Scavengers is out today, sort of: here's how to get a key

Scavengers, a new free-to-play team-based shooter is hitting Early Access today, as long as you have 30 minutes to kill. It's soft-launching via a Twitch drop scheme that requires you to watch the game for a bit before a key comes your way. It's a little confusing because, yeah, it's releasing into Steam Early Access which implies anyone can jump in, but access will be limited to those that jump through a few hoops.

Here's how to get your own Scavenger's Early Access Steam key:

1. Create an Improbable game account and link it with your Twitch account
2. Watch 30 minutes of any Scavengers stream
3. Claim your Twitch Drop
4. Check your email for a Scavengers Steam Key

It sounds like a pain in the ass but, honestly, it's not a bad way to tutorialize what's going on in Scavengers before diving in. It's battle royale, but not quite, with a focus on survival and resource gathering, and plenty of avenues to success besides gunning down every other player. 

Matches are points based, and you get points from defeating enemy NPCs and harvesting resources. Attacking other players is only useful if you want what they have, resulting in a much more strategic, unpredictable shooter arena than players may be used to. Scavengers is more like a Hunt: Showdown or Escape from Tarkov, but far more accessible than those games. To see what I mean, check out my video overview below. (Which sadly won't help you get a key.) 

Besides, you'll probably want in on Scavengers if only to witness the surreal spectacle of forming a conga line with thousands of other real players at some point. You won't be able to do that right away, but 9,000-player lobbies are possible in Scavengers, and developer Midwinter Entertainment has a special playground called ScavLab where it plans on testing experimental game modes in the near future. 

A full 1.0 release of Scavengers is still due sometime in 2021. Early Access means exactly that, even if it's free-to-play. Expect a lot of updates to the rules, map, weapons, and explorers along the way.