Hostile Survivors

*"Some survivors trust nobody but themselves and see everybody else as a threat to their survival. They will fiercely protect their lives and their possessions using the deadliest of force."*

## Overview

Hostile survivors are a category of human enemies in OWW that consist of mostly bandits in gangs, scavengers, looters, or simply unaligned loners who are hostile to the player character. Since they are human, these enemies are generally smarter than the infected and employ combat tactics that may make them more difficult to deal with. Additionally, many of them wield guns and wear armor, making them especially dangerous. Fallen enemies of this type tend to have decent loot.

Unaligned hostile survivors, or Outsiders, are a type of human enemy. They consist of the reclusive and antagonistic survivors who attack both infected and survivor alike, loyal to nobody but themselves. They are differentiated from bandits because they are unaligned with any faction and are usually found alone or in smaller groups. They differ from scavengers because hostile survivors are always hostile upon encounter, while scavengers can initially be neutral.

Sometimes, in game, they are simply named "Assailant", hinting that there is apparently no explanation for their hostility towards the player character.

## Background

When the city was lost to the infected, many of the surviving citizens banded together in cooperation to survive. Some found it difficult to cooperate and trust one another and sometimes split off from survivor communities to go build their own life and try their own luck at survival. Some preferred to take what they need through force and became bandits.

It is a mystery as to why some survivors are immediately hostile to others, but the reason may vary from individual to individual.

Some believe these individuals eventually join or are recruited into bandit gangs after leaders see the value in their toughness.

## Gameplay

### Behavior:

These survivors are always immediately hostile upon encounter, no matter what. There is never any chance for discussion or diplomacy. Their main strategy is to shoot first, and ask questions later. They will not yield or relent and they will not respond to any attempts for peace, and so they are no different than the infected in that sense. Once they have detected the player character or another survivor, provided there are no nearby infected that are directly threatening them, they will immediately engage in combat.

When observed from a distance (particularly with binoculars or scoped weapons as human enemies tend to have high perception and can detect somebody watching nearby), hostile survivors may be seen doing

Hostile survivors behave in a similar manner to bandits and other human enemies, and so the combat strategy remains almost the same.

## Strategy

* It is sometimes difficult to identify if a survivor will be hostile until you get close enough and they shoot you in the head or stab you in the neck with a knife.
* Stealth is a valid strategy, but the issue lies in attempting to identify if the individual is a hostile survivor. Sneak-killing a survivor that turned out to be non-hostile may lead to affinity losses with companions, reputation losses, and perhaps even criminal charges in survivor hubs.

## Locations

Unaligned hostile survivors can be encountered virtually anywhere in the city, but are mostly only spawned as part of many different random encounters. There are a few locations where hostile survivors reliably spawn, but otherwise they are only found as part of random encounters and a few scripted encounters.

One might be encountered on the streets fighting infected, and then suddenly turn on the player character. One may be sniping infected from the window of an abandoned building, and suddenly turn their sights onto the player character.

Their gear tends to be randomized, and if

### Random encounters:

Below is a list of random encounters that involve hostile survivors,

* Hostile survivor attack (melee) - A hostile survivor is encountered out in the streets, inside a large interior area, or out in the countryside. They immediately attack the player character with a random melee weapon of a lower or mid tier. Their combat smarts are randomized for the encounter.

## Notes

* Many hostile survivors that spawn into the open world are doomed to die - as they have no AI that will lead them anywhere. They will simply guard and patrol an area until they are despawned or the player character leaves the cell. With infected constantly spawning or moving into the area, hostile survivors will be stuck in combat until they are eventually killed.
* Hostile survivors getting eaten may start pleading to the player character to save them despite their hostility just moments before. Usually, it is already too late to save them at this point.