Scavs

For the bosses, see Scav Bosses.

"Amidst the chaos and lawlessness, scarcity of vital provisions and territories, the first to lift up their heads are shady characters, unembarrassed by excessive moral or ethical restraints or quick to lose them under influence of conditions. They gather into packs, living by dog-eat-dog rules, cutting each other throats over a better piece. This is how yesterday's civilians become Scavs."

- In game description Scavengers, also known as its shorter version, Scavs, are a faction in Escape from Tarkov.

Background
At the onset of active hostilities in the city, in addition to the predictable humanitarian consequences, a special trend is observed that represents a threat for both civilians and armed forces of the conflicting parties. Due to the tense situation in the city prior to the open conflict, Tarkov has developed conditions attractive for all kinds of criminals and antisocial personalities. In addition, the development of the underworld business, especially in recent years, has encouraged the formation of a certain population stratum previously not directly associated with criminals, but, due to their moral and ethical inclinations, prone to antisocial actions in certain cases concerned with their own benefit. Thus, at this point, the formation of groups actively engaged in looting, robbery and armed attacks can be observed in Tarkov, invariably coupled with violence against the civilian population and even military staff. Recently, these groups have earned a nickname from the locals - Scavs.

The Scav groups are quite varied, have diverse ethnic, social and quantitative composition, as well as the different levels and quality of equipment and varying degrees of sustainability. By far, three of these groups the are considered to be the most stable and organized.

Summary
Scavs are Tarkov locals who decided to walk the path of bandits. Essentially, a Scav is a side character which can deliver you an entirely different gameplay experience. Equipment, weapons, place and time of Scav spawning on location are set randomly. They can be recruited by players via the Hideout.

Lore factions

 * "Grizzle" armed group. Real name unknown.
 * B. S. Pashutin (Boris Semyonovich) armed group. (Alias - Fiend)
 * Y. G. Zhilnov (Yaroslav Grigoryevich) group. (Alias: Yarik, Yaga)
 * B. T. Stoporenko group (alias - Lawyer). Does not have an extended description.

Gameplay factions

 * Normal scavs (poorly armed; topic of this page)
 * Scav Raiders (medium armed)
 * Scav Bosses and guards (well geared)
 * Cultists (well geared and stealthy)

Gameplay
Scavs are both AI and player controlled characters. All maps begin with Scavs already populating them, and more will arrive in waves throughout the duration of a raid. During one of these spawn waves, player controlled Scavs will join the match. Scavs can spawn with random various pieces of equipment, and even have varying skill levels.

AI Scavs are, for the most part, not a very large threat. They usually follow a basic patrol route of walking to a position, stopping, looking around a bit, then continuing in another direction, or just standing in place looking back and forth. This is typically a good method to determine if the Scav is AI or a player. They also occasionally stop to "loot" containers, though it seems they never actuality take anything and is most likely just to help mask Scav players better. They also tend to say voice lines in Russian, seemingly at random, very often. This is also a good method to determine if a Scav is a player or not, or simply to find out if there are Scavs nearby. In combat, they are generally easy to dispatch on their own, and while more dangerous in groups they're still manageable.

They tend to be very inaccurate, most likely as a balance and to fit in with the lore, and exhibit a very basic understanding of tactics (using basic cover such as running around a building, waiting around corners or next to doorways, etc).

They don't seem to have great situational awareness, and given their tendency to stand still when patrolling stealth can be valuable when fighting scavs as you can usually get an easy one-tap headshot on at least one before the rest notice you. The size of the groups they travel in vary widely, especially given the size of the map. Typically, they're in groups of 1-3. They always stick near important areas and buildings and rarely if at all are seen traveling the map.

Scav mode
Playing as a Scav is like playing the game without rules, one where the players can experience quite different gameplay with a focus on reckless abandon. The Scav player is spawned together with AI Scavs. For example, the player Scav will spawn part-way through a raid in one of several set spawn points. Scav tactics change up the overall style of raid gameplay, and in most cases, complicating the lives of BEAR and USEC players, while also fighting among themselves.

When you just join a raid as a Scav, you are neutral with all AI Scavs. That means they will not shoot or react in any way. However, if you attack a Scav (Does not matter if AI or player) you become a "traitor" and all AI Scavs nearby will become hostile. Note: You won't become a traitor if you attack or kill a player Scav who attacked you first, or was already marked as a traitor to nearby AI Scavs.

Upgrading the Intelligence center in your Hideout will allow you to reduce the cooldown timer for your Scav mode.


 * Level 1 Intelligence center: Scav cooldown timer -15%
 * Level 3 Intelligence center: Scav cooldown timer additional -20% (-35% in total)

The most important thing about playing as Scav is that if you get killed in the raid, you will not lose anything from your main character's possessions, and if you survive, you can add whatever you looted to your stash. In other words, this is an alternative way to find and save items and to take part in combat, but without the risk of losing everything brought into the Raid.

Your Scav character is levelled up separately from your main PMC character. The levels carry over between raids, even though the names imply different persons. Your Scav-level can't be seen in the statistics if you're off-Raid, but if you are in a Scav-run you can check your level and skills by open the inventory and switch to the tab "Skills".

Karma (Fence standing)
As of patch 0.12.11.0.13074 a system was implemented to reward cooperation between player scavs rather than shooting each other on sight. Your current "karma" can be found as Fence trader reputation.

Killing AI Scavs, player Scavs, Bosses and their bodyguards (as a player Scav) will lower your karma dramatically (avoid killing bosses at all costs), while using cooperation extracts (where a PMC and a player Scav need to use the extract at the same time), car extracts (PMC only), killing PMCs, and most importantly killing Scavs who have killed or attacked another Scav (or boss or his bodyguards) unprovoked will increase your karma, and so does simply extracting from a raid. Killing Raiders doesn't carry any punishment.

Players with higher Fence reputation will generally spawn with better gear and more valuable items, such as a TerraGroup Labs access keycard. On the other hand, players with low Fence reputation will spawn with worse equipment and those with -6 Fence reputation or lower will make all AI Scavs violent to them on sight.

Once you reach 6.0 standing with Fence, you'll unlock his LL4 which in turn allows you to buy uninsured gear lost by other players.

Strategy

 * Generally avoid shooting AI Scavs, as they are useful for early warning against PMCs, do not contain a lot of loot and you'll receive increasing penalty to your Fence standing, but only if you are a player Scav. Maps like Factory are quite friendly to Scav runs, as the local AI Scavs start out friendly.
 * Similarly avoid shooting player Scavs as you will also lose your Fence standing unless they hit (not just shot at) you first.
 * Scav Raiders and Scav Bosses can be aggressive. Either avoid them or kill them, if they hit you first(!).
 * In addition to picking up loose items, go to high traffic areas and look for PMC bodies. Players may leave the bodies behind due to time constraints, injury, or weight, allowing you to take the leftovers of the loot. Also, search for hidden gear, since group players tend to stash their friends' gear for insurance.
 * When you are short on equipment, do Scav runs whenever possible. There is no risk to the player's PMC character or stashed equipment.

Equipment
Note that the primary weapons can have numerous mod variations and those shown below are examples.

Scavs generally only spawn with one weapon, but they can loot weapons from any bodies they come across.
 * -|Weapons=

{|class="wikitable sortable" !Icon !Earpiece ! ! !
 * -|Earpieces=
 * Peltor Tactical Sport headset
 * GSSh-01 active headset
 * Opsmen Earmor M32 headset

Vanity headwear are the most common.
 * -|Headwear=


 * -|Face cover=


 * -|Eyewear=

It is not uncommon to spawn with a piece of level three armor.
 * -|Body armor=

{|class="wikitable sortable" !Icon !Name !Armor Class ! ! 2 ! ! 2 ! ! 2 ! ! 3 ! ! 3 ! ! 3 ! ! 3 ! ! 4 ! ! 5 ! ! 5
 * BNTI Module-3M body armor
 * 6B2 armor (Flora)
 * PACA soft armor
 * MF-UNTAR body armor
 * BNTI Zhuk-3 press armor
 * BNTI Kirasa-N armor
 * 6B23-1 body armor (Digital Flora)
 * 6B13 assault armor
 * BNTI Gzhel-K armor
 * FORT Defender-2 body armor

{|class="wikitable sortable" ! !Pilgrim tourist backpack ! !Scav backpack ! !LBT-8005A Day Pack backpack ! !Flyye MBSS backpack ! !LK 3F Transfer tourist backpack ! !Duffle bag ! !Transformer Bag ! !VKBO army bag ! !Tactical sling bag
 * -|Backpacks=


 * -|Chest rigs=

Trivia

 * In Russian, Scavs are known as 'Savages' or 'Wild'.