Tunnelers were once Human? | Fallout Lore 

The part that always bothers me about these "humans evolving into monsters" scenarios is that it always shows them losing their intelligence. I find it hard to believe that natural selection would eliminate what is by far Humanity's greatest strength.

The Tunnelers aren't living on borrowed time. They're living on burrowed time.

"They'll start emerging throughout the Mojave in time, might be years. Probably less."

So in fallout 3 there a terminal in the citadel that mentions project cloacina. It's clearly talking about the initial experiments resulting in mole rats but listen to this description and tell me it doesnt also sound like tunnelers: "living weapons in time for deployment into Red China. Once covertly released into an enemy's environment, their aggressive qualities, dangerous hunger, and pervasive breeding should severely undermine the infrastructure of the location in short order, softening the target for ground invasion. At this point, the genetic kill-switch can be activated, allowing for easy reclamation" If tunnelers turned out to be cloacinas final product after giving up on rats, I would not be surpirsed

I could totally see trapdoors (like the spider) through the Mojave where people get a bit too close and just disappear. I think the tunnelers could be a legitimate threat because of 2 factors. 1- people wouldn't expect them during their initial invasion and they don't exactly have a way to track them. 2- The Marked Men and Deathclaws of the Divide have been fighting them for years, they understand what to do and how to fight if they show up. Legion don't use flashbangs or even flashlights for that matter, so they're already at a disadvantage. NCR has a better chance, but with how spread thin they are, I could easily see them losing out in a war of numbers. I am curious about the Queen bit though, I wouldn't think there'd be only one, but at the same time, there's only the one location they've been spawning at so maybe that's not wrong.

Tunnelers are an absolute pain to fight, especially as an low level or under equipped courier. "Who would go to the divide low level and under equipped?" Yours truly.

"They breed fast, hunt in groups, more than enough to bring down the strongest in the Mojave. Once they draw blood... Seen them tear apart deathclaws... Deathclaw might get some, but the rest will swarm it, tear it apart, like Denver hounds" God forbid that the red mist comes to the Mojave...

This is deep, What does a brother have to do to find out about the origins of perfectly preserved pie?

I actually didn't know they were supposed to be evolved humans. I thought Ulysses meant that even before the bombs fell that the Tunnelers already existed as a separate species but the bombs caused them to start going towards the surface

Honestly, the Tunnelers are one of my favorite things added to Fallout lore by New Vegas. But it always bothered me how they were never expanded on. Personally, if there were to be a future fallout game, preferably in Ohio of all places, I wouldn’t mind seeing intelligent tunnelers roaming the wasteland in a nomadic society, either trying to coexist with the rest of the wasteland or pulling a Richard Grey and converting humans into tunnelers while killing all the ghouls and super mutants.

The Fallout NV mod "Dust" is a really good presentation of the aftermath of the main game, having a particular bit regarding the Tunnelers entering the Mojave. Would definitely suggest people check it out!

New Vegas would be safe because of the lights but the rest of the Mojave would be dangerous. The tunnelers can dig underground and you would not know where they are and can surprise attack you at night.

For me definitely the scariest and hardest enemies I've come across in a fallout game, more so than the Matadors even. Quick, brutal, relentless and expert night hunters.

Time to send the Dwarves to clean them out. ROCK AND STONE!!!

Ah yes, the infamous tunnelers. These were the bane of my trek in the iron gauntlet that is known as the Divide. Found them more terrifying than deathclaws in the DLC. I swear, these guys just won't die.

I have always doubted it was JUST radiation that produced the Tunnelers. Likely exposed to FEV, in conjunction with the low light conditions and irradiation resulted in the Tunnelers.

I’d love to see a the tunnelers return but like in a very specific way. Bethesda loves to pull from H.P. Lovecraft and in one Lovecraft story named The Lurking Fear. (I’m about to summarize the story so please keep in mind it’s been a few years since I’ve actually sat down and read it word for word) On Tempest Mountain there are possible reports of the residents of the area being attacked by monsters. Many people attribute the destruction and death to the storms that the area frequently has but after a particularly bad one there was a lot of damage with unmistakable bite and scratch marks reported on a few corpses. This is what causes an unnamed protagonist (the 1922 version of y/n on wattpad) and a monster Hunter to go up to the mountain along with many other reporters. For me the best part of the story is when the reporter and the small crew of people he’s with take shelter on a cabin when a bad storm starts up. They agree to take turns keeping watch and the first man to do that posts up at an open window looking out into the storm. The next morning everyone awakes, confused as to why the first guy is still sitting at the window and never woke someone up for the next shift. When he doesn’t respond to anyone they pull on his shoulder and he falls back revealing that somehow his face and some of his head were torn off, apparently so quickly that he didn’t have time to react at all. Of course they can’t tell if it was a monster or just an idiot who sat next to an open window during a storm and got hit by a branch or something so investigations continue. At the end of the story the protagonist finally meets a creature face to face as he crawls through a tunnel dug by the creature into the mountain. Crawling along with a small light he eventually illuminates one of the creatures as it stares him down, paralyzed with fear the only way the protagonist makes it out is due to a mudslide and tunnel collapse caused by another storm. I think bringing the tunnelers back in a mission referencing the story would be perfect. They’re almost made for it and it would make sense that the tunnelers would only come out during storms or at night because that’s when it’s darkest. Plus I think the player following a trail of clues and grisly sights where there was a monster attack, eventually being lead to a very dark cave where eventually out of the darkness you see their eyes open, or like turning a corner to see them through the darkness would be a great moment. Plus it could canonically cement their spread under ground into other inhabited areas of the world.

The strip would fall with the mojave. Energy isn't free, so those lights aren't staying on for long once there's no more traders and easy resources. Same goes for food and water. It might hold out for a time, but there's just no way for it to exist as an island.

how could the strip be a safe place? It would longer than the rest. if the rest of the mojave is taken over it becomes too dangerous to traverse and get to the strip. Supplies dwindle, the magic fades, people don't stay, it eventually dies.

Man I’ve really been enjoying your lore videos fr keep it up

omg babe wake up Synonymous posted a new video!! no but fr I’m so happy to see you posting again! been checking my notifications daily for your new upload! amazing video as always, keep up the good work! ❣️

I remember fighting the tunnellers but I never put two and two together about about light and sound so I just threw everything I had at them. Those bastards were tough.

Welp, looks like they ended up getting to the Mojave

TBH, these creatures are kind of ridiculous. They're agile, strong, energetic, but somehow able to sustain large groups. They're tough. They have implausibly effective claws. Venom to boot. And all this derived in just a hundred year or two from human biology? Humans have good endurance, but we're slow and weak. We're squishy. And we're certainly not fast breeders. I'd say they suffer from "final DLC over-powered syndrome", which is when tiny creature in the last DLC of a game's life cycle are given unusually high stats to remain relevant to the current playerbase, who presumably want to play the DLC on their pre-established end-game high-level character. Like when the ash hoppers in Skyrim Dragonborn can kill a man in plate armor, or the mysteriously tough cave crickets at Nuka World.

Everyone ready for them to come out in season 2

I know Im late but the Tunneler's biggest weapon vs an army is their tunnels. Being able to dig extremely quickly, come up in the middle of the army, behind them, where ever. Ambush attacks are huge in battle. More important than that, if they manage to dig a series of tunnels beneath the entirety of vegas, and continue to do so, hollowing the earth beneath it, eventually gravity wins for them.

As always, great job! I am always pleased to see you in my notifications, thanks for the upload!

I would love to see a video on assaultrons. I very much enjoy the lore of fallout and your videos are incredible.

Ulysses basically: Your past is coming back to haunt you because you did something horrible in the past before the game even started.

“hm today will go under the hopeville overpass” >Clueless

When me and Cook Cook find that Tunneler Queen, me and Cook Cook are gonna start a new hive!

The real threat of the Tunnelers to the Mojave is that they are akin to destructive moles. The true threat is massive damage their tunneling could do to the Vegas infrastructure. Their are plenty of places Tunnelers could dig themselves into and mass produce without interference and eventually they would get hungry and fear tends to be less of a deterrent when you're starving and your prey has been crippled

Thanks for the new video

While I love them being based off the eponymous Molemen of the movie, I just can’t help but feel that there wasn’t enough time, even 10 or so generations, to evolve in such a way, even with radiation and FEV being possibilities. Now, if the Mole-miners of 76 were put in this time period, between the canonical time period of FO3 and FO4, I wouldn’t have any issue at all.

It's a good video but I think they're are some misinterpretations happening here Vegas would not be safe just because it is bright and loud, remember these things keep charging through gunshots so not just any loud noise will scare them, nor just any light (they don't turn tail at your pipboy light do they?) It's only extreme cases of each of those, like the instantly deafening flashbang going off suddenly or the appearance of a new sun in the form of a flaregun, or being covered in bright light that burns like a flamethrower and not to mention these are also assuming that the people being attacked are ready for the attack, hard to pull out a specific defense quickly when something bursts from the floor and is mauling you in your kitchen Also the death claws and marked men survive through 1: only a few tunnelers are at the surface yet, not the full horde 2: they both have experience and are really strong (mega lizards and soldiers who literally heal from all the rads and have been fighting non stop for decades) so while they can't beat them, they can keep somewhat of a boundary at this point, just because you can crush a single bee doesn't mean you stuff your head in the nest right? And 3 they also seem to use terrain to their advantage when they can, remember that both of them make homes in the overpasses or the marked men living around undetonated nukes to heal from the rads, while it's mostly to survive the storm if they're inside it would also make dying to a tunneler much more unlikely Also it's unlikely they have a singular queen due to they're spread population as life would probably center on protecting the nearest queen and we see some of them a far way Finally this one is just a small theory but if they are descendants of hopeville then maybe the fear of bright lights and big sounds is from the thing that made them this way, the nukes.

The Tunnelers as they dig their holes: “I’m going deeper underground; there’s too many people in this town”! Singing.

"Something something the Bear. Something something the Bull. Something something... History." - Ulysses

I have needed a fallout lower video about the tunnels I know they used to save animations as drugs but they're so underrated in such great DLC

As soon as you said they have another weakness I instantly guessed loud sound. What are the odds

Another amazing video man

Their mutation seems to have awakened their dormant reptile DNA.

“At the ncr’s request”? Mr House was the made the delivery requests yeah? He made decoy deliver requests but it was the player who got the chip and indirectly made the divide.

Given that a sequel to new vegas is in the works it would be interesting to see if the tunnelers have actually effected the Mojave

Your videos are always great to watch. Have you ever considered doing content for another franchise?

Your videos are amazing 👏

yay new video this notification got me out of bed, actually (gmt -3 here)

And I was wondering about your next video yesterday...

They are the deep ones from below hackdirt

Technically the tunnellers could tunnel a whole network that could collapse The Strip in on itself and pick off any survivors in the rubble

I think the point of the Tunnelers is they would spread underground and overtime wither anyone they fight with to the point they collapse from constant attacks.

Ayyy another vid from my fav yter!!!!

DUST shows just how terrifying they can be

Favorite fallout RU-vidr right here!

I plan to play this with a low level, as I was able to beat old world blues at level 1

Love your show bro! Keep it up

Something to be noted, despite their lizard like appearance, tunnelers have bellybuttons(they can be seen in the in game models) which means they're probably placentary mammals, the theory that they're modified humans is the most plausible in my opinion.

A threat for sure, but there are already tons of those lurking about. Before the courier does their final battle then I could see them as a major threat to a divided wasteland. Yet afterwards? NCR? Bad, but depending on level of support they could get hurt, but then rally and burn down (or blow up) their nests until they become a basic threat. House? Loud flashing bots with laser guns. Mostly Legion would have it worse. But if all factions were at play and the war was creeping up then it would be the unexpected player that may not win the war, but does a ton of damage to everyone else as their focus would be too much on one another than the tunnelling threat.

I hypothesize ulysses or the enclave experimented with FEV and made tunnelers

Welcome back!

Tunnel snakes rule

The Tunnelers stand no chance against the mosquitos that dwell in Utah, they will carry you off.

Could you do lore on Anglers?

Finally you did it thank you so much

I wanna see a group of tunnelers take down a deathclaw, like Ulysses says to the courier

I wonder if these guys would get along with the mole miners from FO76 since both mutated similarly.

Top shelf dude 🍻

Truly the fallout series all of them have gifted us some of the most interesting creatures with very little to go on in the of an origin other than probably being mutation of a human or animal that was exposed to F.E.V and/or massive amounts of various types of radiation coupled with it's environments which is fine honestly I think that the massive mystery behind alot of fallouts lore has kept people constantly trying to see if there's something that got missed or coming up with fan lore that ends up being put into the official lore itself. I don't care about fallouts bugs and oversights all games have something unfitting about them that the truest fans typically ignore unless it's a major issue fallout has been part of my life for over a decade now I feel obligated to Interplay,Black isle, Bethesda and obsidian for the years of fun and interesting lore and to the modders pushing the story and games even further than the devs thought possible

Tunnlers are just stronger Spore Carriers, so get them! XD

Ayo he is back :D

Radiation alone wouldn't do this imo, trogs happened because of chemicals and run off from the mills and spore carriers happened because of the spore. So either they're not human or there's an additional factor we just don't know about.

Its honestly a hard pill to swallow that these things were once human. I know that its not cannon or anything, but theres a lot of things that dont rlly make sense: 1. The fact that they can breed is the first. Trogs, Ghouls, Super Mutant, and Mole Miners cannot breed, even though they wete once human. The fact that these things have a Queen (which would imply they have a breeding system were the queen is the one that gives most of the birth), makes it seem rlly out there. I know that Fallout is not something u should take super seriously in terms of realism, but this type of evolution/adaptation just isnt possible in 200 years. 2. If it makes more sense to me that they have always been there. It just yhat the nukes surfaced them. Kinda like aliens. 3. They ars poisonous. We humans lack the ability to produce poison. If these things wdre once human, how the hell did they achieve ability to producs poison (maybe diets of poisonous underground creatures)???

Best Fallout channel

Please do a video on Fantastic.

So what happened? You passed? Kudos on the video js loved this one!

Can you do a lore on The minutemen if you have not done soo?

the number 1 reason to bring a shotgun to the divide

The tunnelers are actually really cute. Kinda makes me sad that I ripped so many apart with a 50 cal...kinda

I don’t think they are human mutation I’m pretty sure they mention that they came from below when the ground cracked

OMG ROGUE SLEESTAKS!!!

Check out the dust mod

I think it makes no sense they evolved from humans during 200 years with only the help of radiation. It also brings into question the differences between them and Mole miners.

Spore carriers

Once again a great video! Love the hard work!

I always just wrote off what Ulysses said about them destroying the mojave as chris avellone's attempt to try and soft reboot the fallout universe. From what ive seen he dislikes how civilized the world of fallout is becoming and wants it to go back to a more ruthless wasteland (you know, despite the fact that the entire point of fallouts setting is that its a post-post apocalyptic world)

Could you analyze the Gunners in fallout and not just the cannon gunners but the gunners added by the mod some settlements 2 chapter 2

I find the mini gun the most effective.

I really doubt they're evolved humans, maybe a hybrid but ulysses and the courier expect they've been there for a while. More like the silurians from who than anything else.

what is a swamp folk

These always made me confused lore-wise, and how everyone was terrified of 'em 🤔

Love it

Well they are dangerous but i bet they will meet some resistance... Not only your average Deathclaw pack but Nightstalkers, Giant Ants, Supermutants & Nightkin, crazed Robots, swarms of Bloatflies, giant Mantis, Radscorpions and not to forget your friendly neighborhood Cazador... Imagine how loud their wings must sound. And if not the Legion, NCR, Securitrons good old Caps will. Sturdy skin like this able of protection against Deathclaws surely makes for some fine leather armor...

Power armor wearing mini nuke wielding, guss rifle carrying, plasma gun using brotherhood allied with anti mat rifle rncr rangers and the ncr vertibird core,and with the help of Mr house's platinum chiped robots, could easily wipe out the tunnelers. The worst of the fighting would of course be in the tunnles, but above ground they'd be easy prey.

For me, Tunnelers seem to be similar to a monkey troop. It's plausible if these people are former humans who slowly lost their sanity and intelligence as they adapt underground, they would behave as such. Soon they could evolve and adapt, which is threatening to the Mojave and nearby areas.

There is a mod called DUST (I think) where the worst possible outcome happens in the Mojave. The Cloud from DEAD MONEY mixed with a massive radioactive sandstorm, consumed the Mojave. This allowed the Tunnelers to migrate to the Mojave. I just think it's a cool "what if?" Mod for people to take a look at.

Honestly I agree with your evaluation of the Tunnelers and I always thought that Ulysses was full of it when he said the Tunnelers would take the Mojave. As you said they don’t like light at all, and the Mojave is a massive desert that isn’t covered by a giant storm like the divide. Plus we see that Ulysses himself is very flawed in his own logic when it comes to bringing down which ever faction he is planning on destroying, so I always took it that he was flat out wrong about his prediction.

Reminds me of H.P Lovecrafts story "The Lurking Fear"; where a family sensitive to thunderstorms take shelter underground in a mansion and slowly devolve into ape like creatures, attacking the nearby area which kick-starts the story via the narrator coming to investigate it, discovering the aforementioned truth

To be honest i never really understood how theyd over run the mojave. The strip is full of bright light, is extremely loud, and has business from caravans along with the gun runner arsenal supplying weapons i cant think that theyll be that large of threat.

I always wondered whether these things were human or not. Makes sense if they are, considering their similarities with the Pitt's trogs and Vault 22's plant people.

Tunnelers: Making the Flamer useful and suddenly the giant City 17 Thumper that is the Citadel seem not so bad now. But considering all the messed up stuff from Fallout 1 and 2, I think the Mojave has fighting chance.. atleast.

I can't imagine the terror of someone in New California finding a nest of these things in a basement or dark warehouse.