Raiders

Lore & Background

In the decades following the nuclear exchanges that ended the old world, the collapse of government, infrastructure, and social order produced a vacuum that raiders filled with terrifying ease. Stripped of the structures that once constrained them, these bands of survivors turned to predation as their primary mode of survival. They scavenge abandoned military depots, strip civilian ruins for parts and fuel, and establish temporary camps at crossroads and chokepoints where travelers must pass. Raiders are not a single ideology or movement. Some are former soldiers who never re-enlisted and now live by the old rules of the field. Others are desperate civilians who radicalized after losing everything. A few are simply born to violence and see the wasteland as a playground. What unites them is a rejection of any authority that does not serve them directly, and a casual, almost bureaucratic cruelty toward those they overpower. They do not build; they take. They do not trade fairly; they extort. Their camps are often little more than a collection of scavenged vehicles, a few tents, and a stockpile of stolen goods. Unlike the more complex factions the player may negotiate with or even join, raiders offer no meaningful dialogue, no trade, no alliance. They are the baseline of danger in the wasteland: the reminder that in a world without police, courts, or borders, the only protection is the one you carry on your back.

In Their Own Story

The dust hung thick and orange in the late afternoon, coating the windshield of the squad's truck in a fine grit. The driver cut the engine at the edge of the dry wash where the old highway split into two rutted tracks. Ahead, a rusted semi-truck sat on its side, its cargo doors hanging open. Two figures in mismatched armor and face coverings stood over a woman who had been tied to the rear axle. She was still breathing. One of them was counting something small and metallic into a canvas bag. The other had a shotgun across his knees and was watching the road. The Desert Rat in the passenger seat did not need to speak. She did not need to. The radio crackled once, a short burst of static, and the driver's hand was already on the door handle. The wasteland had a rhythm to it, and this was the part where you stopped being a passenger and started being a problem.

Reader's Guide

Raiders are the most frequently encountered hostile group in the Wasteland series. They are not a single organized army but a catch-all for violent, lawless bands that operate independently. They are typically armed with basic firearms and melee weapons, and they fight in small groups of two to five. In Wasteland 2, raiders continue to populate the Mojave as common enemies. They guard resource caches, block roadways, and attack on sight. Their combat style is straightforward: they rely on numbers, basic guns, and occasional explosives. They do not typically offer dialogue options or quest hooks in the way more developed factions do. The mountainous terrain and scattered settlements create natural ambush points, and raider groups are encountered along the routes the squad must travel. Their role is consistent across all three entries: they are the baseline threat, the enemies you expect on every road, and the combat encounters that test your squad's basic tactical readiness before you face more complex opposition. Because raiders are a generic enemy type rather than a named character or a single faction with a questline, there are no major branching choices tied specifically to them. They are the wasteland's ambient danger: always present, always hostile, and always a reminder of what the world became.

Did You Know?

• Raiders appear in all three main Wasteland games: Wasteland (1988), Wasteland 2 (2014), and Wasteland 3 (2020).
• In Wasteland 2, raiders are encountered in Arizona, while in Wasteland 3 they appear in the Colorado Rockies.
• Raiders are not a single organized faction; they operate as independent bands with no unified leadership.
• The Wasteland series was created by Brian Fargo and first developed by Interplay Productions in 1988.
• Wasteland 3 was released in 2020 on Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.