One of Fallout 76‘s most charming features is the host of real-world cryptids it has translated into the Appalachian Wasteland. While Appalachia is known for iconic cryptids like Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster, Fallout 76 pays homage to cryptid folklore of all kinds with a large roster of mutated monstrosities for players to encounter. With the upcoming Burning Springs update set to expand the game’s map into Ohio, the door is open for even more cryptids to make their way into the wasteland.
Ohio is already known within pop culture as a strange and quirky state, which becomes even more apparent when looking at its history with cryptid folklore. While the state is home to its own Bigfoot and Mothman sightings, Ohio has a plethora of other strange creatures that Fallout 76: Burning Springs could pull from. The most famous of Ohio’s cryptids is the Loveland Frog, and this bipedal amphibian would be the perfect candidate for the Fallout 76 treatment.
Fallout 76's Burning Springs Update Could Introduce Ohio's Iconic Loveland Frog Cryptid
Fallout 76 already has quite the full cryptid roster as it stands. However, it is missing a few notable monsters that deserve representation in a future update. The current cryptids Fallout 76 players can encounter include:
- Aliens
- The Beast of Beckley
- Blue Devil
- Flatwoods Monster
- Grafton Monster
- Jersey Devil
- Mega Sloth
- Mothman
- Ouga
- Sheepsquatch
- Snallygaster
- Wendigo
Although the Fallout series has mentions of cryptids like Sasquatch and Chupacabra, it lacks any reference to the Loveland Frog. This cryptid is arguably as iconic as Mothman or Sasquatch, and could fit in perfectly as Fallout 76‘s resident Ohio monster.
The Real-World Lore of the Loveland Frog
The first sighting of the Loveland Frog occured in 1955 near the town of Loveland, Ohio. Drivers reportedly witnessed a bipedal, frog-like creature standing 3 to 4 feet tall crossing the road late at night. Other sightings of the Loveland Frog have occurred in the years since this initial report, including one by a police officer in 1972 who claimed to see a similar large frog-like creature crouching under a bridge near where the original sighting took place, which matches the description of the creature some Pokemon GO players reported seeing in 2016 in the same area.
Theories about what the Loveland Frog actually is range from a large mutated species of frog, to an oversized, tailless iguana.
How Fallout 76 Can Put its Own Spin on This Classic Cryptid
A bipedal frogman seems like a clear contender for a Fallout 76 monster, as the game already features irradiated frogs of its own. The Loveland Frog would be a natural evolution of these creatures, and could potentially eclipse the original reported size of 3 to 4 feet tall to create a towering amphibian boss similar to Fallout 76‘s Wendigo or Blue Devil. Fallout 76 tends to dial things up a notch when designing enemies based on real-world cryptids, so it would be completely feasible for the game to exaggerate the Loveland Frog’s size even further than what witnesses of the cryptid claimed to have seen.
The one issue Fallout 76 may run into when adapting the Loveland Frog to the new Ohio portion of the map is the fact that this new region is said to be a desert reminiscent of New Vegas to coincide with season 2 of the Fallout TV show. A frog isn’t the first critter that one associates with the desert, and the Loveland Frog was originally spotted along the side of the Little Miami River, so a wet, swampy environment would make more sense for a Loveland Frog-inspired enemy. Instead, Fallout 76 could lean into the theory that the frog was just an oversized, tailless lizard and create a desert-dwelling version of this cryptid that looks more like a horned lizard or a Gila monster.