Fallout Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Fallout Wiki
Gameplay articles
FalloutSuper mutant
Nightkin
Fallout 2Super mutant
Fallout 3Super mutant
Super mutant brute
Super mutant master
Super mutant overlord Broken Steel
Super mutant behemoth
Fallout: New VegasSuper mutant
Super mutant brute
Super mutant master
Nightkin
Nightkin master
Nightkin sniper
Nightkin jailer
Fallout 4Super mutant
Super mutant suicider
Super mutant skirmisher
Super mutant brute
Super mutant enforcer
Super mutant butcher
Super mutant master
Super mutant overlord
Super mutant primus
Super mutant warlord
Super mutant behemoth
Fallout 76Super mutant
Super mutant skirmisher
Super mutant fighter
Super mutant brute
Super mutant enforcer
Super mutant butcher
Super mutant master
Super mutant overlord
Super mutant primus
Super mutant warlord
Super mutant suicider
Super mutant firestarter One Wasteland For All
Super mutant berserker Steel Reign
Super mutant behemoth

Super mutant is a general term referring to humanoid mutants created by exposing a regular and relatively unmutated human to a variant of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). The resulting hulking mutants typically possess exceptional strength, endurance, resistance or immunity to disease and radiation, as well as modified intelligence. Originally introduced in Fallout as a unique mutant menace led by the Master, super mutants have appeared in every game since, in several varieties and playing a variety of roles.

Games[]

Fallout[]

Vats

Super mutants about to transform a human using FEV in Fallout

Gameplay article: Fallout

Fallout features super mutants derived from FEV-2 at Mariposa Military Base, who appear as friends, foes and companions. They are predominantly intelligent, social and their position in traditional human society is a major question in each of these titles. In Fallout, they are the creations of the Master, who believes that the differences that led to the Great War could be overcome through the forced evolution of humanity. The Master's army of super mutants (Unity) plans to conquer the wasteland and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity by mutating those worthy of joining and sterilizing those who refuse (unaware of their own sterility). Although ultimately defeated by the Vault Dweller, who destroys Mariposa Military Base and eliminates the Master, the super mutants aren't all hostile and represent a variety of attitudes, especially towards the Master and his grand plan.

Fallout 2[]

Marcus

Marcus, a super mutant in Fallout 2

Gameplay article: Fallout 2

In Fallout 2, the remnants of the Unity react in different ways to the Master's defeat; some refuse to lay down arms and become raiders, others join the NCR Rangers or found new communities where humans and mutants coexist, such as Broken Hills. The super mutant companion, Marcus, is the sheriff of this town. Also introduced is a new, second generation of super mutants, originating once again in Mariposa: The Enclave excavated the base between 2236 and 2237, using captured Redding miners as slaves. Without protective equipment, exposure to the FEV still sealed within the base resulted in uncontrolled mutation. These second generation mutants tend to be, on average, far less intelligent than their peers.

Fallout Tactics[]

Gameplay article: Fallout Tactics

In Fallout Tactics, super mutants are the primary opponents in the third chapter, where the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel wars with them across Missouri and Kansas. Organized into Gammorin's Army and led by a rogue paladin, they are remnants of the Unity who fled over the Rockies, and inadvertently woke up the Calculator. They become allies and recruits after Gammorin's defeat.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel[]

Attis

Attis in Brotherhood of Steel

In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, super mutants serve as enemies in chapters two and three. By 2208 in Texas, a super mutant named Attis hoped to use the research and FEV samples remaining to cure his own sterility and allow super mutants to breed and become the new dominant species on the planet, following in his Master's footsteps. In order to find the samples, Attis and his army broke into the Corporate Vault. Attis and his super mutants were defeated by the cooperation of Patty and the Initiate who blew up the city of Los, concluding the Brotherhood-Attis War with Rhombus being a key figure in their defeat as well.

Fallout 3[]

Uncle Leo

Uncle Leo in Fallout 3

Gameplay article: Fallout 3

Fallout 3 features super mutants derived from the Evolutionary Experimentation Program, an FEV derivative used at Vault 87. These mutants are almost invariably hostile, borderline feral, and completely asexual. They act as hostile creatures barely capable of speech or coherent social organization, but are considered a major threat by the Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel, which has engaged them in a war of attrition for nearly two decades by the time the game starts.

Only two non-hostile super mutants appear in the game, Fawkes, a late game companion who prefers to be called meta-human rather than super mutant, and Uncle Leo, a randomly encountered traveler. These represent the only non-hostile interactions with them in the entire game. Uniquely, these super mutants never seem to stop growing and ancient, gigantic mutants called behemoths can be encountered. Centaurs are common companions of the super mutants, another hideous effect of EEP mutation.

Fallout: New Vegas[]

Neil

Neil, a super mutant in New Vegas

Gameplay article: Fallout: New Vegas

In Fallout: New Vegas, super mutants are rare, but represent another attempt to destigmatize friendly relations with humans, efforts made possible by the actions of the returning Marcus. The nightkin are greatly expanded upon in the game, representing the long term legacy of the Master's work: Near-perfect super mutants twisted by years of exposure to stealth radiation who suffer from various psychological ailments. Dealing with the nightkin and finding a cure for them is a major element of the super mutant story in the game, at Black Mountain, REPCONN test site and Jacobstown.

Fallout 4[]

Fallout4SuperMutant

A super mutant in Fallout 4

Gameplay article: Fallout 4

Fallout 4 features super mutants created by the Institute using an FEV sample acquired through clandestine means. These mutants are the byproduct of its research into generation 3 synths, dumped into the Commonwealth. They are somewhat intelligent, forming unique tribes and representing a variety of mostly hostile attitudes.

A super mutant companion, Strong, appears, alongside a handful of peaceful super mutants, providing insight into the communal society of the mutants. The Institute's creations consider themselves both to be superior to humans and their victims, seeing violence as a form of retribution. They are commonly accompanied by other FEV creations, such as mutant hounds and unstable early experiments, the behemoths.

While a cure for the effects of FEV was speculated by ZAX 1.2, this is the only strain that can be cured. The Institute scientist, Brian Virgil, is the first to successfully create a serum that recreated his original human DNA while overwriting the FEV present in his system.[1][2]

Fallout 76[]

Grahm

Grahm, a super mutant merchant in Fallout 76

Gameplay article: Fallout 76

Fallout 76 features super mutants derived from FEV experiments at the West Tek research center in Appalachia, including mass exposure of the denizens of Huntersville and infection of survivors by the Enclave under orders from President Thomas Eckhart, in a desperate bid to increase the DEFCON rating and gain access to the region's missile weapons. Widespread, violent and hostile, these super mutants have a major presence in the region and are a common enemy for factions that inhabited Appalachia in the past (Responders and Taggerdy's Brotherhood) and those who have returned to it after the Scorched Plague, such as the Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force under Paladin Leila Rahmani. Like before, they are accompanied by similarly mutated hounds and floaters. Behemoths also make a return.

Fallout Shelter[]

Super mutants also appear in Fallout Shelter and Fallout Shelter Online.[Non-canon 1]

Named super mutants[]

Super mutant characters
Fallout
Harry Lieutenant The Master
Vincent Viscious
Fallout 2
Elmo Francis Frank Horrigan
Gond Grundel Lenny
Marcus Melchior Zaius
Fallout 3
Uncle Leo Fawkes
Fallout: New Vegas
Davison Dog and God Keene
Lily Bowen Marcus Mean Sonofabitch
Neil Tabitha
Fallout 4
Big Mack Dr. Brian Virgil Dead Eye
Fist Hammer Strong
Swan Erickson Grun
Rage Crag Scratch
Fallout 76
Grahm Harrison Malone Gail
Doctor Blackburn Maul

Appearances[]

Super mutants appear in all Fallout games to date.

Behind the scenes[]

Oh yeah, the term “Super Mutant”? It was a temporary name given to the über tough Master-Created FEV Mutants. We just couldn't come up with anything better, and it kind of stuck. Since they were enhanced with something akin to Captain America's Super Soldier Serum – Super Mutants it was.Scott Campbell, The Origins of Fallout
  • The name of the super mutants has had numerous variations at different points. Despite the fact that "super mutant" is the most characteristic and most widely used, other variations exist including super mutants, super-mutant, supermutant and mutants. Some mutants encountered near Mariposa in Fallout 2 are called "super duper mutants."

Appearance[]

Don't shoot him, you'll just make him mad. The famous line from Blazing Saddles describing Mongo, was my guiding inspiration for these guys. I wanted them to look like they would step into a tree shredder, for relaxation. Their musculature was to be straining at the bone structure underneath, creating a hyper jacked up caricature of a person in the throes of radioactive testosterone poisoning, and liking it.

This led to a lot of visual gags costume wise too. Not only did they wield parking meters like police batons, but they carried their victims caged in shopping carts strapped to their backs. You know, just in case they got peckish after a fight, and wanted a snack.

Their armor is total salvage yard, car hoods and fenders resourcefully but crudely pounded into chest plates and pauldrons. Lawn mower blades welded onto helmets. I wanted recognizable elements twisted to a more violent purpose to reflect a sinister resourcefulness to surviving in a highly dangerous world. This junkyard wars approach to their armor and weapons generated whole categories of unique and often hilarious Homemade Weapons that I'll speak about next.
Adam Adamowicz, Conceptual Design

Sterility[]

  • Marcus, a super mutant in Fallout 2, jokes about making prostitutes pregnant if he takes a trip to the Cat's Paw brothel, and remarks that "it only takes a few years to get the juices flowing again" when asked about sterility. Chris Avellone, the author of his dialogue, confirmed it was merely a joke.
  • Francis is a famously sexually active super mutant, allegedly capable of staining gimps.[3]
  • They are sterile due to their quad-helix DNA structure, which is incapable of proper meiosis; gametes produced by FEV mutants are therefore not equipped to couple properly, so fertilization never occurs.

Miscellaneous[]

  • The Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel Manual describes the mutants as, "While Ghouls are the product of evolutionary transformation, mutants are man-made. Big, massively muscled, and savage, they are far stronger than any human and are able to handle heavy weapons with ease. Originally created by some 'brilliant' scientists, who thought it would be a neat idea to dip ordinary folks into a toxic goo swimming with a 'Forced Evolutionary Virus', the mutant menace has since caused the wasteland more than its fair share of problems. The process of creating mutants also seems to have some kind of random factor - as some mutants are highly intelligent, while others are as dumb as a post."

Gallery[]

Fallout and Fallout 2

Fallout 3

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 4

Fallout 76

Fallout Tactics

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

Fallout Shelter Online

Van Buren

Fallout d20

Project V13

Magic: The Gathering

External links[]

References[]

  1. The Sole Survivor: "How are you going to test it?"
    Brian Virgil: "On myself, of course. That was the plan. This serum will only counteract the specific strain of FEV that I infected myself with. There's no telling what it might do to anyone else. All right. Here we go. ...Ah. And now... we wait."
    (Brian Virgil's dialogue)
  2. Brian Virgil: "Welcome back. It needs some refinement, but I think we can consider my serum a qualified success."
    The Sole Survivor: "This is a "qualified success"?"
    Brian Virgil: "There were some side effects to the process. I seem to have hair again. And I've retained some muscle mass. The genetic resequencer needs more work. Still, I take your point. This is a significant advance. But only for one strain of FEV. It will take years, perhaps decades, to generalize my formula."
    (Brian Virgil's dialogue)
  3. Broken Hills citizen: "{187}{}{Francis sure seems happy lately.} {188}{}{Francis has quite a glow. Did he get laid?}" "{189}{}{Hey there, gimp!}"'"{190}{}{Still walking straight?}"'"{191}{}{Did Francis hurt you?}"'"{192}{}{You got a little stain, there.}"'"{193}{}{How could you be stupid enough to wrestle Francis for those odds?}"'"{194}{}{I hope you enjoyed it as much as Francis did.}"(Female and male Broken Hills citizens' dialogue)

Non-canon

  1. Possible Wasteland quotes, Fallout Shelter: "Explorer's journal. New entry. Super Mutants are asexual. Before transformation, some were women."
Advertisement