent about seeing the Mothman.
However, for the last theory, it is simply believed that the monster originates from an old TNT depo built during WW2 and was mutated from toxic waste at this location. Overall, no one knows for sure what the heck Mothman is but sightings of him continue to this day. However, the consensus seems to be that Mothman Sightings seem to always precede horrible tragedies.
For more guides On Fallout 76 check out the following listed below:
- The Best Locations To Find Feral Ghouls In Fallout 76
- Fallout 76 Eyebot Locations – Where to Find Them
- Fallout 76 Cryptids: The Wendigo – Everything You Need To Know
- Fallout 76 Middle Mountain Cabins – Everything You Need to Know
Fallout 76 Mothman Lore Overview
In Fallout 76. the Mothman is one of several cryptids that are featured in the game, but overall the lore behind this creature in Fallout 76 does not differ all that much from that of our world. However, one major change was made to the Mothman, and this was instead of a humanoid moth creature, the Mothman in Fallout 76 appears to be just a giant moth. Moving on, the story behind Mothman in Fallout 76 takes place around the years that lead to the Great War. Around the 2070s Mothman similar to our world was a popular figure in fiction at the time, and was also dismissed widely as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
But despite the wide dismissal from the general population in pre-war America, one group was of a different mindset. This group was the early beginnings of what would become the cult of the Mothman that would reside in the town of Point Pleasant. Other than what would seem to other Americans at the time a gathering of lunatics that formed a cult, others looked to the stories of Mothman with more seriousness than most people. These individuals would even devote entire careers searching for the truth behind the creature, with the most prominent of these figures being Professor Angus Dykstra.
These brave truth-seekers would sadly face persecution from the rest of society, with the most extreme examples being what happened to Angus Dykstra. What happened to Mr. Dykstra was that he was censored widely and was denied chances to speak across the state of West Virginia at various campuses because the State deemed his research unscientific. This would later lead to that cult we talked about earlier, taking this as clear state persecution and clear as day attempts to silence the truth.
Moving on, as the years follow and as the impending nuclear holocaust that would send the world back to the stone age loomed ever so closer, this cult referred to as the “Point Pleasant Cult” continued to practice their strange beliefs that were strengthened by the persecution they faced by the rest of society. One day the followers of the cult gathered on rooftops in Point Pleasant to summon their deity to gain its comic wisdom and its protection from the impending disaster looming on the horizon. On October 22, 2077, they succeed in their efforts but the Mothman was visible to only one of the cult members.
This was a man called Charles and soon after the Mothman was summoned he shared the grand wisdom with the rest of the members on the rooftops. What the man learned was that a great flood was soon to come that was going to bring untold disaster upon civilization, and his fellow members took this as a sign to stay on the rooftops to avoid the flood. The Flood came, but it was not at all what the cult initially expected, it was instead the event known in the Fallout universe as the Great War. After the hellfire that consumed the world arrived, the remnants of the cult scattered across Appalachia and they remain to this today along with the Mothman that they worship.
Best Places To Look For Mothman in Fallout 76
Now that you know both the real world and game lore behind the Mothman in Fallout 76, lets now go over where to find the creature in the game. Overall, finding Mothman in Fallout 76 appears to be a bit of a game of chance as there are not many places it seems to spawn all the time, however, there are a few where it does spawn semi-regularly. However, we also recommend checking any location that other Fallout 76 Cryptids tend to spawn in, as a few times in our journey we found The Mothman creature spawning in other locations instead of the usual one. That said, in the chart below we have laid out just a few of these locations to give players a bit of an idea where to look for Mothman.
Location | Description |
Point Pleasant | If you are lucky, you may find the basic Mothman variant spawning in the wooded area around the town of Point Pleasant in Fallout 76. |
Hunter’s shack ( Queen of the Hunt Event) | It has been reported that a Vengeful Mothman sometimes appears during the Queen of the Hunt Event quest that can be started at the Hunter’s Shack in the mire. |
South of Abbie’s Bunker | Around the road south of Abbie’s Bunker where wendigos tend to spawn a Mothman can instead. |
The area around Wendigo cave and Autumn Acre Cabin | I encountered a Vengeful Mothman around this area during one playthrough of Fallout 76. |
Landview Lighthouse ( The path to Enlightenment Event) | A nonhostile Wise Mothman will always appear after this event and can give players a 5% bonus to XP gain. |
Whitespring Resort Checkpoints | At the southwestern point of both the southwest or eastern checkpoint at Whitespring Resort, a Mothman has a chance to appear. |
Wise Mothman Random Encounter | The nonhostile Wise Mothman will sometimes appear randomly near the player but will not have an XP bonus like the event one. |
In Any Area That Another Cryptid Spawns In | As we mentioned earlier it seems Mothman spawn sometimes in place of other cryptids so it might be a good idea to check areas where other cryptids like wendigos and the Flatwoods monster spawn. |
The Scorched Earth Event | During the Scorched Earth event in Fallout 76, a Scorched Variant of the Mothman will appear. |
Fallout 76 Mothman Variant Overview
Since you now know where to look for the creature let us now go over the many variants of Mothman you can find in Fallout 76. In total, there are six variants that all have their characteristics and appearances that make them stand out in the world of Fallout 76, and if you keep reading you will find a chart with all of them listed below.
Variant | Description |
Basic Mothman | The basic variant of the Fallout 76 Mothman that can be found primarily around Point Pleasant, and it has a brownish body with really big red eyes, |
Stalking Mothman | Similar to that of the Basic variant but as the name suggests it will stalk the player, further it will also sometimes attack and disappear quickly after. |
Glowing Mothman | A Mothman creature that is highly irradiated, and has a black body with green glowing eyes. |
Vengeful Mothman | An always hostile version of the Mothman, with a grey body and orange glowing eyes. |
Wise Mothman | A non-hostile version of the Fallout 76 Mothman, that can give the player XP after the Path to Enlightenment event. This version also has a greyish body with purple glowing eyes. |
Scorched Mothman | A Mothman that is infected with the scorched plague that has a burned body with glowing lime green eyes. This variant will also show up during the Scorched Earth Event in Fallout 76. |
That’s all we have for this edition of Fallout 76 Cryptids and everything you need to know about the Fallout 76 Mothman. In our next guide, we will go over the Grafton monster that haunts the town of Grafton, West Virginia. We hope this guide answered everything you were wondering about the Mothman and please let us know your thoughts and comments down below. Until next time, Vault Dwellers and be safe out there!