Bounty Hunters' Guild

During the time of the Galactic Republic and its successor, the Galactic Empire, official certification was a necessity for those in the bounty hunting business. This certification ensured legal compliance in handling wanted individuals and delivering bounties to the proper authorities. The Bounty Hunters' Guild—also known as the Bondsman Guild and abbreviated as "BHG"—worked alongside galactic governments to streamline the bureaucratic processes for its members, enabling them to legally hunt across the galaxy with official licenses.

During the Imperial Era, the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations dedicated an entire branch to collaborating with the guild, and wealthy Moffs were prepared to enlist hunters to address their issues. The Bondsman Guild Protocol detailed the operational procedures for hunters and how others should interact with them. Under Guild authority, a bounty hunter possessed the right to apprehend a target. Specifically, subparagraph 16 of the bondsman protocol stipulated the hunter's entitlement to immediate bounty receipt upon successful capture.

The Bounty Hunters' Guild operated hubs resembling cantinas on planets like Carajam and Nevarro. The Carajam cantina, equipped with a droid detector at its entrance, hosted a diverse array of species, including Cerean, Ithorian, Kel Dor, Morseerian, Neimoidian, Rodian, Togruta, and [Trandoshan] patrons. A Rutian Twi'lek served as the Guild's agent, connecting hunters with Guild bounties at the central bar. The Empire favored paying hunters via transfer register rather than physical currency. After a successful hunt, Guild members could receive direct payment to their accounts from the Guild agent. The Twi'lek even offered Boba Fett a discount on the Jorgan Spa, believing he deserved it. Bounty information at Guild hubs was displayed via holograms near the bar, with larger bounties advertised on posters, as was the case with Zingo Gabnit, about whom the Rutian agent provided additional information to Fett.

On planets controlled by the Empire, posting agencies functioned as offices for bounty hunters. These offices featured computer consoles that allowed hunters to accept bounties issued by the Galactic Empire. Staffed booths oversaw these agencies and restricted access to the Imperial Enforcement DataCore to ranking Imperial officers and licensed bounty hunters.

Din Djarin, a bounty hunter, described Nevarro as a "hive" for his profession. In the early days of the New Republic, Nevarro served as a Guild hub with its own branch, the Nevarro Hunters. The Nevarro Common House, a cantina in Nevarro City, managed both pirate and guild activities. However, such criminal activity was eventually eradicated when Greef Karga, the former Guild Master of the Nevarro Hunters, took control and steered the world in a new direction.

The Bounty Hunters' Guild comprised bounty hunters from various species and independent droid models. To join, aspiring bounty hunters needed to successfully complete a bounty hunt. While non-Guild hunters existed in the galaxy and offered cheaper rates, Guild Master Greef Karga considered them less reliable than Guild-certified hunters. Some bounties required the target's execution. Separately, freelance assassins had their own organization, the Assassin's Guild. The Nevarro Hunters maintained positive relationships with pirate groups, including Gorian Shard's gang.

Bounty hunting droids were ideal partners due to their internal toolsets, which could administer healing bacta sprays or lift heavy objects. These droids were also more durable than most organics and approached their work with machine-like efficiency, offering a potentially life-saving alternative for tracking high-risk suspects. However, like many droids, they struggled with ambiguity and rigidly followed rules, making them less suited for the profession's more complex aspects. Additionally, their programming prevented capture, leading them to activate self-destruct protocols if capture seemed imminent.

Droids from the IG family often served as private security or freelance Guild members, earning them a reputation as bounty hunters. IG-11 was a fully-fledged Guild member. Despite his strict programming as a bounty droid, IG-11 specialized in terminating his targets, often being assigned bounties requiring lethal outcomes rather than live captures. IG-88B, or IG-88 for short, was one of five identical IG-88 assassin droids created by Holowan Laboratories. After slaughtered their constructors and escaped their laboratories into the galaxy, IG-88B had independent programming and became a Guild member. He was a feared and highly ranked bounty hunter.

While IG-11 was concerned with the rewards his hunts generated, IG-88 used bounty hunting as a means to kill organics. Nevertheless, IG-88 also cared about earning credits and was willing to capture prey alive. Although IG-88's activities diverted him from IG-88A's plan to overthrow organic life, IG-88 was even willing to hunt down his fellow droids for a bounty.

The Guild employed Guild Masters and bail bondsmen in addition to recruiting hunters. While some hunters preferred working alone, bondsmen brokered bounties with hunters, acting as intermediaries between clients and hunters, offering jobs, and paying out upon successful hunts. Guild Master Greef Karga performed this role for the Nevarro-based branch. In 9 ABY, five years after the Empire's fragmentation at the Battle of Endor, Karga served as a Guild Master and expeditor on Nevarro, connecting clients and hunters. Karga received a portion of the bounty from "the Client," a former Imperial, when bounty hunter Din Djarin completed a mission for him.

However, Karga was not merely a "pencil-pusher"; he was willing to undertake mercenary work himself. When Djarin violated the Bounty Hunter Code, Karga personally led the Nevarro Hunters against him. He also plotted to assassinate Djarin but changed his mind and killed his own associates instead. The Guild's pragmatism allowed it to survive, with high-ranking positions subject to turnover as Guild Masters, like any other member, could be killed.

Guild leadership was determined by elections. Candidates sent out holographic advertisements to other members in the lead-up to elections. Guild hunter Bossk ignored these communications, deleting them as they appeared. Bossk's father, Cradossk, was a prominent Guild member.

The Guild regulated bounties on criminals, thieves, murderers, and even bounty hunters. Zingo Gabnit, for whom the Guild offered 100,000 credits, was a bounty hunter listed by the Empire as a rebel collaborator and, more importantly to the Guild, a violator of the Bounty Hunter Code.

The Galactic Empire was a major Guild client. For high-level bounties, the Empire contacted guild hunters individually, based on Guild recommendations. Darth Vader personally offered Bossk a high-level bounty. Although Bossk faced technical issues that prevented him from locating the rendezvous coordinates with Vader's flagship, he refrained from seeking Guild assistance to avoid alerting other hunters to the bounty.

The guild curated bounties for its members, serving as the regulatory body for the complicated and risky bounty hunting trade. Quarries were identified via individual holopucks, simple holographic devices displaying the quarry's image, name, and bounty payout. Used with a tracking fob, this information allowed Guild members to track down their quarry across the galaxy. Hunters accepted bounties upon picking up these devices at Guild hubs and then proceeded with their hunt.

Guild members were required to adhere to the Bounty Hunter Code. During the Empire's reign, the guild was authorized by the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations to issue Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates, which allowed holders to operate as licensed hunters on Imperial worlds and access the Imperial Enforcement DataCore at posting agencies.

Guild members were obligated to uphold the Bounty Hunter Code, which prohibited killing fellow hunters or stealing their bounties. The Code also forbade hunters from inquiring about their bounties after delivery, requiring immediate forgetting of events between acceptance and delivery. Additionally, when the guild assigned a member to pursue a government bounty, only that hunter was authorized to pursue that specific target. Despite these restrictions, Beilert Valance was known for disregarding the Code. Around 9 ABY, a galactic recession resulted in exceptionally low bounties, leading to high-value targets being assigned to multiple hunters at the client's request or the local Guild boss's discretion.

Valance's violations of the Guild code made him a valid target for other members. While the Guild's bureaucracy enforced policies, Vukorah, a General in the Unbroken Clan criminal syndicate, could bypass it with credits. Even after the Alliance to Restore the Republic's victory at the Battle of Yavin, the guild did not publish an official policy on accepting rebel jobs. Consequently, Cynabar's InfoNet advised independent hunters willing to work with the Alliance to deal only with third-party bounty brokers.

During the Nihil conflict of the High Republic Era, Lourna Dee, a former Tempest Runner of the Nihil marauders, established a bounty guild called the Tempest Breakers with her former Nihil subordinate Quin. Bossk, a Trandoshan known for hunting Wookiees, was a Bounty Hunters' Guild member during the Clone Wars. This information was known to Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, who specialized in undercover operations.

In the early Imperial Era, Ciddarin Scaleback used his Guild contacts to gather information about bounty hunter Fennec Shand as part of a deal with Clone Force 99.

During the Imperial Era, the Bounty Hunters' Guild had the authority to issue Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates to its members, granting them access to the Imperial Enforcement Datacore. Guild member Bossk accepted bounties within Imperial territory. One hunt involved partnering with a street orphan named Ezra Bridger, leading to the HoloNet News reporting Bossk's "courageous" actions and portraying him as a hero of justice.

During the Galactic Civil War, Alliance Intelligence agent Cassian Andor provided an assessment of the Guild to General Davits Draven in The Rebel Files. The Rebel Alliance, seeking allies, discovered through a Guild agent that sentiment among hunters was increasingly negative towards the Rebellion. As the Empire increasingly used Guild services against the Rebellion, Andor concluded that "Cradossk is making a killing" and that the Alliance should seek support from other factions.

After leaving Imperial service, Beilert Valance became a bounty hunter and began stealing bounties from Guild members, violating the Bounty Hunter Code. Xonr, a Guild member, confronted him along with other hunters about the stolen bounties, but Valance, who had lured them there, killed them.

Following the Battle of Hoth, Darth Vader personally offered a bounty on the Millennium Falcon, attracting Guild hunters Bossk, Dengar, Boba Fett, IG-88, 4-LOM, and Zuckuss, who were invited to the bridge of the Imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor. Admiral Firmus Piett, leader of Vader's personal starfleet, expressed his distaste for the Empire's use of Guild hunters, referring to them as "scum" to a subordinate while on duty aboard the Executor's bridge.

After the Empire's major defeat at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Rebel Alliance became the New Republic. Dengar believed the new government threatened the bounty hunting trade and wanted to form a bounty hunter union. His prediction began to materialize in 5 ABY after the attack on Chandrila, as the New Republic, seeking to project strength, ceased hiring bounty hunters. Later that year, the Empire fell at the Battle of Jakku.

Around 9 ABY, a galactic recession led to exceptionally low bounties, making the profession less appealing. Consequently, high-value targets might be assigned to multiple hunters with identical tracking fobs, either at the client's request or the local Guild boss's discretion. By 9 ABY, the guild no longer operated on Tatooine, but the Nevarro Hunters subdivision maintained operations on the volcanic world of Nevarro during the early New Republic period, including in 9 ABY. Nevarro had been used as a bounty-collection spot during the Imperial Era, but the planet remained under Imperial control until the end of the Galactic Civil War. During the early New Republic Era, it was considered a hive for bounty hunters.

A disgraced magistrate named Greef Karga managed operations from the cantina in the city as a Guild Master. In 9 ABY, all bounty hunters operating from Nevarro were hired by a member of an Imperial remnant known as "the Client" to capture or kill "the asset," a target held by a company of Nikto mercenaries at their encampment on Arvala-7. Two Guild members, the droid IG-11 and a Mandalorian Din Djarin, arrived at the encampment, eliminated the mercenaries, and discovered the asset was an infant of the same species as Jedi Grand Master Yoda. Djarin, wanting to keep the Child alive, shot IG-11 in the head to prevent him from killing it.

After returning to his ship with the Child, the Mandalorian was attacked by three Trandoshan bounty hunters, who were also from the Guild and sought to kill the Child. Djarin defeated them, repaired his ship, and returned to Nevarro to hand the Child over to the Client. The rest of the Guild despised the Mandalorian for bringing the Child back first, though Karga praised him as his best bounty hunter.

However, having grown attached to the Child, Djarin returned to the Client's facility and stole the infant back. After their tracking fobs reactivated, the Guild members on Nevarro, led by Karga, confronted the Mandalorian. Djarin fought them, killing several before being pinned down. His Mandalorian allies then arrived and began eliminating the other bounty hunters. Karga attempted to seize the Child at the Mandalorian's ship but was shot by Djarin, who escaped the planet. Karga survived thanks to a piece of beskar hidden in his jacket.

With Djarin now a fugitive alongside the Child, the Client seized control of the Guild's operations on Nevarro, effectively occupying the city. A wave of bounty hunters was unleashed to hunt down the pair. One such hunter, a Kubaz bounty hunter, managed to locate them on the planet Sorgan, only to be fatally shot by Cara Dune, a former rebel shock trooper. Another bounty hunter, Riot Mar, also tracked down the Mandalorian and engaged him in a chase aboard his Bounty Hunter Fighter. However, Djarin outmaneuvered Mar, destroying his ship and eliminating him in the process.

Having so far eluded the Guild's pursuit, Karga made contact with Djarin, feigning a desire to betray the Client. His true intention, however, was to assassinate the bounty hunter and deliver the Child to the Client. Accompanied by three Guild members loyal to him, Karga rendezvoused with the Mandalorian in the Lava fields of Nevarro. Djarin brought his own reinforcements: Dune and the Ugnaught Kuiil. The two groups commenced their journey towards the city, establishing a camp for the night. During the night, they were ambushed by several native reptavians, resulting in the death of one of Karga's bounty hunters. Karga himself was poisoned by one of the creatures, but the Child intervened, utilizing Force healing to save his life.

As a result of the previous night's events, Karga experienced a change of heart. The following day, his remaining two bounty hunters attempted to assassinate the Mandalorian as they approached the city on Nevarro. Karga swiftly eliminated both of them, revealing to Djarin his original plan to kill him. The Mandalorian then decided to proceed with Karga's initial scheme, which involved assassinating the Client. Karga escorted Dune and a restrained Djarin to the city's cantina to confront the Client. However, before they could carry out their plan, the Client's superior, Moff Gideon, deployed his death troopers to eliminate them before confronting Karga and the others with a battalion.

Although Karga and his allies, now reinforced by IG-11, who had been reprogrammed by Kuill and was carrying the Child with him due to the Ugnaught's death at the hands of Imperial scout troopers, engaged the stormtroopers, they were ultimately forced to retreat into the cantina. They escaped into the Nevarro sewers in an attempt to reach the Mandalorian covert, only to discover that the Mandalorians had been massacred. Djarin confronted Karga, demanding to know if the guild was responsible for the genocide. Karga denied any involvement, explaining that the bounty hunters had abandoned Nevarro after the Child's rescue. The Armorer then arrived, confirming Karga's account and revealing that the Imperials were behind the massacre.

During their meeting with the Armorer, who tasked Djarin with discovering the Child's species and provided him with a jetpack, IG-11 neutralized an advance Imperial team that had infiltrated the sewers. With the exception of the Armorer, the group then departed, seeking to escape to the lava fields via a boat. However, Djarin noticed a platoon's worth of stormtroopers positioned at their exit. Adhering to its new nanny droid programming, which prioritized protecting the Child and preventing its own capture, the former bounty droid self-destructed to eliminate the Imperial troops.

Subsequently, Gideon arrived in his Outland TIE fighter, but Djarin utilized the jetpack to reach the starfighter and brought it down with a bomb. Djarin then reunited with his comrades, where Karga, impressed by the hunter's actions, remarked that his bounty rates had increased. Dune, intending to remain on Nevarro, and Karga both believed that the planet had been purged of its Imperial occupiers. Consequently, Karga envisioned the guild's return to the planet, which he hoped would restore its respectability. Although Djarin disagreed, predicting that the world would revert to a bounty hunter haven, Karga countered by stating that some of his favorite people were hunters. He offered Dune a position in the guild as his enforcer and extended an invitation to Djarin to rejoin, assuring the Mandalorian that he would now have access to any job he desired. Djarin declined, choosing instead to embark on a quest to find the Child's species, as instructed by the Armorer.

As he and the infant departed the planet, Karga and Dune were returning to Nevarro city. Unbeknownst to them, Gideon had survived the crash of his TIE, and his remnant continued operations in an Imperial base situated away from the city. Rather than allowing the planet to become a haven for the Guild once more, Karga and Dune, who became the city's marshal, dedicated themselves to cleansing the planet and restoring its respectability. The cantina where the bounty hunters had once gathered was even transformed into a school.

By the time of the Resistance, the Bounty Hunters' Guild had reorganized into an organization that Resistance Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo considered a potential ally against the First Order, an Imperial remnant with strong ideological convictions that Caluan Ematt, another member of the Resistance, suspected was the reason for the Order's reluctance to engage in business with the guild. Ematt reluctantly concurred with Holdo's assertion in The Rebel Files that the Resistance could forge a successful alliance with the guild.

Decades earlier, following the Empire's defeat in the Battle of Endor, Guild hunter Seleno Chandro ultimately left the organization as he became known for capturing Imperial fugitives. This reputation instilled in the former Guild hunter a fear of reprisals from the First Order, although Chandro answered the Resistance's call for assistance over Exegol and contributed to the destruction of the Sith Order.

The Bounty Hunters' Guild was initially mentioned in the 2014 canon junior novel titled Ezra's Gamble, authored by Ryder Windham. Its first on-screen appearance was in Chapter 1 of The Mandalorian, a 2019 television series created by Jon Favreau and directed by Dave Filoni, which premiered on November 12, 2019. The Guild's origins can be traced back to The Mandalorian Armor, a 1998 Star Wars Legends novel penned by K. W. Jeter.