Augs are rogue AI hosts whose bodies are controlled by a dangerous chip, and the station-wide response is shoot on sight. That policy is not a rumour, but it applies only to a confirmed host — an uncertain customer should be completed or refused, not shot.
On this page
Probably Stolen how to spot augs: the two lists
The in-game reference is the Security Department Augmented Identification Guide, split into two lists:
| List | Tells |
|---|---|
Visual features | Visible aug chip, unusual pupils, uncanny expression |
Non-visual features | Unnatural stillness, twitching, outfit not matching their faction, robotic vocabulary, overly formal phrasing |
Identification is a visual and behavioural judgement made during the customer interaction rather than a separate minigame, and the guide's standing advice is to trust the cues your build actually surfaces — a changed sprite, a prompt or a specific animation — rather than inventing clues that are not there.
Dr. Jackson sells an Aug scanner that assists with identification, though its stock is tied to Security's threat state, since a patch allowed Security to declare the Aug threat over.
The order to work in at the counter
Check protected NPCs first.
The Mentor, Dr. Jackson, Joe Wild and other essential customers are non-shootable and were made protected in Patch 48.3.10.
Compare the face against wanted posters.
Because a match is a bounty-reporting decision and not an automatic execution.
Look for the tells your build highlights.
When you are genuinely uncertain, complete or refuse.
Do not fire — uncertainty is not a kill prompt.
After firing, reassess the shop.
Check rent, attractiveness and whether the next customer is still human.
What each outcome costs
| Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
Confirmed Aug executed | Policy is satisfied and the kidnapping pipeline cannot continue through that host |
Wanted human reported | A bounty with 100 credits an observed payout, an incident slip, and possible retaliatory threats |
Wrong person shot | A paying customer, faction contact or regular is dead: income is lost and attractiveness drops |
Wrong Aug accusation | The same cost as a wrong shot, without the bounty |
Aug missed | The kidnapping threat stays active |
Shooting the wrong person kills a paying customer, a faction contact or a regular, which costs income and lowers attractiveness — and a wrong Aug accusation carries the same cost without the bounty. A wanted human should be reported rather than shot, and the customer reactions page covers how that report is made.
Who answers for a body
Both Security and the street factions broadly support shooting a confirmed Aug, while every faction's answer to a confirmed host is shoot on sight regardless of which faction the host nominally belongs to. Retaliation after a wrong call tends to arrive later rather than immediately, sometimes as a threat raised after the customer has already left — the station factions page covers who moves against you and why.