Escape From Tarkov's Scavs Don't Play By The Rules

Battlestate Games announced ahead of GDC 2017 that there is a third playable faction in Escape From Tarkov: the Scavs. Whereas the two PMC factions, USEC and BEAR, are fighting each other directly, the Scavs will attempt to cause trouble for both factions.

Battlestate Games COO and Project Lead Nikita Buyanov describes the Scavs as follows.

Playing as a Scav is like playing the game without rules, one where the players can experience quite different gameplay with a focus on reckless abandon. The Scav player is spawned together with AI Scavs - for example, in a locked spot on the map, in the middle of the time allocated for the raid. Scav tactics change up the overall style of raid gameplay, and in most cases, complicating the lives of BEAR and USEC players, while also fighting among themselves.

Players will soon be able to jump into raids as a Scav with a randomly generated name and random gear, including random weapons, albeit their chances to play a Scav "will be limited in frequency." Scavs spawn in at random times during a raid and "can group up in packs of up to four players." If a player makes it through a raid as a Scav, the loot that they obtain can be moved to their main character's stash.

More information about the Scav faction is set to be revealed in the near future.