Fauna Field Guide

"The following entries describe organisms for which the Network's asset file has no category. The Network has appended them to the file anyway. The file has opinions about this."

The Greenbelt is stocked — with animals nobody manifests, machines nobody recalls dispatching, and one plant the file refuses to discuss. The rule that organizes all of it: droids are hacked, animals are tamed. A creature in this guide is marked by what it is to you — a threat, a catch, or both. For what happens after the cage, see Companions & Taming.

The Bramblepig

Catchable — forager. A foraging boar-shape that roots in the underbrush of the Orchard, the Meadow, and the Treeline, and ignores you unless cornered. The floor's gentlest introduction to the catch loop and the classic first tame. As a companion it's the forager — it periodically finds components and feed, quietly paying its own upkeep and some of yours. The Naturalist's scan offer staple; he speaks of it the way other men speak of their children.

The River Heron

Catchable — scout. A genuine living raptor, not on any manifest, perched along the Streamside. Neutral; flushes when approached; wants a proper snare and a Survival runner who's earned Live Catch (L10). As a companion it is the loot-finder — deployed, it pings the nearest unlooted prize in your expanse at a steady beat, visible to you alone. The companion that makes you richer. The Naturalist is delighted by it, which on this floor is a credential. The Lodge Attendant would simply like one of them to stop leaving.

The Quillrat

Catchable — not tameable. A defensive porcupine-rat, ambient nearly everywhere and thickest at the Deadfall's edges. Neutral until crowded — and then it isn't a Quillrat, it's a cluster, low individual health but arriving as a group with lightly bleeding quills. It can be snared and caged like anything else its size, but it does not currently take the bond. The floor's most abundant catch and its most honest lesson in reading a crowd before standing in it.

The Flock

Hostile — machines. Janitech pest-control drones that read as wildlife at distance and resolve as machines up close. Always airborne: fast, low individual health, firing from four to five cells out, circling the open-sky expanses — the Canopy Walk above all, plus the Wash, the Yard, the Orchard, and the Meadow. The Flock will not follow you into concealment, which is the entire tactical manual in one sentence. It does not kill you quickly; it harasses — potshots anyone who lingers in the open and softly marks them for whatever is on the ground. Hackable, for the Cyber runner who'd like a spotter with a grudge.

The Lurker

Both — the workhorse predator. The Deadfall's signature ambusher, with a low-grade cousin posted on each Treeline trail. It hides in concealment, telegraphs for one turn, lunges for a heavy single hit plus bleeding, and retreats to re-hide if it misses. Around 30–38 health, light defense — the danger is the opener, not the duel.

And it's the floor's combat companion. A Live Catch (L10) snare takes a juvenile; a full-grown adult wants Apex Catch (L30). Maturity at catch-time sets the companion's ceiling — the adult out-grows the juvenile. The predator that fights you is, forever after, the predator that fights for you, and the Network's cameras have never once missed that moment.

The Mossback

Catchable — support. A slow, armored tortoise-badger shape in the Orchard and the Meadow: plodding, placid, and utterly unbothered by your approach. The easy first real catch, and it always bonds — no temperament check, no drama. As a companion it's the support pick: a gentle regeneration aura near its owner (out of combat only — it drops the moment anything starts). The companion for the runner who wants comfort rather than another fighter, which the Network notes is a valid demographic it does not understand.

The Hollowback

Both — the apex, and a broadcast event. The Deadfall's apex stalker — a rarer, larger Lurker that doesn't retreat. It repositions, moving between concealment while you convince yourself it left. You will most likely meet it as the floor's ambush event, at which point the distinction between "exploring the deep Deadfall" and "participating in an event" is retroactive.

The marquee mechanic: at Apex Catch (L30), once the event has worn the Hollowback down below 25% health, it becomes capture-eligible — and caging it ends the event as a win. The cage forfeits the kill drops; the companion is the prize (the event's participants still share the prize rolls). It is the single loudest thing a Survival runner can do on this floor. One logistical note before you swing the cage: the Hollowback is a large animal, and large animals need kennel housing at home.

The Kid

Hostile — named elite. A Merritt drainage droid that came up wrong at the Wash confluence — a squat teal pump body on nervous wheels, one blunt nozzle aimed a little too high. Bram won't say its name. Everyone else calls it the Kid, and they call it from the far bank.

It haunts the Wash only, at most one at a time, and its signature is a telegraphed high-pressure water jet: elite damage at range, a hard two-cell knockback, and a soaking. The pump spools up first — that is your turn to break line of sight, and the Network broadcasts the warning because the Network enjoys knowing you heard it. Hackable, though its security is a real lock, not a courtesy. It drops quality pump salvage, and sometimes the service core it should have handed back to Bram years ago.

Also on the grounds (not fauna)

For completeness, the things this guide is not about: the M-Class Mowers and their edge-trimming Edger variants (feral Merritt groundskeeping droids — open-ground lane-chargers; hack them or stay off the lane), the Creep (the Overgrowth bloom — a spreading hazard-plant that blocks sightlines, drips spores, and burns beautifully), and the floor's scheduled bosses, led by the Head Groundskeeper, who clocks in to maintain the Meadow on a ninety-minute round the Network bills as "A Groundskeeping Demonstration." None of these can be tamed. All of them can be sold for parts. Bram asks only that you tell him which unit it was.

Next → Companions & Taming — the cage, the pen, and the bond.