Scavengers went free-to-play in early access on May 1, and the gaming community has given it a warm reception! With the exception of server issues and small bugs, Scavengers has gotten off to a great start as the latest shooter to the scenes.

The main objective of the game is to collect datapoints and make it onto a ship that departs at the end of the match. In between gathering materials, there are a ton of other things to look out for.

We polled the Average Gamer Community to collect the top tips and tricks for new explorers!

Scavengers’ Explorers

At launch, Scavengers has 7 playable characters. The game gives you immediate access to three of them, and then you can unlock the rest using in-game currency.

Each hero has a combination of available weapons and skills. Take a look at the basics of each hero and make sure to try out multiple characters to find the one best suited to your playstyle!

Tarik

He’s a sniper with traps which can slow enemies.  His Longstriker weapon is great for doing damage at range, but the weapon requires a high level of precision to be effective.

Valora

She has a shield similar to Winston’s in Overwatch, where you and your team can shoot out of it, but enemies can’t shoot into it. Opponents can still walk through the shield to deal close range damage, but it’s great for providing cover. Her primary weapon is a powerful shotgun, aptly named the Devastator.

Halden

He’s the medic of the group, with an AOE heal that he can drop to keep his friends’ health topped off. It also instantly picks up downed teammates, making it one of the best support abilities in the game. Halden’s weapon is a single fire rifle which is great at medium to long range.

Kali

She is a master of stealth, with a cloaking ability which makes her nearly invisible and a compound bow that punishes enemies quietly. If you prefer a ninja-like approach to attacking, go with Kali.

Jae

He’s your man if you want to be a hand-to-hand combat warrior! His Maverick halberd does insane damage if you can land the melee attacks, and has a pretty wide range. To make sure you don’t get killed immediately when rushing an opponent, Jae’s ability will fully recharge your current shield, and give you additional shield equal to a level above your shield!

Letty

She’s like a Jedi mixed with Sombra mixed with Bangalore. Her EMP blast forces enemies away and temporarily shuts down the enemy abilities. Letty wields a very strong pistol which is reminiscent of the Wingman from Apex Legends. 

Cruz

Following up on the Apex reference, Cruz is the speedster of the group. His Tailwind talent gives him a speed boost and creates a jet stream in his path where anyone (including enemies) can take advantage of the movement buff. He has a quick-firing SMG which is great at close range.

Survival Mechanics

Even though Scavengers is a PvPvE battle royale, there are elements of classic survival games that add some complexity.

Stamina

You’ll need stamina primarily for sprinting around the map. The more you sprint, the more your yellow stamina bar will deplete. If you run out of stamina, the bar will turn red and you will no longer be able to sprint.

Stamina is also consumed when rolling, climbing over things, and using melee weapons. 

Additionally, your max stamina goes down over time. You can refill depleted stamina and improve your max stamina with consumables – more on this later.

Temperature

Scavengers drops you into a frozen tundra and tasks you with keeping your body temperature stable. Aside from the arctic temperatures, you’ll also encounter fierce storms which rapidly bring down your temperature meter.

Once your explorer gets too chilly, your max health will start to drop, indicated by icicles forming on your health bar. Keep an eye on the red temperature gauge and try to stay above 50% heat at minimum.

You can raise your temperature by standing next to a flame or by using thermal boosts. Don’t be the one in your squad who dies from cold!

Scavengers Research

Even though Scavengers is a shooter, there are some RPG elements introduced by way of research. The more you play, the more you’ll research, and the more things you’ll unlock in the game.

Resource Collecting

There are so many resources to gather in Scavengers falling into various tiers of rarity..

The more you loot and the harder enemies you defeat, the better materials you’ll get toward crafting. Try to go after orbitals and supply drops when you’re in-game to get the rare resources!

Additionally, you can deconstruct materials to receive other resources. Once you’ve acquired a bunch of the common materials, I highly recommend deconstructing some of them to gain nanites for crafting higher-tier resources.

Upgrading Through Research

In the ‘research’ tab of the home screen, players can unlock new abilities and items. Players start off with a set amount of ‘power’, which is essentially your capacity for research. You’ll need to spend power and resources in order to research a given item.

As you level up, your max power will increase. At the start of the game, your power level will be relatively low, and you’ll be limited in the items that you can research. At higher levels, you’ll be able to research stronger abilities and weapons to use in battle.

There’s also a system of increasing your research level, which gives you the opportunity to research more powerful perks. You level up your research tier by researching a set number of items. For example, to unlock research tier 3, you’ll need to research 10 unique abilities, consumables, and/or weapons. 

Researching in Scavengers requires resources as well as time. The time ranges from 20 minutes for low-tier research to hours and even days for some of the more premium items. 

There isn’t too much complexity in the early tiers of research so just try to research everything you can as quickly as possible to get to the higher research levels.

Having a Productive Match

Scavengers starts new players out with a short tutorial, but there are many nuances to the game that you won’t pick up on until later.

Look at the Map Early and Often

This one is critical. The map will show you valuable details about the locations of supplies, objectives, and the closing circle.

When you first load into a new game, take a few seconds to identify the nearest objective to your team’s location. After you’ve looted the starting point of interests, you should head straight for some datapoints.

Additionally, the map pinpoints equipment, food, and other supplies. If your squad is lacking a particular set of items, you can plan your map rotations accordingly.

As you start to get more comfortable with the gameplay, you can send one party member towards an easy objective – one worth 15 datapoints – while the other two head to a 30-point location. This way, your team can get off to an early lead and make the most of your precious time!

Clear Your Starting Location

I mentioned this in the prior tip, but also make sure to clear the area that you start in! The game drops you in an area free of enemies and there’s plenty of loot for each member of your team to have a decent starting kit.

Ideally, you land in a place with three buildings and each explorer can search through their own area. If you end up double-teaming a confined space, make sure you start on opposite ends of the location to avoid fighting over the same loot.

Plan Your Weapon Loadout

Once you’ve played through a few matches, you would have had a chance to experiment with different weapons. I’ve found that I can be most effective with one close-range weapon and a secondary that can be used at medium to long-range.

Through about a dozen hours of gameplay, my ideal loadout has been a bow paired with a shotgun. This kit lets me take out weaker enemies with one shot at many different ranges and is incredibly versatile!

If you’re more into sniping, the sniperrifles in Scavengers are devastating in the right hands. Combine this with an SMG and you’ll be dealing an insane amount of damage.

Take Advantage of Sliding

Not only is sliding cool, but it also conserves your stamina! While sprinting, all you need to do is press the crouch button and your explorer will perform a baseball slide.

This slide is most useful for speeding down hills since the movement mechanic makes you zoom down slopes. What’s more, sliding requires zero stamina and is a great way to keep your movement speed up while regenerating this valuable resource. 

Beware of Other Scavengers

Even though the bosses scattered around the Scavengers map are tough, there’s nothing quite like going up against another group of explorers. They’ll be armed with powerful weapons, armor, and the best ones coordinate a tactical approach to their engagements.

My advice is to avoid mid-game fights until you’ve run through a few games. They can become overwhelming quickly, and it’s much better to run to safety instead of trying to fight head on.

When you think you’re ready for PvP combat, try to take the fights in a position that’s advantageous to you! For the most part, you can see enemy explorers from a good distance away. They’re often busy fighting off zombies so you should be able to sneak up on them.

The best way to take a fight is for your entire team to fire at one person first, then push the opposing squad after you’ve downed one of their friends. It’s easier said than done, but if you can pull this off, your PvP win rate will skyrocket.

Repair a Vehicle to get Around Faster

There rae Broken down vehicles scattered around the arena and highlighted on your map. With enough crafting materials, your squad can repair the vehicle and get around the map much faster.

It seats three people, doesn’t require any type of fuel or resources to continue driving, and has a reasonable amount of health. Just be on the lookout for enemy teams while riding around since they will have an easier time shooting at you than you will trying to take them down.

If a team starts shooting at you while you are driving, it’s best to drive behind cover, get out of the vehicle, and then engage on foot. 

Deposit Your Datapoints

You lose half of your datapoints anytime you die. If that weren’t bad enough, you lose all of your datapoints if your squad doesn’t make it onto the dropship when it leaves the arena.

If you’d prefer to bank some of your datapoints during the match, head to an uplink station. These beacons slowly acquire the datapoints from your inventory and effectively transfer them back to your home base.

There are usually enemies near the uplink station, but they are pretty weak and your squad should be able to take them down while depositing the goods.

Approach the Dropship With Caution

Scavengers’ dropship is a complete cluster. With several minutes between it landing and the vessel taking off, you’ll find a mixed bag of theories on how to make it out alive.

For the aggressive types, you’ll want to get on the ship early and shoot at incoming teams as they try to board. You have the advantage setting up a coordinated attack, but it’s likely that you will need to defend many different sides of the ship. 

This method is high risk – high reward since you can acquire enemy datapoints as you wipe other explorers. Alternatively, your squad could get overrun quickly and lose everything within a matter of minutes. 

A more measured approach is to camp out near the on entrance and stay behind natural cover until you see a third-party opportunity. This option is usually safer than the first because the highest threat level is actually outside the dropship.

Your team will have the advantage of seeing any incoming squads. Enemies who board the ship early usually don’t walk off the ship, but you need to be ready to fight if they do.

Lastly, for the passivists who aren’t interested in chaos, you can wait a good distance from the ship and then rush on in the closing moments. This way, you don’t have to take part in any cross-fire and have a relatively calm ending to the match.

For this to work, I recommend posting up on high ground about 100 meters from the ship, keeping an eye out for the explorers racing to get on early, and then make a dash for an open dropship door in the last 30 seconds. It’s risky because you may walk directly into a fight, but it will likely be the only fight you take in the late stages of the game.

Tying it All Together

Scavengers blends objective-based battles with intense PvP gunfights in a tense survival shooting experience. The developers are staying closely involved with the community to ensure any bugs are fixed quickly. New updates should include things that will actually advance the game and continue growing the player base.

Scavengers is free now on Steam and you can test out these tips and tricks for yourself!

Let me know what other Scavengers tips and tricks you have in the comments section, below!