The Cannibals (Russian: Каннибалы) are a faction in Metro Exodus.
Overview[]
As their name implies, the Cannibals feed on any humans who are unfortunate enough to visit their bunker. They are mostly made up of construction workers, non-military personnel, and a handful of surviving officers. They were in the bunker as part of construction work which had run over schedule, and were trapped in the bunker when the bombs fell. When the government never arrived, some of the construction workers initially felt they had been lucky not meeting the project deadline, now having a bunker of supplies intended to support a small town's worth of government VIPs that now only had to support just over a thousand construction crew.
This sense of jubilation was short lived, as the bunker's inhabitants soon discovered that much like how they had failed to meet the construction deadline, the quartermasters had failed to supply the bunker, and there was next to no food reserves.[1] Trapped in the bunker by radioactive fallout, a group of officers led by the Doctor created a council and implemented strict rationing, claiming that this council was now the government, and the rationing therefore was an enforceable government decree. As the food fully ran out, a group of radio technicians made a suicidal trip into the radiation outside and managed to repair the antennas, which the then lead radio officer wanted used to transmit throughout the wasteland, bringing survivors and hopefully sufficient food supplies to the bunker.[2]
Unfortunately, the group of officers led by the Doctor had their own plans. The radio officer was removed from his post, and they turned their bunker into a Venus fly trap of sorts, luring other survivors to it by posing as the government. While this officer was initially unaware of all this, when he discovered it, the Doctor laid out the entire plan, trying to convince him to join them for the sake of their friendship.[3] The radio officer instead went for his gun and planned to stop them, but was almost certainly killed in the attempt. While the leadership and officers still retain their wits, most of the Cannibals appear to have gone mad, likely as a result of a neurodegenerative disease such as Kuru (which is spread via consuming infected brain matter). One Cannibals note mentions the writer being sick, and the Doctor having said one of their victims carried a prion disease, confirming that they are either suffering from Kuru or something similar, which would have become widespread among the Cannibals if they're in the habit of consuming their own dead. They behave as little more than feral animals, driven solely by their need to feast on human flesh. In combat, they will mindlessly charge their opponents with melee weapons, with little sense of self-preservation. While a few do wield firearms, they rarely take cover, standing in the open and wildly firing from the hip.
The Cannibals meet their end when they lure and capture Miller, Artyom, and Anna. They are saved when the rest of the Spartans arrive, freeing Miller and Artyom. Together they fight their way through the bunker to find and save Anna. Artyom manages to reach Anna, who is being held captive by a Cannibal leader known as the Doctor. Artyom is briefly recaptured by him but is rescued by Anna when she manages to free herself and slit the Doctor's throat. The pair then regroup with Miller as he executes the rest of the Cannibals' top brass in the bunker's command center. Meanwhile, Idiot is searching for data in the center about radiation free areas and surviving military installations, which points the Aurora crew to the Kaspik-1 communication centre near the Caspian Sea. The Spartans then disable the Bunker's external communications and escape the base successfully while fending off the rest of the Cannibals and trapping them in their own bunker.
With all form of leadership being disposed of, it is likely the remaining Cannibals will starve to death and kill each other for food, since they are feral, no longer have the means to lure new victims and are trapped within the bunker.
Organization[]
Their obvious insanity, savagery, and indiscipline didn't prevent the Cannibals from having some form of leadership class or organization: The Doctor appears to have been their leader, and they both obeyed and respected him. The other military officers may have also helped coordinate and lead them, as they were necessary to maintain and use the radio and continue luring and bringing people to the bunker. The insane majority only follow their orders for the promise of meat, which is all they care for. In one instance, a Cannibal murders one of his allies after he caused a steam leak, which cut them off from the fresh meat that was Artyom.
For weapons and equipment, the Cannibals mostly wear ragged work clothes or Russian Army uniforms supplemented with scrap metal accessories. They are mainly equipped with melee weapons such as hatchets and flaming torches, while in terms of guns the most common are Kalashes, but they also produced a number of Ashots. The peak of their weapons production is a Gatling and set of heavy metal armour, used by an unnamed Cannibal in the Ark barracks. It is unclear when or where their hand made weapons were created, as nothing resembling a weapon production line can be seen in the Ark.
Related Achievements/Trophies[]
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Righteous Vengeance |  / 15 
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| Kill 90 cannibals. | ||
Trivia[]
- The Cannibals share similarities with the Savage Cannibals of the Great Worm Cult from the Metro 2033 novel. Both are a group of survivors that became trapped in their shelter and were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive, both lure survivors to eat them, and both fight with mostly primitive weapons. Additionally, while the Cannibals live inside a military bunker, the cult lives near the entrance to one (D6).
- The Cannibals may have been inspired by a few lines of dialogue from Metro 2035. Notably, Savelii says that the Government, if they made it to Mount Yamantau, are probably eating each other. Later, Bessolov jokes that if he and the rest of the Invisible Watchers evacuated to Mount Yamantau, they would probably end up eating each other.
- The Cannibals share most similarities with the Mutants of the The Hills Have Eyes series. They also live underground, attract people to their lands, hunt and eat them.
Gallery[]
References[]
| Muscovite Groups | |
|---|---|
| Other Groups | Bandits • Cannibals • Children of the Forest • Church of the Water Tsar • Munai-bailer • Tribals • Mutants • Novosibirsk Rioters • OSKOM • Stalkers • Night Hunters • Tom's Army |