Scrake

“The Scrake. Yes, that is a chainsaw he's carrying. Nothing subtle about him!”

– Loading screen hint

The Scrake's behaviour and abilities are similar to the Gorefast's; it picks a target based on proximity, and may change target based on the actions of the players. After spawning, it walks at a slow pace towards their target. The main difference is its conditions for charging players, which is based primarily on its health, the difficulty of the game and a random variable; the harder the difficulty, the more likely they are to charge the players. Its modes of attack are very similar to those of the chainsaw that players can carry, and it favours the powerful swinging attack.

In addition, if enough damage is inflicted in a single hit, Scrakes can be "stunned", rendering him immobile and unable to attack for a few seconds, or "flinched", rendering him unable to attack momentarily but still able to move. Testing have shown that 667 damage or higher is needed to stun a Scrake and it will be flinched if an attack does more than 150 damage. Due to the "single hit" criteria, any of the Shotgun type weapons cannot be used to stun or flinch him, since the damage is spread out among individual, weaker pellet shots. Also, when it's completely burnt by Firebugs sometimes it can hinder the Scrake's ability to run towards the player, making it easier to take him down. However this is untested on higher difficulty levels.

Statistics

General Scrake Information

See the specimen modifiers page for explanations of each field, as well as calculating for multiple players.

	Beginner	Normal	Hard	Suicidal	Hell on earth
Bounty	£150
£63	£48	£48
Health	500 (325*)
1350 (848*)	1550 (1008*)	1750 (1138*)
Damage	6
25	30	35
Speed	81
98	104	110
Range	40
* Head health

Extermination Tactics

In General

• Assuming normal difficulty, he gains 500 hit points on top of his base of 1000 per additional player on the server. The upshot of this is that with three players on the server he can easily survive the blast from a Pipe Bomb, and come out the other end within its charge threshold.
• Unloading a full magazine from any of the £2500+ weapons will be more than enough to take it down under most circumstances and, as always aiming for the head (or upper torso with the M32 or L.A.W.) is advised to maximize damage. Dual handcannons, the crossbow and the hunting shotgun are also effective weapons for taking out the Scrake with their various tactics for use. While the L.A.W. is a very effective weapon against the Scrake; it is not considered a cost-effective strategy due to the cost of the rockets and the Scrake's bounty.
• Although the Scrake do not have any special resistance or weakness against explosives, players are advised not to use any explosive weaponry other than the L.A.W or Pipe Bombs against them, as explosions will wake the Scrake from its stunned state immediately.
• Note that when a Scrake charges at a player, he will swing his chainsaw, then attempt to whittle the player's HP down by shoving his chainsaw into the player. When this does occur, never backpedal, because this would cause the Scrake to continuously swing his chainsaw, causing more damage than if you stood still. It is also easier to hit a stationary Scrake that is sawing a player down than trying to hit one that is running rampantly.

Field Medic

While the Field Medic lacks any weapon perks to speak of, his large armor bonus allows him to at least handle the damage output of the Scrake, and his speed bonus is enough to outpace a calmed Scrake on any difficulty. The main issue a Medic will have in a team-based situation is either healing the Berserker faster than he can be damaged, or keeping the Scrake's attention long enough to prevent it from tearing into the rest of the squad's more expensive, less reliable body armor. With few enough players on the server, a high-level medic armed with the MP5M and hunting shotgun can solo a Scrake while taking minimal damage.

In solo play, if the Medic has a good sharpshooter weapon or the M7A3M, the Scrake is of little difficulty and can often be safely kited while the Medic picks off its supporting mob.

Support Specialist

The Scrake is a bit of a damage-sink, something Support classes will quickly notice at nearly every difficulty. Unless sufficiently levelled, it can take an entire AA-12 drum to take one down, and while the Hunting Shotgun deals tremendous damage, the lengthy reload leaves the Support class vulnerable to one or more slashes from the enraged Scrake. Before approaching at him, Support Specialist must be sure that there is enough room to backpedal constantly and kite Scrake when he's enraged. The Support should try to avoid taking down the Scrake unless it becomes enraged, and should instead mop up the surrounding mobs that often accompany them to take some pressure off the Sharpshooter or Berserker.

In solo play, on nearly any difficulty a Support can use the AA-12, Shotgun or HSG-1 to hit it until it's provoked, and then pull out the Hunting Shotgun and use a double-barrel blast to put it down for the count - on Hell on Earth this is becomes exponentially riskier due to the Scrake's higher rage threshold. It's recommended to finish and focus on the Scrakes that is stunned by Crossbow or L.A.W. Another strategy involves carrying both the Shotgun and the Hunting Shotgun. The tactic is to pick off on the Scrake's HP at a reasonable distance until it rages; when you think it would be the right time (shoot it once more with the Shotgun for good measure), pull out the Hunting Shotgun, stand on the spot, jump and while in the mid-air blast the charging Scrake through its shoulder or chest down the waist using Hunting alternate fire. This is usually enough to kill it. A third method requires either a Fire axe or a Machete, and a Hunting Shotgun. The player will have to alt-fire hit the Scrake's head with the melee weapon alter-fire to momentarily stun it, then crouch quickly, pull out the Hunting Shotgun, and alt-fire into the Scrake's chest while aiming towards the head and throat. If done right, this will cause a double penetration of the pellets in both the head and body of the Scrake, instantly killing it.

Sharpshooter

The Sharpshooter's entire arsenal, aside from the 9mm Pistol, is extremely effective against the Scrake. So much so that a high level Sharpshooter can kill a Scrake in one hit with the Lever-action rifle, or in less then half a magazine of the Handcannon or M14 EBR on the lower difficulties. Another inherent advantage on most difficulties is the Sharpshooter's ability to stun the Scrake from a distance with both the Lever-action and the Crossbow, which can be reliably done with practice to chip away at Scrakes if the Berserker on hand needs time to heal or deal with smaller specimens. In a team setting, Scrakes are one of the Sharpshooter's primary focuses in the latter waves due to their unrivaled ability to soak up damage and shield other specimens from the crowd control classes. Chaining headshots with the Crossbow or Lever-action are the most reliable. Handcannons can also be used, but the lower rate of fire and awkward iron sights make headshots more difficult. Due to their vitality based aggression and high damage outcome in a blink, it is not advised to anger Scrakes with quick headshots on Hell on Earth. Instead, chain 3-4 headshots from your M14 or Handcannon at the first hand, then do a stunning headshot from your LAR or Crossbow. After Scrake is stunned finish the job with a few more M14 or Handcannon blows. If you like action and being hectic Dual Handcannons to enrage him from a distance and finishing him off from a full magazine of M14 or vice versa could be viable as well. Possibly the most reliable way of taking out a Scrake is using the M99 AMR sniper rifle. In the hands of a high level sharpshooter, only one headshot is needed to take care of a Scrake even in a full Hell on Earth game.

An important note is that occasionally when stunned, the Scrake will play one of two animations; one where he is playing the proper "stunned" animation, slumping over and shaking his head, and a second where he reverts to his standard idle animation. It is important that the Sharpshooter know how to identify and compensate for the hitboxes, at both state it works to aim for his neck. As a benefit, another glitch involving the Scrake's stun is that at sufficient range he may simply run out of rage and begin walking at an extremely slow pace, giving you more than enough time to line him up - this does not happen if his rage is triggered by someone else firing on him during his stun, so it is often only viable in solo play.

Commando

The Commando is a class that isn't incredibly effective against the Scrake, but has some ability to fight against them and chip in in a team game. In lower difficulties, a Bullpup-wielding Commando can actually do an astounding amount of damage to the Scrake's head if their aim is good, one of the very few ways to decapitate a Scrake without killing it instantly. Once playing on Hard and above, this isn't as reliable and can lead to some awkward deaths, so the SCAR or FAL should be used more frequently for dealing with the Scrake to ensure a relatively safe kill. In team play it's best for Commandos to leave them alone, as the Scrake has massive amounts of health that swallow entire magazines from the assault rifles, but if needed the Commando can pitch in using the SCAR or FAL, making sure to land headshots if possible. Instead they should focus on the horde to keep the Sharpshooters and Berserkers free.

In solo play a good Commando can kite Scrakes and handle them one by one, emptying magazines from their Bullpup or AK47 and switching to their more powerful rifle once the Scrake is enraged. The Commando's ability to gauge health bars is a bonus, as it lets them determine when a Scrake is about to hit their rage threshold, letting them soften them up either for the SCAR/FAL or for their teammates. Carrying both a SCAR and a FAL at once will cause heavy damage to the Scrake; Fire at it on semi-auto until it's on the verge of raging, reload both rifles, then empty into it on full auto until it is dead. Be extremely wary not to reload once he is raged.

Berserker

The Berserker, much like the Sharpshooter, has several ways to dispose of Scrakes, and in fact are arguably the preferred class despite the dangers associated with fighting a man with a chainsaw. Their health bonus lets them soak up immense amounts of damage, and once sufficiently leveled they are the only class that can chain-stun the Scrake relatively easily. The Fire Axe, Scythe, and Claymore's alternate fire can both stun the Scrake on headshots. Alternately, an Axe or Chainsaw's alternate fire can stun them from behind, leaving them unable to retaliate so that the Berserker can slice them up with impunity. Alt-fire attacks with a Katana, at higher ranks, can also chain-stun a Scrake from behind. At higher perk ranks, the Katana and Chainsaw's primary fire allows them to cut down the Scrake incredibly fast even from the front with minimal loss of health.

The main issue in both team and solo play is the horde of specimens around them, which can make a one-sided affair swing the other way. In a team game, a Berserker on a good team can simply deal with the Scrakes without fear. With a little help, a good Berserker can catch a Scrake from his behind, which gives the opportunity of dealing massive damage in a few seconds. If the team has issues with the swarm, they might need to assist by cutting down a few specimen before handling the Scrake.

In solo play, along with Fleshpounds, the Berserker must kite them as long as possible, whittling down the horde until they can safely engage them one-on-one.

Firebug

Scrakes are the bane of the Firebug's existence. In most team situations a single Scrake can eat up over a hundred units of fuel, making them a very unappealing target. While the Mac-10's incendiary rounds do a fair amount of damage, they lack the punch of other classes' higher tier weapons. In team play, Scrakes should be treated as collateral damage, and the Firebug should avoid focusing fire on them, just enough to set them alight. If set alight, Scrakes occasionally snap out of their enraged state and stumble around, but in other cases, they might continue to rage and flail about unpredictably, wreaking havoc amongst a group. Lit Scrakes should be put down as soon as possible.

In solo play, Scrakes are extremely difficult and require kiting and ammo conservation - simply putting one round from the Mac or throwing an Incendiary Grenade and putting a few units of fuel onto them to keep them roasted, but hopefully keeping them from raging. If the Scrake does rage, the Firebug should simply hold down on the trigger and let loose - a Firebug on Suicidal or Hell on Earth should actually plan on being hit, as they can't kill Scrakes quick enough without long range. With the introduction of the Husk Fireball Launcher, the Firebug can dispatch Scrakes with relative ease by firing several fully charged shots at its head, usually 2, but this varies depending on level and difficulty. Note that due to the large size of the fireball, the Firebug must aim at the top half of the Scrake's head for it to count as a headshot. However, the Scrake will still be stunned even if the player misses the headshot, leaving time to charge a follow-up shot. Another alternative is to use the Flare Revolvers; depending on difficulty level and number of players this can offer some power against a charging Scrake, with just two flares needed to kill it in solo play if you can afford to let it burn to death.

Demolitions

Much like Firebugs, Demolitions have an issue with Scrakes. Their ability to absorb large amounts of ammo, combined with their tendency to hurtle into close combat once wounded make them very dangerous to Demolitions in any situation. A Demo should make use of Pipe Bombs and the M32 for Scrakes, as the M79 simply can't kill them quick enough. In team games, a Demo can dart in and drop a Pipe Bomb in the Scrake's path, and let the combined fire of the rest of the team finish off the stunned and heavily wounded Scrake, and should generally save his M32/M79 stockpile for the mob behind it. Scrakes are very expensive to kill no matter what, so ammo AND money conservation becomes a significant factor on higher difficulties. Explosive damage isn't scaled for Scrakes and most of the Demolitions weaponry falls short in the terms of reloading. If a Demo finds a Scrake charging onto him, he might try a last stand by burying his M32 blunt shots to his throat, hopefully kill or heavily damage him. Attacking Scrakes when they're not enraged is a risky move for Demo until your explosives are covered within heavy fire by other teammates. When using the L.A.W., the player stun the Scrake by aiming at the Scrake's mid-torso to maximize the damage. This is actually a pretty useful tactic if there isn't a Sharpshooter or Berserker on the team, stunning the Scrake and letting your teammates finish it off while it's stunned. However, using the L.A.W. against Scrakes is discouraged due to the L.A.W.'s low ammo count, and high price per shot.

In solo, the same tactic can apply, luring a Scrake onto a Pipe Bomb and then letting loose with the M32, hopefully finishing it off, but on Suicidal another Pipe Bomb might be required.

Background

The original story behind the Scrake is that it was designed to be the perfect field medic, able to take hideous amounts of pain while working on their patients in the field. While it was considered success because the Scrake could take an absolutely astounding amount of damage, it was considered a horrible failure at the same time. He could only learn by having wounds inflicted on himself, and much like the Gorefast, he became quite interested in pain.