Fallout's Mysterious Strangers 

"He shows up and fires one shot" *shoots several shots*

Hey Nate it’s guys here, please come back we miss you

Hes a time traveler that is trying to keep the time line in order, your player always is in the middle of major events so he seems to be around the player more then most to keep you alive to make sure events play out as they need to

The problem, or solution depending on how you see it, is that fallout has enough lore to support why the MS can do what he does. Stealth boys, teleportation, body augmentation, synths.

When the world needed him most, Avatar Nate Vanished. Almost a year later, he has returned.

He probably went so far into digging whats up with dwemers so he vanished there himself!

Honestly, when it comes to the age of the mysterious stranger and his son, it’s amazing how much older a mustache can make someone look

So I just noticed something upon replaying after watching this!!!! When you start a new game, there is a pack of Grey Tortoises on the table to the left of the fireplace. If you inspect them, your character will say something to the effect of "now who left those there?"!!!!

Hot take: There's a vault that pumps out mysterious strangers because someone at Vault Tec had a hero complex.

Just saw he recently broke up with his GF on twitter, thats probably why he has been inactive for a few weeks. Gotta give him some time to heal.

I like to believe that the strangers were alpha testers of VATS, and that an early glitch trapped them outside of time. Each time you use VATS, it beckons them like a beacon in the time stream, but unfortunately the player doesn't stay in VATS long enough to be able to communicate with them, also removing their anchor in time when VATS ends. I know it is sort of a Dr. Who style theory similar to what happened to Jack Harkness, but I think it fits the lore pretty well, with Vault Tec experiments going wrong and all.

I really do like the idea of it being some secret organization that has non-aging time traveling individuals that just go around and shoot people haha It seems like that would almost fit fall out pretty well cuz it's kind of goofy but serious at the same time.

When i was doing the Anchorage Alaska quests a few years ago in fallout 3, the mysterious stranger appeared on a cliff. He didn't even get the chance to shoot, because he slid off of the cliff and fell really far. This caused the vats cutscene to last like ten seconds. It then said "The mysterious stranger is unconscious."

Nate: "A single shot from his revolved" Mysterious Stranger: *Dumps entire cylinder into dead body*

Deckard wasn't a replicant. The book it's based on says that without even a hint of ambiguity. The first movie alludes to the possibility depending on which cut you look at, and the director said he was; but the writer said no, and Harrison Ford - who also said no - says that that they settled that before shooting the sequel. Of more specific evidence is simply his age. Model 7 and earlier replicants had very short lifespans, while Decker was an LAPD veteran in Blade Runner and survived another thirty years by the sequel; but if he was a replicant, he would have been created during the days of model 5's.

I haven't seen this get pointed out yet, but the lady on the left side of the "The Man who Stopped Time" cover looks kinda like Miss Fortune in the same way that the man kinda looks like MS, you can even see she's wearing similar lingerie (By the way, lingerie is such a terrible word to spell, thanks France)

*When Nate finally returns* “Hey Nate, you’re finally back. Got caught up in that quarantine ambush, same as me and that entire world population over there.”

Plot twist: The Mysterious Stranger is actually three kids in a trench coat

One thing I like about the Mysterious Stranger is that Fallout 76 actually gave some insight on it by showing us the Mistress of Mystery. A pre-war lineup of comics that are actually based on a organization in the Fallout universe. A group of female agents that are more or less a spy network. The Mysterious Strangers are likely a spy network of their own, housing a larger group of agents that are discovered by a mostly now ancient mainframe from the pre-war that finds the capable men, trains them and gives them the required technology to carry out their purpose. Helping very specific clients. My best guess is they use a mixture of teleportation technology and stealth suits to teleport it, kill what needs to be killed then either teleport out of use the stealth suit to "disappear". They're more or less a group of assassins but aren't paid in caps or money but rather in honor and possibly higher rankings within their phantom organization. They could even very well be assigned to help out key people with specific pipboy models and can track those individuals using their pipboys as bait. If they are indeed apart of vault tec or at least associated with them it really begs the question on how close their relationship actually is. Personally I think they're just a neutral organization that kills whomever their clients need killed.

24:30 dont forget about facial reconstruction surgery. During fallout 4's rail road mission: "Tradecraft," Deacon states that he has gone through the surgery before so its not impossible for the MS to do it as well.

He posted in his twitter february " I realized a couple of the unhealthy habits I picked up over the last few months were impacting my writing process, so I’m trying to throw those off before I get back into it. So far so good, down 10lbs since January, lots of gym time One of those unhealthy habits is spending too much time online, so sorry about that. Also, long GME " The twitter is in the info page

“Fire a single shot and disappears without a trace” MS proceeds to shoot 4 shots then crouch on the ground awkwardly

A few clarification points, the silver shroud and the mistress of mysteries are not married yet are more like superman and wonder woman fellow heroes who at times are depicted as romantically connected. Shannon rivers was the actress who was long the voice of the mistress in radio drama and when the silver shroud was being made into a TV show was nervous about physically playing the character, to help her husband built her a cave of mysteries and hired trainers to help her get in character (he even contacted one Kent Connolly in Boston to get the design prefect) then at the last minute the studio decided to replace rivers with a younger woman Shannon returned home devastated only for the world to end a few weeks later.

The background music & video layout has remained the same and it’s so nostalgic. I remember waisting countless hours at school discussing this game with my friends & those memories are tied to this channel; thank you Nate for the therapeutic, high-quality, thought provoking content which you’ve been able to consistently replicate over the years.

There’s a mysterious stranger telling me he has candy in his van

He’s probably in Blackreach and got caught up looking for Crimson Nirnroot

I like the idea that they are interdimensional beings that help you because they are trying to keep a certain timeline happening. You are usually the one thing that shakes everything up, so of course the beings may want to help you get somewhere every now and then.

The only thing I'm 100% positive about regarding MS is that he's an homage to Stephen King's Gunslinger

Is it just me or is it irony that his final video for a while is the mysterious stranger

He always starts off his videos with “It’s Nate here.” But as of right now, he hasn’t been here for awhile

Did I miss it, or did he never mention the fact that in Fallout 4, the Mysterious Stranger's outfit looks very similar to the Vault-Tec Rep's? Combined with the association with V.A.T.S., I'm thinking the MS has some connection to Vault-Tec. Can anyone with more experience in the games tell me if we ever see any other Vault-Tec field representatives that might be able to help us figure out if that was a standard look for their employees or just a coincidence in personal tastes?

It is possible that the Mysterious Stranger is actually just a possible human who slowed aging somehow. He wander’s the wasteland to just keep exploring, if he sees a new character/factor changing the place he’s visiting and catching his interest. Good or evil he likes the new entertainment and becomes kinda a guardian angel to the new character just to see where it goes. If I was slow aging being, that’s what I would do to keep myself entertained.

Nate has tweeted the following on 15.6.21: "Ay, this is an update for whom it may concern - I’m on (and have been) on indefinite leave. Was involved in a pretty big car accident (other driver’s fault) and while I’m in good physical condition (everything works!) I’m taking some time pending the legal stuff and Just enjoying the opportunity to use the extra time to better myself. I’ve made radical changes to my lifestyle, diet, and frankly even mental health that have me feeling the best I’ve ever been in my life. I’m doing good, will remain active on Twitter and everything, just no vids" while it's sad we can't enjoy any more of Nate's vids in the foreseeable future, let us give the man our best wishes for his physical and mental health. We miss you and love you Nate

The last anyone has seen of Nate, he was holding an ancient Dwemer dagger hitting a warped soul gem

The Mysterious Stranger is a Time Lord from Doctor Who. He's always the same person, but occasionally changes appearance because of regeneration. He can manipulate space and time. He has a title name (like The Doctor or The Master). He's described as an eldritch deity but is also someone who goes around helping with totally mundane events. It actually fits way too much.

Something I always liked about Fallout games compared to Elder scrolls games, was the the quest rewards. In Oblivion, Skyrim and so on, you usually know what your reward is going to be and you usually know what you are going to get in a quest if you go against a person's certain decision. In Fallout if the reward is caps they just tell you, buy most of the time they are vague and don't give details.

The mysterious stranger is basically the player's other characters when they mod the game so much the characters gain sentience

"and you can convince the drifter to give you said weapon." *Loots gun off of his dead body*

I like the idea that he's the original Nick Valentine who somehow got his hands on some institute tech similar to what Kellogg had.

This reminds me of some great memories: i was 7 or 8 when fallout 3 came out, and i used to bring the little booklet that came with the disk to school and LARP with my friends. I even made "pipboy" out of paper and yarn where i could flip through for different "inventory" spaces. I always loved how even the guidebook/insert was lore friendly

"But when the world needed him the most, he vanished."

Nate mysteriously returns, at a mysteriously time, about the "Mysterious Stranger" no less. Very mysterious.

I like how nick wasn't able to figure that the stranger only appears with the help of the sole survivor

The Mysterious Strangers are synths made from the consciousness of the original Nick Valentine, and uses the tech of time travel and such, but our companion Valentine couldnt so he was discarded. Which is why they all look different, but have the same patterns in conscience (like outfit choice and story). The man who was his son in New Vegas was son to the REAL one. As his way of proving he truly was a person, and perhaps hopes he will be the successor. It also could mean Miss Fortune is a synth, and that the institute possesses time travel tech as well

"Firing a single shot and then disappearing!" - Shows stranger firing 4 shots and remaining in frame.

It’s honestly great to see all these ppl supporting Nate in the time he’s been gone. I’ve been watching Nate’s videos for years and I was sad to see that he had been inactive for a bit, (probably due to personal reasons) but I’m really happy that there are a lot of positive comments down here. I hope you are doing well Nate, take care & best of wishes to you. We’ll be waiting for your grand return whenever you’re ready!💜

Brilliant analysis Nate, thank you. I hope you make more of these.

Nate where have you gone? I need my top 10 rocks in skyrim! Unless you are struggling to choose, I know I am! They're all so great!

I check back here every now and then to see if Nate’s come back. 7 months later I’m still waiting but it’ll be worth it fellas.

I live listening to videos like this and I am so glad that the are so long, they are just so interesting and I love them. Please keep up the AMAZING work.

I like the eldritch interpretation. My thoughts on it are that the various men are avatars of the farmer. The entity's influence also being why the idea of a similar person appears in fiction and people are drawn to emulate it.

Raiders: It's just a stupid guy in a coat and a pistol. Mysterious Stranger: *Menacing*

where did he come from? Where did he go? the mysterious stranger is cotton eye joe

I always liked the theory that he was the real Nick Valentine who when they downloaded his brain they had to do follow up check ups on his brain. The bombs dropped and trapped him in time. So when Vats is used that's when he's alive.

I think I found an other Mysterious Stranger in Fallout 4 you didn't mention and that's Stranger can also use VATS and slow time.. The Mysterious Stranger is : -Rewarded by Worn Fedora after rescuing Nick (same fedora of Nick) . -Became a Detective after and go to Far Harbor looking for missing Girl. -In Far Harbor, you will meet a old lady Cassie Dalton (she also had a Farm, so is she a farmer ?), and she will quote : "Ah, but now our story takes an unexpected turn. A 'Mysterious Stranger' comes to Far Harbor, someone strong, someone capable." It's You.

6 months since he left. We miss you, Nate!

M’aiq knows The Mysterious stranger. Hes one of the horseman of mysteriousness just like M’aiq

I love ur videos man. I've watched literally I believe ALL of your Skyrim videos and I just got done watching ur fallout video on deacon. Thank you so much for all this awesome content. Ur awesome.

From a meta-perspective, I feel like this is an example of something that happens a lot in large fictional franchise: a mystery is introduced or hinted at, but the person who creates said mystery never really writes the full, definitive story. Particularly when they're pulling that old chestnut that's been so popular for the past decade or so "we wanted to let the fans decide what really happened." The problem is that without a deifnitive answer (at the very least a definitive answer that's kept internal to the story tellers), everyone who writes for the franchise is going to have their own ideas of what's going on, and they're going to add their own piece of the puzzle. Conceptually that's not necessarily a bad thing, but the trouble is that inevitably one writer's vision clashes with another, and you end up with story elements, lore, and "mystery hints" that contradict each other to the point that it's litterally impossible to make sense of the story without completely ignoring pieces of it, which is something players/viewers/readers should **never** have to do with a well-written franchise.

"from fallout 1" *shows fallout 2 screen shot* i'm going outside, I promise.

The Shady hat is the Mysterious Strangers Daedric artefact.

Been listening to these at work, great vids!

Dang! Love these video's running off down fallout rabbit holes...It's making me want to revisit. Thank you Nate!

whos here cause they miss nate

I think the reason Nick is the only one that reacts to the Mysterious Stranger is because that aside from the player being able to slow time, Nick and other synths perceive everything differently, possibly faster, explaining how Nick sees him while you're in VATS when nobody else does.

My best guess is that the mysterious strangers are synths. They are "eldritch" in the sense that they teleport in and teleport out (e.g. ghostlike) which makes them much like rogue courser synths. There definitely appears to be a tie in with Nick Valentine. The Frederick River tie in seems plausible as he is wealthy with wealthy connections. Perhaps he carried on his legacy of crime fighting by making/stealing/buying/modifying courser synths to be teleporting superheroes throughout time (both men and women). Maybe Nick Valentine's origin story ties in there somewhere.

Back over 2 years later and I still love Nate's voice to just chill to

You know why we haven't seen any videos from Nate for a while? It's because Nate IS the Mysterious Stranger.

The Mysterious Stranger is actually a Dwemer Tonal Architect (hence his obsession with music riffs) that got displaced to an alternate universe when the Dwemer disappeared, and has since been struggling to fit in. Every so often he tries to jump back home, but in a Quantum Leap (anyone remember that show?) like constant path of faux pas blunders keeps being pulled to some seemingly random person ... whom always ends up changing the course of history.

Thank you for the video, this game still keeps me entertained after all these years

I like to think Mysterious Strangers are people (or maybe even creatures altogether) on a different plane of experiencing time. Basically on a different layer of reality, and seemingly dont appear to anyone else but those with particular perception capabilities, and probably age incredibly slowly if at all

All I'm saying is we never seen nate and the mysterious stranger on screen at the same time 👀

maybe the real mysterious stranger was the friends we made along the way.

Watching this again, I can't help but draw parallels between the MS and the Psijics. It just makes me want to have a special ability in TES6 that summons a Psijic mage to your location randomly when you are in over your head.

1. The institute created VATS 2. The institute closely guards its tech and secrets 3. VATS tech was placed inside PIPBOYs. 4. The institute monitors VATS within the PIPBOY to check the tech and measure it's effectiveness. In other words, the institute knows whenever and wherever VATS is activated. 5. The institute had Gen-3 synths in Fallout 3, 4, NV and possibly prototypes in 76. 6. The institute has teleportation tech. The PIPBOY may act as a receiver for this tech where it identifies the end location. 7. Coursers have teleportation tech imbedded within so they can return to the institute. 8. The institute scientists wanted to test the VATS tech and may have been doing so before given official approval. 9. They used clothing to disguise the mysterious stranger so it couldn't be immediately traced back to the institute. They may even use agents to spread the mythos and rumors of the stranger. 10. The randomness of targets could be just testing weaponry on various target types and/or retiring escaped synths. 11. Just alternate theory...

I’m waiting for the, “Hey how’s it going guys, it’s Nate here.” I miss you Nate, hope you’re doing well.

I like to imagine he's a time traveller. Either from the prewar and just going through the world which could explain why he was younger looking than his son. Or from the future and is trying to ensure his timeline comes to pass. Like the red monk from the Chzo mythos. He /seems/ to be helping you, but he's just trying to help create the world that created him. That's why he'll kill anyone or anything the player targets. He knows your character is or will be important, You're his John Connor.

The mysterious strangers are really similar to biblical angels. There's already a bunch of examples of divine intervention, like the courier surviving a gunshot to the head or the sole survivor gunning down a deathclaw less than an hour after thawing out, so it makes sense that these guys are the fallout version of God's messengers aiding the main character as they fulfill their destiny. Its possible that they work for a being similar to Ug-Qualtoth who seeks to help the remains of humanity rather than destroy it

"..fire a single shot from his revolver..." *Shows clip where the dude just fucking unloads on a guy*

He pinned an update on Twitter today. His Twitter is in the "about" tab here on his channel. In short he isn't coming back anytime soon and still needs more time off.

So... Anyone know if Nate is still alive.. I miss his content :'(

Theory: The mysterious stranger is a prototype Gen 4 synth ( 3.5? ) intended to work as a courser unit, who was implanted with the psyche of the original Nick Valentine for the purposes of beta testing. MS goes rogue and escapes using Institute teleportation technology, which is also how he manages to appear and disappear without a trace ( the short Mysterious Theme is the carrier signal he uses to do this ). He uses an auto-doc periodically the change his appearance every decade or so to escape identification. Nick Valentine ( the one from Diamond City ) was created by the institute to hunt down MS without him actually knowing that was his purpose ( because this knowledge would conflict with the Original Nick's moral code and thus prevent him from assisting the institute ). Nick can think like the MS, but lacks the organic components that would allow him to alter his appearance via autodoc, and I would imagine also has some kind of recording / tracking tech installed, allowing the institute to keep tabs on him more easily.

"fires a single shot from his revolver" *proceeds to cylinder dump a dead body*

I personally think the mysterious stranger and miss fortune belong to a group of time travellers, who arrive at specific events where important individuals potentially face death, individuals who are important for the future. Fallout 3 - the lone wanderer uses the GECK on the water purifier. Fallout New Vegas - whichever the courier sides with gains control over hoover dam and New Vegas. Fallout 4 - the sole survivor rebuilds Sanctuary

Hey Nate! I noticed you haven’t uploaded in a while, just wanted to see if you were ok, I know you’re probably just busy with school or something or the sort but just wanted to check in on my favorite creator

Sometimes. My engineering homework makes me emotionally exhausted. But then I listen to you while I work. And it cures enough of my suffering that I can get through it. Thank you for your work.

Just a random thought; Could Mama Murphy be apart of the Order of Mysteries, She mentions she killed a deathclaw with one bullet (similar to Mysterious Strangers' ability to one shot)- but it was only a pipe pistol nothing else. I am curious of her background though- 🤔

I wish there was someone like this in Skyrim. Just a random bearded bloke who pops out with a crossbow or something😂

The mysterious Stranger is the actual protagonist and you are just a deranged, radiation poisoned man who follows him around imagining the world from his perspective. 10/10 best theory.

i remember you from 2018 i watched all your fallout 4 vids, thank you for making me pro at fallout 4

I would love for the next Fallout Game, cuz we know they're's gonna be another one, to not introduce the Stranger but to have a mission, a mission only acceptable by beating the game first and doing some weird things in specific order, and come across the mysterious stranger at his home, he just sits down, takes off his hat and lay down his gun, we start talking to him and such, he explains some things and says some sad things like, leaving his son behind or something, then he tells the player to head into the other room, doing so the player sees a "Mysterious Coat" on the bed, the player picks it up and puts it on, then walks back into the room to see the Chair empty, but the hat and gun still there. Thus, becoming... The Mysterious Stranger.

Nates becoming the mysterious stranger

4:30 "fires a single shot and leaves without a trace" MS just unloading into a corpse

I always imagined stranger guardian angel thing as him being a time traveler was going back to those moments he knew the player was going to die and then use vats and perception to 100% shot

Nate, I can't believe you missed the fact that the reason that Frederick did all of that for Shannon was Shannon was the actress who portrayed the Mistress of Mystery on the Silver Shroud radio program. When Hubris decided to make a TV series, Shannon thought she was going to play the Mistress so with her Husband's help, she trained to be able to do everything that Mistress was supposed to able to do. Then she got bumped at the last minute for a 'hotter' actress and went back to Appalachia.

He's in the American fallout shelter too. You find him hiding in rooms and win caps

Nate: “he will fire one shot from his revolver before disappearing” MS: proceeds to fire 4 shots from his revolver

thank you for another informative and interesting video!

Next tiny detail: ash spawn will attack raven rock until general falx carius is dead

I really hope Nate is alright. I’m admittedly getting worried.