Super Mutant (Fallout 4)

Institute super mutants are creatures found all over the Commonwealth and are present on the Island in 2287. These mutants were created by being exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). They are massive, muscle-bound creatures with a natural immunity to radiation damage and disease. They are most often encountered in central Boston and can also be found in Fallon's department store, Fort Strong, Trinity Tower, Revere Satellite Array, Big John's Salvage, Gwinnett restaurant, plus many other locations all throughout the Commonwealth - most of which can be identified by the telltale signs of hanging meat bags, twisted girders sticking out of the ground, and gory waste piles that they enjoy decorating their surroundings with. In  Far Harbor, they can be encountered at the Vim! Pop factory, National Park HQ and Aldersea Day Spa.

Background
The Institute's strain of super mutant is unrelated to the West Coast and Vault 87 breeds, but they do share many similar traits such as caging their prey, bagging various body parts, and having a great sense of superiority over humans. This is proven in the terminal entries aboard the Prydwen, which states that the mutants in the Commonwealth are not related to those from the Capital Wasteland.

Origin
The super mutants encountered in the Commonwealth are in fact failed FEV experiments, created and disposed of by the Institute. They were once normal people, who were kidnapped and experimented on inside the FEV lab of the Bioscience Division. Institute scientists would examine their human test subjects before submerging them into FEV. If they survived the process they were tagged and discarded into the Commonwealth, creating the scourge of mutants now present in the year 2287. The program was most recently under the direction of Dr. Brian Virgil and his predecessor Dr. Syverson, but according to Dr. Elliot in the FEV research notes, it was originally started by a man named Dr. Frederick in the August of 2178. It's currently unknown how the Institute obtained their supply of FEV. The main goal of the FEV experimentation was to improve the synthetic organics program, which was being worked on by the other divisions. Two years after they started their experiments, in the year 2180, a horde of super mutants attacked Diamond City, but were repelled by the newly formed group known as the Commonwealth Minutemen.

The FEV program was ended after over one hundred years of experimentation, when Virgil decided that it was ruining the lives of innocent people and he could no longer live with himself. He states that they have learned nothing new in the past ten years, back to the events of Fallout 3. Virgil destroyed the lab and all of the research, this is logged as "Incident V" in terminal entries. He then transformed himself into a super mutant with a unique strain of FEV and escaped to the Glowing Sea.

Intelligence
Unlike their brethren from the Capital Wasteland, the Commonwealth mutants seem to have a comparatively advanced understanding of armor, weapons, greatly increased usage of energy weapons and at least some minor knowledge of craftsmanship when compared to their brethren. They seem to trade stronger physiques for the ability to utilize/create weapon and armor mods, and even have access to reprogrammed security systems such as searchlights and automated turrets not unlike their far-western cousins. This is possibly the result of advanced experiments in the Institute, however it's unknown if and where in the Commonwealth other sources of FEV might have been exposed.

Like their Vault 87 brethren, the Commonwealth super mutants seem to seek to preserve their new species, since they can be heard speaking about "green stuff" in some areas (such as Trinity Tower).

Biology
Their mouths are depicted as being closed much like Marcus, unlike the Vault 87 super mutants which carry a permanent snarl. Furthermore, in regards to previous appearances, specifically the Vault 87 super mutants, these super mutants have a darker skin tone and appear more scrawny and with less pronounced muscles.

The existence of the behemoths suggests a link with the Vault 87 strain of FEV, as they are the only super mutants known to continue growing with age. However, the green-brown coloration is closer to that of Mariposa strain of FEV, specifically resembling the super mutants seen in Fallout: New Vegas.

They are roughly the same low intelligence of the Vault 87 mutants and it appears they share the ability to be somewhat educated due to the existence of mutants like Fawkes and Uncle Leo from Fallout 3.

Interestingly, higher rank super mutants show more intelligence than their brethren, speaking more eloquently, and utilizing some advanced tactics such as cover, shifting position and taking high ground; compared to their lesser brothers who will often ignore cover and simply try to get as close to an enemy as possible, even when armed with long range weaponry.

Gameplay attributes
Super mutants can randomly be encountered around the Commonwealth in small groups, usually raiding parties, which can attack player character made settlements. Much larger groups can be found infesting various buildings throughout the wastes. They have developed a unique relationship with mutant hounds, and will utilize these beastly creatures as attack dogs, usually encountered in groups of 1-3. Mutant hounds are unique to Fallout 4 super mutants, instead of the centaurs that have normally accompanied them in past installments of the game series.

Lower level mutants are normally armed with various pipe weapons, hunting rifles, and molotov cocktails. For melee, they will often utilize wooden boards.

Higher level mutants can appear with heavier weapons such as miniguns, missile launchers, laser weapons, assault rifles, and fragmentation grenades. For melee, they normally wield large sledgehammers and super sledges.

Super mutant
The most common and weakest variety of super mutant. They carry a pipe weapon and drop minor and low-tech loot on death. They can usually be taken down with minimal effort. They can often be found among more powerful varieties of super mutant such as a skirmisher.



Super mutant suicider
A super mutant that will run at the player character with a beeping mini nuke in its arm. It will then detonate itself while in close proximity, killing its enemy and itself in a fiery, nuclear explosion. 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.

Utilizing the Blitz perk, it is possible to kill the suicider in V.A.T.S. with a melee weapon before it explodes, even if it takes several hits.



Super mutant skirmisher
Super mutant skirmishers are significantly tougher than regular super mutants, taking more damage and usually carrying more powerful weapons. Skirmishers will appear more frequently once the Sole Survivor reaches level 10.



Super mutant brute
Super mutant brutes are a significant step up from skirmishers. Brutes, much like their namesake, take even more damage to put down and are far stronger than their lower-leveled brothers.



Super mutant enforcer
The super mutant enforcer is significantly stronger than the brute and is more likely to be more heavily armored than the lower level super mutants.



Super mutant butcher
Super mutant butchers appear more often at higher levels. They are normally heavily armored and often use heavy weapons and they are much stronger than the enforcer.



Super mutant master
A force to be reckoned with, super mutant masters have an extremely high hit point pool and superior damage resistance compared to their weaker brethren. They are generally equipped with heavy weapons such as the missile launcher or minigun. They can be generally found in locations with a large mutant concentration, an example being Big John's salvage.

Super mutant overlord
A super mutant overlord is stronger than most mutants. They may be seen traveling in pairs.

Super mutant primus
The primus spawns at level 45+ and is seen with large groups of super mutants, most commonly at major super mutant outposts. They commonly wield super sledges or assault rifles, but may also be seen with missile launchers, and rarely, Fat Man launchers.

Super mutant warlord
The third strongest super mutant, the warlord is very dangerous as he is much stronger than most of his brethren. Their extremely high hitpoints means that they can withstand multiple head or limb shots from extremely powerful weapons like Gauss rifles without being crippled.

Behemoth
Behemoths are the most powerful super mutants by far, towering above any player character, at about 20 feet tall. These super mutants are the oldest and strongest of their kind. As well as being many times larger than any other humanoid creature, almost as large as a mirelurk queen, unlike regular super mutants they will not speak - instead they will make monstrous roars. They are armed with a fire hydrant mounted on a large pipe; other than that, they have the ability to throw heavy boulders at their enemies. Either way, both weapons are heavy-hitters, and will cause major damage against any enemy smaller than them. They carry a cage made from shopping carts on their backs, similarly to their Vault 87 counterparts, which they use to carry boulders that they use during combat.

A behemoth has a scripted appearance in Fort Strong during Show No Mercy where it must be killed. One can usually be found west of Sunshine Tidings co-op, at a power station to the west of Natick Banks, and south of Walden Pond. A behemoth can also be spawned by going to Med-Tek Research and heading north towards Greentop Nursery, where there will be a vehicle with a Jangles the Moon Monkey sitting inside, which will trigger a behemoth spawn point nearby when picked up. A behemoth is also encountered on the way to the C.I.T. ruins during the quest Ad Victoriam, where it will be effortlessly crushed by Liberty Prime. Yet another spawns directly between Gunners plaza and Hyde Park. One more often spawns slightly southwest of Recon bunker Theta. Another spawn point is directly beside the Super Duper Mart in Lexington.

Behemoths in Fallout 4 respawn, unlike Fallout 3, where they were unique encounters. The player character can find a unique behemoth named Swan at Swan's Pond in Boston Common, and another unique behemoth in the Far Harbor add-on named Grun at the Vim! Pop factory.

Glowing behemoth
The glowing means the enemy is highly irradiated and can damage enemies with radiation when nearby. Unlike other glowing enemies, this variant is identical in appearance to regular behemoths.

Epic behemoth
Epic behemoths are an immensely powerful variation of average super mutant behemoths, and, to some extent, are more clever in combat. They tend to appear in forest areas, which they may use to their advantage by hiding behind trees. They also will block their face with their hand quite often, especially when fighting at melee range, allowing for a chance to get in several hits. They are more upright than many standard behemoths in appearance, and although they are quicker, they use similar fighting techniques, such as smashing, knocking the player character down and hurling boulders. Aside from being able to sustain more damage, they can be crippled if low on health, and will slump to the ground on their side, where they can be finished off.

Ancient behemoth
These behemoths are the toughest and oldest mutants found in the Commonwealth. They are most likely some of the first FEV experiments that the Institute conducted and have grown over the decades into ancient behemoths.

Notable quotes
Miscellaneous taunts:

Appearances
Institute super mutants appear in Fallout 4.

Bugs

 * After detonating a super mutant suicider's mini nuke and killing nearby enemies, no additional XP is gained for these kills.
 * Upon re-entering a world space where a super mutant suicider detonated, the super mutant may detonate again.
 * After looting the mini nuke from a super mutant suicider, it may remain in his hand and may still detonate afterwards.

Gallery
Supermutante (Fallout 4) Супермутант (Fallout 4)