This page includes information about Notoriety in Saints Row, including how to gain and lose Notoriety.
Make a nuisance of yourself and you’ll earn Notoriety. Gain enough Notoriety and various rival gangs will decide to rid themselves of the irritant.
(1 of 3) You’ll earn the ire of the police by damaging civilians and their vehicles.
How to Gain Notoriety¶
Your current Notoriety is indicated by segmented bars around the minimap on the lower left of the screen, with police Notoriety being a series of white segmented bars on the lower side of the minimap and gang Notoriety being orange (Panteros), pink (Idols) or blue (Marshall) segmented bars on the upper side of the minimap. If you don’t have a full segment of Notoriety you haven’t provoked the relevant faction into action, but once a segment is full you’ll be attacked on site by members of that faction, they’ll pursue you in vehicles, and call for reinforcements if they see you.
As far as the police are concerned, vandalism and assault are the most common ways you’ll gain Notoriety, although the laws in Santo Ileso are fairly lax - you can generally get away with bowling over numerous pedestrians and damaging or destroying several vehicles before you earn the ire of the police, provided you’re not actively harming the police or their vehicles. For all intents and purposes, you’ll likely accrue some Notoriety just by driving around, the faster (and hence, the less cautiously) you drive, the more Notoriety you’ll gain.
Gangs are a lot more selective. You’ll earn Notoriety for attacking them and their vehicles, or by being in restricted areas, usually near Threats or other objectives. Typically rival gangs run hot and cold - you either provoke them into attacking outright, or you won’t move the Notoriety bar at all. Assault a gang member, damage their vehicle, or even just drive recklessly enough to cause them to dodge your vehicle and you’ll gain a segment of Notoriety.
(1 of 2) While difficult, it’s possible to kill your way to lower Notoriety - just damage enemies as they call for reinforcements.
While difficult, it’s possible to kill your way to lower Notoriety - just damage enemies as they call for reinforcements. (left), It’s far easier to lose Notoriety by escaping an using a vehicle - sideswipe your pursuers out of existence and you’re golden. (right)
How to Lose Notoriety¶
Notoriety degrades over time (especially for the police, when you don’t yet have a full segment of Notoriety), but once you have a segment of Notoriety, it becomes harder to shed Notoriety. You typically will not lose Notoriety while actively being engaged or pursued by a hostile faction, and since you’ll likely be trying to defend yourself, you’ll only earn more Notoriety as time goes on and the body count rises. This creates a feedback loop of violence that can usually be broken in two ways: get in a vehicle and escape, or escalate until you max out Notoriety. Once you’re at five segments of Notoriety, a faction miniboss will spawn - defeat this powerful foe and the faction will cut their losses and your Notoriety will be reset.
When it comes to escaping, it’s worth noting that Notoriety is somewhat different in Saints Row (2022) as compared to past games. In earlier games enemies would typically spawn endlessly, but in Saints Row (2022) it is possible - if not always easy - to kill your way out of trouble. Enemies will call for reinforcements (especially the police, who seem to be quite adept at this). If you damage the caller, you’ll interrupt them, and if you can kill all nearby enemies without any reinforcements being summoned, you should be able to just lie low until your Notoriety resets.
In practice, however, it’s easier to get in a vehicle of some description and book it, but there are changes here, too. While it’s possible to simply outrun your pursuers, they’re uncommonly good at keeping up with you, regardless of how your respective vehicles compare. Vehicular pursuers are also surprisingly finite, especially on lower Notoriety tiers, so while outrunning your foes is possible, it’s arguably better to simply defeat them in vehicular combat, which will functionally end the pursuit. A few good sideswipes - especially if you have the Shiny & Chrome Perk - will end matters favorably enough, and as long as you keep moving and avoid provoking any calls for reinforcements, you should be able to eliminate all your immediate pursuers, making escape a matter of simply driving until the Notoriety bars vanish.
It’s worth noting that you can’t always shed Notoriety, especially in Missions and Ventures, where Notoriety is often used as a difficulty mechanic to justify sending an endless supply of hostile enemies at you.
Should your Notoriety reach level 5 a faction-specific miniboss will be deployed.
Notoriety Tiers¶
There are five tiers of Notoriety (technically six, if you want to count having some Notoriety but less than a full segment), and the more tiers of Notoriety you earn, the more violent the enemy’s response will be. Typically you should expect more enemies - including more [Tough enemies] - the more Notoriety tiers you have, as well as more numerous and more dangerous vehicles enemies will arrive in. The exact types of vehicles each faction will utilize varies by faction, but at higher Notoriety tiers pretty much every faction will deploy roadblocks, and some may even include aircraft and watercraft.
In the earlier stages of the game, Notoriety will be capped at three segments, so the amount of trouble you can get into early on is limited.
If you hit five segments of Notoriety, a faction-specific miniboss will appear - defeat it and you will reset your Notoriety.
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