The short version
Baboon Hawks travel in troops and they only fight when they outnumber you.
Count the hawks before you count your crew. Four divers walk past two hawks without trouble. One diver alone does not.
What a Baboon Hawk is
They are bird-like outdoor entities that hop around on their legs and rarely travel alone.
They are also the only common outdoor entity that steals from you. A hawk that finds scrap on the ground picks it up and carries it away.
That is why a dropped item sometimes disappears between two trips to the ship.
Where you meet them
Base spawn chance by moon, from the game’s bestiary:
| Moon | Base spawn chance |
|---|---|
| 20-Adamance | 55.32% |
| 21-Offense | 28.44% |
| 61-March | 18.82% |
| 220-Assurance | 10.31% |
| 56-Vow | 9.44% |
| 68-Artifice | 7.0% |
Adamance is the moon where you should expect them on almost every landing.
They spawn in pairs. When four or more spawn, a nest is placed on the map. The nest is three wooden spikes in a triangle, and one spike has an employee helmet on it.
The three phases
Their behaviour runs in stages, and knowing which stage you are looking at tells you whether you have time.
Scouting. They roam and look for scrap, other entities and employees. A hawk that spots a scrap item paths straight to it.
Returning to nest. After 25 to 70 seconds, or as soon as it picks something up, a hawk heads back to a random spot near the nest.
Combat. Split into defensive and offensive modes, and this is the phase you want to avoid starting.
The leader matters
Each hawk rolls a leadership value between 0 and 500 that decides its size. The highest value in the group becomes the leader, and the leader is the biggest one.
Group members follow the leader. If one drifts more than 60 units away, usually because it found scrap, it leaves the group and becomes a lone hawk.
The leader also rests. After reaching 15 AI nodes, with at least 17 seconds since its last rest, it stops where it stands for 12 seconds.
A resting leader is a free window. That is when you move past a troop you do not want to fight.
The rule that decides whether they attack
They attack players unless the players outnumber them.
This single rule is the whole counter. A four-person crew passing two hawks is safe, and the same four people split into pairs are not, because each pair is now outnumbered.
Stay together outdoors. Splitting up to loot faster turns a passive troop into an aggressive one.
Fighting them
Sometimes you have no choice, usually because the troop sits between you and the ship with a full inventory.
Commit fully or do not start. Land the first hit cleanly, keep swinging until that hawk is down, and expect the rest of the troop to switch to combat mode the moment you connect.
A shovel works. So does a stop sign or a kitchen knife. The point is not the weapon, it is finishing what you start before the group responds.
Do not fight them on open ground while carrying scrap. Drop the load first, so you regain the stamina and speed that decide the fight.
Getting your scrap back
When a hawk steals an item, it carries it to the nest.
The nest is therefore both a warning marker and a recovery spot. If something valuable vanished, check the nest before you leave the moon.
When to give up the loot
The troop is not the reason crews lose runs. The decision to fight over a full inventory is.
Take the loss when the troop sits on the path and you are already carrying enough to clear the quota. Drop the load, walk around them, and come back lighter if there is time.
Take the fight only when the item on the ground is the difference between making the quota and not making it, and only when the crew is together and unencumbered.
Note that this is different from a Hoarding Bug problem. A Hoarding Bug guards a nest it already filled, and you can often grab and go. A troop of hawks patrols, so the same hesitation costs you more.
Mistakes that get people killed
- Splitting the crew outdoors. Every pair you make can now be outnumbered by a troop that was harmless a minute ago.
- Half-fighting. One swing, then backing off, starts combat mode without removing the hawk that started it.
- Dropping scrap and walking away. Anything on the ground is a magnet for a scouting hawk.
- Fighting while overloaded. Heavy divers cannot win a melee exchange they would win empty-handed.
- Ignoring the nest. It tells you how many hawks are on the map and where the troop returns to.
Related guides
- Monsters database — every entity with its location.
- Moons tier list — which moons are worth the risk.
- How to beat Earth Leviathan — the other outdoor threat on the walk back.