Why would West-Tek make more than like 2 Snallygasters

[u/The_Goblin_Man]

I get why they would with super mutants, because they are like improved humans, minus reduced intelligence, but why make more Snallygasters?

[u/Laser_3]

To our knowledge, west Tek only made one snallygaster, which escaped after the war. The point of the FEV experiments that led to snallygasters and grafton monsters was to push the limits of FEV and see what it could do.

However, the Enclave, when they took over west Tek, likely created more of snallygasters and grafton monsters to help trick the automated DEFCON system into reaching alert level 1 once more to enable them to nuke China a few more times (and no, there’s no evidence that the snallygaster or grafton monster managed to somehow reproduce in game when west Tek only made one of each; the wiki just has that on the page with an improper citation that says nothing of the sort).

[u/The_Goblin_Man → u/Laser_3]

Aren't most FEV mutants sterile? Like the Master said so.

[u/Laser_3 → u/The_Goblin_Man]

The Master doesn’t say that, but the ZAX in the Glow theorizes this to be the case specifically for sexual reproduction. It is worth noting however that the two precision edited FEV creatures, talking deathclaws and fire ants, can reproduce, and so can blue devils with difficulty, which are implied to have been exposed to a small amount of FEV. The talking mole rats in fallout 2 can also apparently reproduce, but we don’t have any specific details regarding their exposure or even which rats were the children of the one (from the description the brain gives, I would assume this is another case similar to Blue Devils, where the exposure was tiny due to being caused by wastes from Emmett mountain disposal).

That didn’t stop whoever edited the page for the snallygaster from assuming it managed to reproduce anyway. The only way it could have since it was originally a human is if it somehow mutated asexual reproduction (and considering that Wendigo colossi somehow appear to create Wendigo spawn, who apparently have the DNA of multiple humans in them going off an Enclave report on Wendigos found near Monogah [which could only have been Earle’s Wendigo spawn], that technically isn’t impossible).

[u/IBananaShake → u/Laser_3]

It is worth noting however that the two precision edited FEV creatures, talking deathclaws and fire ants

Only the Deathclaws in Fallout 1 and the Intelligent Deathclaws in Fallout 2 has anything to do with FEV.

The Intelligent ones made by the Enclave went extinct IIRC

And the ones in Fallout 76 act, and look just like the ones in all of the other 3d games, so either the ones in Fallout 1 that the Master "refined" also went extinct, or the changes made to them are so insignificant that they're barely worth mentioning

[u/Laser_3 → u/IBananaShake]

Fallout 1’s Deathclaws also have nothing to do with FEV. The ‘perfected’ Deathclaw bit comes from fallout 2’s game guide, and the descriptions feels like someone screwed up and wrote the Master instead of the Enclave, especially since there’s nothing in 1 or 2 indicating the Master ever screwed with Deathclaws. This is why I specifically mentioned the talking Deathclaws and not Deathclaws as a whole (which are presumably extinct, not that we can confirm; it’s not like broken endings in 1/2 haven’t been confirmed as canon before).

With that said, gatorclaws offer some potential evidence to the contrary, with how similar they look to Deathclaws while using both FEV and the same base lizard (with the only other part of note being alligator DNA; in theory, this means they only differ due to the alligator DNA).

I’m hopeful that 76 will eventually give us a Deathclaw facility so we can learn what exactly Deathclaws are, who made them and if they used FEV.

[u/IBananaShake → u/Laser_3]

Fallout 1’s Deathclaws also have nothing to do with FEV. The ‘perfected’ Deathclaw bit comes from fallout 2’s game guide,

Sure, but the Master died in Fallout 1, he had to have "refined" the deathclaws before his death, hence why I mentioned the Fallout 1 deathclaws

[u/Laser_3 → u/IBananaShake]

And that’s why I mentioned about how the text in the game guide reads extremely similarly to what the Enclave did to the talking deathclaws. To me, it feels like someone accidentally wrote the Master here when they meant to put the Enclave.

[u/RelChan2_0 → u/Laser_3]

My Google searches are starting to look like Sam and Dean Winchester's lol

I'm going off folklore and what I learned from watching Supernatural here so it's a bit unorthodox. Wendigos are or were humans who transformed because of greed, gluttony and selfishness. Earle mentioned he had a strong craving for flesh when he ate his associates right? It's possible that maybe Earle maintained his reproductive capabilities and radiation hastened the process of turning into a wendigo.

Maybe it's the same for other creatures as well. I know the game says there was only one or a handful but I feel like that there's more because scientifically, you need a sample size.

[u/Laser_3 → u/RelChan2_0]

The problem is that with FEV, haploid cells are ‘repaired’ into diploid cells by the virus, which entirely prevents sexual reproduction. The only way this issue can be dodged is if the DNA only was edited or if the exposure was extremely small.

As for Wendigos, the problem is that Earle was alone after he consumed the other miners, and to my knowledge, only men were in that mine when it was sealed. He’d have no one to reproduce with.

[u/Knuckleshoe → u/Laser_3]

Aren't wendigos proved to be pre FEV anyway in lore?

[u/Laser_3 → u/Knuckleshoe]

They have nothing to do with FEV, no. Unlike snallygasters and grafton monsters, there’s no terminal entry in west Tek about them.

[u/MuForceShoelace]

I feel like enemy counts are videogame logic. There isn’t really thousands of raiders every five feet. If you fight a one of a kind monster a hundred times it’s because it’s a game that reused models

[u/Vg65 → u/MuForceShoelace]

Yeah, it is exaggerated, but I'd say many places do have a lot of raiders in them. We know from dialogue and notes that Danse's recon team was constantly harassed from the moment they entered the Commonwealth. Same with Brandis and his forces.

[u/Laser_3 → u/MuForceShoelace]

It’s worth noting that barring the Beast of Beckley, the wise mothman (and only the wise mothman, not any other variety) and the Smiling man, all of 76’s cryptids aren’t one of a kind. All of them can be found multiple times, and snallygasters in particular are regularly found in small groups.

[u/CLAYDAWWWG]

Are you accusing them of being smart?