Cazador

Cazadores are mutated insects found in the Mojave Wasteland, Big MT, Zion Canyon and in 2281.

Background
Mutated and enlarged in the laboratories of Big MT, cazadores are the offshoot of DNA experiments, performed by Dr. Borous in 2003. Formerly, cazadores were confined to the Z-14 Pepsinae DNA splicing lab in Big MT, but groups of cazadores had escaped the Big MT crater and moved to neighboring areas, such as the Mojave Wasteland and Zion Canyon, in recent years. Doctor Borous denies that they have escaped from Big MT or have the ability to breed, which is shown to be false.

Characteristics
Cazadores have a quick and erratic flight pattern. They are most often encountered in swarms of four or more, with the occasional strays flying in the outlying area. Their venomous attacks can lead to a quick death if they succeed in poisoning their target. The spikes on their back rise and fall, both when idle and when attacking.

Cazadores are more common in mountainous regions of the Mojave Wasteland, although some swarms can be found near lakes in lower areas. They create large basket-shaped nests, many of which can be seen at places such as Bonnie Springs, cazador nest, west of the Brewer's beer bootlegging, the road heading towards Jacobstown, north of Goodsprings, inside various tents in the tribal village and the boathouse at Callville Bay. The cazadores' original breeding ground is the Z-14 Pepsinae DNA splicing lab in Big MT. They compete with night stalkers for prey.

Gameplay attributes
A sting will do more physical damage than a giant radscorpion and cause three times more poison damage over a longer time. Crippling a wing via V.A.T.S. greatly slows them down and also temporarily disables their ability to fly. However, they will continue to sputter towards their enemy at a fast rate. Crippling their antennae will frenzy them. They do not take extra damage from shots to the head.

Coping with the poison
 * Endurance, antivenom, super stimpak
 * Datura antivenom, Spore plant pods, Blood Shield, Tribal Wisdom
 * Heartless, Cardiac Arrest
 * Snakebite tourniquet, Auto-inject stimpak, Auto-inject super stimpak

Cazador
They are common in mountainous regions in the Mojave Desert and move in groups of two to five.

Young cazador
Young cazadores are often found near other cazadores in mountainous regions. They are identical in appearance to adults but smaller and their poison is weaker.

Legendary cazador
The only one of its kind, the legendary cazador has twice as many Hit Points and significantly more attack power than a normal adult cazador. The legendary cazador is one of the five legendary creatures found in the Mojave Wasteland. It is encountered at the end of the cazador-infested Silver Peak Mine. Sometimes it will show up after the player clears out all the other cazadores or after reaching the second floor of the cave. It spawns from an overhead tunnel on the second floor.

Giant cazador
Giant cazadores are encountered all over Zion Canyon as part of the Honest Hearts add-on. They are one of the most vicious creatures in the add-on, and can be found in various locations outside of Eastern Virgin and the Sorrows camp. They are usually found in groups of two or three. They are much larger than a normal cazador.

Specimen 73
This unique cazador is found in the Z-14 Pepsinae DNA splicing lab guarding a variety of loot, including the Auto-Doc Upgrade: Implant M-5 behind the double doors at the end of the corridor. It is a stronger and more powerful version of a regular cazador and has even more Hit Points than the legendary cazador, and is also faster.

Appearances
Cazadores appear in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-ons Honest Hearts and Old World Blues. They are also mentioned in the graphic novel, All Roads.

Behind the scenes

 * Joshua Sawyer came up with the idea for the cazador after seeing a picture of a tarantula hawk wasp, and considers cazadores to be his proudest addition to Fallout: New Vegas.
 * Shon Stewart worked on the cazador animations.
 * "Cazador" is Spanish for "hunter."

Bugs

 * It seems to be possible for cazadores to fall through the map and fly about under it. This will drive companions crazy, since they will target them but be unable to hit them. Affected cazadores cannot sting non-player characters or the Courier, but will continue to fly back and forth attempting to attack. If the player is above an affected cazador its name and health bar will be visible, but the cazador itself will be invisible. This is a clear indicator that the cazador is bugged in this manner. Attacking with the Ranger Takedown maneuver may fix this bug.
 * Poison does not appear to wear off companions in the 1.2.0.31x patch after combat. Dismissing the companion and re-hiring them at their home location or the Lucky 38 seems to bypass this. It will wear off after 30 seconds, administering stimpaks to companions will cause the whole damage-over-time to be applied at once which could bring them to negative HP.
 * Sometimes (or all the time, if your system is affected), if cazadores are in the area, even if you can't see them, you will hear the poison hissing sound loud and close as if you had been poisoned by them. Essentially, you will hear the sound when a cazador anywhere in your active cell poisons something - the attack might not be on the player character or a companion, since even a distant cazador battle will trigger the sound.
 * If you use the flamer against them, they sometimes freeze in the air while on fire.
 * Rare occurrences of cazadores being able to poison you when they are in no way close enough to do so, seems to only happen in V.A.T.S.
 * Sometimes, the legendary cazador just wanders around the cave without attacking the player.
 * In Silver Peak Mine, cazadores may not show up as red blips on your heads-up display even though they can be targeted using V.A.T.S.
 * Sometimes, cazadores may appear in the Followers safehouse.
 * Due to their incredible speed and relatively small size, cazadores can easily embed themselves into rock formations to make themselves harder to hit, lure melee focused couriers towards them and unlike most enemies even slow the framerate of the game to a crawl, making their fellow cazadores even harder to hit. This effect appears to stack depending on how many cazadores there are inside any number of rocks at one time and is hit and miss on whether looking away from the cazadores helps the framerate or not. Standing around appears to make them leave the rocks and attack the courier directly.