Scavland Factions: All 10 and How Reputation Works
Sources checked:
NoShadow states that Scavland ships with ten factions, each with their own relationships and reputations. Seven of those ten are named in sources you can open: Steam achievement text and a launch-week breakdown of the reputation system. The other three have not been published — we would rather say that than invent names to fill a table.
The seven named factions
| Faction | What it is | Where it is confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| The Rada | Governing council of Zalesye | Steam achievement "Olive Branches": helping the community of Zalesye earns favour with the Rada. Listed again as a faction you can make amends with. |
| Common folk | Ordinary residents of Zalesye | Steam achievement "The 99%" covers talking to the common people of Zalesye; named as one of the groups amends can be made with. |
| The Gunners | Armed faction offering contract work | Steam achievement "Throwing Down Gauntlets": doing jobs for the Gunners changes how safe you are. |
| Kharon | Faction led by Angel | Steam achievement "The Cycle Will Repeat": facing off against Angel, the leader of Kharon. |
| The Acolytes | Not described in public sources | Named as one of the groups you can repair standing with. |
| The Mechanists | Not described in public sources | Named as one of the groups you can repair standing with. |
| The Palatines | Not described in public sources | Named as one of the groups you can repair standing with. |
You are a Vulture, not a faction member
Vulture — the scavenger role the game casts you in, used by NPCs when they address you. It is the word NPCs use when they address you — "Don't creep up on me, Vulture" — and it appears in five separate achievement descriptions. Being a Vulture is a social position in Zalesye, not a class you pick.
Reputation is not the same as trader rank
This is the single most misread system in the game. There are two separate progress tracks:
- Faction reputation — how groups treat you and which opportunities open up. It moves with your choices and with who benefits from the jobs you take.
- Trader rank — experience earned with the individual NPC who gave you a job. Ranking a trader up unlocks exclusive stock in their shop and does nothing for the faction behind them. See traders and restock.
Treating reputation as one invisible morality bar is how players end up surprised. Before accepting a contract, the useful question is not "how much does it pay" but "who benefits, and whose standing does that move".
Damaged standing can be repaired
An NPC named Risa can offer ways to make amends with several factions, including the Rada, common folk, acolytes, mechanists, palatines and gunners — damaged standing is not necessarily permanent. That makes an early reputation mistake recoverable rather than a run-ending one — worth knowing before you reload a save over it, given there is no autosave to fall back on.
What the achievements tell you about faction progress
- 3.4% of players have Olive Branches (gaining favour with the Rada) and 1.7% have Throwing Down Gauntlets (siding with the Gunners) — faction work is where the early game thins out.
- The Cycle Will Repeat, for confronting Angel of Kharon, sits at 0.0%. Nobody had reached it when this page was captured.
- Full table on the achievements page.