Scavenger

Basic Information
"A Necris Scavenger barreling towards – and over – its enemies is a truly fearsome sight.

The Scavenger's pilot is enveloped in a sphere of modulated nanoblack that can phase-cycle across the battlefield at great speed, barreling through obstacles and crushing infantry with reckless abandon. Nano-fueled tentacles can be deployed from the central sphere in multiple configurations. When partially deployed, the tentacles spin around the central core in a whirlwind of destructive force, causing even more damage than the sphere alone. When fully deployed, the Scavenger can actually walk on the tentacles, or use them to leap into the air or climb over any obstacles in its way.

The Scavenger is always accompanied by a protective drone that is comprised of pure sentient nanoblack. When employed, the drone locks on to a target and instantly begins to deteriorate it at a molecular level, leaving nothing in its wake."

- UT3 manual

Using the Scavenger
The Scavenger can move a lot like a player on foot: It can walk, jump and duck, although the latter doesn't make much difference. Additionally it can retract its tentacles and start rolling across the terrain with great speed, doing significant damage if it collides with other vehicles. While in ball mode, tentacles can be semi-deployed as deadly blades that spin around the main body. Unlike Scorpion blades, these cannot break off when hitting something hard. It should be noted that players can affect the Scavengers direction while in ball mode by changing their camera view. Skilled players can use this technique to steer without blundering into walls like a gigantic pinball.

For short-to-medium range attacks, the Scavenger in walk mode can lock on to a target to send out its attack drone. The drone needs to travel to the target first, so this attack doesn't make much sense at long ranges. The Scavengers drone can also be used to heal damaged nodes.

The Scavenger is notoriously dangerous to the more cumbersome vehicles without proper support as a skilled driver can scuttle about on top of the enemy vehicle while their drone has a field day. There have been multiple documented cases of lone Scavengers taking out Leviathans using this method because nobody thought to bring an AVRiL along with them.

Some Scavenger pilots like to hide somewhere high-up and hard to see, and send their probe out to attack it - thus "sniping" them.

Going against the Scavenger
A single well-placed AVRiL rocket can easily take out a Scavenger. If you're on foot and don't have the AVRiL, dodging is probably your most efficient weapon against a Scavenger in ball mode, because it's extremely hard to steer in that mode. Be wary of enemies in ball mode zigzagging towards you - if they force you into a dodge or a corner, you're likely going to be ground into paste.

The Darkwalker's secondary "horn" attack can force the Scavenger into ball mode and push it away, effectively rendering it defenseless for a short while.

Vehicle CTF strategy
In ball mode, the Scavenger is quite fast, so it can be used to pull along a flag carrier on the Hoverboard. It's also fairly good for chasing down enemy flag carriers, as it's able to outrun a hoverboarding flag carrier with ease, and can generally catch up to all but the fastest, most nimble vehicles.

Warfare strategy
Use the Scavenger's drone to heal friendly nodes and damage enemy ones. The drone cannot heal vehicles.

Like in VCTF, the Scavenger can be used to pull along an orb carrier on the Hoverboard.

Never underestimate the annoyance power of a Scavenger; dancing around on an enemy Goliath while he shoots your node while you sic your drone on him can cause him to very quickly turn his attention to you - possibly giving your team the crucial few seconds it needs to regroup, fortify, or capture the enemy node.

Trivia
Up until Patch 1.2 Beta 4, it was possible for Scavengers to fly into the air at sharp, high angles. This was acheived by having the Scavenger move backward while looking straight down. If all went well, the Scavenger would spin in place (or move slightly) and then quickly begin to ascend in the air. On most maps it would blow up or descend once it hit a certain height, however, on some maps like WAR-Avalanche or VCTF-Corruption it was possible to get very high up.