Super Mutant

Super mutants or meta-humans are mutated humans, products of the Forced Evolutionary Virus, or F.E.V.. They are much taller and bulkier than humans, have (mostly) green, gray, or yellowish skin, are immune to disease and radiation, and are gifted with superhuman strength and endurance. Although they are completely sterile, constant regeneration of their cells caused by FEV makes them biologically immortal (but not impossible to kill, of course).

Biology
Average super mutants stand approximately 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) tall (although they typically stand with hunched backs that reduce them to about 8 feet) and weigh around 800 pounds (360 kg), possibly even more. Their skin color is predominately gray with tints of green, although some mutants with other skin colors also exist. Their skin is extremely tough, and their muscle and bone structure is enhanced.

Super mutant cells undergo cellular division at an increased rate. Mitosis occurs at a rate 15% quicker than that of normal humans. Cellular structure is said to be highly similar to normal humans. DNA strands are very complete, with all recessive genes for ailments eradicated from the system. The recessive genes which are commonly found in humans have been manipulated in such a way as to bring about the best possible combination. The RNA was also manipulated to allow for a greater transmission of signals.

The mutation has some severe side effects. Chief among them is sterility. As the gametes of the reproductive system consist of 'half-cells' using split DNA, they are perceived as 'damage' by FEV, which repairs them, rendering the mutants sterile. Super mutants are unable to reproduce with any creature, whether clean or mutated. Other side effects include an alteration of pigment of the epidermis. While the super mutants originating from Mariposa are sterile, they do not lose their sexual organs. In contrast, the Vault 87 strain of FEV causes the subjects to lose most of their visible sexual identifiers. Interestingly enough, they lack toes. (As seen on the subjects floating in tanks of fluid at Raven Rock.)

While they won't die due to cellular aging, they are prone to senility, leading to tendencies to engage in aggressive attacks against other humans and other creatures. As those created by the modified strain of FEV as part of the Evolutionary Experimentation Program age, they grow consistently larger and stronger, eventually reaching heights of up to 2 stories.

History
There are two different known sources of super mutants - Mariposa Military Base on the West Coast and Vault 87 on the East Coast. The two populations have separate histories, and there are no known accounts of any interaction between them.

Master's Army
Super mutants first were created on the West Coast by Richard Grey, also known as "The Master", who led the expedition to Mariposa Military Base in 2102. When the expedition was attacked by robots, he was himself dipped in a FEV vat, and managed to crawl out. FEV was initially meant to be injected into humans, but Grey soon found out that direct physical contact worked as well. He began to mutate in horrible ways, turning into a blob of flesh-like material. He developed psychic powers, which were enhanced by consuming living minds to expand his own brainpower. Slowly, as wanderers made it into the base themselves, he started doing his own experiments with FEV. Grey—who now called himself "the Master"—lamented the needless destruction of the Great War. In his warped state, he decided that he would have to force humanity to evolve. If everyone could be as perfect as his super mutants, there would be no more conflict. Those who could not evolve would die. Around 2155, the Master began seeking out uncontaminated humans with which to create mutants and build his super mutant army.

However, creating super mutants was a very hit or miss process. The great majority of super mutants produced by the Master and later his Lieutenant in Mariposa's Vats were big, dumb brutes. Physically, they were vastly superior to humans, but they had the intelligence of children. What exactly causes some mutants to be brilliant and others to be stupid is unknown. The Master was certain it was related to radiation damage: humans who hadn't been exposed to too much radiation yielded smarter mutants (see his personal diary for his thoughts on this). His Lieutenant, however, had a different theory. When the bombs hit the research facility and turned it into the Glow, they cracked open a few tanks filled with FEV. The bombs' radiation then mutated this FEV into an airborne strain. But this new airborne FEV didn't have any real mutagenic effects on people. All it did was inoculate human subjects against the real FEV, acting as a sort of vaccine. The ideal dipping subject was someone who hadn't been exposed to the airborne FEV. Both of these conditions--no radiation exposure and no mutant FEV inoculation--were present in one population: Vault dwellers. Each Vault contained around 1,000 viable subjects to be dipped and turned into super mutants. Which factor exactly determines what you'll get from a dipping--radiation or inoculation--is still uncertain, though as a rule of thumb, the cleaner the subject, the better.

Fall of the Master
In 2162, a person known as the Vault Dweller destroyed the mutant army by causing an explosion in the FEV vats at Mariposa, which collapsed the entire base, after which he proceeded to The Cathedral and killed the Master. Without the leadership of their creator and his lieutenant, the mutants divided into at least three factions. First of them, led by Gammorin, decided to leave California and find a place for themselves somewhere in the East. The second, under the leadership of Attis, wanted to continue the Master's work, rebuild the army, and dominate the Core Region once again.

The third remains in the Core Region. Some of these super mutants, however, especially those who retained more of their intelligence than their less pure brethren, wanted to make peace with humans, put old differences aside and work together to rebuild the world after the War. In 2185, super mutant Marcus and Brotherhood of Steel Paladin Jacob crossed paths in the desert and punched and shot at each other for a few days. Eventually, they gave up, unable to get an advantage over the other. The two started traveling together, arguing over Master and BOS doctrine. Eventually the two, along with the trail of ghouls, humans, and super mutants, founded the community of Broken Hills. Some super mutants also settled in other more tolerant human communities, like the New California Republic. A conversation with an NPC in Fallout 2 also indicates that some super mutants and members of the Children of the Cathedral traveled North. However, many of the super mutants remain hostile to humans, and travelled the wastelands in small groups with floaters and centaurs, like during the Master's reign. These were known as the remnants of the mutant army.

Gammorin's Forces
Some time after their departure, the faction led East by Gammorin was pursued by Brotherhood of Steel airships. While most of them ended up in the vicinity of Chicago, far from Gammorin's forces, one of the zeppelins crashed north of the mutant encampment. The leader, Paladin Latham, challenged Gammorin to a single unarmed combat and, to the surprise of everyone, killed the mighty mutant. As he defeated the previous chieftain, the super mutants expected him to become the new leader of their army. Latham suffered a head injury during the combat, and throughout the years, he grew more and more insane, even though he managed to organize the mutant forces into an army nearly as powerful as they had been during the Master's reign. This reshaped army was since led by him, his right hand Toccamatta and minor commanders.

When Latham's forces encountered Calculator's robots from Vault 0, he swore an oath to destroy the cybernetic menace. By that time, he assumed the name "Gammorin", after the mutant chief he had killed. Gammorin's mutant scientist ran extensive research in order to find a cure to super mutant sterility. However, his laboratory in Jefferson was taken by a splinter faction of the Brotherhood of Steel from the Chicago area, who believed it to be a weapons manufacturing plant. Eventually, Latham/Gammorin and his forces were defeated by the Brotherhood. After the defeat, many mutants were, however, allowed to join this Brotherhood to fight against the robots. The Brotherhood tried to continue the work on the cure to super mutant sterility, but they were unsuccessful.

Forces of Attis
A smaller sub-section of the mutant army did remain together in the Core Region, under the command of a visionary lieutenant named Attis. Highly intelligent and vindictive towards the Brotherhood of Steel, Attis took his group into hiding, searching for clues regarding the history of the FEV virus. Some time after 2208, learning about a secret Vault-Tec installation in Texas with new and possibly improved versions of the FEV virus, Attis led his group to the area where the rumors started, the ruined city of Los. His ultimate goal was the continuation of The Master's plan - to rebuild the mutant vats and eventually transform the entire human race into mutants. His forces were eventually defeated by the Brotherhood of Steel, who were hunting for them.

Second Generation
In 2236, the Enclave discovered the remnants of the Mariposa Base. Soon, assault squads combed the desert for slaves they could use to mine the military base and get to the Vats. One of the squads included soldier Frank Horrigan. Enclave construction crews, as well as human and super mutant slaves began excavations. In September they uncovered FEV, and mutations began to occur in the human workers. Frank Horrigan comes into contact with the virus and is sent to the Enclave labs for study. He later becomes the Enclave's finest tool of warfare: an unique, deadly super mutant extremely loyal to the president.

In 2237, having obtained the FEV data, the Enclave abandoned the site after more mutations occurred, causing 2nd Generation super mutants to arise - the Enclave left a single squad behind to wipe out the super mutants, but the mutants, using armaments they have cached in the base during excavation, reduced the squad to ashes after suffering heavy casualties. The remaining 1st and 2nd Generation super mutant slaves were sealed inside the base by Enclave sappers, who collapsed the entrance to the base. The mutants formed a new community under the leadership of Melchior, whose magician talents had allowed them to hide the weapons.

East Coast mutants
By 2277, the Super Mutants have appeared on the East Coast of the United States. They come in five ranks;

Regular (Super Mutant)

 * Carry nail boards, Hunting Rifles, Assault Rifles, and Frag Grenades

Brutes

 * Carry Sledgehammers, Assault Rifles, and occasionally Missile Launchers or Miniguns. They also have a crude form of metal armor, making them somewhat tougher.

Masters

 * Carry Chinese Assault Rifles, Super Sledges, Missile Launchers and Miniguns.

Overlords

 * Carry Tri-Beam Laser Rifles, Super Sledges and Gatling Lasers.

Behemoths

 * Usually armed with rather large Fire Hydrants mounted on poles, used as a makeshift Melee weapon, Sound harmless? Fight one and find out...
 * Note: Any Super Mutant (with the exception of Behemoths) who is using a melee weapon will usually carry several Frag Grenades as well.

These Super Mutants were created in the Evolutionary Experimentation Program, the experiment assigned to Vault 87. The modified strain of FEV which created these mutants resulted in a new strain of Super Mutants which, in addition to becoming senile, grow larger and stronger as they age. They are different as they are green-yellow in skin color and less intelligent, but look more "healthy" than the western Super Mutants, as they are never seen with any cybernetic parts or organic disorders. However, unlike their counterparts, they are less human, and after the transformation no clues on how they looked in their former lives could be found. They take prisoners to transform them into more Super Mutants.

During exploration of Vault 87, information from a terminal reveals more about the process of mutation that Super Mutants go through, at least when it comes to the specific strain of FEV found in the Super Mutants of the Capital Wasteland. As a human mutates, its muscular and skeletal systems develop rapidly, while their mental faculties diminish. Most sexual characteristics are eliminated, transforming the subject into an almost asexual state.

Vault-Tec was commissioned by the Pentagon to create supersoldiers for insertion into Communist China, and had access to the FEV virus to accomplish this. They were biologically designed to wreak as much havok as possible, which is why they are such a threat in the Capital Wasteland. This is documented in the Pentagon's information terminal in The Citadel.

Despite their supposed lack of intelligence, even compared to West Coast mutants, they are somehow able to organize themselves into a coordinated army (as evidenced by numerous raids and the attempt to reinforce their positions at the Capitol which led to the attack on GNR), procure large amounts of advanced weapons, ammo, and equipment, and even maintain the FEV infrastructure necessary to transform humans and increase their numbers. How they are able to pull this off is never explained as the player never meets a leader or governing body in the game. But it is possible they are controlled by one of the more intelligent mutants from the West Coast. Another possibility is that some of the violent mutants have retained their intelligence just like Fawkes and Uncle Leo, but that unlike these two they either lost their sense of morality or they may have been evil humans before being changed (i.e. they did not have any morals).

It is unexplained why the super mutants are present in D.C., but it is often hinted they are looking for something. One answer could be F.E.V and Humans to expand their army, hinted at by the following quote from a Super Mutant soldier - "Have you found... green stuff? I haven't... maybe we are wasting our time. We could be out killing!" (or something to that effect)

It is not known why the Super Mutants have occupied the D.C. Ruins, nor why the Talon Company fight them to inside of the Capitol Building and in the Mall area among other places. It has been alluded that the Super Mutants are searching for something inside the D.C. Ruins, but as to what, it is not known but may be found out in the new DLC Broken Steel. Sometimes, it is fun to listen in on their conversations with each other. A few of their quotes from Fallout 3 include: "I was thinking... AND IT HURT! Hurt my head! But I remembered things... from before... I think I knew a woman. Or maybe, I WAS a woman... Aggh! It hurts!"

There is a single Super Mutant occasionally found roaming the the Capital Wasteland named Uncle Leo (Random encounter). He is, unlike the other D.C. Super Mutants, docile. He does not know what the FEV infrastructure actually is, he just calls it the "dark-metal place", and says that his brothers take people there to make more of their kind, endlessly. He protested against this and was driven out by his brothers to fend for himself. The peculiar thing is that he makes no hint, or mention of any kind about any one Super Mutant being in charge, he only says his brothers, alluding they're a collective and he's the black sheep.

Another unqiue thing about The Capital Wasteland Super Mutants is that Giant Ants are not hostile towards Super Mutants and vice-versa.

Super Mutants may be accompanied by Centaurs who act as watchdogs.

Fallout 3 strategies for killing super mutants
In Fallout 3, Super Mutants are divided into different classes, each more powerful than the previous. This is likely done to more easily fit into the game's dynamic leveling system, ensuring that the PC always encounters enemies of reasonable difficulty. These classifications, in order of weakest to strongest, are Super Mutant, Super Mutant Brute, Super Mutant Master, and Super Mutant Overlord. Note that the Super Mutant Behemoth is not included in this list as these are special, unique encounters rather than generated opponents.

The other tactics mentioned below are rendered less effective by the fact that it is possible to place a live grenade or mine in the pocket of any class of Super Mutant other than Behemoths in the same way you would pickpocket any NPC, the only difference being that you do not get the text option to pickpocket on screen and just have to press the default pickpocket button when in range. This results in easy instant kills on any difficulty if successful. This can also be used to take their ammo or weapons forcing them to attack you unarmed, but can conversely be used to reverse-pickpocket them much better weapons if the player wants a challenge. They cannot be made to wear apparel of any kind through this method, however. Note that this may be a glitch, but is confirmed on Xbox 360.

Super mutant body parts are quite easy to hit due to their immense size. Their arms are particularly easy to hit, and crippling a limb will cause them to drop their weapon, momentarily giving a chance to fire back at your target unhindered. The Railway Rifle is especially good for this at close range, due to its limb-destroying effects. Frag grenades are another particularly effective limb-destroying option.

Generally, the most effective way of killing them depends on the area, distance, and what weapon they are carrying:
 * Those with big weapons are the most dangerous. On the other hand, those weapons are easily targeted, so shoot them out of their hands.
 * If they have a rifle, disarming is less effective, and you just have to take them down with whatever you have at your disposal. Use cover and aim for their head, or use explosives.
 * Like most enemies, they will blindly follow you around corners. Wait there with a shotgun in order to disarm them (especially those with Chinese Assault Rifles) and/or get a few shots in.
 * Generally, when up close and personal, take a shot at their weapon (to gain time) and then blast away at their head with a shotgun or plasma rifle. Another practical option in close range is the Flamer.
 * If they are carrying melee weapons, cripple their legs (easily done with a Dart Gun). Also watch out for grenades, because they can be your best friend: As soon as you spot one in their hand, shoot at it, it can also be targeted with VATS
 * Nuka Grenades are excellent for this, often killing two or more mutants with one grenade (even masters) at a modest explosives skill of 30.
 * Finally, always try to get the jump on them with a sneak attack critical. With Lincoln's Repeater, one successful headshot may even kill a Master this way.
 * Just a note, even on Very Hard difficulty. With a decent enough Small Guns skill [50+] and a high quality shotgun, you can, in fact almost always 1 shot a Master or less. If you have the Chinese Stealth Suit and the stealth perks that prevent your running from triggering Caution, get up close enough to target their head manually.

Appearances in games
Super mutants appear in all Fallout games.

The DC Ruins are full of Super Mutants. 2-10 are scattered about in each part of the ruins.

Videos
Quick fight with Super Mutant Master Imq5UzwZV5w Battling some Super Mutants

Supermutant Супермутант