Legionary assassin

Legionary assassins are high-end operatives of Caesar's Legion in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281. 
==Background==
Legionary assassins are small groups of four elite killers, usually led by a decanus, praetorian guards, or a centurion, dispatched to eliminate the Legion's enemies.
The first type of group is composed of:
* 1x decanus (leader)
* 2x veteran legionaries
* 1x vexillarius
The second type of group is for eliminating Caesar's greater enemies, composed of:
* 1x centurion (leader)
* 1x prime decanus
* 1x veteran legionary
* 1x vexillarius
The last type of group is for Caesar's greatest, most hated enemies, composed of:
* 1x praetorian guard (leader)
* 1x veteran decanus
* 1x veteran legionary
* 1x vexillarius
During these assassination missions, praetorian guards are allowed to use firearms in the place of their unarmed weapons.
==Characteristics==
Legionary assassins begin to appear if the player obtains a Shunned or worse reputation with Caesar's Legion. They will travel across the wasteland from their original spawn point towards the player's current location, not stopping until they encounter them. As a result, they can end up attacking the player almost anywhere in the wasteland. There are some caveats to this; leaving the Mojave Wasteland (by entering an interior location or a separate space, such as Camp McCarran or Freeside) will cause any active squads to despawn. Being a long distance (20,000 in-game units) away from a squad spawn point without entering the radius of another spawn point will also cause an active hitsquad to despawn.
Assassins may also attack other non-player characters they pass near while searching for the Courier, such as NCR settlements or traveling merchants. As with all non-player character vs non-player character combat, this only occurs if the player is currently in the same active map cell as the non-player characters.
Legionary assassins typically attack in four-man groups, including a recruit-prime-veteran-decanus, a Legion vexillarius, one veteran legionary and after:
* a veteran legionary
* a centurion
* a praetorian guard
Legionary assassins may also appear after aiding the Legion's enemies, namely the NCR, by successfully completing the quests Three-Card Bounty, I Put a Spell on You, I Don't Hurt Anymore, or any other quest that improves the reputation of the player with the NCR.
They will have weapons and armor depending on the Courier's standing with Caesar's Legion and their level. The weapons can range from simple 9mm pistols, caravan shotguns and machetes to 12.7mm pistols and sub-machine guns, assault and marksman carbines brush guns, thermic lances, or a super sledge.
As of patch 1.4.0.525, legionary assassins level with the player, up to level 45. At higher levels, this gives them very high health on par with a non-player character companion. Additionally, the praetorian and veteran assassin may be equipped with Legion centurion armor instead, making them all the more difficult to kill.
==Interactions with the player character==
===Interactions overview===
==Inventory==
===Decanus===
===Vexillarius===
===Centurion===
===Praetorian===
===Veteran===
==Spawn points==
There are twenty-five possible spawn points for legionary assassins. These spawn point locations are also shared with NCR Ranger hit squads.
* Along the road south of Ranger Station Charlie and northwest of the legion raid camp.
* In the field northeast of the legion raid camp and northwest of the broc flower cave.
* Along Highway 95, north of the Snyder prospector camp and east of the wrecked Highwayman.
* Along Highway 95, north of Camp Searchlight and south of the Snyder prospector camp.
* Along Nevada State Route 164, north of the raided farmstead.
* Along the Nevada 164 roadway, west of Wolfhorn ranch.
* On the railroad tracks north of the coyote den.
* East of the Nipton Road pit stop, behind a rock.
* At the Ivanpah underpass near the Nipton Road reststop, up top and near the middle of the overpass.
* West of Ivanpah Dry Lake and east of Jack Rabbit Springs.
* Between Powder Ganger camp east and the emergency service railyard.
* Right outside Ranger Station Charlie, near the radioactive barrels.
* East of Clark Field, near the ridge. The spawn point radius covers the entire ridge, so approaching from the opposite end may also trigger a hitsquad spawn.
* South of Nelson and north of Techatticup Mine.
* In the flatlands between Lucky Jim Mine, Ranger Station Echo, and the cliffside prospector camp.
* At the highway overpass southwest of the Grub n' Gulp rest stop and east of the Cassidy Caravans wreckage.
* Amid the rocky paths northeast of the NCR Ranger safehouse and south of the REPCONN headquarters.
* Behind (to the northeast of) El Dorado Gas & Service.
* On the highway northeast of the Gibson scrap yard and west of the Southern Nevada wind farm.
* At the edge of the mountain between the El Dorado Dry Lake, Vault 11, and the El Dorado substation.
* Along the road northwest of the Gypsum train yard and southeast of Raul's shack.
* Near the ridge along the road west of Raul's shack, a distance south from Fields' shack.
* Along the road south of Hunter's farm and west of the Junction 15 railway station, behind a rock.
* Between Chance's map and the road mouth leading into Red Rock Canyon.
* At the foot of the road leading up into Mount Charleston (spawn point radius also reaches the Followers safehouse.)
==Notes==
* If the player also has a bad reputation with the New California Republic, NCR Ranger hit squads can also be encountered at the same time as legionary assassins.
* One of the earliest opportunities for assassins to begin tracking the player is while traveling towards Novac, where they will attack the Courier if they kill the legionaries and Vulpes Inculta in Nipton.
* If a player's reputation is below Vilified, assassins will usually initiate dialogue and can be scared off through a Terrifying Presence dialogue choice. The lead Legionary will ask the Courier, "Do you ever give up?" to which they may reply, "Not while there's still spines unshattered." This will cause them to cry for help, and flee.
** If a player's reputation with Caesar's Legion is Vilified, the initial dialogue may no longer occur, even with the Terrifying Presence perk. 
** The initial dialogue may not occur if Boone is in the party, as he will shoot at them before the dialogue is triggered, immediately turning them hostile.
* Groups of legionary assassins may be attacked by other creatures at their spawn point or when tracking the player character.
* Groups of assassins can occasionally spawn on terrain impassable to non-player characters (such as on mountains or in valleys), in which case they can turn non-hostile as if the player had hidden from them. This can also be due to the lead dialogue-speaking assassin being unable to initiate dialogue, as the assassins are nonhostile until their dialogue is spoken.
* If the player character's reputation with Caesar's Legion is Vilified, and the player is at a high level, assassins appear more frequently, at about one group per in-game day.
* Assassins will not spawn while the player is wearing faction armor that affects Legion reputation, such as NCR ranger patrol armor or Legion recruit armor.
* They do not drop Legion ears when killed, making them useless for the unmarked quest An Ear to the Ground.
* Legionary assassin attacks do not occur randomly. For example, if the player fast travels to a location and is ambushed by assassins, they will still ambush the player if a save is reloaded and the location is traveled to again.
* Legionary assassins may be carrying blocks of C-4 plastic explosive, but they are never equipped with detonators.
* Should the Courier run away and break their line of sight after they spawn, they will continue to track the general direction of the Courier and pause until a new direction is chosen, but will not know their exact location until they spot the Courier. They may also break formation and spread out instead of traveling in one group.
==Behind the scenes==
* All the legionary assassins and NCR Rangers can be found in the Dummy Cell VES VEFR Encounters test cell, where they are contained when not spawned to attack the player character in the Mojave.
* An unused fifth legionary assassin is present in the game files. This character only wears legion veteran armor, at any level, and wields a Shishkebab and a 12.7mm submachine gun. This character is also placed in the test cell alongside the other assassins, but the code lines related to this character are commented out in the relevant hit squad control script. Similarly, there is an unused fifth NCR Ranger hit squad member.
==Appearances==
Legionary assassins appear only .
==Bugs==
* Legionary assassins are better equipped with high-tier weapons and armor (e.g. centurion armor, super sledge or thermic lances) from the early game (levels 5-11) instead of the middle or end of the game.
* After a while the Legionary assassins may permanently disappear from the game no longer appearing in-game.
* Fast-traveling before the assassins become hostile may cause them to despawn instead of tracking the Courier to their new location.
==Gallery==
Legion assassin thug2.png|Various Legionary assassins
Legion assassin thug3.png
Legion assassin thug4.png
Legion assassin thugL1.png
Legion assassin thugleader.png
Category:Fallout: New Vegas human characters
Category:Caesar's Legion characters
es:Legionario asesino
fr:Légionnaire assassin
ru:Легионер-убийца
uk:Легіонер-вбивця