Deathclaw

Deathclaws are a large, agile and strong species of mutant Jackson's Chameleon created through genetic engineering. However, due to mutation, they have lost their color-changing ability.

Background
The deathclaws were originally created before the Great War by the United States Military in order to replace humans during high-risk close-combat search-and-destroy missions.

Around 2161, deathclaws were still a mystery and a legendary creature to many inhabitants of southern California. Later, as the deathclaw population grew, the deathclaws stopped being perceived as legendary beasts, and started to be seen simply as just another (incredibly dangerous) creature.

Biology
Deathclaws stand roughly nine to ten feet tall, with an extremely resistant thick skin, powerful muscle, and bone structure as well as razor-sharp claws that deal a large amount of damage to the player character and their followers; hence their name. Their build gives them incredible speed, resilience and strength in close combat, making them an extreme threat at all times. However, due to mutation, they have lost their ability to camouflage themselves.

They are very aggressive, territorial, and carnivorous. They typically live in small packs and are seldom alone with an alpha male, who is the only one allowed to mate with the females. Deathclaws are oviparous, with the eggs typically laid in dark, sheltered locations and fiercely guarded by their mother. Young deathclaws reach maturity under the care of their parents. Also, deathclaws seem to have poor eyesight, and mainly rely on their sense of smell.

Although they do not have vocal cords, they can growl and shout, and seem to be able to mimic human speech much the same as a parrot does. However, normal deathclaws aren't intelligent enough to be capable of real speech.

Deathclaw


The most common type of deathclaw. Feared throughout the wasteland. As mentioned above, they are highly difficult to defeat, due to high health, high movement-points and lethal melee attacks. Ironically their social nature adds to their lethal image- It's not uncommon to encounter regular deathclaw in groups of three or four.

The territorial range of this type of deathclaw is, in some ways, one of their most dangerous attributes. It is not uncommon for low-level players to first meet these deathclaws in random-encounters, sometimes quite early on in the game. New players, besides being ill-equipped to fight such a powerful creature (let alone groups of them) can often fall into strategy pit-falls.

Although it may seem prudent to attempt a stick-and-move, hit-and-run type strategy, which lower-level players will have found to work with a lot of creatures possessing no ranged attack, the deathclaw's high agility (i.e. high movement points) renders this tactic ineffective. Their large seemingly-lumbering (when paralleled to the AP of 'agile' rats/scorpions ) bodies are surprisingly deft and allow them to close to melee range very quickly.

If a 'kiting' style is to be used, the player must first cripple one or both of the deathclaws legs. (This seems increasingly difficult with groups of opponents) Otherwise, in the case of a creature who's damage output is so overwhelming (at least for a low-level player) and who's damage-output cannot be curtailed (as in the case of an enemy who's gun hand could be crippled), maximizing one's damage output(i.e. lots of targeted shots to the eyes) should be the focus, rather than wasting action points moving around.

Enclave deathclaw


These deathclaws are equipped with metal headgear that allows Enclave soldiers to control who they target. They will attack any non-Enclave personnel, including other deathclaws. They can, however, be temporarily controlled with the deathclaw control scrambler. They are frequently found in cages with Enclave patrols in the Capital Wasteland, and are often released if the patrol is engaged in battle.

Mother deathclaw


Female deathclaws, also called Mothers and Matriarchs are fewer in numbers. Only one female is the pack mother at a given time, with another female taking its place when it dies. Mother deathclaws can be distinguished from males by their dark olive color and back curving horns.

Baby deathclaw


Baby deathclaws are the smallest, and weakest forms of deathclaws. They will tend to stay close to and follow their mother, and protect her when she is either threatened or attacked. If the mother is killed, the baby deathclaws will surround her body and attempt to protect her. If the babies are killed the Mother will go into a frenzy and kill everything near her.

Young deathclaw


The younger variation of deathclaw is slightly larger and tougher than the baby deathclaw, but much smaller than the normal deathclaw. They can mainly be found amongst larger groups of deathclaws and will often stay close to an older deathclaw.

Blind deathclaw


Blind Deathclaws are a weaker variant found in the Mojave Wasteland, and appear in both adult and baby form. Although not able to see, they have superb hearing, which makes approaching them unnoticed very hard, if not impossible.

Deathclaw alpha male


Introduced in Fallout: New Vegas, the deathclaw alpha can be found at Quarry Junction and on the Deathclaw promontory around many other deathclaws, including a mother deathclaw. One can also be found East of Lucky Jim Mine (across the canyon). The Alpha Deathclaw is much smaller than the Mother deathclaw but it has much higher DAM and HP making it the toughest of all the deathclaws in New Vegas after the legendary deathclaw. The deathclaw alpha is much different in appearance, being darker in color and having large horns. The unmarked mission Claws Out involves the killing of the Alpha Deathclaw.

Legendary deathclaw


Found in the Dead Wind Cavern, the Legendary Deathclaw is the biggest and most lethal variant of deathclaw in Fallout: New Vegas. It looks slightly different than all other deathclaws, having gray skin and expanded horns and fangs. It has the most HP and DAM of all deathclaw variations, making it the most powerful creature in the game.

Talking Deathclaw
In 2235, the Enclave captured many deathclaws and exposed them to FEV. This boosted their intelligence, giving them the ability to talk with varying degrees of erudition and articulation. This subspecies was highly intelligent, about the equivalent of an eight-year-old, with some even being on par with average adult humans. Their learning capacity was very high and they were capable of abstract thought and reasoning. Although they did not have vocal cords, the deathclaws seemed to mimic human speech in the same way a parrot does. Socially, they had rigidly hierarchical, peaceful, pack-based ethical code. They were extremely loyal to the pack as a whole, treating it as a family unit rather than having individual families. Fights within a pack are unheard of, and the pack's leader controls many aspects of life, such as choosing and matching female and male deathclaws for reproduction. Oddly enough, deathclaws are not subject to sterility from F.E.V exposure; this trait is not explained.

Hairy deathclaw


A deathclaw subspecies living in the area of the former states of Illinois, Missouri and Kansas developed patches of fur to better cope with the colder climate. (However, since reptiles are cold-blooded and produce very little of their own body heat, a real-world reptile with fur would actually freeze to death, while conversely it might be a mutatated form of de-evolution to the downy plumage found on some young feathered dinosars.) Furthermore, some of them were noted to be capable of speech as early as in 2197, which means that they probably developed speech through spontaneous mutation, or were experimented on by someone other than the Enclave. Another possibility that they were designed to have an intellect and ability to speak before the Great War.

The hairy deathclaws are more matriarchal than their Core Region, Capital Wasteland and Mojave Desert counterparts, with packs being led by Matriarch. While infant, these deathclaws are less hairy and seems to be absolutely unintelligent, behaving like an animal or simply following the adults. They presumably become self-aware when they grow up.

Experimental deathclaw


In the Secret Vault, a Vault-Tec installation which served as the company's ticket to a life after the apocalypse, aside from many scientific projects that were to insure the company's power, some research with radioactive materials and FEV took place. When the Brotherhood of Steel Initiate visited the Vault, he encountered unique variants of the beast known all over the wastes.

The Vault-Tec scientists apparently obtained a sample of the deathclaw bioweapon and tried to improve it using the FEV, radiation and technology. The resulting new species became larger, stronger, gaining extra muscle mass and a type of exoskeleton with many protruding spikes. However, the mutation led them to become blind, leaving the deathclaws to rely on their other senses. The longer they live, the bigger they become, so their mutation and the FEV effect could be very similar to that of Capital Wasteland super mutants. The eggs of these deathclaws are also unique, as they appear more like a pile of flesh nearly the same size as a human.

Experimental elder deathclaw
The oldest of the Experimental Deathclaws. They are grey, brutish and slow. It's much stronger and capable of causing more damage than the normal Deathclaw.

Experimental chameleon deathclaw


Chameleon Deathclaw are slightly more evolved than the standard variety. Their adaptive hides help them blend in with their surroundings, rendering them invisible in dark passages. It's weaker than the Elder variety but is much harder to locate and faster.

Behind the scenes
The deathclaws are a reference to the Shadowclaws in Wasteland. In Scott Campbell's original concept art (see: gallery), deathclaws were mammals covered with fur. The reason it lost the hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software, which couldn't get all the hair to move properly. The hairy deathclaw in Fallout Tactics was inspired by the original concept.

According to the Fallout Bible, after a Dungeons &amp; Dragons computer game made by Interplay was cancelled, deathclaws were modelled (visually) on the Tarrasques of the D&D canon, as a Tarrasque clay model was already made. However, according to Chris Taylor, while they do look Tarrasque-like, it was not intentional and the clay model was supposed to be a deathclaw from the start.