The Appalachia super mutants were created shortly before the Great War, when the local West Tek facility contaminated the river water that ran through Huntersville with a unique strain of FEV as part of an experiment.[1]
The super mutants of Huntersville share the characteristics universal among those found elsewhere: they have green skin, highly developed musculature, and they build improvised armor and fortifications from waste or scrap. They have erected elaborate junk fortresses in the region, and hold several small towns such as Harpers Ferry.
Steel Dawn[]
In 2103, a super mutant attack was mounted on Fort Atlas, after they had grown dense in the region.[2] They startled the recently-arrived Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force,[3] who had never seen super mutants before.[4] By the following year, it was discovered that the super mutant attack on Fort Atlas was not an isolated event, as other attacks had been mounted all over the region, including the Settlers' home base of Foundation. It was through further investigation that the super mutants were the result of the continuation of research on the Forced Evolutionary Virus by Edgar Blackburn, one of the people who visited Fort Atlas previously looking for Brotherhood assistance and was turned away. After capturing him in Vault 96 and saving some of his latest test subjects from being experimented on, Blackburn revealed that he had associates preparing to finish and release the perfected FEV from the West Tek research center where the super mutants were first created. Though the Brotherhood attempted to stop it, Blackburn willingly allowed the perfected FEV to be tested on himself, but something went wrong, turning him into a raging super mutant behemoth that had to be killed. Following that, his co-workers were either spared or executed, finally severing whatever uneasy friendship still kept Paladin Leila Rahmani and Knight Daniel Shin together, with the one who was not sided with being killed or allowed to leave with their life since they were unable to accept the other's ideologies.
Characteristics[]
They collect and eat excessive amounts of meat, both human and animal. They have even been known to devour Scorched and large predators, or stock their meat to build up reserves. Many bags of meat are strewn about in the fortifications of super mutants or carried in their inventory.
Most Huntersville super mutants travel in small, well-organized groups, often led by a much stronger super mutant. They wear mismatched armor made from scrap iron or rubbish that can provide varying degrees of protection. These armors include a mask fashioned from a propane tank. They attack their opponents most often with rudimentary weapons like pipe rifles, boards or sledgehammers. Some carry more advanced weapons like laser sniper rifles, miniguns or even missile launchers. Others may throw explosives to attack from a distance. All super mutants may perform bash attacks in proximity, which will stagger their target.
Super mutants may be accompanied by mutant hounds and floaters, which they keep as pets. All super mutants are hostile to Vault Dwellers except for Grahm the merchant and Gail of the Crater Raiders. Like Vault 87 and Institute super mutants, Huntersville super mutants can develop into behemoths, which can be encountered among other super mutants or alone in the wilderness.
Super mutants will not become Scorched when fighting scorchbeasts. However, despite the nature of FEV and its origins as the Pan-Immunity Virion Project, behemoths are susceptible to the Scorched Plague.
A chalky white super mutant with glowing red eyes created by Doctor Blackburn. They paint their bodies with smeared blood and are first encountered in Uncanny Caverns during A Knight's Penance. Berserkers will attack exclusively with melee - boards, sledgehammers or their bare hands. They are faster than other super mutants.
Perks
Swift-Footed: +45% movement speed
Attack damage increased by 25%
+25% melee swing speed
+54 two-handed and unarmed weapon damage
Super mutant firestarter[]
A powerful super mutant serving as a final boss for Daily Ops, as well as enemies during Eviction Notice. They will be armed with a unique assault rifle modified to fire floater flamer grenades, and will occasionally throw Molotov cocktails to burn player characters. Their orange-toned skin is covered with scar tissue. Their eyes glow a hot orange beneath white war paint depicting a skull.
A super mutant that will run at its enemy with a beeping mini nuke in its arm. It will then detonate itself while nearby by slamming the mini nuke into the ground like spiking a football, setting it off, killing its enemy and itself in a fiery nuclear explosion. Super mutant suiciders are easily identified by their lack of armor that other super mutants normally wear, blood red heads and shoulders, and chains crisscrossed on their torsos. Shooting the mini nuke in the suicider's hand or targeting the right arm in V.A.T.S. will cause the mutant to explode prematurely, killing it instantly. As a result, shooting the bomb from afar is one of the most effective ways to dispatch them, and potentially other nearby enemies as well. If one is desperate to kill a suicider and the only weapon types available are unarmed and/or melee, the player may either sneak attack it, or run up to it, strike it, step back a bit, and repeat until it's dead (though the latter is not advised as one missed attack will allow the suicider to detonate the mini nuke, and accidentally hitting the mini nuke with either type of attack will detonate it). The suicider can be detected before it is seen by listening for the beeping of its mini nuke. If the suicider is killed without detonating the payload, which can be done with a headshot or body shot, a mini nuke can be looted from its corpse; otherwise, only nuclear material will be found on its remains.
Cut variants of ghoulified and Scorched super mutants exist within the game's files, but were never implemented into the game. The Scorched super mutant had unique voice lines that were also cut. A partially finished record for a glowing super mutant was cut. Shielded super mutant data was added with One Wasteland For All.
The scenario and presentation of the government agents releasing FEV into the Huntersville water supply parallels some stories related to MKUltra, a CIA program which performed illegal experiments on humans between 1953 and 1973, especially the activities of Operation Midnight Climax, in which civilians were dosed with hallucinogens without their knowledge.
The incident also resembles the 1950 Operation Sea Spray, in which the Navy dropped a balloon of serratia bacteria over San Francisco.
The Somnus Initiative conducted at nearby blacksite Sugar Grove is a direct MKUltra parallel, in that it sought to reprogram civilians with drugs and hypnosis to be sleeper agents for international espionage.
Bugs[]
PCXbox OnePlaystation 4 If a legendary super mutant suicider is allowed to explode, the legendary item will be removed from their inventory.[verified]
PCXbox OnePlaystation 4 Super mutants wielding laser sniper rifles may rarely deal significantly more damage than intended. This can kill an end-game player character with full health.[verified]
↑Fallout 76 loading screens: "The first Super Mutants in Appalachia were created right before the Great War, when West Tek poisoned the drinking water of Huntersville with the FEV Virus, in a sinister, secret experiment gone horribly wrong."
↑Daniel Shin: "Eliminate any Super Mutant you encounter. It remains unclear what's causing them to multiply, so we can't take any risks. Besides that, they are an abomination to humankind, and a threat to civilians across Appalachia. They cannot be allowed to live. Be ready for new orders at a moment's notice. As soon as we put together a more targeted plan for dealing with them, we'll need you at the forefront." (Daniel Shin's dialogue)
↑Vault 76 dweller: "What do you think of the Super Mutants that attacked?" Odessa Valdez: "They're unsettling. They can use human weapons, mount an organized offensive, and they targeted us for an attack. I get the feeling we haven't seen the last of them." (Odessa Valdez's dialogue)
↑Vault 76 dweller: "Why are the Super Mutants such a big concern?" Daniel Shin: "One: they're an unknown. I understand these creatures have been sighted around Appalachia for some time now, but this is the Brotherhood's first time dealing with them. We need more information before we can count this threat as controlled. Two: they targeted us directly. The blow they dealt to this base is unacceptable. We must determine their motives, if any, and take appropriate steps to ensure this never happens again. Three: they're an abomination. We've seen all kinds of mutants, but these are... uncannily human. It's an affront to nature to simply let them be." (Daniel Shin's dialogue)