Skag

Skags are large, dog-like creatures, easily identified by their strong bony armor plates, aggressive behavior, and distinctive three-jawed mouths.

Background

Skags dwell in underground burrows. Though skags primarily form the burrows by using their hard, hook-like claws to dig, the molded appearance of their den entrances evidences the use of corrosive compounds - common to some types of skag - to break down the Pandoran stone.

Skags' distinctive mouths consists in a relatively immobile lower jaw supporting two vertically aligned upper jaws which, when opened, seemingly cause the face to split. Despite the ferocious appearance of their mouths, skags do not appear to have teeth. Instead, a series of barbs extends from the end of their lower jaw and along both edges of their upper jaws. This suggests that skags might ingest prey in the same manner as alligators on Earth - by ripping apart the flesh rather than biting it in chunks.

Skags' tongues grow with age. When at the 'elder' stage of maturity and fully extended, this strong, potentially prehensile organ may be up to twice as long as the body.

As suggested by Crazy Earl's Skrappy and then proved in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, skags can be domesticated - at least partially. The Midgets have been observed riding the smaller variants of Skags (although sporadically they mount even the Alphas and Elemental strains). How they manage to tame these wild beasts remains unknown.

thumb|right|198px|Skag hunting

General Strategy

Skags are armored brutes that typically attack in groups of 3-6 individuals ganging up on a player at any one time. They are moderately tough, and all breeds sport appreciably armored areas around their head, shoulders, and along their back. The armor on these sections is thick enough to cause some trouble - even the weakest skag pup will take only 0.5 times baseline damage when shot in the head or shoulder as opposed to the gut, causing players to waste ammo while more beasties crawl out of their den. Fortunately, skags have a critical weak spot - their open mouths - that their programmed behavior gives plenty of opportunity to exploit.

Shotguns, and to a lesser extent revolvers, work extremely well against skags, despite half the damage being aborbed by armor. Like other weapons, shotguns can cause a tremendous amount of damage to a skag when fired into an opened mouth. The rate of fire between shots and poor recoil handling make aiming for the soft flanks or open mouth a must. Combat rifles are another good choice, since skags, like spiderants and Crimson Lance Defenders, flinch and become agitated after suffering multiple heavy hits to the armored spots. When agitated, skags start to shake with anger and roar, exposing their vulnerable mouth to the line of fire. Assault rifle-style combat rifles not only deal tremendous critical damage, but generally hit hard and accurately enough to make flanking shots from the hip feasible. Repeater pistols and submachine guns are best used only for taking down the smaller breeds (with certain exceptions, like the Maliwan Hellfire being one). Sniper Rifles can take down a skag with one hit to the open mouth, and at a distance can reliably hit the flanks. Rocket launchers are fun and effective, especially the incendiary variety.

Skags are vulnerable to incendiary weapons, which cause about 1.33 times baseline damage (though still reduced by armor), and 1.5 times the damage a like-leveled enemy would take per second from the triggered effect. Though armored, skags are not as dramatically effected by Corrosive weapons as opposed to other armored enemies, and there is even a breed of skag totally immune to Corrosive weapons.

One of the best tactics is to always have a Sniper Rifle equipped. Keep your distance and when the Skag roars at you, fire 1 or 2 rounds into it's mouth. As said above this is a very critical weak spot for the Skag and can kill any type of Skag in at least 2 hits. This strategy is vital for taking out the bigger, more tougher Skags as walking up and riddling them can be deathwish.

Types of Skags

Skag Pup, Annoyed Pup Skag, Colicy Skag

Skag Pups are the first Skags you fight. They are relatively weak and are little more than a nuisance to all but the lowest level player. They can occasionally flank the player when the player is focusing on other skags. They attack by leaping forward short distances with their mouth open, by biting at the player, and by whipping at the player with their tongue.

Skag Whelp, Angry Skag Whelp, Querulous Skag Whelp

Skag whelps are very easy to kill, being only one step up from a skag pup. They attack almost exactly like the Skag Pup except their tongue has a longer reach and their leaping attack causes minor knock back effects.

Their armored sections reduce all bullet and melee damage by half.

Adult Skag, Feral Skag, Bestial Skag

Adult skags are the first truly dangerous breed a player will encounter. While Whelps and Pups can be a problem when grouped, Adults are a threat even when alone. Adult Skags can leap long distances for large amounts of damage, and are capable of knocking players back quite a long ways. Adult Skags have been known to charge, and this attack deals even more damage, and causes even stronger knock back than the leaping attack, but its rare.

Spitter Skag / Hawking Skag / Sputum Skag

Spitter skags are a rangy, smaller form of Skag compared to an Adult. They have a dark green coloring and an annoying tendency to hang back and spit globs of goo while other Skag attack the player, will also bite and tongue-whip when alone. As they are smaller, they have lower health than Adult Skags and while in-game information says otherwise, they are no more vulnerable to melee attacks than bullets. The game's producers may have stated that they are vulnerable to melee because of their weaker close-quarters combat.^{[citation needed]}

Their armored sections reduce all non-bullet and melee damage by just over two thirds.

Elder Skag / Hulking Elder Skag / Stalwart Elder Skag

Elder skags are the pinnacle of the regular Skag breeds, with more muscle and agility than an Adult, and a more damaging projectile than a Spitter. The only thing more dangerous than an Elder Skag is either an Alpha Skag or a Badass Skag. Though these Skags can leap they rarely do, preferring instead to either find range and lob acid at their enemies, or line up a quick-in charge attack or sweeping lash of their tremendously long tongues. They will also swipe their claws at a player who gets too close, which can be particularly nasty.

Their armored sections reduce all bullet and melee damage by about three quarters.

Alpha Skag / Hardened Alpha Skag / Armored Alpha Skag

Alpha Skags are some of the largest skags that can be found and are covered in thick, highly effective armor. The armor is in fact so good, that not even sustained sprays by Combat Rifles or Shotguns will take much of a dent out of their health bar. Alpha Skags can leap an incredible distance, and though they sometimes employ a strong tongue-whip attack, they are more fond of charging a player for heavy damage. They will also stalk forward and swipe at the player with their claws, and this too is exceptionally deadly. For the reasons of their armor and damaging attacks, special tactics need to be used.

Shooting an Alpha Skag around the shoulders and back is an utter waste of ammo, if one is stalking forward instead aim for the head with heavy sustained weapons fire. This might cause the Alpha to flinch and then roar. Another tactic is to continuously back away and strafe from the Alpha, jumping sideways when it charges, or backwards when it tries to use its claws, while keeping too close for it to leap while taking strafing runs at its soft flank behind the shoulder. The later tactic is best used when going up against an Alpha when its not alone, or multiple Alpha Skags, with the only variation being that a player must keep the weapons fire on a single target at a time, taking one Alpha Skag down as quickly as possible before moving on to another. Unlike other varieties of Skag, Corossive weapons are moderately effective against Alphas in prolonged fights.

Elemental Alpha Skags also exist, and while not always labeled as Badass enemies they give while give increased experience and comparable loot, sometimes dropping Eridian Artifacts. These rare, ultimately dangerous Skags do not have a slashing attack and instead employ an area-of-effect forward body slam with radiating shock-waves tinged with their displayed element. They will also move to within tongue-whip range and instead of lashing, will spray their target either with short-ranged gouts of flame, arcing sparks, or ravening streams of vaporous acid. The shockwave can't be easily jumped over, and the projectile attacks can be lethal, so some degree of distance is preferred over being up close and personal with these hulking titans. When distance isn't an option, however, it's best to either have a powerful Incendiary or Corossive weapon on hand, or at the very least a powerful "Matador" Shotgun.

Their armored sections reduce all bullet and melee damage by four fifths.

Badass Skag / Badmutha Skag / SuperBad or Asskicking Skag

Badass Skags are some of the largest and deadliest Skags on Pandora, second only to elemental Alpha Skags. They can be easily spotted due to their large size, glowing blue eyes, and stark black-grey and white coloration. These Badass enemies attack like Adult Skags, but have an increased likelihood to charge when in range and have a leaping ability akin to Alpha Skags in terms of distance. They also can use a damaging body slam attack that sends out a non-elemental shockwave. Interestingly, these non-elemental Badass enemies will sometimes drop Explosive Eridian Artifacts. Non-elemental Badass Skags become "Asskicking" Skags after Playthrough 2, though their elemental counterparts are called "Superbad" like other Badass enemies of that level.

Elemental Badass Skags can also be encountered in the three elemental flavors. Unlike vanilla Badass Skags, elemental Badasses are faster and attack like Spitter Skags, preferring to get within range and hawk elementally charged attacks at the player, going melee only when they are the last Skag standing in an area. Unfortunately these ranged attacks come in the three different delivery types of Elemental Alphas - a spray of fire over a short, but wide area; a single charged bolt of electricity that bursts on impact, causing splash damage; or a medium ranged stream of acid that can kill within seconds of exposure. Also, they employ the elemental body slam with shockwave.

Whether elemental or not, it's best to take Badass Skags from a raised position while avoiding their leap or ranged attacks, trading lethality (the flanks can't be easily gotten at from above) for safety. If a raised position can't be found, then Alpha hunting tactics work just as well if not better against Badass Skags of every variety.

Their armored sections reduce all bullet and melee damage by three quarters or so.

Skag Piles

See also: Skag Piles

Trivia

There is an inconsistency in the game as to whether the plural of Skag is Skag or Skags. For example, T.K. Baha will sometimes say, "Hope the Skag don't getcha", and sometimes say " Damned Skags".
The name Skag may be a reference to an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, North Star, in which alien inhabitants of the planet are Skagarans. The Skagarans are referred to as Skags by the human inhabitants.
Alpha Skags will sometimes drop so-called "Skag Pearls" which, when collected, give up large amounts of money that are second only to Marcus Bobble Heads.

Notes

Since Skags are probably the most common animal species on Pandoran soil, they achieved some sort of iconic status among the inhabitants of Pandora. Their name serves as a brand, their image is used as a logo (on Scooter's workshop in T-Bone Junction, one can spot a picture of Skag stylized as the mythological Pegasus). They even made their way into pop-culture: f.e. one of the graffiti Moxxi wants us to get rid of, says something about "Skaggy-style", most probably a form of sexual intercourse.
There are several skeletons of Skags littered throughout the game. Most are larger than the Skags found in the game. More noticeably is the giant Skag skeleton found in Skag Gully. (Found on the path during By The Seeds Of Your Pants)