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Reputation and Status

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Every faction remembers what you’ve done for it — and what you’ve pulled. Reputation (standing) is a number in your PDA for each faction; it decides whether a trader opens the counter, whether the guards let you inside, and whether you get shot at on the way in. Here’s how that number rises and falls, what each threshold unlocks, and where the line runs between “one of us” and “outlaw”.

What standing is

Standing is tracked separately for each faction and separately for each character. It’s your personal record: joining one faction or crossing another doesn’t drag that history onto your other characters on the same account (the only thing shared between characters is the storage stash).

Standing is just an integer. With an unfamiliar faction it defaults to neutral (zero): if your record has nothing written about a faction yet, the game treats you as someone starting from scratch.

Thresholds and statuses

Numeric standing breaks down into status bands. Those are what the PDA shows in words rather than figures. The current thresholds for most factions:

  • Neutral / contact — the starting zone (for traders and towns this is 0).
  • Respected — from 51. Unlocks “special offers” and mid-tier services.
  • Trusted — from 101. Top access: best-tier services and goods.
  • Hostile — standing below the contact threshold. The faction AI treats you as an enemy.

For the three raider groups (Battalion, Radio Rats, Bounty Hunters) the contact threshold is raised to 10: they’re “hostile by default” and see a stranger as an enemy until you earn contact. ED-17 has its own band — “Recognized” from 21: below that, access is limited; above it, the guards start to acknowledge you.

How reputation rises

  • Quests — the main engine of progress. A quest reward grants standing with the chosen faction; quests can also induct you into a faction outright or promote you in rank.
  • Repeatable contracts and job boards. The open raider boards (Radio Rats, Bounty Hunters) can be taken even by a non-member: each such job gives +10 standing, but with an 8-hour cooldown. This is the legitimate path to earning the right to join.
  • Dialogues. Lines and choices in conversations with NPCs change standing through the factions’ in-game rules.
  • Killing a faction’s enemy. By finishing off a member of a group that counts another faction among its enemies, you raise your standing with that rival faction. For example, killing a Trader adds a few points with all three raider factions (Traders are an enemy of each of them); killing a Battalion fighter adds points with the Radio Rats (they’re enemies) but not the Bounty Hunters.

How reputation falls

  • Attacking and killing faction members. This hits your standing with the faction itself and ripples out to its allies and enemies. The law-keeping towns punish it hardest: killing a resident of New Gambell or Savoonga costs −15. With the Traders and ED-17, killing a member is −12; with the raiders (Battalion, Radio Rats, Bounty Hunters) it’s −8. A plain attack (without a kill) hits more lightly.
  • Payback through allies. A kill drags down not just the victim’s standing but also that of its allies — wrong one town and you risk souring relations with the whole civilian-trade bloc.
  • Theft with witnesses. Stealing while observed lowers reputation through the penalty for theft in front of witnesses.
  • Leaving a faction. When you quit the ranks, you take a −5 hit to standing.

What high standing gives you

  • Faction services — trade, supplies, archive access, and so on. Each service unlocks at its own threshold (for the Traders, for instance, trading itself is available already at contact).
  • Trader stock and discounts. With the Traders, the weapon counter opens at Respected with a 10% discount, armor at Trusted with a 15% discount. Locked goods are visible in the barter window, but greyed out — until you’ve earned them.
  • Access inside. Certain interior areas (councils, sealed vault sections) open only at the required standing band.
  • AI attitude. Below the contact threshold a faction’s NPCs are hostile; at contact and above they aren’t.
  • Dialogue lines. The same NPC talks to you differently if you’ve helped his people rather than shot at them.

Outlaw status and redemption

A falling reputation isn’t just dirty looks. The law-keeping towns (New Gambell and Savoonga) have an outcast band at −40: drop to it or below and you become a target to be hunted down and destroyed. A separate temporary “wanted” tag works on its own: it’s slapped on by “justice for murder” if you’ve killed a player who’s a faction member — and a bounty is placed on your head along with it.

There are ways out of the black list. The wanted tag is cleared by an amnesty item (which also pulls your standing back up to contact level), and an outcast can be pardoned by other players: once enough pardon votes are gathered, the flag is lifted. Reputation overall can be restored too.

Where to check it

All factions, with your current standing and status, are listed in the PDA. If you belong to one of them, your rank in that faction is shown alongside it too. The statuses there are labeled in words — hostile, neutral, respected, trusted, and for ED-17 also “access limited” and “Recognized”.