Scavenger info :D

[hmaAst]

Hi everyone! The purpose of this thread is to help each other and myself understand the behavior of scavengers more. They are a complex species with complex opinions of the player. Post questions here, and I or other people will try to answer to the best of our ability.

My first question: Say I kill an entire scav tribe in the Chimney Canopy. Will the scav tribe in the Industrial Complex think any less of me? (I have a very high reputation in the Industrial tribe too.)

[The Moth]

Finally, somewhere to dump all of my accumulated knowledge on these guys :'D
I'll be glad to help here with any questions you or anybody else here may have

Answer: Yes! Although the scavengers have individual reputations with the slugcat, and tribe-wide reputations of the slugcat, they also have a world-wide reputation. Killing an entire tribe would 100% make all other scavengers hostile to the slugcat, and they might even send hunting parties after the slugcat, although that last one I can't quite say for sure.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Well at least let's type everything we know at once(also some spoilers probably):

-When they wave their hand up and down, it means they want a pearl to let you pass. Don't forget sometimes they might not notice the pearl they picked up was yours. Make sure they do.

-When their eyes widen it means they heard a sound.

-When they point a spear or hand at you or another creature it's usually to let other scavs know you or the other creature are there.

-Scavengers are not pacified by echoes and will even show curiosity or fear.

-Scavs can send squads to help you or to kill you, and they can track you in all regions they're present in.

-They accept a variety of other items outside of pearls such as vulture masks and overseer eyes.

-They can think you are trying to kill them if you throw stuff in their direction even if you don't hit them.

-They have an insane amount of variations, and that doesn't apply just to cosmetics. The entire skillset is different per scav. Some scavs are able to kill red centipedes and daddy long legs on their own. Others almost always miss their spears and throw slowly.

-They can parry spears by throwing another spear at your own spear, they can also dodge spears. Ability to dodge and parry as I said depends on the scav.

-They can throw jellyfish.

-When they point a hand at you and you're alone, they most likely want your spear.

I think there's some stuff I forgot(and some stuff that wasn't too important to type), I'm sure Darthzz can fill you in on the rest.

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

Well at least let's type everything we know at once(also some spoilers probably):

-When they wave their hand up and down, it means they want a pearl to let you pass. Don't forget sometimes they might not notice the pearl they picked up was yours. Make sure they do.

-When their eyes widen it means they heard a sound.

-When they point a spear or hand at you or another creature it's usually to let other scavs know you or the other creature are there.

-Scavengers are not pacified by echoes and will even show curiosity or fear.

-Scavs can send squads to help you or to kill you, and they can track you in all regions they're present in.

-They accept a variety of other items outside of pearls such as vulture masks and overseer eyes.

-They can think you are trying to kill them if you throw stuff in their direction even if you don't hit them.

-They have an insane amount of variations, and that doesn't apply just to cosmetics. The entire skillset is different per scav. Some scavs are able to kill red centipedes and daddy long legs on their own. Others almost always miss their spears and throw slowly.

-They can parry spears by throwing another spear at your own spear, they can also dodge spears. Ability to dodge and parry as I said depends on the scav.

-They can throw jellyfish.

I think there's some stuff I forgot(and some stuff that wasn't too important to type), I'm sure Darthzz can fill you in on the rest.

Scavs get knocked out when they enter the room of an echo, similar to what happens to you when you enter without the mark. Also, best way to pass pearls is to stand a little distant from a scav staring at you, throwing the pearl upwards, and making sure they IMMEDIATELY go for it. If they don't, the distance you created between yourself and the scav should allow you to retrieve and try again.

[The Moth]

Originally posted by miao:

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

Well at least let's type everything we know at once(also some spoilers probably):

-When they wave their hand up and down, it means they want a pearl to let you pass. Don't forget sometimes they might not notice the pearl they picked up was yours. Make sure they do.

-When their eyes widen it means they heard a sound.

-When they point a spear or hand at you or another creature it's usually to let other scavs know you or the other creature are there.

-Scavengers are not pacified by echoes and will even show curiosity or fear.

-Scavs can send squads to help you or to kill you, and they can track you in all regions they're present in.

-They accept a variety of other items outside of pearls such as vulture masks and overseer eyes.

-They can think you are trying to kill them if you throw stuff in their direction even if you don't hit them.

-They have an insane amount of variations, and that doesn't apply just to cosmetics. The entire skillset is different per scav. Some scavs are able to kill red centipedes and daddy long legs on their own. Others almost always miss their spears and throw slowly.

-They can parry spears by throwing another spear at your own spear, they can also dodge spears. Ability to dodge and parry as I said depends on the scav.

-They can throw jellyfish.

I think there's some stuff I forgot(and some stuff that wasn't too important to type), I'm sure Darthzz can fill you in on the rest.

Scavs get knocked out when they enter the room of an echo, similar to what happens to you when you enter without the mark. Also, best way to pass pearls is to stand a little distant from a scav staring at you, throwing the pearl upwards, and making sure they IMMEDIATELY go for it. If they don't, the distance you created between yourself and the scav should allow you to retrieve and try again.

I always wait til they wave their hand at me, then I throw the pearl. I know they got it when they wave their hand over their head in a "Go on, pass" motion :P

Also, widenning of the eyes tends to be shock or surprise, not just when they hear a sound! Once I dropped from a platform above a scav and it FREAKED.

Some other things I'd like to add:

-Some tribes are nomadic while others are stationary or sit around tolls. Their nature as a whole tends to be based, also, on the difficulty of the region. For example, farm arrays scavs are very cautious and quick to throw spears at the slugcat, while industrial scavs (although nomadic) tend to be a bit more relaxed and accepting of any gifts.

-The complexity of a scav's mask more often than not seems to coorelate to the rank of the scav in the group, with the scavs that have larger antlers tend to be more bold than the others, and more likely to come to their (or your) aid.

-They tend to have different personalities in general, with some being very skittish, some being friendly, others being very aggressive (usually the slit-eyed scavs), et cetera, and these personalities can be helpful to know (for example, attacking and killing the most aggressive scav first, if you're on the offensive, or staying far away from the aggressive scavs and giving gifts to the friendlier ones at first to get them to trust you more. (Do note though that it's best to give gifts to the meaner scavs after the tribe trusts you so that they trust you individually as well))

-They feel calmer when the slugcat is crawling, and get very anxious when slugcat is holding any weapons. When first meeting scavs you should always be crawling around, and give them any weapons you're carrying

I may also think of more later ^-^

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by Luna Tenebris-Flos:

Originally posted by miao:

Scavs get knocked out when they enter the room of an echo, similar to what happens to you when you enter without the mark. Also, best way to pass pearls is to stand a little distant from a scav staring at you, throwing the pearl upwards, and making sure they IMMEDIATELY go for it. If they don't, the distance you created between yourself and the scav should allow you to retrieve and try again.

I always wait til they wave their hand at me, then I throw the pearl. I know they got it when they wave their hand over their head in a "Go on, pass" motion :P

Also, widenning of the eyes tends to be shock or surprise, not just when they hear a sound! Once I dropped from a platform above a scav and it FREAKED.

Some other things I'd like to add:

-Some tribes are nomadic while others are stationary or sit around tolls. Their nature as a whole tends to be based, also, on the difficulty of the region. For example, farm arrays scavs are very cautious and quick to throw spears at the slugcat, while industrial scavs (although nomadic) tend to be a bit more relaxed and accepting of any gifts.

-The complexity of a scav's mask more often than not seems to coorelate to the rank of the scav in the group, with the scavs that have larger antlers tend to be more bold than the others, and more likely to come to their (or your) aid.

-They tend to have different personalities in general, with some being very skittish, some being friendly, others being very aggressive (usually the slit-eyed scavs), et cetera, and these personalities can be helpful to know (for example, attacking and killing the most aggressive scav first, if you're on the offensive, or staying far away from the aggressive scavs and giving gifts to the friendlier ones at first to get them to trust you more. (Do note though that it's best to give gifts to the meaner scavs after the tribe trusts you so that they trust you individually as well))

-They feel calmer when the slugcat is crawling, and get very anxious when slugcat is holding any weapons. When first meeting scavs you should always be crawling around, and give them any weapons you're carrying

I may also think of more later ^-^

1. Not difficulty based, but based on the number of scavs in the region.

2. Scavs are not wearing masks, if you pay attention to their neck, you can see it is clearly a part of them as a head. Also I'm pretty certain you can't view such expressiveness for masks. Scavs actually use a type of head vultures were planned to have (long before the idea of vultures wearing masks) which had long frightening teeth they'd eat you with, but have been given antlers and more eye variety. From most testing, it appears as if their face type doesn't really affect personality, though the ones with larger antlers tend to be more dominant.

3. Scavs will be put on edge just by being near them, so crouching doesn't always work. Best thing to do is get as far from scavs as you can and to crouch if you get in a position where you get too close.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Everytime they are shocked though, they also hear a sound, sometimes they widen their eyes and don't react at all, I think spotting things can also make them widen eyes.

As Darthzz said, it actually doesn't seem to matter how their face looks, I have seen dominant scavs of all types in arena. Maybe it might give them a little boost, who knows.

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

Everytime they are shocked though, they also hear a sound, sometimes they widen their eyes and don't react at all, I think spotting things can also make them widen eyes.

As Darthzz said, it actually doesn't seem to matter how their face looks, I have seen dominant scavs of all types in arena. Maybe it might give them a little boost, who knows.

Some of the more cowardly scavs will keep vibrating and twitching when they're in a dangerous life-threatening situation, and may continue twitching after the threat has been dealt with. It's funny how scavs were intended to be pretty menacing and yet we have scavs like these who are basically screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" 24/7.

Also indeed. I've met puppy-eyed scavs that were pretty aggressive and narrow-eyed scavs that were super friendly. There's also some eye types that aren't commonly seen, like bracket eyes.

[Wolfofdoom3]

I think that happens to cowardly scavs when they don't have any weapons.

Some brave scavs literary stay still and accept their fate, other brave scavs try to run away(to get weapons) but are not scared at all.

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

I think that happens to cowardly scavs when they don't have any weapons.

Some brave scavs literary stay still and accept their fate, other brave scavs try to run away(to get weapons) but are not scared at all.

Cowardly scavs will still do it even if they're fully loaded from what I've seen.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Oh well I did see scavs freaking out with weapons in hand, only that they don't jump all over the place and glitch out like the ones that don't have any weapons.

It's like "OMG no, I refuse to die, gonna ♥♥♥♥ the game up reaaaaalll quick"

[hmaAst]

Will snatching pearls off of the strung-up mask at tolls lower my worldwide scav rep? The little dudes seemed fine with it when I took 2. My scav rep is really, really high right now, if that changes anything.

[Wolfofdoom3]

I'm pretty sure if you do that too many times, they will kill you even at high rep.

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by Bill Nye the Science Fry:

Will snatching pearls off of the strung-up mask at tolls lower my worldwide scav rep? The little dudes seemed fine with it when I took 2. My scav rep is really, really high right now, if that changes anything.

They don't like when you do that. Also that's a painted deer skull.

[bojingle64]

i'm still fairly early on in the game as far as i can tell and, without knowing any better, have been killing multiple scavs, is there a way to bring my rep up even after killing multiple, and how can i tell what my rep is

[Darthzz]

Originally posted by bojingle64:

i'm still fairly early on in the game as far as i can tell and, without knowing any better, have been killing multiple scavs, is there a way to bring my rep up even after killing multiple, and how can i tell what my rep is

You can only really tell by how the majority of scavs react to you, but yes you can bring it up. After your save has The Survivor passage, you can track when you'll get better rep with the cheiftain status bar, but good rep can go even higher than that (though doesnt seem to do much more above full cheiftain)