Scavengers (Scavs): The Night City Gangs That Harvest Cyberware From the Living

What a Scav is#

Scavs are what happens when cyberware is everywhere and nobody patrols the alleys. They emerged as a side effect of mass augmentation: if a person carries a Kiroshi eye or a Sandevistan worth a mansion in North Oak, someone will want it out. Scavs make that their business.

The usual method is assault, abduction, mutilation and dismemberment. Victims are called donors and often never found, because the crews use the whole body. Implants and organs go to the black market, and what is left gets dumped, burned or fed to the sewer rats.

No leader, no turf#

The Scavengers are not a gang so much as a trade. Groups are small, with little or no hierarchy, led by whoever is the most savage and cunning. They mark their presence with tags and graffiti and have a concentrated presence in northern Pacifica and southern Wellsprings, but can turn up anywhere.

They are easy to spot. Tracksuits, Soviet cyberware and criminal tattoos, some of which suggest Russian organized crime. Their cyberware tends to be cyberoptics, pain editors, health monitors, Kerenzikov and K.E.R.S.

They are also deliberately terrifying. Their gruesome reputation is one of their few assets, so a crew that is crossed makes a grisly example of the offender.

How they make money#

Scavs are the main suppliers of low-end cyberware to other gangs, small-time criminals and shady ripperdocs. They hold what amounts to a monopoly in the body-parts aftermarket, because customers would rather buy second-hand parts than get into the gore business themselves. If you need a cheap arm and have not asked where it came from, you may be a customer.

They also take jobs: heists, hit jobs and abductions that clients do not want their names on. As long as money is on the table, a Scav takes the work with no questions asked. For the underlying tech, see cyberware and the cyberware list.

Dogtown Scavs#

The Scavs in Dogtown are a different breed. They are better equipped and better organized than their Night City brethren, and rumor has them tied to Soviet intelligence. Whoever spreads that rumor risks getting their picture stapled to the Memorial Tree in the Stacks.

They have cash, good gear and a bit of disdain for poorer city Scavs, on the theory that only the ones with no head for business end up in Night City. They operate under Colonel Hansen's nose in Dogtown, and he tolerates it for the money. See Phantom Liberty for the expansion that takes you there.

Where you meet them#

Scavs were in the first public look at Cyberpunk 2077. They fight Trauma Team in the 2018 E3 trailer, and appear again in the 48-minute gameplay reveal against V and Jackie.

In the finished game, the first braindance you ever run is the last minutes of a Scav, in the calibration for the job The Information. The job begins in Judy's workshop, so it fits that a Scav's death is the training wheels.

Fixer's notes#

Opinion: the Scavs are the Cyberpunk joke with the least punchline. Everyone in the setting is afraid of cyberpsychosis, and nobody should be as afraid of it as of the shady-looking guy with the black bag.

Survival advice, from the lore: make sure your implants can help in a dark, rainy alley, or that Trauma Team shows up before the Scavs do. In a tabletop game, a Scav ambush is a good way to remind players that expensive gear is a liability. See the whole gang list on the Night City gangs page.