Bandit (faction)

Bandits are hostile humans that inhabit Pandora. Most often encountered in groups, they will kill anyone and anything in order to obtain equipment, guns, ammo, food, and fuel.

Background
"Hey, you in there! Open the door! We need your woman to come out... and give us a hand! Hehehe! You really don't want me to come back with Nine-Toes. Open the door!" - Said during the raid on Fyrestone at the start of the game.

The majority of the bandits encountered on Pandora were once convicts, used as cheap labor to mine lucrative veins of iridium by the Dahl corporation. During these operations, a group of convicts had uncovered something. Reports of the discovery were hushed up, but soon afterward a number of the convicts began to exhibit radical physical and mental changes. When Dahl began to withdraw from the planet it left behind a veritable army of angry, desperate, long disenfranchised men still finding themselves at the mercy of a hostile world but without the immediate threat of authority.

Eventually, the convicts overthrew or made deals with their captors and made new bases for themselves using scavenged equipment and weapons. Many organized themselves into a feudal society of bandit lords, with strongholds of various sizes providing bases of operation throughout Pandora's human-occupied lands. From these they stage attacks on more civilized settlements in a desperate bid to survive the harsh conditions of Pandora, such as shown by the quote above: raiding to capture women to breed with and support their numbers.

Bandits are found almost throughout the entirety of Pandora's Borderlands and are most common in the Arid Badlands, the Dahl Headlands, Rust Commons West, Rust Commons East, and the Salt Flats. Locations such as Sledge's Safehouse, Headstone Mine, Treacher's Landing and Krom's Canyon serve as bandit strongholds.

General Strategies
Although usually not very powerful on their own, bandits are most often encountered in groups. With a random mix of, small arms, long range rockets, and even melee and suicide attacks they can prove to be formidable opponents for the unwary. Bandits sometimes wield powerful weaponry, and Orb Shields are not uncommon thus making even small groups of them potentially very dangerous. Bandits are not armored enemies, so center-mass shots are viable, but head shots offer more highly concentrated damage and help to hasten any fight.

When fighting groups of bandits with Thugs, Killers, and Raiders in the mix it is advisable that players keep the distance, and stick to adequate cover. If two bandits are able to open fire, then inch back farther behind a rock or pile of stacked crates until only one is visible and then pick off the group one at a time. Be aware that Killers and Raiders are often armed with rapid-fire weapons such as Combat Rifles and SMGs that quickly strip down shields and health, so darting forward out of cover with the intent of storming an enemy position with a Shotgun is not recommended. This same strategy can also be applied to Midget Shotgunners, and the caveat against using shotguns against this diminutive foe also applies.

When fighting groups containing non-Badass Psychos of any type, players would do well to stand their ground and gun one psycho down after the other with short-ranged critical hits with a shotgun, or a rapid burst of fire. Simply spraying a group or individual with fire is not as effective as waiting until the aiming reticle is full and then pulling the trigger for an instant or near-instant kill. Timing it just right might be a problem, but psychos have to stop to swing their buzz-axes, which allows a backpedaling character to be kept out of melee range. A benefit of this strategy, other than ammo conservation, is that a character doesn't have to break cover when under fire by other bandits to dispatch the oncoming psycho.

Bruisers are often few and far between. Heavily armed with either a powerful machinegun or even a rocket launcher, and a robust amount of health, these brawlers can withstand substantial punishment under fire while responding in kind. Fortunately their large heads present easy critical targets and they do not seek cover. What is more, when under fire from powerful rapid-fire weapons they flinch, which can foul their aim if not stop them from firing all together. Like with smaller ranged bandits, simply sticking to cover and then concentrating fire on a bruiser will take one down quickly.

Bandits in the Dahl Headlands and the Salt Flats are known to be fond of patrolling in vehicles. Out Riders present fast moving targets that can easily catch unwary Vault hunters by surprise when encountered on foot, and can pose a great threat to pedestrians players. In the Sunken Sea and Deep Fathoms, bandits comb the dust in larger, tougher Cheta Paws.

Bandit Types

 * Bandit
 * Bruiser
 * Midget
 * Psycho

Bandit Vehicles

 * Cheta Paw
 * Out Rider

Bandit Camps
Bandits have many bases of operation on Pandora. In most cases, these camps have small buildings or tents that the enemies will come out of. Some camps have very few buildings and enemies and other camps will be large and have many enemies. Often times, the camps will have safes, lockers, ammo boxes, and even Chests. Bandits of all castes are commonly found at these camps, and depending on the levels and numbers of the player characters Badass versions of bandits will appear in camps as well.

Bandit encampments are scattered throughout many of the areas in the story, from the beginning through to the Salt Flats. There are also a number of notable strongholds controlled by regional bandit lords that serves as hives of bandit activity and are reputed to govern many of the lesser groups:
 * Headstone Mine
 * Jaynistown
 * Krom's Canyon
 * Thor Digtown