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In "Fallout 4", do super mutants have gender? I'm specifically interested in the context of the "Black Window" perk:

Fallout 4 Perk chart

Black Widow

Come into my parlor ... Men suffer 5% damage in combat, and are easier to persuade in dialogue.

(There's a female analog if you play as a male character; my character happens to be female in this play-through.)

I'm curious if this perk's side effects only apply to human enemies (raiders, gunners, brotherhood of steel, etc.) or if non-humans have sufficient gender identity to be affected by this perk as well.

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The article you had linked in your comment sort of alludes to this from a lore standpoint, but is also reflected in the game's data as well. Super mutants are actually considered genderless, so they would not be impacted by the Black Widow perk.

Black Widow only works against enemies of the opposite gender. So, the enemy type has to have a gender set in the game files for this bonus to apply, as indicated in this discussion. Humans and non-feral ghouls (as well as gen 3 synths, which are classified as humans and not a separate race) are the NPCs that would have a gender applied in the game files, and thus would be applicable for Black Widow bonuses. Other NPC types (Feral ghouls, super mutants, wasteland creatures, gen 1/2 synths) would not have the gender attribute set, so no bonus would apply.

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    Were you able to source the lines in the game files that say this?
    – Timmy Jim ♦
    Aug 24, 2022 at 19:05
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    @TimmyJim Not at the moment... I recall researching this same topic when I was playing this more often to see if the perk was worth it, and had a reference article that discussed this point. Someone had done research about the number of times Black Widow triggered in their testing, along with some other details (e.g. how picking male/female for your character would benefit based on his play data). Of course I can't find this article anymore, but found these others that supported the same for this answer.
    – king14nyr
    Aug 25, 2022 at 11:54
  • Am curious about the creatures, actually. There are radstag does, and there's a nesting deathclaw up by Salem -- both of those would be presumably female. There are mirelurk kings and queens as well...
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Aug 27, 2022 at 5:11
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    @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas As far as I can tell, no. No wasteland creatures (even if it seems to indicate gender in the name or in context, as I the examples you mentioned) would benefit from Black Widow. I'll try to find some hard evidence around that other than just secondhand accounts.
    – king14nyr
    Aug 27, 2022 at 23:05

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