Nightkin

Nightkin were warriors in the Master's super mutant army. When the Master's super mutant army was defeated in 2162, many began wandering the wasteland.

Fallout
Nightkin can be found guarding the upper levels of the Cathedral, as well as inside the Mariposa Military Base, and in random patrol encounters in the cells around the base. After the Master's fall, many surviving Unity super mutants had become a chaotic wasteland-wandering force, set on destroying everything it encountered. They are superior to other super mutants in skill, equipment, and weaponry. Many of the nightkin are equipped with cloaking devices, such as Stealth Boys. The only gaming effect of this is to give them a slightly ethereal look, as it does not affect the player character's chance of hitting them.

Fallout: New Vegas
Alterations to their biology were caused by prolonged use of Stealth Boy technology including neuro-chemical changes to occur in their brains, leading to mental instability and disorders, including schizophrenia, delusions, and even split personalities.

In 2281, many are now either with Tabitha, Marcus or Davison. Some of the nightkin suffer from severe psychological damage, caused by prolonged Stealth Boy use. They wear the same clothes as regular super mutants, but many of them also wear hoods and stop signs strapped to their forearms as makeshift shields. They are often found wielding rebar clubs, miniguns, incinerators, super sledges or, in the case of nightkin masters, bumper swords. There are some scattered elsewhere in the wasteland, in places such as Black Rock cave.

The prolonged use of stealth boys could be a psychological addiction for them, as evidenced by the fact without them some nightkin will be angered when stared at and will claim that eyes are pointed at them. Using the stealth boys seems to relieve the stress of being seen.

A nightkin camping on the outskirts of Novac kills one of the McBride's brahmin every night around midnight. They can be found during the day, cloaked behind a boulder across the road and to the west of town. Here, they can be heard complaining about insomnia and trying to silence noises in their head that they believe come from the brahmin. Some talk about receiving commands and advice from Antler, an inanimate brahmin skull located in the basement of the REPCONN test site. The companion, Lily, is a nightkin and a former soldier in the Master's army.

Nightkin play an important part in the quest Come Fly With Me. The Courier is sent by Jason Bright, the founder of the Bright Brotherhood, to take care of "demons" that are infesting the basement level of the REPCONN rocket testing facility. At Brooks tumbleweed ranch a nightkin will offer to sell the Courier a wind-brahmin for all their caps. If the offer is declined, they will turn hostile and proceed to attack. Another nightkin, Dog and his "human" personality God, appears in the Sierra Madre.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
After the death of the Master, parts of the super mutant army gathered and formed a new faction, led by Attis. Many years after their regrouping, these mutants captured the Secret Vault in order to use the FEV reserves stored inside. Attis' goal was to continue the Master's plan. His army had an elite unit of nightkin, much improved in skill, and equipped with high-tech stealth suits to enhance their abilities. These suits served the same function as Stealth Boys. The stealth suits either originated from or were made in the Secret Vault.

Appearances
The nightkin appear in Fallout in the Cathedral and the Mariposa Military Base, in Fallout 2 as a hostile encounter on the world map, in the Secret Vault in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, and in Fallout: New Vegas and the add-on Dead Money.

Behind the scenes

 * In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, the nightkin are voiced by Michael Bell.
 * In Fallout 3, the word "nightkin" occasionally appears in the password list when hacking a terminal.
 * The mutant commando advanced character class from the canceled Fallout Pen and Paper d20 was based on the nightkin.
 * Joshua Sawyer conceived of the nightkin becoming schizophrenic from Stealth Boys and was directly inspired by the novel The Invisible Man and his progression into insanity by taking an invisibility drug.

Bugs

 * In the original Fallout, some nightkin that fight unarmed disappear (become "invisible") during the player's turn in combat and can not be targeted. The only way to end a battle with them is to either flee the area or have them be killed by an accidental fire, e.g. by other enemies that miss and hit them or using a burst mode of a weapon targeting any other available target with the intent to hit the supposed "invisible" nightkin.
 * In Fallout: New Vegas, the shaders that make nightkin invisible are sometimes bugged, causing them to remain invisible after deactivating their Stealth Boys (although they will be treated as visible for the purpose of calculating V.A.T.S. percentages). This has been observed in the REPCONN test site basement and during the encounter near McBride house in Novac, and appears to be linked to reloading a previous save during, or immediately after, an encounter with a nightkin (possibly after being killed).
 * After the nightkin that has been attacking Dusty McBride's cattle is killed, a nightkin master can appear near the tent in the middle of Novac; it can be encountered as far away as the Highway 95 Viper's encampment, and rarely can even spawn inside the McBrides' house. This nightkin master will be neutral unless attacked by the player character but could be encountered fighting Vipers. If killed, this nightkin will have a minigun in very poor condition and possess The Screams of Brahmin note.