For me it's like:
Bandits = Mob
Renegades = Actual bandits

virgin bandit skull vs chad renegade scorpion

Renegades in a nutshell:
"I don't know who I am, I don't know why I'm here, I just know that I must kill."

It’s so fun to play as Renegades in Anomaly. Either you can stay in the Great Swamp and fight Clear Sky, or head to Dark Valley and chill with the bandits

Another thing to note is that the injured bandit is, well, a bandit. But the renegades behind them are... renegades. This implies they shot the guy themselves

I always saw the Renegades as the worst of the worst the zone had to offer. The people who were too sick and twisted to be Mercs or Bandits and had been kicked out by them. Eventually they become this gathering point for all of the outcasts of the factions with the exception of Monolith. The Bandits will rob you but generally if you just give them what they want, you have a pretty good chance of walking away with you life, but the Renegades will just kill you or worse and then take all your shit

I imagine them as the sort of people who just love war and killing. Seen as too violent or unstable by their previous factions.

Renegades have the coolest patch, you can't convince me otherwise.

I always considered them as power or money hungry bandits who decided they didn't get enough from the bandits. Awesome video and i'm exited for more renegade "lore".

I like how this man really gets how the zone works, i play a lot of stalker and still am just confused following the map doing missions and being in awe with the whole place and characters

The stalkers explore deep into the zone to find better artifacts and sell them for greater profit. Bandits stay in the  border of the zone to steal the money from the stalkers. Maybe the Renegades are a little smarter and they know the value off goods and artifacts is more than money. Thats why they dont stay in one place like normal bandits, they explore the whole zone, looking for the greatest treasures the zone can offer, and the unlucky people who carry these treasures. Be careful stalker, maybe someday when youre returning to camp with good loot you may  find the renegades, or they may find you. Good hunting, stalker. Also, I really like the campfire story videos,where can the other stalkers share their campfire story with you? For future videos.

I believe the red forest renegades might be remnants from the dark stalkers/sin.

I swear, clear sky is like "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Wars" or something cause the amount of fighting, killing, warfare, and less scary tone in favor of huge firefights. I love the game truly and think its an important game to play but its sooooo different from the vibe of the other games, at least until the ending section of the game that I thought was amazing

My own fan lore for them is that their stalkers who have been kicked out or left their own factions for various reasons, they're less of a united faction and more like various war bands sticking together for mutual survival. After the events of clear sky the renegades would unite under a stalker name ogre and take over the old base of clear sky securing their area in the swamps.

The renegades logo its my favourite

I kinda' have this theory popped up: Renegades basically are the outcasts of all other factions whose too crazy/dangerous to be bandits. They are stripped of all their faction's equipment, left with the most barebone stuff to survive, have nowhere to go but the crappiest place cuz pretty much got shot on sight (Great Swamp with lethal anomalies, radiation and mutants and fps too lol).
Some of the skilled ventured to Red Forest, somehow killed a bunch of mercs on the way (probably went the agroprom > yantar > dead city > army warehouse route) and made a base there, hence their equipments are better (fenced suits)
Later on they got surrounded by Monoliths and have no choice but surrender and get brainwashed into Sin.
Well, sorry if I get the lore and stuff from anomaly mixed up in this theory, but I think it's pretty cool ^^

I think of the renegades as the scum of the zone. That's why there's so few of them. It's filled with people that nobody else wanted around them for one reason or another. So the renegades aren't a group, it's just more of a term for the outcasts and worst people in the zone. They hang around each other, but they're not all connected. The swamp renegades, bridge renegades, and forest renegades all behave independently of each other. So those three are probably just 3 different groups of horrible people with no knowledge of each other

The meaning for the word Renegade literally supports your theory that they are bandits who left the Bandit faction or maybe multiple factions. I assume it's like Loners but they do the big bad

Renegade - having deserted a faith, cause, or religion for a hostile one

In Anomaly Renegades are back, they appear in small numbers around the Great Swamp area
I always thought they are either Clear Sky or Military deserters who didn't join Bandits or Loners

I found out recently that the Renegades appear in Stalker 2. There's a scorpion logo on a bandit base in Red Forest!