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Name[]

From what I've just encountered the species name is Tunneler, with different types like the Ghouls for example Venomous Tunneler or Hulking Tunneler. Their inventory appears to involve crafting items, misc items and an aid item. I would add to the page but I'm still new at this wiki, the layout is different to wiki's I'm part of.--Alpha Lycos 11:53, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Mole People reference[]

I had always thought the Tunnelers were a reference to the 50's Sci fi film "The Mole People". The look very similar and their was a quote from MCA about various Sci fi films they(Dev's) were watching before they began work on Old World Blues which seems to confirm my suspicion.

"Designing Old World Blues was an adventure in itself. It involved taking a trip down memory lane, both in terms of past games and also in terms of 1950s sci-fi cinema to get the exaggerated “Science!” feel, where a great many inventions were atomic and anything nuclear promised amazing things for the future. Usually with an exclamation mark. Over the course of Old World Blues, we watched and paid respect to some of the 50s science fiction films from Brain from the Planet Arous, Things to Come!, Forbidden Planet, When Worlds Collide, the Deadly Mantis, Tarantula, the Mole People (although we pushed some of that out for the next DLC), the Monolith Monsters, and more." -MCA (reprinted from Gamebanshee interview) http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103952-fallout-new-vegas-old-world-blues-dlc-dev-diary-and-concept-art.html

I thought maybe it deserves a mention on the behind the scenes section of the article.

[User:Monster of The East|Monster of The East] 21:58, September 21, 2011 (UTC)

Be that as it may, they still remind me more of Sleestak. Alister Poe 22:17, September 23, 2011 (UTC)

Quote from Dev > Your opinion Monster of The East

Possible Origin[]

From playing Lonesome Road, I have speculated that the Tunnelers were another pre-war experiment gone wrong (or the goal was completed but fell out of control). Ulysses does describe them from being just before the Great War. The teddy bears found in most of their inventories leads me to believe that these things were once children. In the area of the first encounter with the Tunnelers, there is a position fortified by sand bags. Found behind the sand bags is a bin with a teddy bear in plain sight. The Tunnelers were probably attracted to the thought of another teddy bear so I assume they charged the position but were killed before they could get to it. The NCR troopers in the area probably used this tactic in an attempt to hunt the Tunnelers. 99.124.225.137 01:14, September 22, 2011 (UTC) random person

I think the tunnelers are the result of experiment(s) on the protesters before the war. Outside of Third Street Municipal Building is a terminal and one of the entries says that they (the military base) have something "planned" for the protesters. The next entry says the Chief liaison of Big MT bought a team with him to collect the "guests". Also in Sunflower Summers' diary, she states, after talking to the base commander, that he has something special for them (the protesters). He is the same commander who wrote the previous entries I describe. --Occam's Razor 04:54, September 22, 2011 (UTC)
No, the protesters were shipped to Little Yangtze at Big MT. There's a skill check -- medicine and survival? -- at the start of High Road where the courier's speculate that they were just another type of radiation-born abomination. They were around before the divide blew up, not before the war. Positronic Spleen 07:40, December 6, 2011 (UTC)

Teleportation/Underground tunnels?[]

Noticed during a fight in the Cave of the Abaddon that some of the tunnelers seemed to use the steaming mounds of rubble to move to closer locations around the area to my position. They'd show up as a friendly/neutral mark on the compass and turn red as they were getting ready to attack also. User:Great_MaraMessage 18:45, September 22, 2011 (UTC)

I've run into a similar problem with one individual tunneler in particular in the one Sunset Tower or what ever its called, it dug into the floor, which I found rather humorous, and it now appears to be stuck there. Always friendly, invincible to my attempts to attack. Richie9999 08:04, October 1, 2011 (UTC)

Mutated Cave Fungus[]

Most of the Tunnelers i looted had 2 units Mutated Cave Fungus with them.
Looking at the biolumenescens of their antenas, might it be that they live in symbiosis with them or carry them for the light?
Its just speculation, i know ;)
--Loonix 15:50, September 25, 2011 (UTC)

Appearing in the Mojave?[]

Has anyone checked to see if they'll occasionally spawn in the Mojave after finishing LR, especially in the nuked areas if you decide to do that? I was hoping we'd see some more of these fun little monsters after Ulysses' rather ominous dialog. 65.186.83.127 18:16, September 25, 2011 (UTC)

Invisible tunnelers?[]

In the collapsed overpass section of Lonesome Roads, I was attacked by one tunneler (I presume) that actually seemed to be invisible. It was also extremely difficult to target even if you fired in the direction of the red compass mark. The only thing that would touch it seemed to be the flamer, but even then, it did not catch fire, its health bars only went down a bit. I eventually just got the hell out of there. I'm wondering if it was glitched or whether Tunnelers can use Stealth Boys. Wunengzi 07:41, October 1, 2011 (UTC)

I think it was just a glitch, because I never heard a Stealth Boy activating. and it always seems to be a Venomous Tunneler doing it. It will turn visible after several seconds of hitting it though when i kill them. User:Great_MaraMessage 07:57, October 1, 2011 (UTC)
The same happened to me, on the PC. I used the Riot Shotgun and Dragon's Breath ammo to finally target and deal with it. Desktopcarl 10:05, December 12, 2011 (UTC)

Solution[]

If anyone's having trouble with these things, This Machine loaded with hollow point ammo should take care of them quickly. General Geers 11:58, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

If there are only a few (ie. 1-3 that just spawned), a fully-upgraded GRA Assult Carbine works too. Just don't waste ammo.Tiberian Dawn (talk) 18:10, September 15, 2012 (UTC)Tiberian Dawn, Sept. 15, 2012.

Crazy Difficult for high Level players???[]

I don't know whats going on, but these things DO NOT DIE!!! Im level 44, maxed every skill, 35 DT wearing power armor, helmet, the works.

And these things double hit me and im dead.............

I literally cant get through the "Cave of the Abaddon"

Im Carrying

100% GRA Anti-matter rifle

100% Brush Gun running Hollopoints

100% Q-35 Matter Modualator running Max charge MFC

100% LAER!!!!!!

100% SMMG

100% Riot Shotty

And enough flare guns and flashes to scare off 100 beahmoths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can anybody help???

P.S. ED-E is chill, but his little tazer dsnt do s*** real talk.

Turn down your combat difficulty (HAHAHA) and then turn it back up once you pass the juncture. SigmaDelta54 (Talk) 01:31, April 17, 2012 (UTC)

Another good way to deal with the Tunnler menace[]

Use a fully-upgraded GRA Assault Carbine. It works wonders at high levels against a small group of them. I don't know how it would do on the funicular ride where about a dozen come after you, though.

Tunnlers- Level 6 -No chance  ?[]

xbox 360. Hardcore mode. I left Goodsprings at 8.01am took the Canyon divide and used the Canyon Gate and the ED-E upgrade to repair all weapons to 100%. Repeatedly use the Auto Doc to 100% health in the Hopeville Missile Base Headquarters, Cleared out all the Marked Men by level 6 and then came up against the tunnelers. The 100% repaired 0.5 Anti Materiel Rife with whatever ammo is of no use. Just repaired the 10mm Shouder Mounted Machine Gun to 100% and 7,495 caps via ED-E and will take your advice at try a machine gun.--1000HrsFallout3 (talk) 10:47, November 12, 2012 (UTC) Level 6 10mm Shoulder Mounted Gatling style Machine Gun repaired to 100% .As long as you don`t rely on VATS and just gun them with 200 Rnds of 10mm at around 10 yards then you can empty out the first Underpass of Tunnelers and start the looting.--1000HrsFallout3 (talk) 11:00, November 12, 2012 (UTC)

Tunnelers outside[]

I've encountered them at the Junction 7 rest stop before. Don't remember whether it waas entering the building or taking the snowglobe that was the trigger though. Some deathclaws also spawned on the highway above and walked all the way down there for a nasty surprise visit. Ended up throwing satchel charges out of a window just to kill them. Great Mara (talk) 05:12, March 6, 2013 (UTC)

Hm, the Junction 7 article mentions that too... I guess they do spawn outside, but does it have to be at night though? Paladin117>>iff bored; 05:14, March 6, 2013 (UTC)
No, I've seen them there during the day. That's when I cleared that area. Richie9999 (talk) 05:16, March 6, 2013 (UTC)

Tunneler variants?[]

I read the article, and apparentley Hulking and Venemous Tunnelers are supposed to be rare? I'm not really sure what the heck it's talking about because I see Hulking and Venemous Tunnelers more often than I see regular Tunnelers. Heck, I consider it pretty rare to actually see a normal one. Was all this just luck, or does something in the article need to be changed?

Flameroran77 (talk) 16:19, July 17, 2013 (UTC)

Origin description is...misleading at best.[]

At worst, it's just simply incorrect. There is nothing in Ulysses' dialog that indicates that Tunnelers were actually the residents (read: people) of Hopeville. They're no more residents of the town, than radroaches and radscorpions are former residents of the various wasteland cities we've seen. The only thing that can be definitively determined is Ulysses and the Courier agreeing that they were created by the radiation from the Great War. The only question that remains, as it's still unanswered in-game, is what they were before the radiation.

But - the only thing that's 100% fact, based off the existing creatures throughout canon, is that they're not originally human. Why? Because the only non-FEV mutation that has ever affected Humans, resulted in Ghouls. Animals on the other hand, have seen plenty of interesting mutations from radiation - some even developing humanoid characteristics. For example, Mirelurks and Mirelurk Kings.

So, it seems most likely that Tunnelers are simply the result of radiation fueled mutation of some, yet unknown, animal species. But for the purposes of the article, it's better just to say "of unknown origin", as anything else is just speculation.


Except the ghouls weren't in an enclosed space for who knows how many years. Each one was in an open space because as far as we know no ghoul just sat somewhere for years and eventually became a ghoul. Tunnellers have been underground for generations and so a combination of radiation, whatever the military were experimenting on them with, possible inbreeding, and big MT could have mutated humans into this. Troys are also heavily affected by radiation yet they're not ghouls. Also ghouls are only created from people with A+ blood. Maybe tunnelere and trogs= everyone else.

Where is it even suggested that only people with A+ blood become ghouls? Paladin117>>iff bored; 18:09, October 10, 2015 (UTC)

When in doubt, we must turn to the information provided. Ulysses says, in regard to the tunnelers origin:

Courier: "Radiation from the War might have created them. Then detonations, quakes, caused them to surface? " Ulysses: "Makes sense. Truth favors that, matches the history of this place. Were signs they were here for a long time, before Marked Men, before what happened to the Divide cracked their sky."

As far as Ulysses, and the Courier, know, the Tunnelers were created after the war. They were drawn to the surface when the package the Courier delivered began detonating the ICBMs. What they mutated from in completely unknown, and never speculated on in-game.

I'll be changing it. To the Anon, my personal view agrees with you. However, we must go off of evidence provided in game. Rjtrains (talk) 15:47, March 15, 2016 (UTC)

id codes[]

so i love the ragdoll physics but i dont know how to almost always get hit and fall down except the tunnelers in fallout new vegas but i cant find there id codes so if anyone could tell me that would be great.also since i dont know how to add a signature cause this is my first time on wikia so... im just going to press the signature button but...--50.183.96.250 04:23, January 2, 2015 (UTC)

Venomous Tunneler poisons ?[]

The text says the Venomous tunneler possesses a deadly venom which can quickly overpower an inexperienced player character. However, in the table right under this text, it shows that they do only very little melee damage, and NO venom/poison. This surely is an oversight. Can someone who has access to this info (GECK?) please correct it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AngelaStuff2 (talkcontribs) 20:51, April 24, 2021 (UTC). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

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