How Legendary Enemey Mutations and Drops Work

[Precache]

I couldn't find any other posts on this topic so I thought I'd share what I've learned. Mutating Legendary Enemies is basically an anti-save scumming mechanic. When the game generates a legendary enemy it doesn't get it's "drop" until it mutates, and if you load a saved game with a non-mutated legendary enemy it won't mutate, and therefore won't get a drop.

I'm not sure why they don't just generate the drop on the enemy inititally, but this is how it appears to work.

Also (very minor spoliers follow) legendary robots tend to blow up when you loot them, so if you kill one, be sure to quick save right away, and wait about 10 yards away until after it blows.

And as far as I can tell, the type of enemy doesn't really effect the type of the drop, as I've gotten my best weapons killing legendary insects (a two-shot plasma off of a blot fly).

[Old Cat 🐱]

Hm. I managed to kill with one shot legendary enemies with low health (radroaches) too a few times without mutating, and they still dropped legendary stuff.

[The Messenger]

They seem to mutate if you constantly save and reload before the unmutated version spawns. But the only way to do this is to figure out where one spawns and save at the maximum range before they render.

[Precache]

Originally posted by TheNamlessGuy:

I've one shotted some legendaries and still gotten legendary items, so they can't generate the drop only after they've mutated.

Oh sorry, I think in this case they still mutate (for the drop not the health), just there isn't a message. The important thing is that you don't load a game in between spotting one and shooting it for the first time, as that will keep it from mutating entirely.

For a while, I thought they wouldn't drop their item if you killed them from full health in VATS (which was incidentally when I noticed the head shot perk is bugged and always gives 95%), but I think that was after a reload.

[Precache]

Originally posted by The Messenger:

They seem to mutate if you constantly save and reload before the unmutated version spawns. But the only way to do this is to figure out where one spawns and save at the maximum range before they render.

I tried that for about half an hour on the same two enemies (robots near a military check-point), it doesn't work.

[Drakken]

Robots blew up when they are weaponless or armless.

[Disko Lemonade]

Yeah I've one-shot plenty of Legendary enemies and still got their item. Gauss to the face.

[Mormacil]

Mutating isn'ty tied to their drops at all. When a legendary enemy gets below 50% but is still above 25% health it gets a chance to mutate. Mutation is a heal and a buff. Now I have no hard data on this last part but it seems it gets a DR bonus against the type you used to wound it with.

[Arete]

They have the item before mutating -- and will even use the item if possible. Most harrowing fight I've had was against a group of Super Mutants, one of whom had a nasty +Plasma dmg Minigun. Fun pickup though.

[Nirvash]

I've noticed a couple enigmas with Legendary enemies. 1, if an NPC does the shot which causes them to mutate, you won't get the notification. And 2, in VERY rare cases, NPCs can loot legendary items off of bodies in the middle of a fight. I've only had this happen with guns that the NPC already had ammo for though.

[Vaemer-Riit]

Also if you have max rank pacify for the enemy type (Animal, Creature, Human) you can order them to give you the item even if they haven't mutated yet so the items are there.

You may be experiencing a reload bug where not all the items respawn when you reload the game.

This is very noticeable when you die to mines, reload and try to find the mines again.

[Arsenic_Touch]

Sneaking up on a legendary, you can pick pocket their legendary, it's generated when the enemy spawns, not when they mutate. Mutation is a rage mechanic, if you don't kill it before a certain time, it gets stronger. It's a common thing in mmo raid fights. Robots go nuclear when you blow off their legs and weapons.

The only thing you got right was legendaries not being tied to the enemy type.