Cazador

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

Background
Cazadores are giant tarantula hawk wasps which were created by Doctor Borous in the Z-14 Pepsinae DNA splicing lab of the Big MT.

Biology
Cazadores have distinctive amber-orange wings, a blue-black carapace and blood-red eyes. They have a speedy and rather erratic flight pattern, making them difficult to hit. Their venomous attack can lead to a quick death if they succeed in poisoning their target. The spikes on their back inflate and deflate when idle and attacking.

Cazadores are more common in mountainous regions of the Mojave. They chew wood fiber and mold it into a paper pulp with which 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, 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
While a sting from a young cazador isn't highly damaging, the sting of an adult is. They are extremely fast and hard to escape unless their wings have been crippled. They attack in large swarms while also covering a large area. 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 the player at a surprisingly fast rate.


 * Coping with the poison
 * Endurance, antivenom, super stimpak
 * Datura antivenom, blood shield, Tribal Wisdom
 * Heartless, Cardiac Arrest
 * Snakebite tourniquet, Auto-inject stimpak, Auto-inject super stimpak

Variants
Cazadores are large with distinctive orange wings, a blue-black carapace, blood-red eyes, a spiky upper abdomen, a fast flight speed and a rather erratic flight pattern. Cazadores are common in mountainous regions in the Mojave Desert, and move around in groups of 2-5.

Young cazador
Young cazadores are often found near other cazadores in mountainous regions (presumably members of the same colony, hive, or swarm). Young cazadores are identical in appearance to regular cazadores but are about 3/4 to 1/2 the size. Though their poison is weaker than that of adults, their small size makes them more agile and difficult to hit than mature cazadores.

They can also prove to be quite a hassle due to their tendency to swarm. Entire groups will swarm their target in an attempt to overwhelm it via numerical strength.

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, a nasty surprise for players who don't pay attention to what's above them.

Giant cazador (Honest Hearts)
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 in groups of three, but it is not uncommon to see groups of other sizes. And as their name implies, they are much larger than a normal cazador.

Specimen 73 (Old World Blues)
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. Judging by its name, it was probably some sort of experiment. It is a stronger and more powerful version of a regular cazador and has even more health than the legendary cazador, but its main advantage is its incredible speed.

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

 * "Cazador" means "hunter" in Spanish.
 * The sting of the Cazador's predecessor, the tarantula hawk wasp, is the second most painful sting on the Schmidt sting pain index.

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.
 * On the PC version, this can be fixed by using console commands. Select a companion and type:.
 * 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.

Sounds

 * Chasing cazador
 * Conscious cazador
 * Hit cazador
 * Hit cazador
 * Hit cazador
 * Wing turning cazador