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The first scorchbeast was accidentally created when Enclave scientists exposed irradiated bats to biochemical experiments in early 2083. Although it would have been a wiser choice to exterminate them, Secretary Eckhart ordered further study of the creatures in controlled habitats at the abandoned AMS mining complexes, while keeping the officer corps in the dark. The future President wanted - needed - a way to fool the region's monitoring systems into believing that they were under immediate threat, raising the alert level to DEFCON 1 and giving him access to the nuclear arsenal. Although kept in isolation, theoretically, individual beasts made it to the surface at disturbingly regular intervals, as early as 2084. Despite increasing opposition from the officer corps, Eckhart finally unleashed them on the region in 2086, unintentionally releasing a pestilence that threatened to render the human race extinct on a continental scale.

The people of the wasteland first learned about the Scorchbeasts from reports issued by the Brotherhood of Steel under Paladin Taggerty. Although they dismissed them as pure stories to give Taggerty an excuse to commandeer ammo and supplies, they were soon proven wrong by their appearance and the plague that followed in their wake. The Scorched, terrifying, warped creatures created out of humans afflicted by the scorchbeast plague, have become an existential threat to the people of Appalachia. The situation is made worse by the fact that their breeding cycles are off the charts, limited only by the available nest space in the mining tunnels below Appalachia.

Since then, the scorchbeasts established a vast colony of these draconic bat horrors beneath the entirety of Appalachia. They would regularly dig to the surface to destroy settlements and devour humans, leaving large rifts in the landscape. The only way to safely close the rifts was to launch nuclear missiles from one of three automated silos scattered across Appalachia, collapsing the rifts and killing those scorchbeasts that remain. None of the factions in Appalachia managed to achieve this feat, either due to a lack of means (Responders and Free States) or ideological opposition to the use of nuclear weapons (Brotherhood of Steel). Only the Vault 76 dwellers, entering Appalachia after humans became locally extinct, managed to push back the scorchbeasts and destroy them in nuclear attrition, preventing an extinction-level event.

Scorchbeasts are partially responsible for the creation of the Scorched, as according to research by the Vault 76 overseer, their underground colony contains a fungus responsible for the Scorched Plague, causing the crystalline growths seen on the Scorched.

Scorchbeasts are a species of enormous, mutated bats, presumed to be pygmy bats. The gargantuan creature has retained its ancestors' pointed ears, membranous wings, allowing it to fly and soar through the air, and echolocation. However, it has grown to a tremendous size, developed an extra pair of functional legs, and evolved to become the carrier of a plague which converts any infected living being into the Scorched. Despite their size, scorchbeasts possess considerable agility, and even when grounded they can leap several times their body length in one bound. Despite the behavior of their progenitors, scorchbeasts are not averse to daytime hunting and are known to cooperatively hunt in groups.

Strong and aggressive, it attacks with razor-sharp teeth, claws, the beasts are potent foes, as lamented by the Responders, whose anti-scorchbeast tactics boil down to doing everything in their power to keep away from it and finding an enclosed space to fire from, as scorchbeasts are simply too big to fit into small spaces. Coupled with the radiation they emit, Rad-X is also recommended. Scorchbeasts are also notably capable of using powerful ultrasonic echolocation as a means of navigating or commanding their Scorched servants on the ground. In addition to this, they possess the ability to emit a powerful sonic blast capable of shattering wood and metal structures from their mouths much like mirelurk kings and Mothmen, but on a far larger scale. Their other non-conventional attack includes flying over an area and saturating it with an acidic, radioactive mist that permeates through the cover. The scorchbeast's body is laced with ultracite, which can be extracted from their hides, bones, and wings.