Could use some clarifications on how Scavenger Reputation works

[pure dune]

Reposted starting message

I have a number of questions but first and foremost is this: Do you lose reputation if you kill a scavenger in a shelter if there is only the two of you(as in, no witness)? Sonuvabitch spawned in my shelter after i slept in it and grabbed my Vulture Mask, and due to the clutter in the shelter i cant manage to grab it first even after reloading a few times. It was an ordeal and a half to get that mask in the first place, one i am not keen in going through again, so either a kill this guy or i give up using a Vulture Mask forever.

Second: Do you lose reputation if you take things from a Scavenger Vault? I know they get aggro if you take things near their tolls, but if there is no one around can i help myself to their pearls and explosives? I dont have the Chieftain passage just yet, only gone through a couple tolls at best.

Third: How does friendly fire affect reputation? Like, if its just me and a bunch of them in a room and i throw a spear or rock on one of them they will attack me immediately, but a couple of time now i have hit one of them on accident with explosives while fighting Vultures and Lizards, or set a chain reaction that wiped most of them and as far as i am aware the rest of them seemed chill with it. Is it just that explosion damage is indirect and doesnt count as aggresion on our part? Or is there some sort of modifier that prevents reputation loss while fighting a mutual enemy.

Fourth: Are the tolls the only way to increase reputation or does giving pearls to any random scavenger also helps? Can i give multiple pearls at a toll to get max reputation in one fell swoop? I have a stack of pearls in the first shelter upon entering Industrial Complex.

[atomic sinew]

The victim counts as a witness (unfortunately)

Robbing vaults does also lower reputation

Unsure on the specifics of friendly fire sadly

As for question 4, there are dozens of ways to increase rep

It's not restricted to tolls. It's not even restricted to pearls. It's not even restricted to trading valuables either. experiment on this matter.

[simple dome]

I would say use common sense. Scavenger AI is so intricate that that's usually better then trying to learn the exact details of how any individual encounter will affect them.

[tardy nexus]

Common sense tells me that killing it in an enclosed room with no witness would lead to no reputation loss. Apparently common sense took a dive because the dead Scav counts as a witness to its own murder.

[simple dome]

Well, common sense assuming the scavengers are able to figure out what you did when they're not around

(Which also applies to vaults. I suppose they must take inventory frequently?)

[tardy nexus]

They are primitives living in a highly hostile world, it doesnt make sense that they unerringly know it was you instead of a hundred other possibilities.

[atomic sinew]

It's just a shortcoming of the programming

Though you can also view it as, that body has spear wounds. And there's only 2 species that know how to wield spears in these lands.