Red SabresReport
English：Red Sabres · Factions
A bandit outfit from the southwestern Swamp, dressed in red and armed with sabres, permanently hostile on approach. They have been locked in a power struggle with the Swamp Ninjas for years — and whichever boss falls first decides who owns the wetlands.
These ones better have more loot on 'em than the last lot o' schmucks... Cut 'em down! — a Red Sabre
The Red Sabres are a bandit faction out of The Swamp, led by the Red Sabre Boss. They are always hostile when approaching the player — there is no negotiation, no toll option, no way to talk it out.
All in red
Their name is their appearance. Their clothing is uniformly red and their weapon of choice is the sabre — the faction carries a colour scheme, so members' armour and clothing are dyed to match, and a line of red at distance is enough to identify them.
In the fog and poor sightlines of the Swamp, that is a rare advantage: you see the colour before you see the people.
Turf
Red Sabre patrols spawn in The Swamp and South Wetlands.
Their base is the Red Sabre Hideout, located in the southwestern part of the Swamp. It houses roughly 22 Red Sabres plus the boss himself.
The location carries a gear Artifacts value of 10,000 Cats with a total of 30 items refreshing every 24 hours. Only one thing in it is genuinely valuable: the Meitou-grade Horse Chopper in the boss's hands.
The boss
The Red Sabre Boss has a second name on his bounty poster — "The Red Bandit" — although the in-game character is never actually called that.
WANTED: The Red Bandit Race: Greenlander Gender: Male Description: 'Ugly as a gutter and friggin' huge' Wanted for arson, robbery and extortion. Now thought to be wreaking cruelties on lost travellers of the swamps as leader of the Red Sabres. Skilled and dangerous.
He wears [High] armour (22% chance of [Specialist]) with weapons manufactured by Cross, and that Meitou Horse Chopper is among the most worthwhile single items in the entire Swamp.
The war with the Swamp Ninjas
The Red Sabres' standing with the Swamp Ninjas is -100, and it is the only non-zero faction relation they have. The Wiki describes them as being in a constant power struggle.
That struggle is asymmetric in the game's mechanics:
| Event | Result |
|---|---|
| Red Sabre Boss killed or imprisoned | Red Sabre patrols shrink; Swamp Ninja patrols increase |
| Swamp Ninja leader falls | The Red Sabres do not grow in response |
In other words, moving on the Red Sabres is a one-sided favour to the Swamp Ninjas, and never the reverse. A player trying to reduce the overall threat density of these wetlands should think that trade through first.
In South Wetlands the balance also feeds a third party: the Slave Markets there have zero industrial facilities. They produce nothing at all; they simply sort, price and forward the people captured by the Swamp Ninjas and the Red Sabres to the southern slave farms. The two gangs fight, and the slavers profit.
What it means for the player
- They are one of the most common causes of death for newcomers to the Swamp. Permanently hostile, arriving in numbers, armed with sabres rather than clubs — being knocked down usually means being stripped, and with bad luck it means entering the slave market pipeline.
- That Meitou Horse Chopper is a clear milestone target. Twenty-two bodies is not many; a mid-game squad with terrain and a gate can take the hideout.
- Their standing with the Hounds is 0. The Swamp's five gangs and this bandit outfit simply do not interact — the Red Sabres are not a sixth gang, they are the wetlands' actual outlaws.
Trivia
- In the FCS files this faction was originally called the Water Clan.
- The name may be a reference to The Red Rebellion. The rogues mentioned in that book and the Red Sabres both have a presence in the Southern Plains — whether that is coincidence or descent, the game does not say.