Rakk

Rakk are flying creatures native to Pandora. Rakk do not have beaks. Instead they have a flat, fleshy head ending with a pointed snout, and hooked, rasping barbs lining a soft, slit-like mouth on the bottom with a brightly colored, bony plate on the top. Rakk also don't have grasping talons or lower limbs, but sport a set of curved, razor-sharp talons upon their flexible tail that they use to adhere to rocky surfaces.

Carnivorous and known to kill living prey, Rakk can swoop down and use their tail to lacerate their targets without losing speed, letting them quickly gain altitude and set up another attack run.

Rakk appear to be highly social creatures with a task-based hierarchy that includes scouts, hive defenders, food processing, and perhaps even long-term food storage not unlike Honey Pot Ants on Earth. They are also vocal, howling or screeching to rally a flock when a target presents itself or proves itself to be a threat. They also emit a screech at the moment of their slashing attack.

Like all creatures, badass variants have elemental properties and will often try to bomb enemies with ranged elemental attacks rather than employ the usual diving slash.

Rakk
Normal rakk are brown, medium-sized flying creatures. Rakk can be passive or aggressive. They will fly in a circle or hang like a bat in West Rust Commons. If you are directly under a flock of rakk or if you shoot at them they will attack you. Rakk attack by flying to a certain point in the air away from you and then they will swoop down at you. They usually don't drop anything.

When attaking them from long-range use Combat Rifles since its bullets spread out and will kill most of them. At medium-close range use Shotguns. Use Melee attacks only as a last resort when they are one to two feet away from you. For more info see Genral Strategy.

Feeder Rakk
Feeder Rakk are white, relatively large Rakk. They attack the same way that normal rakk do but they are stronger and they drop items and ammo (NO WEAPONS).

Use the same weapon strategy as against normal rakk.

Bloated Rakk
Bloated Rakk are yellow, large Rakk. They attack the same way that normal rakk do but they are stronger and they drop weapons, ammo, and items.

Use the same weapon strategy as against normal rakk.

General Strategy
In-game, Rakk have a large target profile and no critical spot to exploit, however they are extremely fragile, and any one weapon will kill an individual Rakk in short order. Too bad Rakk tend to attack in numbers.

Shotguns are your best bet against flocks of Rakk as they provide a player the ability to fill the air with waves of metal capable of shredding entire sections of an attack run in short order. Second on the list are machine gun-style Combat Rifles which can rake a flock with a heavy rain of slugs, knocking one beast out of the sky after the other. Rocket Launchers can be used to vaporize small sections of attacking Rakk, but there are better uses for rockets. Submachine Guns, Repeater pistols, Revolvers, and Sniper Rifles are not recommended as they either don't hit hard enough per-shot, or don't fire fast enough to wipe out enough Rakk before they can do serious damage.



Trivia

 * Despite their aggressive behavior it is inferred that Rakk are also scavengers as well as predators.
 * Rakk often spawn from dormant Rakk Hives half buried in the ground, but are also known to inhabit burrows well above ground level.


 * Later, it is shown on the Trash Coast that Rakk Hives are actually ambulatory animals of titanic proportions.
 * Rakk seem to be a sort of parasitic creature as they live inside of the fatty humps on the back of Rakk Hives, with the cavities possibly having been dug out by the Rakk. Alternately, the relationship may be symbiotic with the Rakk gaining new hunting and foraging territories every Pandoran year as well as a temperature-controlled haven during the long Pandoran winter. The Rakk Hive gains protection from predators while they hibernate and migrate throughout the Pandoran summer, and possibly gains information on where to find food.
 * The name "Rakk" is a possible reference to the giant mythical hunting bird, the Roc.