Bounty Hunting

Bounty Hunting

Collar
Type	Misc
Cost	40 caps
Weight	4535 g
Description	A strong, thick line. About 45 feet in length.

Bounty Hunting is an automated world activity that allows players to track, engage, and neutralize or apprehend randomized criminal targets across various lawless settlements. Contracts offer significant payouts in both Caps and Experience, scaling based on whether the target is brought in dead or alive.

The world maintains a dynamic rotation of 3 to 7 active bounties at any given time. If a target is eliminated or captured, a new bounty is automatically generated elsewhere in the wasteland to take its place.

Locations

Bounty targets spawn exclusively within unsafe or settlements, typically blending in near common town gathering points and citizen idle areas. They can be found in the following locations:

• Broken Hills
• Gecko
• Modoc
• San Francisco
• Den
• Klamath
• New Reno
• Vault 15
• Redding

Players can view a list of all currently active bounties, including their names, alleged crimes, known traits, and last seen locations, by checking any city noticeboard and checking for wanted posters.

Hunting Methods

Ear
Type	Misc
Description	Ear of a wanted person. Deliver to NCR Rangers in Shady Sands for a reward.

When a player locates a bounty target, they can choose between two methods of resolution: execution or non-lethal apprehension.

Reward Comparison

• Kill the target and take his ear.
• Knock the target down and use bounty collar to enslave him for higher reward.

Killing a Target (Dead)

Eliminating a target is the most straightforward approach. Every active bounty carries a unique Bounty Ear in their inventory. Once the target is dead, players can loot this item from the corpse and turn it in to a bounty vendor to collect the baseline reward.

Apprehending a Target (Alive)

Capturing a target alive provides vastly superior rewards but introduces significantly higher risk and mechanical complexity.

1. Incapacitation: The player must engage the target and reduce their health until they are knocked below 0 Health Points.
2. Collaring: While the target is incapacitated, the player must use a Bounty Collar from their inventory on them.
3. Success Rate: Each collar attempt has a flat 40% chance of success. A failed attempt does not destroy the collar.
4. On Sucess: On a successful capture, the target submits completely, strips off all of their non-essential weapons and gear, and drops them onto the ground for the player to freely loot.

⚠️ Warning: If a target possesses the Suicidal trait and is carrying dynamite, successfully placing a collar will instantly prime the explosive. Players have exactly 6 seconds to flee the immediate hex area before detonation.

Target Traits

Every bounty is uniquely generated with a randomized name, a specific criminal record chosen from over 100 historical infractions, and one of 17 distinct behavioral traits. These traits dictate their combat AI, defensive actions, and physical attributes.

Standard Behaviors

• Neutral / Predictable / Composed: Follows baseline citizen behaviors. They will ignore players entirely and will only fight back if directly attacked.
• Reluctant / Disciplined / Militia-Protected / Escape Artist: Functions identically to neutral targets, though text cues may imply local faction protection or flavor.

Aggressive Behaviors

• Hostile: Hostile on sight. They will immediately open fire on any player entering their field of view.
• Sexist: Aggressive on sight, but exclusively toward player characters of the opposite gender to the bounty.

Defensive & Escapist Behaviors

• Fleeing: Refuses to fight. Upon taking any damage, the target immediately sprints toward the nearest map Exit Grid. If they reach it, they escape the map entirely and the contract is voided.
• Cautious / Paranoid: Has a 50/50 chance upon spawning to either adopt pure Hostile behavior or pure Fleeing behavior.

Surrender Mechanics

• Challenger: Starts the encounter highly aggressive and fights normally. However, once their health drops below 20%, they cease all hostility, cry out, and completely surrender, making them trivial to collar.
• Afraid: Attempts to flee to an exit grid when attacked, but will immediately stop and surrender if their health drops below 20% before they can escape.
• Compliant: Acts neutral until attacked, but skips regular combat loops to immediately surrender once dropped below 20% health.

Boss Archetype

• Mutated: The target spawns as a heavily armored Super Mutant. They possess a massive health pool and a passive fast-acting combat recovery. Furthermore, their weapon generation pool is upgraded exclusively to military-grade heavy weaponry, including Miniguns, Rocket Launchers, Flamers, and Plasma Rifles.

Escort and Safety Rules

Once a target is successfully collared, they transition into a passive follower bound to their captor. They clear all aggressive AI routines, refuse to participate in combat, and will shadow the player at a distance of 2 to 8 hexes.

• Map Transitions: Captives will automatically travel between maps with their captor, provided the player moves into a valid urban settlement, random wilderness encounter, or faction base.
• Bounty Theft (PvP): Collared targets are not invulnerable, nor are they safe from other wastelanders. Because a captive can be taken dead or alive even while collared, rival players can attack and execute your prisoner during the escort. If they do, they can loot the ear from the corpse, effectively stealing your bounty to claim the lethal reward for themselves.
• Dead Man's Switch: The explosive inside the bounty collar is dynamically linked to the captor's vital signs. If the owning player dies during the escort, the captive's collar automatically detonates in a small fiery explosion, killing the bounty instantly.
• Disconnection Safety: If the captor logs out of the game or disconnects while escorting a live prisoner, the captive will successfully break their bonds and permanently vanish from the world map.