why do scavengers shoot you on sight

[I STAPLE TAPEWORMS ON MY]

why dont they warn you first or something

[vee-kay]

Because you don't look like them. You're a clean-skin no-mutations survivor, wearing a colorful jumpsuit, while they are an aggressive dirty dusty bunch of radiation-poisoned witless starving hoodlums, wearing a hodgepodge of tattered rags and junk-turned-into-armor-pieces.

It's the same reason a lost wandering pure-breed dog is attacked and chased down a street alley by a ragtag motley bunch of aggressive dirty scruffy street mongrels. They know it is a pampered weakling that's not a hardcore survivor like them.

---

To enter a raider/scavenger camp boldly as a friendly stranger, you first need to look like them.

Disguises mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/19724/

If you want to observe raiders in their natural habitat, without getting shot in a head, this mod is for you. Now other factions added too.

WHO DOES IT WORK ON:

1. Raiders - disguises
2. Children of Atom - disguises
3. Gunners - disguises
4. Triggerman -disguises
5. BoS - disguises
6. Robots - Distortion Signal Emitter (activates when it's put in player inventory)
7. The Institute - Distortion Signal Emitter and a disguise
7. Railroads - disguise (and to use it with requirements on your special needs to be pretty high, they are a suspicious lot)
8. Bug Repellent works on bugs - wearable ring or misc item (activates when it's put in player inventory)

[RabbitRidge]

Did you kill one previously (even by accident)? I don't wield weapons around them anyway and they are friendly, in my experience.

[vee-kay]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Did you kill one previously (even by accident)? I don't wield weapons around them anyway and they are friendly, in my experience.

Not all the factions are friendly by default.

But in a post-apocalyptic world, having mutated monsters, evil scientists, and incurable diseases, and violent gangs controlled by vicious slumlords, it would not be surprising that the few remnants of humanity hiding in desolated pockets of urban decay around the world, would be very suspicious of strangers wandering into their little corner of hell.

[RabbitRidge]

Again, I've never experienced a problem with Scavengers.

[inetd]

Originally posted by Dog⛧:

why dont they warn you first or something

it's always better to shoot first. Scavengers only care about loot

[DouglasGrave]

It depends on the scavenger, but I've often got warnings from them about getting too close to them or whatever they've claimed, and in those cases I was only attacked when I ignored the warning.

There are some random encounters, like the one with Skrap Rat, where they're hostile (the wiki calls Skrap Rat's group raiders pretending to be scavengers, though I'm not sure that's accurate).

The wiki's entry on random encounters also mentions a random encounter with hostile scavengers as a possible consequence of finishing the "Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution" quest, though I don't remember seeing that one myself, despite routinely siding with the robots against the scavengers.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_4_random_encounters?so=search#Unconstitutional

[RabbitRidge]

I did the “Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution” mission long ago, too. Who knows, maybe I've never hit the RNG for adversarial encounters (or perhaps my OCD tendencies to loot everything I kill severely limited the possibilities). Don't recall ever getting a warning, either…but if it's like settlement attacks, I could have easily missed it without any negative effects.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

I did the “Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution” mission long ago, too. Who knows, maybe I've never hit the RNG for adversarial encounters (or perhaps my OCD tendencies to loot everything I kill severely limited the possibilities). Don't recall ever getting a warning, either…but if it's like settlement attacks, I could have easily missed it without any negative effects.

The warnings I get are usually from individual scavengers hanging out near a lootable fridge or a destroyed robot, rather than scavenger groups (who I mostly see fighting someone else).

[Fear2288]

Any time I’ve come across them via random encounter they’ll draw their weapon, and tell me to back off.

If I draw my weapon, approach them, or just don’t move at all - then they’ll go hostile. If I walk in the opposite direction or just give them a wide berth they won’t do anything.

[RabbitRidge]

Maybe we are talking about two different things: there are Raider Scavengers (which I always kill) and non affiliated Scavengers, which I encounter alone and not in groups.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Maybe we are talking about two different things: there are Raider Scavengers (which I always kill) and non affiliated Scavengers, which I encounter alone and not in groups.

I believe you're thinking of raider "scavvers" (note the spelling) versus non-raider scavengers.

[RabbitRidge]

You're right, the Raiders were named Scavvers (apparently it's way past my bedtime thinking about the discrepancy).

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

You're right, the Raiders were named Scavvers (apparently it's way past my bedtime thinking about the discrepancy).

There's a good chance that "scavver" is short for scavenger anyway, but if they said "raider scavenger" instead it would be even easier to confuse them.

[chaosbringer42]

Random scavengers that are going somewhere will be neutral.

Random scavengers standing in a spot will warn you off, and attack if you get too close (if you sneak everywhere and get inside the "warning" zone then are spotted they will attack right away while saying something like "I warned you!").

Random scavengers who are under attack have a 50/50 chance to become hostile to you if you fire at whats attacking them.

Raider scavengers have a near 50/50 chance of either attacking you, or are neutral and then start threatening to kill you if you dont pay a 500 cap toll (if you pay the toll they stay neutral).

[sdack]

The scavengers in my game used to be peaceful until I helped the robots on the USS Constitution. Some scavengers died in the battle between the robots and the raiders. In particular, the named characters nearby, who wanted the sole survivor to join their cause over the robots', died. Well, I shot them, because they kept picking up the missile launcher by that first attacker. ... Don't touch it ... DON'T TOUCH IT ... damn, you touched it. *lol*

After the battle I noticed scavengers being now hostile towards me. They even sometimes say lines referring to the event or only aggressively defend any scrap.

There seems to be a connection and siding with the robots may well have turned them hostile.