Scav droids were a specific type of droid that the Nihil marauder group made use of during the High Republic Era. These droids, created by Zeetar, a Nihil engineer who rose to become one of the three Tempest Runners within the organization, were deployed during the pirates' raids to gather stolen goods. These droids possessed crablike bodies and manipulator arms that they used to take apart machinery. The Nihil put scav droids to use on Rekelos, during an attack targeting the Cyclor Shipyards, and in an attack perpetrated against the Republic Fair located on the planet Valo.
These scav droids were specifically designed and built to disassemble, salvage, and pilfer anything the Nihil required. Pan Eyta, a former Tempest Runner, also utilized scav droids, constructing them from older droid models due to limited resources, within the crew he commanded after being betrayed by Eye Marchion Ro and fellow Runner Lourna Dee. Despite their primary function being disassembly, the slicer named Quin managed to compel scav droids to repair technological devices.
The initial concept for scav droids originated in Cavan Scott's initial story idea for The High Republic (2021) 1. In this early concept, they were wolf-sized droids that the Nihil deployed to scavenge technology from satellites. They maintained the crab-like design that was later canonized. The fight scene in that story, which would have featured Keeve Trennis battling Scav droids in space, was later repurposed by Scott for The High Republic (2023) 4.