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Joining a Faction and Ranks

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Seven factions are ready to take an outsider into their ranks — but only once you prove you can be trusted. This article explains how to join a faction, how "open" admission differs from "closed," and how your ranks grow within an organization.

The main rule: one faction at a time

You can belong to only one faction at a time. While you’re counted among, say, the Traders, the leader of another faction simply won’t offer you membership — the system won’t let you join a second one until you leave the first.

Faction membership, like reputation and ranks, is tied to a specific character, not to your account. The only thing shared between characters is the inventory (personal storage). Switch characters and you start your relationships with factions from a clean slate.

How to join

Joining happens through a dialog with a faction’s leader or recruiter at their headquarters. Each faction has its own person and its own place:

  • Traders — the leader-trader at their caravan camp.
  • New Gambell — Aygas in the town itself.
  • Savoonga — the Elder in the settlement.
  • Vault 17 — the technician Diana Gurieva in the Vault.
  • The Battalion — at the Weather Station.
  • Radio Rats — the recruiter at the Radar System.
  • Headhunters — the recruiter by the Antenna.

A separate "join" response will appear in the conversation. If it’s hidden, you haven’t met the requirements yet — the faction isn’t ignoring you, it’s telling you outright what’s missing.

Open and closed admission

Factions fall into two groups by how easy they are to get into.

  • Open admission (no reputation threshold): Traders, New Gambell, Savoonga. Just come to the leader and agree.
  • Vault 17 — requires "clearance confirmed" (reputation 21 or higher): the Vault’s security only starts to recognize you above the 20 mark; below it, access stays restricted and you can’t join.
  • The Battalion, Radio Rats, Headhunters — require "respected" status (reputation 51 or higher): these are raider factions that treat a stranger as an enemy by default until they earn contact.

How to reach the raider threshold

Closed raider factions aren’t a dead end. You can earn the needed reputation in two ways, and the recruiter points to both directly:

  • Repeatable jobs from bulletin boards. The Radio Rats and Headhunters have open contracts that even a non-member can take. Each one gives +10 reputation with an 8-hour cooldown.
  • Combat against their enemies. Killing a member of a faction that the raiders count as their enemy raises your reputation with those raiders. For example, a slain Trader adds a little reputation with both the Radio Rats and the Headhunters.

What happens when you join and leave

When you join, your reputation rises to at least the entry threshold = 10. For open factions this grants a small starting credit of trust; for closed ones, where you’ve already crossed a higher threshold, this floor changes nothing — the reputation you’ve earned is kept.

You can leave any faction. Leaving removes 5 reputation points, so you won’t get to leave and come back "for free."

Ranks within a faction

Each faction has its own ladder of ranks tied to reputation. Your rank is shown in the PDA and can be displayed over your character’s head — you’re free to "wear" an earned title like a nameplate for those you meet. Crossing the threshold of a new rank comes with a promotion notification.

  • Traders: Associate → Caravaneer → Partner.
  • New Gambell: Resident → Citizen → Council Member.
  • Savoonga: Guest → Kinsman → Keeper.
  • Vault 17: Staff → Senior Specialist → Councilor.
  • The Battalion: Soldier → Commander.
  • Radio Rats: Radioman → Signalmaster.
  • Headhunters: Hunter → Master Hunter.

Ranks begin at the threshold where you can be a member: open factions and Vault 17 from the moment you join, raiders from "respected" status. Higher ranks unlock as your reputation grows.

What grows you the fastest

The main engine of advancement within a faction is quests. They hand out reputation directly, can admit you into a faction, or raise your rank. Repeatable contracts from faction boards provide a steady stream of reputation, while combat deeds (and misdeeds) change the factions’ attitude toward you automatically.