A Scourge is a walking biochemical weapon. They have been implanted with a Chem-Hive in their Fast Brain Slot - a nano-tech chemical and biological factory. They lend themselves to being either a tough, short range bruiser with a specialisation in debuffing and slowing enemies, or a stealthy killer and body remover.

Scourges have some talents that require a shotgun - a loud, low-range, but high damage weapon - but it's not central to the class. Their class tree contains stat bonuses to Tech (eleven), Will (nine) and Strength (eight), and bonuses to armor, hit points, close range accuracy (Shotgun/E-rifle/UAR), damage and crit damage.

This guide will start off with some notes on strategy in CK:F, both general and with an eye to the Scourge's possible role.

After that, there are several sections in which the talents are discussed in detail.

The final part has some example builds. Feel free to TL;DR there if you want.

"Speed, Firepower or Stealth: pick two."
-The Devs.

The Scourge lends itself either to stealthy play, most strongly because of their excellent body disposal capability, but also because of their silent, if slow-killing, toxic abilities.

If you don't mind going loud, you get to use some very strong debuffing abilities, from their shotgun-based stun up to turning enemies into unwitting allies for a short time, and you can fully benefit from their armor-buffing and healing abilities.


The Security Tally (the yellow and blue pips on the top right during missions) is one of the central factors on how you should approach a mission. If you get one pip per turn, it will take up to 10 turns before you get a Security Escalation. If you get four pips, it will take two and a half.

That means that when the tally per turn is low, it is worth going to great lengths to avoid getting tally pips from guards spotting your mercs, dead bodies, hearing gunfire and whatnot. Avoiding tally pips pays compound interest: Security Escalations lead to more pips, either directly or indirectly through reinforcements, high-powered security devices or shortened body timers. The longer can keep the snowball from starting to roll, the better for you.

Conversely, when you're getting a lot of pips in every round anyway, you might as well get hung for a sheep as for a lamb: you'll only get one escalation per turn anyway, and you should prioritise doing the mission objective and getting your people out. Trying to play it stealthy will only get you stuck in a loop as reinforcements keep piling in, and killing them will mean you're stuck in place for the next round, as your talents go on cooldown and the Sec Level keeps rising. Firepower will help here, but it can only buy you time, not win you the mission.

Obviously, missions without a Sec Tally work differently: here you typically will have to kill all enemies, or get to an objective before being overwhelmed - stealth is useless on those.

Most missions, though, have a triangle where speed, stealth and firepower can replace one another to some extent: having a lot of one means you can afford to have less of the others.

The interesting part is that which of the strategies is better, stealthy or quick, changes during a mission as the Security Escalations pile up and the number of pips per turn increases. A mission may start out stealth-friendly, but after a bunch of drawn-out firefights and your team being caught giving the middle finger to the camera half a dozen times, it won't be any more.

At some point you may as well ignore security devices, pump that shotgun and leave the bodies where they fall as you concentrate on getting the mission done as quickly as possible.

This is where mixed builds, or mixed teams have their strength - if circumstances change, they have options to adapt.


Well, the Scourge sucks at speed. They don't get any movement talents, they don't get Reaction or movement speed buffs from their class tree nodes. However, they can be quite good in either the stealth or the firepower department.

It may come in useful to have some powerful but loud options on a stealth build or a dash of stealth capabilities on a loud build to make your life a bit easier. Overall, though, a team is more effective if it specialises in one or the other. Being stealthy keeps the Security Tally from escalation quickly, which means you can afford your take your time a bit. Going loud lets you use more powerful options, so you can you kill more guards faster than they can report you to the AI; or lets you hold of reinforcements for longer.

That's why for this guide, I've looked at talents and builds from the point of view of stealth or loudness (and firepower).


The core talent for a stealth build is the talent Dissolve: it is the best corpse removal talent in the game. Corpses are the major factor for security escalations you cannot avoid on otherwise stealthy heists. A Scourge-heavy team with this talent is the most effective way to change that.

Disorient lets you massively reduce guards' vision, and lets you remove them from inconvenient spots. The various toxic talents kill slowly - with stealth you can afford to let them do their thing, and in turn they kill noiselessly. Bio-Mimic is a useful alternative and complement to the more common security device disabling talents.


A Scourge built for open combat is very durable and has many options to delay and slow down the opposition. They are better at holding ground than taking it, and they have ways to turn drawn-out battles in their favour: poison to slowly kill, movement debuffs, stuns and mines for the enemy, defensive buffs and healing for their friends.

Their weakness is that the shotgun talents have a low range, and their AoEs and mines tend to be hazards for friends and enemies alike.

All of these do not work on drones.


"Our patented "Cnid-U-cide" technology provides a stable coating for agent delivery on customary metal, ceramic or plastic based projectiles (see Appendix 117.B) at velocities up to 1.5k m/s in standard atmosphere, while still guaranteeing rapid delivery into the target's circulatory system."

Use this skill with a ranged weapon to make your next shot poisonous. If it hits, the target gets a health damage over time debuff for two turns (upgradable to three) and some mild debuffs. The damage comes in at the end of the round. So for stealth usage you'll want to let them do their action first, and use one tick of the poison as bonus damage to kill the target before they can report you in or act again.



If you're willing to let the enemy get in an action, you'll benefit from both (or all three) ticks of damage - fully upgraded it's three ticks of 125 HP damage - and the debuff to their combat stats.

Since it's a flat damage addition, it's particularly effective on low damage but stealthy weapons like pistols or SMGs.

I'd rate it a decent one point wonder unupgraded for basically 50 HP extra damage in an emergency, and buying an additional charge as well as increased potency for two training points is a decent investment. If you find yourself using it a lot, upgrading to three charges and more power is another worthwhile option. The extra duration I think is unnecessary overkill, as is the final power upgrade.



"The Medusa CS-21 provides several pre-programmed agent delivery options with friend-or-foe distinction capabilities based on biometric data options of your choice: DNA, footfall analysis, optical scan, wireless handshakes. Please note that Werner-Braun does not accept liability for agent delivery events deemed erroneous by the end user.

This lets you throw a noiseless mine that hits the first enemy to enter its range - or you can toss it directly onto someone. It causes a poison debuff, that as usual hits at the end of round and stacks with Bio-Coat Bullet and Tox-Cloud.

Venom Trap's unique selling point is that it is stealthier than Bio-Coat Bullet and more controlled than Tox-Cloud. It allows you to poison enemies without them noticing (they do turn suspicious though); and so lets you inflict the whole duration's worth of damage without having to contend with your victims producing noise. That makes the duration upgrade at the end of the upper upgrade track a lot more attractive - you can poison a guard for 300 HP damage, with zero noise and 100% accuracy, and ignoring armor. You just have to wait three turns for them to die.



I rate this above Bio-Coat Bullet if you're playing stealthily, since you can reduce the recharge time and don't have to worry about accuracy, and the debuffs are more useful for stealthy play. When upgrading I'd go for the recharge reduction first, then pick the damage upgrade and the third charge over the duration increase. The bottom right upgrade (-1 AP) is a bit weak, though you could combine it with a fully upgraded BCB to really tank a guard's AP.

It's also worth thinking about getting the debuff that reduces MP: that allows you to pretty much stop guards in their tracks at the point you want them to, without alerting them. Goes nicely with an invisible Vanguard standing right next to it and doing practice swings with their sword...


"Only use the Werner-Braun patented "Insta-Shock" wide range debilitation system with Werner-Braun approved delivery systems (see Appendix 141.D). Improper usage can result in failure of delivery or premature or delayed detonation."

This stuns in an area of effect, from 6 to 10m around the target, which has to be in range of your shotgun. The shotgun attack is very loud, which makes it hard to use on a stealthy build. I like it as a one-point wonder to shut down reinforcements - usually the radius is a bit small to do a lot with, but three guards charging into the area in a tight cluster make a good target, even unupgraded.

I don't love that you can't get extra charges, so you have to decide if you want to use it now so you can get the clock running for another use, or keep it unused just in case. I tend to want to do the latter, and I tend to not want to put a lot of training points in a just-in-case talent.

The power upgrades - either evasion reduction (top) or armor reduction (bottom) - are a bit weak, though the duration upgrade and radius upgrades are powerful.



Putting this together I think it's good value unupgraded as an emergency button to shut down reinforcements on top of your Scourge, but only if you're running with a shotgun. Upgraded to reduced recharge time and increased duration it combos nicely with the various damage-over-time talents in the Noxious branch. For a loud build it's really good and well worth maxing out.

The Medusa CS-21 complies with UAN regulation 934C-23A/27 by requiring a UNA-23A/28 certified cybernetic respiration system before allowing wide-area toxin deployment. In conjunction with UNA-23A/28 compliant systems, the Medusa CS-21 allows unparalleled toxin removal, accelerated cell regeneration and oxygenation for up to 10 minutes*.

The best way to deal with your Tox Clouds is to not walk into them, but sometimes mistakes are made. Some enemies deal DoT effects as well, and Purge really shines with those, but I think it's a bit niche just for that.



Unupgraded should be sufficient to protect you from the occasional Tox-Cloud related fumble.

Get the extra charge if you want to be able to run into your clouds to Dissolve corpses or grab loot on the regular. Sadly it isn't enough to stay in Tox Clouds forever.

Fully upgraded it provides a 110 point heal with every use, plus 2 turns of +20% to both types of armor. Not super useful for a stealth build, but for a loud tank I can see it.

*Duration of toxin removal and regeneration function dependent on nanite charge, body mass, organic material loss, toxin variety and toxin intensity. See Appendix 209/B for details.


Warning: the Medusa CS-21's Wide-Area Toxin Dispersal function does not provide FoF capability. Be mindful of the deployment area's architecture and air movements when operating the Medusa CS-21's Wide-Area Toxin Dispersal function.

Ah, Tox-Cloud my beloved. This talent produces a rather large, round zone of poison gas that slowly moves away from the Scourge. It affects friends as well as enemies, so be careful around them.

The talent Purge lower in the tree can give you some protection - or even turn it into a buff for you, as long as you don't run out of charges - otherwise it's best to target an area you'll only get to later. Helping with said targeting is the fact that while it doesn't move through walls, it doesn't care about walls when you create a Tox-Cloud.

It comes with the usual perks and caveats the Scourge's debuff talents have:

• it turns enemies suspicious, but doesn't create tally pips
  
• it hits at the end of the round and stacks with other debuffs but not with itself (though it does refresh its duration)
  
• it doesn't work on drones (obviously).
  
• it ignores armor, evasion and cover

The base version hits for 75 hp/turn for three turns and has a diameter of eight meter. The base cooldown is four. You can upgrade the diameter for one TP per two meters twice (recommended), and if you really want more, get the max diameter of 15 m for another two TP.

The bottom upgrade track is nice, too: lower cooldown for an already low-ish cooldown is makes a big difference, and the power upgrade raises the damage to 100 hp/turn and adds a nice stealth-friendly crit vulnerability and move speed debuff. I'd take the final cooldown upgrade over the diameter upgrade as well, as 50% less cooldown gives more flexibility than 50% more area.

Tox-Cloud shines especially on a stealthy build, but for a loud build the ability to DoT a pretty big area regardless of cover can be huge, and with maxed Purge you'd even get a pretty strong heal and a small armor buff out of it.


Werner-Braun proudly presents our patented "Nacht & Nebel" debilitating wide-area chem-cocktail. A base of adhesives married with a bespoke selection of nano-enhanced acids provides a resilient armor degradation solution that also significantly degrades mobility.

Morass creates a 6 m width rectangle with a length from 12 to 24 m - depending on how high you upgrade it - that adds a lasting debuff to anyone, friend or foe, in its AoE. It also cancels overwatch.



The debuff is quite useful for especially for stealthy builds (if a bit weak unupgraded). Armor and evasion reduction for easier kills and move speed reduction to get more DoT ticks.

For loud builds the Overwatch cancel is also important - you might want more range for that to be useful. It is a bit unwieldy in that it then leaves a hazard to yourself or any teammates as well as any other enemies.

The five turn cooldown can't be improved and keeps the talent situational, if solid.

Werner-Braun is not liable for the user of the Medusa CS-21 producing illicit substances (see App. 45/D Sec. 3 - 48). Always ask for consent before injecting third persons with psycho- and nootropics.

This talent has two main uses: shutting down a non-alerted guard and breaking overwatch. It does both at once right at the start, but unupgraded it is very short ranged and the nerfing effect is not all that powerful. It shortens the sight cone somewhat, and sets the target's status to "disoriented", which makes them move around at random for two turns, after which they remain "suspicious".

Can be useful to move someone from a spot they are guarding, and the sight cone length reduction of the upgraded talent is really massive. There's also a juice crit vulnerability as part of the upgraded effect; 15% with the first powerup and another 15% with the second.



For defensive use as overwatch breaker I'd recommend going for the range extension first, for offensive use as a stealthy debuff I'd prioritise the extra charge upgrade, so you can be more flexible and confident in using it.

It's quite good sufficiently upgraded, but it costs a bit too many training points to get there to be good value.


The Medusa CS-21 provides several functions to replicate DNA-markers on the users iris, fingerprints, saliva and respiratory systems. For more specialised use-cases, consult Appendix 22-7. Werner-Braun refuses liability for criminal misuse of these legitimate security testing suites.

This is one of the talents that make their users immune to some, but not all of security devices. It is easier to note the ones it doesn't work: Pressure Plates and Motion Sensors. Everything else, even Bio-Scan fields (you can't disable those with talents); Cameras, Prox-mines, Laser Wires - it lets the user ignore them.



Lasts until the end of next turn unupgraded and for two turns with the duration upgrade, but will get canceled by attacking. Normally costs one AP, but can be upgraded to be free. Useful for a very stealthy build, otherwise rather situational.


... with direct stimulation of the basolateral amygdala with LimbicTwist(TM) nanites, the target's emotional responses to "friend/foe" stimuli will be inverted. Note that this use is illegal under the following jurisdictions:

A very interesting talent that confuses a human enemy so much that they switch sides. They will not, under any circumstances, attack your team, and may attack their own side. They seem to not have the greatest accuracy doing that, though, and often have weapons that are very loud. A lot of the time they just run around and take cover at random. The talent also breaks Overwatch.

The reason I've classified it as loud is that the victim firing their weapon makes noise, depending on their weapon - if they are a melee fighter, they'll fight silently. Their erstwhile teammates won't attack the brainwormed, not even in retaliation. They won't trip security devices (cameras will pick up any corpses they produce, though.)



The top upgrade tracks has two range extensions - highly recommended - and after that an extra charge. The lower track has a cooldown reduction, an AP cost reduction and a duration extension.

For a stealth build, taking it with the top track makes an interesting emergency button and somewhat situational stun; for a loud Scourge it's a top tier talent and great with everything.


This setting will, instead of dissolving organic residue, convert it to unstable, explosive organic compounds, for example in order to fuel a generator or to make mining explosives available on the fly.

This one is not great. It lets you place a mine on a corpse that does damage similar to a hit with a low level stun club, and that's fully upgraded. Nothing to write home about and the targeting needing a corpse makes it quite situational. The range is decent, and corpses will often get visited by investigating guards, but it also just doesn't do anything impressive. You could argue that 70 pure damage and 135 kinetic is decent for 1 AP, but it costs rather a lot of points to do that.

The Medusa CS-21 can also be used to rapidly convert organic residue into its main constituents in gaseous form, leaving only a small amount of trace elements. Using a small sample for calibration, it will automatically deploy the necessary suite of acids and nanites. Manual programming is possible (see App. 11-5), however be aware that the deployment range remains limited.

This one of the Scourge's signature talents and the best corpse disposal talent in the game. It removes a body as well as it's body timer, meaning there won't be a missing body alert and the body won't ever be discovered - together that's worth 4 Sec Tally points. Now, how valuable that is depends on the mission and the Sec Tally per turn it has: with a slow, one pip per turn mission, that's four turns worth of tally - with a bodyguard mission with 4 pips per turn it's only one turn.



You get one easy charge and duration upgrade which you totally should grab, after that for four more training points you can have a third charge, more range and reduced AP cost. That's a bit less of a no-brainer, but the range and cheaper AP can be helpful in getting the most out of it. Those training points might be better invested in a third item slot and a Bio-Dissolver, though.


... deploys Werner-Brauns patented Aero-Shock(TM) explosive shrapnel micro-clusters. Currently there is no friend-or-foe functionality beyond the directional visibilty towards the user. Exercise due caution.

Requires a shotgun. This attack is different from Nervo-Tox Shell in that it has to hit for the talent to come into effect, and that the effect is arguable weaker. What Aero-Shrap Shell does is (if it hits), create a couple of mines, lasting for three turns, that are invisible to enemies and detonate for damage comparable to a pistol shot if someone walks into them. It's three at base and five when fully upgraded.

The damage is really anemic, but what makes them somewhat useful is that they end someones turn. So you can think of the skill as creating a low-damage overwatch zone that only works on people closing in, but lasts three turns. Remember that those mines persist for a while and hit friendlies.



I'd not recommend it really, but for a loud build it is decent enough. I'd keep it either unupgraded or take the top upgrade row: that gets you less cooldown, a fourth shrapnel zone, and another charge. You're not taking this for the damage, but for the area control.


... refuses liability for dizziness, persistent bleeding, leukemia, the forms of cancer enumerated in App. 59/A-G, epileptic seizures, erectile disfunction, hallucinations, ...

This is the only healing talent that works on others. It has the big drawback of increasing injury time by two days or stress by 10% with a 50% chance, but otherwise only costs one AP to use. It's always useful to have as an emergency option, especially on permadeath, but for stealthy teams it will go unused a lot. Still, it lets you be a bit more adventurous with the items you bring along, and even though I've categorized it as stealthy, it's more useful on a loud build.



I'd keep in unupgraded mostly, but if you find yourself using it a lot the extra charge would be good, and the power upgrade with its initiative and AP bonus could be very helpful in some situations, to let someone act before the enemy and maybe be able to squeeze off and extra shot.

When using the Medusa CS-21 to replicate active pharmaceutics, be mindful not to violate existing patents and substance control laws and ordinances.

Drugs drugs drugs. At base, it extends drugs' duration for one turn. The first upgrade reduces the AP cost of using the drug for one turn, which is nicer than usual, since it gives you one extra drug-boosted AP instead of a boring normal one. You'll likely have some nice bonuses you'll want to make the most of.



Second upgrade gives you another turn of duration, and the next two powerups each grant a +25% chance that the drug doesn't lose a dose on use. Some will hate the randomness, but this is really quite good despite it. It gets better the better drugs you have access to, and the more extra item slots you have unlocked. Drug Fiend Scourge is a valid build.


... nanites quickly form a subdermal carbon-nanotube lattice that bonds with the chitinous exo-skeleton and any armor already present. Be aware that mobility will be somewhat impacted.

It doesn't make noise but it's pointless unless you're getting attacked, which means there's noise. It makes you (or an ally near you) near invincible, but also very slow, until the end of next turn. If it's upgraded to provide +50% armor, it'll be really really near invincible. You'll still get stressed though, and crits will still cause injuries. Also goes well with some combat drugs.



Decent to have as a cheap emergency button unupgraded, and for loud builds worthwhile to fully upgrade. 50% armor is a lot better than +25%, and the range will make it more viable to boost comrades. For stealth builds you won't use it enough for the upgrade to be worth the points, unless you are bad at stealth.

These don't change the class's starting talents, but build off them. You can use them if you don't want to worry about leveling your merc, and use it to auto-train them between mission.


This build foregoes the shotgun - you can carry one, but it doesn't use the special talents. The build grabs Dissolve, of course, and then beelines Tox-Cloud via Bio-Coat Bullet and Purge, then grabs Brain Worm for emergencies and Venom Trap for more stealthy poisoning. Could pick up Bio-Mimic for an easier time with security devices, or multiclass with Vanguard for Lure and Pinger to get victims to move into their clouds and traps.



This build also picks up Dissolve, but otherwise goes for powerful but loud combat talents: Brain Worm to make enemies switch sides, Nervo-Tox Shell to stun them, and Morass to remove armor and debuff. Could branch out into DoT talents later, or go into the tank talents on the right side of the tree. Could multiclass with soldier for more firepower.




These are minimum viable builds for a gimmick. Use them with a Respec to quickly grab specific talents, and then use leftover training points you have to round them out. They are not suitable for gradually training with a merc that is going on missions.


A Respec build that goes through Dissolve, Reknit, Metabolize and Callus to grab an item slot, then max Metabolize and grab a second item slot. Combine with anything that likes strength and drugs. Could multiclass with Vanguard for speed and melee or Cybersword for extreme armor, Gunslinger for a crit build.or Soldier for a tanky damage dealer.



Grabs all the bonuses for Close-Quarters Accuracy (Shotgun/E-Rifle/UAR) in the Scourge Tree, with unpupgraded Dissolve and BCB and easy access to Aero-Shrap Shell, Nervo-Tox Shell, Morass, Tox-Cloud, Purge, Venom Trap and Disorient. Combine with Soldier for a Shotgun, UAR or E-Rifle specialist.



Respec build that works best together with a Tox-Cloud-using Scourge (see the Fumigator above). While they don't have Tox-Cloud themselves, Purge lets them dip into the toxic area if necessary. They can use BCB for emergencies, Lure to move enemies into toxic zones and Venom Traps to add to the damage, and of course Dissolve for corpse removal. Could later get Pinger to lure enemies into toxic clouds and maybe pick up Tox-Cloud themselves, although due to it not stacking you won't want to overdo it.