Flatwoods Monster

Flatwoods monsters are cryptids in Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Zetan aliens tasked with capturing test subjects for experimentation, Flatwoods monsters are stealthy kidnappers, grabbing victims and teleporting away before they knew what hit them, their mere presence telepathically warping the mind of all but the most iron-willed.

In pre-War West Virginia, near the town of Flatwoods, many claimed to see a dark, mysterious figure with glowing eyes. A Flatwoods monster purportedly took Colton Pickins onto its spaceship and performed experiments on him, however, that account was disbelieved by the responding police force. Post-War, however, these accounts are becoming more and more real, with accounts of wastelanders being taken away and subjected to vile experimentation; a blinding light their only memory of the ordeal.

Biology
Flatwoods monsters are humanoid creatures of extraterrestrial origin. A Flatwoods monster's head is encased in a purple space helmet, which obscures its face save for its glowing white eyes. The rest of the body is sealed in a protective suit, with an armored breathing apparatus and a large spade-shaped frill on its back. Flatwoods monsters have no visible legs, the suit instead terminating to a bullet-shaped point at its bottom, with what appear to be small hover-jets around the waist, allowing the creatures to float above the ground. The Flatwood monsters' long arms are tipped with large, three-fingered hands clad in large black gloves. Beneath the Flatwoods monsters' hard metal shell is a Zetan alien, though the creature inside is deformed, with very small legs compared to others of its species.

Gameplay attributes
A Flatwoods monster can be encountered in a random encounter in which, if approached or shot at, it will suddenly disappear along with a flash of light, or if it is a hostile variant, it will engage the player character using teleportation to move around. It is possible for one to spawn alongside the mothman.

During combat, a Flatwoods monster will teleport around. It regenerates lost health when nearly dead multiple times and can also take control of other creatures and robots around it and use them to defend itself, indicated by the purple glow around the creatures under its control.

The Tales from the West Virginia Hills magazine issue #5 will provide an additional 15% damage against the Flatwoods monster.

At the Whitespring Resort, the Whitespring robots will not attack the Flatwoods monster if it appears. Conversely, the Flatwoods monster will only attack player characters. This can occur during a "Whitespring assault" random encounter along with a regular assault of randomized enemies that will attack the robots. The player character must fend off two different types of enemies at once, including the Flatwoods monster, as opposed to only one type of a hostile enemy for the Whitespring security detail.

Flatwoods monster
The base variant of the creature, with all of the above attributes.

Fabled Flatwoods monster
An elusive variant, this Flatwoods monster has increased health and laser damage, although its resistances are the same.

Mythical Flatwoods monster
This powerful Flatwoods monster has even higher health and attack damage, being the strongest of all three variants.

Locations

 * A Flatwoods monster can be encountered near Abbie's bunker.
 * Across the river from Dyer Chemical.
 * Outside the converted munitions factory.
 * Southeast of Spruce Knob Channels on a cliffside.
 * The woods west of Wilson Brother's Auto Repair.
 * Near the Top of the World.
 * Near Johnson's Acre.
 * Near Southhampton Estate.
 * On the northwest side of Sunnytop Ski Lanes.
 * Chance to spawn west of R&G station.
 * Chance to spawn at the southwestern point near the lower southwest or eastern guarded "checkpoint" of the Whitespring Resort near road 83A on the map.
 * Near the Twin Lakes.
 * Near Kerwood mine, between the mine and the Ranger district office.
 * Can possibly appear within the Mire at three randomized locations during the Queen of the Hunt daily quest.

Related quests

 * Queen of the Hunt
 * Kill different kinds of human-like creatures (weekly challenge)

Appearances
The Flatwoods monster appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes

 * The Flatwoods monster is based on West Virginia folklore. The Flatwoods monster was encountered by a group of six boys of various ages and one Kathleen May, who claimed to have encountered an alien creature after investigating a mysterious light that flew across the sky and appeared to have landed in the woods. The hovering monster was described as being ten feet tall with a green body and clawed hands, as well as a red face, glowing yellow eyes and a head shaped like an "ace of spades."
 * An unidentified man from the nearby community of Frametown would later report that the creature was humanoid, with a reptilian torso and a metal cylinder instead of legs, leading to the widespread belief that the Flatwoods monster had been an alien wearing a metal suit.
 * Today, investigators believe that the Flatwoods monster was nothing more than a barn owl perched in a tree, and the light that flew across the sky was a meteor that had been reported by many other towns in the area.