S.T.A.L.K.E.R :(pc)faq/walkthrough

S.T.A.L.K.E.R:(pc)faq/walkthrough
==================================


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Accident History
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From http://www.world-nuclear.org

"The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that
was operated with inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard for
safety. The resulting steam explosion and fire released at least five percent
of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind. 28 people
died within four months from radiation or thermal burns, 19 more persons have
died (since 2004), and there have been around nine deaths from thyroid cancer
apparently due to the accident: total 56 fatalities as of 2004. An
authoritative UN report in 2000 concluded that there is no scientific evidence
of any significant radiation-related health effects to most people exposed.
This was confirmed in a very thorough 2005 study."

International Atomic Energy Agency 2005 Report:

http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Chernobyl/chernobyl.pdf

"The Chernobyl unit 4 is now enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was
erected quickly to allow continuing operation of the other reactors at the
plant. However, the structure is neither strong nor durable and there are
plans for its reconstruction. The international Shelter Implementation Plan
involved raising US$715 million for remedial work including removal of the
fuel-containing materials. Workers and their families now live in a new town,
Slavutich, 30 km from the plant. This was built following the evacuation of
Pripyat, which was just 3 km away."



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Basics - Bay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay ....
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The character you play is Strelok; end-spoiler you rip-off artist.
All your basics are belong to us.

Your character, the "Marked One" starts off in a small fallout shelter under
the fictional village of Cordon, just inside the Zone. As the introductory
cinema shows, the main character is an amnesiac with the hazy quest of killing
a stalker named "Strelok". Stalker blends a lot of tested play mechanics and
conceptual theories into a workable (and interesting) first person action-
adventure.

It is not a Thief clone (that's so 1998), but it would more in tune with Deux
Ex -- and that's a stretch, since some elements from System Shock are taken
into account. The character is susceptible to bleeding (by wounds) so you
don't want to be fighting at all (unless you need to). Sniping and stealth are
the key to success. If you must attack, make sure you do it without being
heard, and if you are, do it brutally so that there's fewer chances of
retaliation.

There are meters on the bottom left that tell you about your stance, as well
as your visbility and level of noise being made. The visibility meter is not
like Thief -- it represents if someone notices your character. If it fills up
completely, you are "seen" and enemies gang rape you. The sound meter from the
excellent Chaos Theory, and pretty much works in the same fashion -- if you
make too much noise, enemies turn towards the noise, discover your character,
and ass-rape you. You want to keep both as low (or zero) as possible when you
are skulking around hostiles. When you can't avoid a fight, you fight dirty,
using the radioactive anomalies to kill enemies, explosives, sniping, and
silent weapons.

There are two levels of crouching. Half-crouch and full crouch, which can only
be done during half-crouch. The full crouch modifier key can force a standing
player to walk (less noise). If you can, reduce the amount of grass to near
zero in the options, which decreases the amount of foliage that can crunch and
give you away. At the same time, increase the visibility distance to the
maximum, so you can see what's ahead of you. Details and other stuff
like "textures" are not terribly important to gameplay (will notify if
different).

By all means, if the game is too complex and you're not interested in saving
every three steps, you should ramp the difficulty to "novice" and get a hang
of the game first. Being macho and playing an intrisically hard game on a
harder difficulty means you're pretty stupid. But by all means, please do that
and simalcrum will reap what you leave behind, if you know what I mean and I
think you do. Huhuhuhuhuhuu.

Don't forget to back-up the save with a "back-up" save. Or else you will
regret it. PCs have great storage power. At each area, it would be helpful to
make an "area save" where you can revisit areas after doing some of the main
missions.

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Health Sytem - It's so Russian
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Your character will need to eat food to stave off hunger, and use bandages to
stave off severe bleeding. Always scavenge enough to have a supply. Bandages
stop the bleeding and recover about 5 percent of your life (pro-rated if
artifacts adjust it). Once bleeding stops, you can use medikits or food to
recover the remaining life, or simply heal slowly by standing still. Bleeding
can get more severe over time, so stopping it early means less life lost.

However, if you have time to bleed like Jesse Ventura, then you can fight a
little bit more and not worry too much. However, if you don't stop the
bleeding, you will eventually die (there is no visual vision fuzz to warn you
of that -- something that needs to be in the sequel).

Health can only be increased from using artifacts on the belt. Some artifacts
in the middle of the game world (starting with Rostok Wildlands) will greatly
increase your health at a fraction of the penalty.

Aside from bandages, there are blue medikits that heal and stop bleeding. The
yellow medikit immunizes you to radiation for a little while and heals you.
The red medikits are the most common; buy a few if you are low (low = 10 in
this game) but don't go overboard. Bandages are more important to stop the
bleeding than medikits, so always have plenty of those around. Plenty means
about 30 to 50 bandages.

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Numpad of Time - Better than that Iranian dude's knife
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Time can be sped up or moved back to "real-time". It's suggested you leave it
on real-time so you can deal with hunger, bleeding and wounds normally. On the
Number Pad, the / and * keys speed up and slow down time. You can press one
key several times and go into your subscreen to check the clock (lower left).
A fast timer means you sped up time. You can only change time when you are
playing (not paused or in the inventory).

You cannot bind other keys to these functions. Unbinding all keys (via the
console) means you're screwed. If you whine to simalcrum about binding and
unbinding your keys by accident, consider yourself and your email open to
offers from Mrs. Alfred Mbwaze, wife of the late Alfred Mbwaze, from Nigeria.

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Inventory System - So real you wanna go postal
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Initially, you want to take everything. After a while, say having squirmed
past the railroad in Cordon, you will have to be selective in where you leave
your items. The reason is once you take more than 50.0 kilos of items, your
performance will degrade. Can't have that in battle. As you know, carrying
50.0 kilos is like carrying a petite framed Asian pornstar up a flight of
stairs. You cannot fight or move fast and exhaustion sets in quickly (meaning
you get shot in the head and you die). However, you need to make such trips
with heavy loads after "pacifying" an area so you can bring your logisitics
closer to where you are fighting. It's a long and boring process, but marked
by sporadic gun fire, attacks from mutants, and opportunities to scavenge
(just like in the Road Warrior).

For each area, a blue box or similar stash can be used for items (if you ever
return there of course). Use them as you progress through towards the nuclear
power plant. Simalcrum will mention some of them as you pass by.

You cannot move at all once you take on 60.0 kilos of items and must drop
items to move. For the best weight, 25.0 of equipment is "light" and mostly
for recon and scouting. 35.0 kilos of weight is fairly heavy (you have to
allot for treasure and items to be carried out) but if you plan not to move
too much from a supply box, you can even go up to 40.0 kilos. Note even if
49.9 kilos is "under the limit", your character will tire faster carrying 49
kilos instead of 29 kilos.

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Weapons - John Lee sez "Ill need guns"
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Weapons wear out (think of it as "weapon durability" from fantasy games). The
green condition bar for each weapon marks its reliability, damage, range, and
other stats. The worse a weapon, the more often it will jam, miss, and
otherwise be ineffective. With so many weapons in the Zone, you can afford to
take what you want and leave the rest -- just like Kim Catrall's salad bar.
Just keep in mind some weapon components are fused with weapons, but some are
not (sniper scopes, EGLM, silencers). Keep only the best weapons, or the
weapons where ammo is most plentiful and you're set.

For the first part of the game (when you are trying to get to Fox), take on a
handgun and a shotgun. Before you transition into Garbage, see if you can
ambush the soldiers at the fallen bridge and take them out (one by one is
good) and take their AKSUs. As you move towards Agroprom, you should find the
soldiers' AKM74/2 very handy. In fact, you find a special AKM74/2 in Strelok's
sewer room. Keep that around and use it when you have to. You basically want
to keep a scope and when you find one later, the EGLM for the AK series. As
the weapons wear out, you detach the attachments and use them on a
replacement. Very practical until you cross into the army warehouses (Freedom
Base) or enter the wildlands west of Rostok. Even then, you will want a scoped
rifle of some sort; all those rounds for the grenade launcher you want to save
up for the final assault on the nuclear power plant (it's a damned fortress).
Unless you have some magic stash of grenade rounds, having about 10 shots is
about the average unless you plan to visit every stash in the whole game (even
then, it'll be about 10 rounds per launcher type).

Until you can enter the city of Rostok (after clearing the mission at
Agroprom), you will not be able to grab any powerful NATO guns. Stick with the
trusty Obakan and scoped AKM 74/2 until then. Once you reach the Warehouses,
do the faction glitch, or simply not do any of the Duty/Freedom missions
(except the ones that are against neutral parties) to keep them neutral
towards you. Sooner or later, the game will spawn some random patrol of
another faction and bodies will drop. That's your cue to harvest the dead.

For the early parts of the game (practically the hardest time of your Stalker
experience, aside from the final parts), your primary weapon should be an
assault rifle and not even bother with the handgun (takes weight). The shotgun
is basically your "sidearm" for Cordon, Garbage, Agroprom, and Dark Valley --
anything that gets close or if you do not want to expend rifle ammo on, you
shotgun. If you need to use more than 20 shells to kill an enemy, you're
either missing, not close enough, or in trouble. For all other human enemies,
you drop them with semiautomatic fire from your rifle. The only time you may
want to have a handgun again is when you find a suitably powerful handgun
(like Big Ben or a Martha). The extra weight you use for the handgun and ammo
is better used for more rounds for your assault rifle or more bandages.

When you reach the areas of the Wildlands or Warehouses and beyond, your
choice of weapons will depend if the enemies you fight will have Russian,
NATO, or the PAB/SP ammo (the heavy ammo). Keep that in mind as you journey
the Zone; it's this reason alone that Rostok and the Warehouses should be
kept "as quiet as possible" so you have a peaceful area to stash your items
and change your equipment to suit the enemies you are fighting.

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Armor - Zone protection
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As for armor, you will not have have access to anything better until you
manage to rescue Nimble in the first mission, and even then, that "armor" you
find (Bandit suit) is not much better than you starting jacket (good luck
getting the Merc Suit in Agroprom while under siege). Consider quickly and
quietly doing the main story missions so you can access the city of Rostok and
buy the "Stalker suit", which offers better protection. Alternately, you can
attempt to head into Dark Valley and raid Borov's base for the free Duty suit
in his storage cellar. Until you get to Lake Yantar and get a proper suit of
anti-rad armor, you will find things very tough when you're so vulnerable.

Photec (Norway):
At the very beginning of the game you talk to Wolf. Behind Wolf there is a
ladder. Climb the ladder and go on to the right hand ledge before you get to
the second level of the building. Run on the roof and jump to the nearby
building (the one closer to the road). Go to the left hand side of the roof,
find an opening and destroy the crate there. This makes it possible to get the
armour hidden within, which is quite superior to the others you can find at
that point.

You should try that out -- a free armor suit right at the beginning will put
you far ahead of the game. By the time you actually reach Rostok, you may have
to buy replacement armor suit, but that's what money is for. Some armors have
night vision (default "N") as well as the ubiquitous headlamp (default "L").
So far, they are:

-- Stalker suit (buy at Rostok)
-- Duty suit (found in Borov's Dark Valley base)
-- SSP-99/SEVA suits (bought at Yantar)
-- SSP-99M Suit (trade Ghost's suit to Yantar professor)
-- Duty HEV suit (trade Bulldog grenade launcher to Duty Leader)

Armor is fairly resistant to being damaged; only through excessive wear and
usage will an armor's ability start to be reduced (by then, you should be done
with the game). Damaged armor will have their percentages reduced as they
accumulate more damage. Although you always can buy the Stalker suit, its
protection is only medium; you should really rely on the Duty HEV suit, SEVA
suit, or the best SSP-99M green spacesuit for Pripyat and Chernobyl. If you're
playing on the hardest difficulty level (not likely, without patches), stash
the rare and tough armors in safe spots at the Warehouse so you can have fresh
armor for your challenges at Pripyat and Chernobyl.

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Side Quests - Offers of Opportunity
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A note about side quests. Checked up with Chippy and simalcrum confirmed that
all the side quests are nothing but time consuming garbage. You can earn
rubles, artifacts, items, or scavenge what you need from the few enemies you
kill. Ammo is plentiful if you have the correct weapon around. Semiautomatic
fire at the enemy's head will usually drop them quickly. You just need to be
close enough for the shots to be accurate. You can do side missions if they
are on the way, but your backpack and strength never improves, so the hell
with that crap.

For sure though, you should talk to NPCs and ask for side quests; however,
there is a time limit on each job (once you take it) -- usually about 1 or 2
game days (your character does not sleep). If you obtain an item but fail to
return it, simply re-visit the NPC, ask about the jobs, and the side quest
will be there again. Complete side quests that are on the way, but don't go
out of your way to travel south all the way back to Cordon to get several
thousand rubles. There should be enough sidequests (that are along the way)
and rewards from main quests to keep your pocket well above glasnost levels.
Sell any artifacts that suck as well. Keep only the best ones to boost your
life and you should be able to withstand a few shots from afar without
dropping dead in a puddle of your own urine before you kill the hostile.

Any other item (or ammo) you need, you simply steal, or scavenge by killing
bandits, soldiers, and the eight billion secret stashes marked (purple
circles -- go nuts for purple circles -- EEEEEE!!!!!!) on your PDA. Don't
forget to break white briefcases and wood crates for items if you spot them.
In instances when you need to use boxes to get to places (like Strelok's
secret room under Agroprom) the boxes present will be unmovable and
unbreakable.

The only "side quests" you should consider doing are the "special missions"
from Duty and Freedom (their leaders) if they involve neutral parties.
Apparently they pay you back with useful armor, weapons, ammo, and other neat
stuff you cannot get anywhere else. Also, some "special missions" generate
items (or change the maps the quest will be on it seems); for example, the
Bulldog grenade launcher mission lets you grab a few Russian grenade rounds
for the Tunder and AKM EGLM. Unless you choose to complete that mission, the
launcher and ammo may not appear (or will be hard to find without a PDA
marker). A few of them will give you some great rare and useful artifacts and
ammo (without pissing off the other faction), so you should do them when you
have the time! Besides, are you really in a hurry to end the game by going to
Chernobyl?

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Area Guide - Cordon
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Aside from the "where the hell am I and why am I Russian?" you should have
little else to go on except survival. Someone wanted to kill you, but normal
people would leave the place and not come back. Unfortunately, it's not an
option for you, so get over it you loser. After talking to the Cordon
shopkeeper, you can head out. Your character has a knife, a handgun, and
binoculars. Note the junk you carry around is infinite and used mainly for
seeing where the anomalies are (enemies don't really react to tossed objects).

Main Quest Mission
"Nimble and the flash drive"

The first main quest has you talk to a guy named Wolf in the n00b (newbie)
village so you can locate the stalker "Nimble". Nimble has a flash drive for
the Cordon shopkeeper. Find Wolf in the village. He's the guy in black next to
the bonfire. He also has a side job (the boars and cache) that you can also
activate and complete when you have time.

After speaking to Wolf, you should do Photec's awesome tip on the Stalker
suit. Here it is again:

Photec (Norway):
At the very beginning of the game you talk to Wolf. Behind Wolf there is a
ladder. Climb the ladder and go on to the right hand ledge before you get to
the second level of the building. Run on the roof and jump to the nearby
building (the one closer to the road). Go to the left hand side of the roof,
find an opening and destroy the crate there. This makes it possible to get the
armour hidden within, which is quite superior to the others you can find at
that point.

Stephen Whittle (twiddle87) (gmail) (com)
You note in your Walkthrough that the items may be randomly spawned on certain
containers because people have discovered different armours in the hidden
crate near wolf - i have read in a number of other guides that the contents of
that container are changed in the updates released for the game - obviously it
was felt that a stalker suit that early in the game was unbalancing... thanks
for your guide, it's making interesting reading

Simalcrum sez: A randomizer rule can be placed on an object easily and is
plausible. Nevertheless, free fucking armor within 30 seconds of starting the
game. The only thing that beats that would be to have a nest of killer
radioactive cyborg mutant hookers, just like in Predator Concrete Jungle.

Once you have the free armor suit, sell your leather jacket armor to the
shopkeeper and get some more bandages. Head to the spot where his boys are
waiting. There are three neutral stalkers who help you. Unless you are an
absolute god with the keyboard and mouse, get them to attack the camp with
you. Even at a four against seven, your own character can take more vicious
and aggressive action by aiming for the heads of enemies, looting their bodies
for goods, and generally kicking ass. Unless you have some method to lure out
the military and clock them for an AKSU early on, this method is the safest
way of getting the quest done.

Listmail (peufeu):
Actually I got a merc's armor (a lot crappier) in Cordon... this is probably
randomized... and did Agroprom first so by the time I reached Strelok's place
my armor was in shreds (since I like to eat lead haha)
(If that happens, you can find another random armor) in Strelok's cache, in
the corner behind the big pipe, there is a wooden box... inside the wooden
box is a brand new stalker suit !

Simalcrum sez: This is disturbing, meaning spawned items (popped-out from item
boxes) may be randomized.

Once all seven enemies are dead (you can count, can't you?), aid any dying
neutral stalkers or let them alone (saves you resources). Loot the bodies of
enemies and friends alike and pick-up a few more items. Keep all the items,
and don't forget to unload the ammo from the weapons you take (except for the
weapons you keep). Resources are scarce in the zone!

Find Nimble by following his voice. He's in a building with a fire. Talk to
him, grab the flash drive, and get him to give you a side job (forget what,
but it's marked on your PDA). Head back to the Cordon shopkeeper and get your
rubles and a food item. Note - talk to Wolf for the artifact "jellyfish" after
rescuing Nimble.

If you speak to Nimble again, he will ask you to get an armor "Bandit suit" in
a cave east of where you found his kidnapped ass. The reward is not as great
as having slightly better armor, so you might want to keep the armor instead
(it's reward money or a shitty artifact you sell for .... money). Up to you,
but with the free Stalker suit (note this is for the intial release of the
game), you should be able to make the trade and not worry about it.

Main Quest Mission
"Meet the journeyman and cross the tracks"

There are five military soldiers at the fallen bridge in the middle of Cordon.
Occasionally, you might get enough enemies to spawn and kill them all, but
chances are they will be the survivors. Unless you wrangled an AKSU from one
of the soldiers on patrol in the south, you will be outgunned. The way through
would be by the old train tunnel west of the fallen bridge. To get through,
use the bolts to trigger the first half of the electric anomaly and sprint
(not run) to the box debris in the middle (it's a safe spot). Instead of the
tunnel, you can also attempt to go up and over the hill (across the tracks) by
climbing to the top of the hill and slipping through the crack in the fencing
(some guy named Tom Randolph mentioned this, but it's obvious if you scouted
with the binoculars). The only trouble is if the soldiers see you, you need to
sprint north with them chasing you. You also stand the chance to miss a Viper
5 SMG (spawned randomly with the dead guy) in the tunnel.

Assuming you stuck with the tunnel, you can rest at the midway rest point. Use
the bolts and again trigger the anomalies (you need three or four bolts per)
and chain detonate them. Sprint through the second half of the tunnel and
you'll be on the other side. Once you are, you won't be going back through
unless you want to brave the tunnel, sneak around the outpost (going up the
hill on the sides work), or blasting through the checkpoint (only a few of the
soldiers at the fallen bridge respawn if killed). Once you get past the
railroad, you are on the way to a new misson.

Wesha:
1) There's a good way to gun down the soldiers at the fallen bridge:
* Go to the tunnel
* Don't enter the tunnel; climb the slope instead.
* Walk along the barb wire toweards the bridge.
That will strategically position you just above the heads of the soldiers.
It's very easy to move in such a way that only one soldier is visible at a
time and gun them down, others can't see and thus shoot you, so you gun them
down one by one.

2) There's a missing section of barb wire on the east side of the bridge, and
I never had a problem getting through it.

3) There's a stash on the railroad platform on the west part of the tracks
(Thorns artifact that increases bleeding but eliminates radiation).

4) There's a stash (backpack) by the electic engine on the east side of the
tracks (leather suit)

Main Quest Mission
"Saving the stalker Fox"

Getting past the railroad will lead you to save a fellow named Fox. Go towards
his position and fight off the dogs attacking him. Once they are all dead, he
will point you towards his older brother. Head for the map known as Garbage.

Main Quest Mission
"Get the secret papers in Agroprom"

Getting to the papers requires a trip through Garbage -- which is a chore,
since there are plenty of dogs, a new Viper 5 machinegun you had no idea
about, and a lot of bandits on the road. For one thing, you can lug along the
AKSU you were using (although keep only the best one); the Viper 5 you can
stash at the Cordon checkpoint before you leave, since you can come back and
pick it up if you head this way again. Use the Viper 5 to get to the bandit
held checkpoint and don't be stingy with killing enemies to loot their corpse.
Note that the Viper 5 uses only +P and FMJ ammo so the standard ammo you
should stash, sell or discard.

If you manage to clear the enemies out at the north Cordon checkpoint, generic
neutral stalkers will be present the next time you appear. Stash any weapons
(including handguns) at the stash at the north Cordon checkpoint. Bring along
the AKSU and as much ammo as you think you will need (200 to 300 is good if
firing selectively). Bring grenades if you killed the soldiers and colelcted a
few.

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Area Guide - Garbage
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The central map known as Garbage has a few bugs (noticeably missions that
never finish since enemies keep respawning). There are three stash boxes you
should consider working with -- the one near the Cordon junction (the parking
lot with Bes); the box in the building that Seriy's gang inhabits; and the
stash box at the north Garbage checkpoint (the Duty faction checkpoint).

Although it's a long walk to all three, the one you need to worry about is the
one by Seriy since the Agroprom area is the next area you go to. You'll know
about Mole through Seriy. Fight cautiously (note the shop is all the way back
in Cordon), and loot the bodies for items. Use the stash box at Seriy's base
for storing your stuff. Later on, you will be able to move most of what you
store to another spot. Once you're done with Agromprom, start moving all your
stuff towards the stash box at the Duty checkpoint; you'll thank yourself
later.

Optional Method
"Dark Detour"

Try this detour instead, especially if you have not gotten a sniper scope yet.
Take an AKSU, ammo, healing items, anti-radiation doses, and a tin or two of
food. Head to the northeast area of Garbage and locate the node leading to
the "Dark Valley". You have to sprint through the rad zone, so do it quickly
and get to the node before you're too irradiated to recover.

Once you are in the Dark Valley, kill the bandit on the ground and speak to
the Duty faction soldier. Follow him to the ambush area and hide out of sight
(the PDA map will show the hostage -- behind the hostage will be the enemies).
Wait until the Duty soldier issues the fire command and brain his friend's
captors. In return, you get some valuable information about the area, and the
very vital "sniper scope". Since the scope cannot be damaged except through
explosives (you die anyway), you can keep it and use it on all manner of
rifles when you find them. There should be an AKM 74/2 on one of the escorting
guards. Head back to Garbage after this great find.

Although you can get sniper scopes (randomly) from enemies who spawn, this
scope is quest related and above all, easy to get. You only whack two enemies,
and the crap they carry is a bonus before you head back through Garbage to
Agroprom.

Main Quest Mission
"My meeting with Seriy"

Seriy's gang inhabits the west building in Garbage. Bandits continually attack
the camp if Bes is killed (and you do not close the quest by getting the
reward) or it could be a bug. Stow all your materials you don't need for a
gunfight in the box by the bonfire. Fight off the enemies until there are no
more. Sometimes, the game will bug, crash (or both) and cause the enemies to
spawn again despite "finishing" the task. In this case, you need to re-adjust
your approach.

If you have a shotgun, bring that along, but carry maybe 40 shells for it (you
need it twice in the Agroprom sewers). Head out, drop enemies in your way and
slide-slip the enemies by running if you can. Hit the transition (the cache at
Seriy's will fill you back later) and go into the Agroprom. Note that if Seriy
dies (usually happens after repeated assaults), his weapon is a silenced AKM
74/2, which might come in handy when you get attach your sniper scope to it.
Although scopes are common a little bit later in the game, you have to kill
enemies to get them (who are sniping at you for starters) or trade for one
later. This is the easiest scope you can get early on, and you can bring it
with you as you migrate with Russian weapons.

Extra Hot Shit!!
Note that the camp in the parking lot (Bes' camp) is also fighting of a
similar group of bandits, which was previously mistaken for Seriy's camp (hey,
this is Russia -- everyone looks alike to simalcrum ...)

Frank Keough (Lewiston, Maine):
Silencer Attachment: Before you go over and speak to the character and start
the fight, run down the row of vehicles on the right side of the car park.
The last vehicle on the right has an enclosed box body and what appears to be
a ramp pulled up inside of it. Jump up into the truck and move around until
you can see under the ramp. There you will find a weapon silencer kit. It
doesn't work on any of the AK-variant weapons, but works fine on the Viper SMG
and the TSR 301. I haven't gotten far enough to try it on any other rifles;
nor have I tried it on pistols since I don't waste time / space carrying
one. (I have now since completed the game, and the silencer works only on
these two weapons.)

Dawnrazor73 (IGN)
I have found that the silencer fits on the Fort-12Mk2, Fort-15, Big Ben, Viper
5, and the TRs 301... and I still have to test out a few other Assault Rifles
but so far I've tried most of the weapons available. I initially thought that
the silencer, despite the description, only worked with a Viper 5 but after
gathering some different firearms I tried all of them... and the result is
what I posted above. I still need to test a few more weapons such as the VLA,
Tunder, and FT 200M. Just wanted to make clear that I am talking about the
item simply called "Silencer" that has the description "An effective silencer
made by Zone gunsmiths. The kit includes a set of adapters for weapons of any
calibre"... I am not sure if there are other detachable silencers in STALKER.

Simalcrum sez: Dees ees cool. Explains the random post about silencer
attachments on some message board. Silenced sniping weapons will make the
TSR301 much more useful (and may make it your best NATO weapon -- light and
lethal) since silenced weapons do not alert enemies to the gunfire (unless you
miss the headshot). If you want to see silenced weapons at work early, you can
knife someone around the corner at the newbie camp, or use a PB-1 handgun
found in a box near the dying guy (north of Cordon) and plug one of the
soldiers at the southern checkpoint when his back is turned; enemies nearby do
not react until they see turn around and see the dead body.

Frank Keough (Lewiston, Maine):
Combat tip: Once you have equipped the silencer you can move forward and
ambush the bandits with grenade and weapon fire, since they are grouped behind
some shrubs to the left of a pile of large pipes. One grenade will get most,
if not all. You can then run back, talk to Serij, and start the fight. The
force at this camp will be strong enough to repulse this bandit attack easily,
and you'll get the reward for this.

Artifact tip: Later on I was strong enough and I went back and killed all the
bandits. In the course of searching the area I found the "Soul" artifact
which was as strong as 6 "Meat Chunks". Unknown if it is tied to this
location or if it'll spawn elsewhere.

Simalcrum sez: Soul +600% life. Meat Chunk +400% life. Note that the Soul
artifact is uncommon and should be kept. It may have been formed from the mass
of anomalies near the bandit spawn area.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Agroprom
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At Agroprom, make an area save. You will also want to make a "combat save" and
a "back-up combat save" that you'll use constantly in this area. Sprint
forward towards the stalker, trigger the movie, and make a save.

Main Quest Mission
"Rescue the Mole"

Use the AKSU on semiautomatic and brain the enemies on the left, and then
ahead of your allies. The red barrels (or grenades) make large explosions.
Take the enemies' AKM 74/2s (these are more accurate than the AKSUs), slam the
best one you can find on semiauto and use that for now.

Once you hear Mole's transmission about being in trouble, head around the
buildings and try to locate more enemies you can whack. A grenade when they
are grouped works best; kill the survivors and loot their bodies. Once these
enemies are dead and Mole appears, Spetsnaz will appear from where you came in
from Cordon and kill any non-military survivors. It's important that you
follow Mole -- if you get lost, go northwest in the Agroprom firefight and
escape through the breach in the wall. An open sewer just a stone's throw away
from the breach will be where Mole waits for you.

If you're feeling lucky or simply want to risk it, there is an
armor "Mercenary suit" inside a locker in the Agroprom facility. However, you
need to get it preferably by going through the large building's roof (via a
ladder) and coming down. Don't forget the soldiers can kill you quite easily,
but having better resistances might be a good idea. Note if you got Photec's
tip about the Stalker suit (note Photec is not a stalker -- he's the guy who
emailed simalcrum about the tip) and got the free one in Cordon, you don't
need to stick around for the Mercenary Suit.

Main Quest Mission
"Strelok's Secret Stash"

Before going down into the sewer (it's a new map), speak to Mole about
Strelok's Stash. This is a stash in the sewers that holds info about the guy
you're looking for. Simalcrum wasn't interested in working with a shitty
little-customizable control scheme and insane enemies on a bad PC, so the
difficulty ramped down until simalcrum could walk into the Agroprom research
base at night and found the sewer entrance there. If you do not talk to Mole
before going into the sewers, you will not have the mini-map to guide you (or
more details on the mission).

During your stay in the sewers, have your shotgun handy. One non-human mutant
enemy (called bloodsucker in the game) can turn invisible and do serious hurt
unless you can empty shotgun blasts at it point blank (you still need several
shots, so back off and reload). One more mutant (called controller in the
game) can psionically attack you and make your vision dizzy -- simalcrum
managed to close in and hose this enemy down with automatic fire, but a lucky
shot or two might've hit the head. The human enemies in the sewers are the
least of your worries, although they too can kill you easily.

In the sewers, the entrance to Strelok's stash is basically a sewer tunnel you
see by a stack of boxes. You will climb a ladder to a secret room of sorts.
Inside, grab the ammo, health, and guns but look for the flash drive behind
the planning board. Once you have that, you can exit the sewers and head back
to Garbage. Some people have mentioned a spawned armor in the room from a wood
crate. Simalcrum sez "You get now."

Main Quest Mission
"Get the secret papers in Agroprom (cont.)"

Or should you leave now? The secret papers are in the Agroprom facility in the
southwest, guarded night and day. No sneaking in that's for sure. You might
want to visit the Dark Valley first, get a crucial item that lets you snipe
enemies, and then come back here. Granted, getting out is harder, but so is
not being able to snipe. If you detoured to Dark Valley as recommended, you
can use your new toy to take down the 30 enemies inside the base. They do not
respawn until a game-day has passed.

Note that going into the sewers from the Agroprom base is dangerous if you
didn't clear it first. The psionic controller mutant is right at the sewer
exit to the Agroprom map. On the other hand, you can reach Strelok's stash and
skip out on the invisible bloodsucker mutant using that entrance. Don't forget
for quick take downs, bring along that sawed-off shotgun that's so prevalent
amongst bandits. All you really need are 20 shells (you miss, you die --
reload your game) and those mutants should drop. The human enemies are best
dropped with semiautomatic fire from a scoped rifle.

The secret papers are in a white box (similar to the ones you destroy) in the
southern base building, third floor. Look for a desk with lots of crap and
clutter. The white box is easily tucked in a desk cubby. Take it and you can
leave the Agroprom area overland, through the sewer, etc. You do need to
surface to get back to Garbage. Sprint past enemies and you can leave
Agroprom's troubles behind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Rostok
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven't gone to Dark Valley but have the secret papers, then you don't
need to go there just yet. If you picked up the sniper scope by rescuing the
Duty soldiers, then don't do anything just yet. Head for Rostok instead. Make
a save and take whatever crap in Bes' box with you; where the road meets, drop
all the items you don't need for combat (alternately, you can do an item run
afterwards).

If you have Strelok's flash drive, the Duty checkpoint will ask for assistance
in killing off a mutant attack. Several of the "Flesh" or "Meat" mutants will
run towards the Duty checkpoint. Kill at least one, or you may need to kill
all the Duty guards to get by. You can also try talking and bargaining, but
killing one mutant is enough to get passage from Garbage to Rostok.

Take all the items you want to have handy and stash them at the Duty
checkpoint. If you're friends or neutral, then you have nothing to worry
about. This box is great since you will be coming back through here after
meeting the bar keeper in Rostok.

Main Quest Mission
"Give papers to bar keep"

Go through the Duty gate to Rostok. Avoid the dog pack south of Rostok and if
you want, kill them as a side job (talk to the checkpoint's sergeant). Locate
the 100 RADS bar in the city, head down and do business. Ask about the legend
of the wish maker, and all other stuff. While in Rostok, improve your armor,
sell useless artifacts, and make sure your ammo, weapons, and healing items
are fairly well stocked. You want about 20 health kits (on your person),
double that in bandages, depending on how fast you can fire and heal. The
various stalkers and NPCs here have side jobs. Take any, all or none of them
at your leisure.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Detour Time - Warehouses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once you reach Rostok, you can actually explore the Wildlands or the
Warehouses before you even head to the lab in Dark Valley. This is the
recommended course of action, since you will be able to scavenge materials for
the stuff ahead. You cannot proceed to Pripyat (and the end of the game)
anyway since there is something in the Red Forest that will kill you instantly
if you get too far north.

However, the Wildlands ties in with the next part of the story and you might
be hard pressed to kill the mercenaries with their superior NATO weapons.
Instead, you should choose to visit the Freedom Base first, since that area
has GP37s and IL86s for you to take. Take a semi-disposable AKM 74/2 with
scope you can use for a little bit. Your primary goal is to collect NATO ammo
and weapons and stash them on this map. The GP37s, IL86s, and TSR 301s with
SUSAT scopes will greatly aid in Kruglov's escape.

Consider using the stash that is in Rostok -- there is a funny looking post
you can "stash" just around the corner at Duty's Wildland checkpoint. Since
it's along the way to the Warehouses' map, no one is there on that street,
letting you stock up on ammo, health, weapons, etc. Other stashes in Rostok
can hold your other excesses. Rostok and the Warehouse being the center of the
game world pretty much demands that you "play neutral" with both the Duty and
Freedom factions mostly by not completing missions that require you to kill
their members.

The warehouses map can be explored (safely) so long as you don't keep going
north to the Brain Scorcher (the node will not even appear until the quest at
Lake Yantar is completed). Although you can come here after Lake Yantar, you
can surely explore the area here, help out the Freedom faction and pick up a
few new weapons if several of them expire.

The shop at Freedom base is different than the ones you've been to so far; the
shopkeeper has limited money and supplies. However, you can reset his stuff
each time you refresh the warehouse map (or when a game-day or two passes).
When you come into the map, a Duty assault force asks you to kill a sniper
that will let them attack and destroy the Freedom base. It's suggested that
you accept but don't do your part of the missions (killing the sniper or
killing the Duty squad). Instead, you "make nice" with both sides and while
they start killing one another, you stay back and pick up the resources from
the fallen. Neither Freedom or Duty will attack you unless you attack them
first.

One thing that you can do is accept the kill the sniper mission from the Duty
squad leader (he will usually die once you inform Freedom about the presence
of the Duty attackers). Accepting this mission will spawn a Duty soldier who
sets some explosives near the south end of the Freedom Base. You can destroy
the wall by simply knifing it (in the launch version); sniping the explosive
pack will not do anything (knifing it will however). This creates a breach in
the Fortress Base's south wall, so you can shortcut into the base without
having to go all the way around the base's outer wall. Call simalcrum cheap,
but it saves time. Just don't do this until you rile up the Freedom Squad,
since this will cause the Duty squad to attack and make the Freedom guys open
fire.

For now, go around to the front of the base's gate and tell the guy in the
exoskeleton about the Duty goons. This will make the Freedom faction neutral
towards you. Head into the base, and then tell Lukash (the Freedom leader) the
same story about the Duty squad. This will spawn a squad of Freedom fighters
under a guy named "Max". That pretty much sums up all you want to do -- for
now. Right now, there is a mission to defend the Freedom barrier (north of the
base). Defend the barrier and keep every Freedom fighter safe from the
Monolith soldiers. This checkpoint is teeming with mutants when ever you come
back from the Red Forest, so you want all of these guys to be alive for as
long as possible. You can go back to destroying the wall from either side of
the base.

forestman (University of Vermont?)
Shooting explosive (red) barrels (just happening to sit next to people with
desirable guns) in the Army Warehouses level doesn't make Freedom hostile
(read: free guns and loot).

Simalcrum sez: Nice but you better make sure you don't need those active NPCs
to hunt down mutants. This exploit might also be patched down the road and
make you the legal cause of the explosive effect (game terms: you get ass
raped by the NPCs when the red barrels explode and kill their buddies). What
you do want to do is gain access to the headquarters, save the game, and use a
silent knife attack on the arsenal guard on the first floor. You will be able
to enter the armory without being molested and should find a few TSR 301s, a
Bulldog (if you don't want to get it from the village), grenade rounds, light
and heavy pieces of Freedom armor, and a 203 launcher. The TSR attached to the
launcher may sometimes fall off the table and get stuck in the corner; you
should be able to barely pick up the item by full crouching and clicking the
use button.

Chris Tulloch gmail
I'm running the 1.0006 patch and it seems the stealth kill of theFreedom
Armory Guard has been fixed....But...If you go to the empty room across from
whats-his-name, push thechair or table there out and to one corner of the
gaurd, climb on topof it, crouch , jump, and move forward, you will slowly
ooze past hiscollision box, and get past him...once there, loot the armory,
enterthe room across from the armory, push the chair you find there back tothe
guard, and do the same crouch, jump, walk to get back out....I also thinks
this triggers a different bug....after doin a fewmissions for both duty and
freedom, both factions are friendly, andlooking at mutant corpses also list's
them as friendly (mutants stillattack, though).... And, at bes's camp in
garbage, the tower with broken ladder has twocrates up top....backing up a
hill to get a clear shot to break themnets you a few hundred of so rounds of
the 9X19 PB ammo on the groundbelow... Also, I've been shooting Artifacts out
of range of anomalies, with noapparent ill effect.

The other missions -- the insane stalker in a swamp (and new armor) and
clearing the village of bloodsuckers you can do at your leisure. Right now,
you want to help the Freedom checkpoint, since the Monolith faction runs up
their body count quickly. If you only talk to the checkpoint leader to start
the mission and then get the reward from him and Lukash, you don't seem to
trigger more enemy spawns.

Head back to the farm where the Duty soldiers were and clean the items off the
dead. If you leave the warehouse map, pass time, and come back, sometimes more
Freedom fighters will appear and kill off the Duty soldiers, leaving you with
some powerful (and free) Tunder rifles and the weird high-power ammo (SP-5, SP-
6, PAB-9, etc) for you to take. Dead Freedom fighters will usually have NATO
ammo, and even the occasional sniper rifle. All in all, you win, the NPCs
don't.

The GP37 is a good NATO rifle that deliver serious hurt on semiautomatic fire.
It's down side is that it is heavier than a TSR301 (with scope) so you cannot
hold as many items. Take your pick. Once you do a few missions for the Freedom
faction and gather supplies, think about locating stash points (empty stash
points do not appear on your PDA) that are away from heavily trafficked areas.
For Lake Yantar, you will want to use NATO weapons. The stash points at the
Freedom checkpoint to the Red Forest is good; a second good stash is east of
the large village that's inhabited by mutants -- some loners are there around
a bonfire. One more stash point you might consider is at the farmstead
where "Skull" and his Duty goons were stationed. The box on top of the stove
is tolerably close to Rostok to be convenient as long as you didn't piss of
either Duty or Freedom.

Once you load yourself down with NATO ammo (you can buy it from the Freedom
base shop if you want) and a few NATO weapons, take one with a scope and about
150 rounds of ammo back to Rostok and stash it near the Wildlands junction
(for later). Keep your Russian AKM 74/2 and 5.45 ammo with you when you
venture to the Dark Valley for the next part of the story.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Dark Valley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Main Quest Mission
"Find the missing keycode to secret lab"

The bar keep will give you an electronic key to a lab in Dark Valley. Also,
you need anti-radiation medicines (the bar keep will give a few to you) to get
to Lake Yantar and find the stalker known as "Ghost". The thug Borov in Dark
Valley has the second electronic key. If you went into Dark Valley early, you
might've killed Borov by accident and gotten the key (this item is invisible
and automatically added to your PDA) Bang, bang. He's dead cap'n!

Borov is part of a side quest from the Duty soldiers who gave you the sniper
scope; a third buddy is in the bandit jail in the north half of Dark Valley.
The building has about 50 enemies inside and out, so you need to go into it
with a heavy hand. All the enemies inside will have AKSUs, the Viper SMG, or
shotgun. There is a small building east of Borov's bandit base with a fire
trap in one door; use the stash point inside as a base for your assault.

You might actually meet and be able to "rescue" the Duty prisoner at Borov's
base early. Just hop down beside the bars to his cell and talk to him through
the bars. Mission accomplished. However, to kill Borov and get the electronic
key, you need to go inside the base. Note the building the prisoner is in as
you walk through the front gates (note you either do a one-at-a-time lure out
like at the Agroprom base, or you have to sneak in the back through the sewer
tunnel) and locate a large warehouse with a catwalk to the second floor.

From the warehouse catwalk, go over the skybridge to the prisoner's building.
Once there, you need to go around the middle obstruction using some planks as
bridges. Past the plank bridge, you work through the rooms and go down and out
into the locked courtyard you might've seen. You can also use the stairs and
head straight to the prison basement. From the courtyard, you need to locate a
ramp going to the prison cellar through a cellar window. Both ways reach the
prisoner. Use the wall switch to free him and kill enemies to get back out.

If you visited Rostok and didn't bother with buying the "Stalker Suit" armor,
you can pick-up a free Duty suit and a Bandit suit here. The Duty armor will
suffice until you reach the Lake Yantar area and is slightly better than the
Stalker (buy) and Monolith (found) armors. The place to look for is in the
priosoner's building, the ground floor, behind a gate that you can simply
open. Killing Borov as you wander around the building trying to escape (he
will spawn and react to gunfire once the prisoner is freed) will give you the
electronic code for the lab.

Optional Method
"Predicting an invasion"

Do this after killing Borov, but before heading to the secret lab. If you opt
to explore the Valley further, there is an RPG-7 in one of the buildings in
the middle; past the radioactive zone, there is yet another bandit area, but
there's really nothing of particular importance unless you are short on
supplies. What you do want to do though, is to move all of the items you want
to keep from Dark Valley to Rostok or the Warehouses (the latter is better).
The valley will be overrun with enemies later, so you want to get your crap
out of harm's way now.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Secret Lab (Dark Valley)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The secret lab is in the basement of the building on the east side of Dark
Valley. Clear out the bandits, or leave them around and they will fight off
the soldiers who come in later. If you can, visit a stash first and get some
crucial items for this mission: a good condition AKM 74/2 with scope and ammo,
a shotgun with a mix of shells (20 total is all you need), health items, and
good artifacts (life increase). The door to the lab is white and secured by a
valve wheel. Using the door is only allowed if you have both the barkeep's and
Borov's key codes.

Main Quest Mission
"Open the first lab door"

There are preternatural enemies here; you can ignore all but one of them.
Poltregeists you can avoid by putting a pillar between yourself and the object
being thrown. If you decide to waste ammunition gunning for them, shoot at the
white anomalous flashes and you should kill the creature.

To get the first door code, go down a fire trapped hallway where mutant
frogmen come from. Kill the two mutants with automatic fire and use bolts to
get through the hall. Locate the dead orange hazmat suit guy and get the key
code (1243). Enter it at the lab door and head downstairs.

Before you do, consider searching the locker room on this lab level; there is
a Kosteyer EGLM (grenade launcher) attachment assigned to an AKM 74/2. You can
detach it and keep the ELGM when your AKM 74/2 starts to wear out. There are
also some grenade rounds (how very Claire) in the locker room and a Monolith
suit. If you already have the Duty suit, you will be disappointed with the
Monolith suit, since it has no night vision ability.

Main Quest Mission
"Open the second lab door"

The lower lab has a poltregeist and a few more mutants. Ignore the geist and
locate a small set of stairs that lead down to a broken lab door and a non-
functional keypad. There is a muscle mutant in the next room. Use the
semiautomatic fire of the rifle to kill it far from you. Getting close means
it turns you into butt sauce. Drop the muscle mutant and explore the room it
inhabited for another orange hazmat suit guy and the keycode (9524).

Investigate the dead orange guy's body; he has a weapon IL86 (SA80 sniper
rifle) and NATO rounds. Take that weapon with you. You will need it later. If
you must head back to Rostok or Warehouse to store it before opening the door
to the control room, do it; losing that rifle will make your life very hard
later on unless you secured a GP37 or TSR 301 with SUSAT scope beforehand.

Main Quest Mission
"Getting the missing lab papers from control room"

Open the second lab door to the control room. The next enemy you need a
shotgun to deal with (if you run out of shells, you will need to automatic
fire the damn thing to death). You can touch the enemy, since it relies on
indirect ranged attacks to damage you. The enemy is a "geist" creature that
you can barely see; ignore it and the fire streams it spawns to attack you.
Run up the stairs in the room and get the papers from the control panel. Once
you do, the exit is blocked by telekinesis.

Use the shotgun and blast the invisible monster as close as you can and you
can drop it with maybe six or eight shells. Once it dies, you get a CG
cutscene and you can explore the side room for more ammo in the cupboards.

Main Quest Mission
"Bring papers to the Cordon shopkeeper"

Getting out is a chore. Soldiers will appear in the rooms above and attack.
Use the assault rifle and effect escape. There are now tons of soldiers in the
Dark Valley, but nothing you cannot out-snipe. You basically want to drop the
enemies near your safe stash and the ones near the exit to Garbage. Although
the destination is to Cordon, you must use the southern map junction (it is
one way) to exit. However, it doesn't mean you should skip out on killing the
soldiers near Garbage, or at least drop a few on the road to your safehouse in
the north Dark Valley.

Be sure to kill a few soldiers here and there. You can get a few more Russian
scopes or even special Russian sniper rifles (you will dispose of them later).
At least get your hands on a Spetsnaz rifle and attach a scope to it. You may
need it later. Escape south and if you need to drop ammo to lighten your load,
do so. You can buy more at the shop and nothing in Cordon should kill you,
except the soldiers at the fallen bridge. Exit to Cordon and meet the
shopkeeper to complete this quest. He will point you back to the Rostok
barkeep for the next part of the story.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Rostok Wilderness
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since Dark Valley is now overrun with soldiers, your items (if still in the
safe near Borov's) is tough to get. If you lose a few items, you can still
attempt to snipe and secure the area, but not completely necessary. The vital
detour you made early before into the Warehouses pays off since you can take
any NATO weapons and 100 rounds to this area.

Stash your AKM 74/2, scopes, and the Kosteyer EGLM in Rostok (you can move the
Kosteyer and the ammo to the Warehouses later if you want). But for your first
visit to the Wildlands, take a NATO weapon like the IL86, GP37, or TSR 301
with scope and 50 to 100 rounds of NATO ammo. Don't forget your bandages and
healing items.

Go through the Rostok bar and get a special job concerning the
stalker "Ghost". He will point you towards the mobile lab on Lake Yantar. Go
there through the Wildlands west of Rostok.

Main Quest Mission
"Get to Lake Yantar / Help Kruglov"

The IL86 from the Dark Valley lab or similar weapon from the Warehouses will
do the trick initially. Enter the wilderness, drop the snipers in the building
and take all their weapons back to Rostok. You should have a few more scopes
for AKs (store them) and a new rifle using NATO rounds. Take all of it back,
store it, but keep the NATO rounds with you.

Go back into the Wilderness, go past the sniper building and kill the enemies
in the next area. Take their NATO ammo and consider a save.

SHERRIFF_LOBO on IGN's Stalker board pointed out where you can get a NATO 203
launcher here; right past the first sniper building, there is a small clearing
with a sniper tower, and a motor pool across from it. The motor pool building
has several anomalies in the mechanic pits. If you enter the motor pool,
navigate safely through the anomalies inside, and find a secret (unlisted)
stash past some fire anomalies -- there is a very valuable 203 launcher and
grenade ammo inside.

Simalcrum sez: That is sooooo bullshit. Second time around, the launcher did
not appear in the stash (meaning items in stashes are randomized on map/level
creation). Does explain (to a point) the items that you find "out of a box"
(like lying around in the open); those items appear to be there almost all the
time. jivedog16 and TTKGERMAN on IGN's forums mentions such preset placed
launchers in the Freedom base. By using the knife's secondary attack (the
stab) you can get rid of the guard without noise and grab the goodies.

Frank Keough (Lewiston, Maine)
Writer Note: I must have done things out of sequence or in a different order
than you did them. When I left the "Bar" area I did the battle with the
Wolfhound Gang & rescued Kruglov before doing much of anything else.

Interesting Equipment Item: Once you enter the level you are attacked by the
snipers in the second floor of a building directly in front of you. After
engaging them in combat you can possibly find yourself in possession of a
number of sniper scopes suitable for attachment to AK rifles. More importantly
you can possibly pick up a "Quick Firing Okuban" rifle. You'll know it when
you see a small green square with an upward pointing arrow in it in the place
with the picture of the rifle. Attach a scope to this and you have an
excellent weapon. This is as it's called, fast firing and a superior rifle,
and with a scope on it is extremely effective. You can also add a grenade
launcher to this weapon when you get it.

Writers Note: I didn't get this rifle the first time through, which leads me
to believe you can re-load and re-do this battle to get either this rifle or
other possibly un-documented weapons.

Simalcrum sez: Fast-firing AKM 74/2 is from Strelok's stash in Agroprom. The
snipers during the Kruglov mission uses AKM 74/2s with scopes (detach and
hoard) and that one dude with a TSR 301, SGI5K or something NATO.


Frank Keough (Lewiston, Maine)
Combat Tip: Once you speak to Kruglov and move to exit that level you will be
attacked by a number of bandits or mercs. You will find yourself in a poor
combat position, and Kruglov can be easily killed. Instead, before you move
him, go out and hunt down the 6 or so bandits before they group together and
attack you. This way, you either eliminate that threat completely, or you
minimize it so much that when you trigger that attack you can handle it easily.

Interesting Note: If you have played Half-Life, you know the main character is
Gordon Freeman. His events are set prior to the events you are now involved
in. Ever wonder what happened to him?

After you have escorted Kruglov away, go back to the site of the downed Hind
helicopter. Over to one side you can see where there is an entrance to an
underground garage area. Various anomalies are active in the area but are
easily avoided. Looking in you can see a campfire; meaning an area you might
want to check out. Climb in there and check around. There appears to be the
remains of a corpse on a mattress in a large metal box. Standing in there
look out at the fire. Almost hidden from view you'll find a dead guy. Pick
him up and drag him back. Look at his face; yes, it's Gordon Freeman !!
Searching the body you'll find a Desert Eagle pistol (called something else in
this game; "Big Ben" or something like that). You'll also acquire his PDA
with a number of notes as to what became of him. If you want to play the game
using only pistols, I'm sure this weapon will be quite useful.


DeCaff2006 (rjg1979)
I found something in the game that wasn't mentioned in the walkthrough (or, at
least I failed to see it).

In the Wildlands map, just past the downed HIND helicopter, there is a
building with a lot of radioactivity in it. This is the building just before
the line of railroad cars. There is an open window facing the railroad cars
(You will need to find something to boost yourself into it. I used the barrel
directly across from the window). Jump inside this window and have some anti-
rad ready. Make a left, turn right around the corner, then right around the
next corner. There will be a safe there (along with hazardous radiation) and
inside of it I found two SEVA suits. These are a sort of a sidestep from the
SEV-99 suits. They don't offer as much radiation protection (it's still very
good protection), but they are extremely bulletproof, and complete with night
vision! At this point in the game, this is an excellent (and more
importantly, free) upgrade to the Stalker armor everyone is probably using at
this point.

I'm using the most recent patch to the game as of 7/16/07.

Also, please note that there was NOT a 203 grenade launcher in the motor pool
stash, as according to "Frank Keough" in your walkthrough. Ain't that
randomizer rule a biotch?

Take all the loot back to the Warehouses (the AKs can stay in Rostok) and save
it all up for later. The 203 launcher can only be attached to the TSR 301 or
SGI5K. It's better to keep using the hand grenades you find on enemies than
blow the valuable 203 ammo now. Store the 203 somewhere in the Warehouse map
for later use. Note if you don't aim to find the 203 now, you can come back
and get to the stash once the Brain Scorcher is killed (which is when
simalcrum found the stash in the first place). Since you don't need the 203
until after the Brain Scorcher is dead anyway, you might want to do that. If
you don't get the 203 randomly here, you will have to stealth kill (knife) the
Freedom base armory guard and get the launcher that way.

Save the game before moving on.

As you approach the wilderness' trainyard, you will get a cutscene. You need
to kill the mercs and keep the egghead hostage alive (he has a handgun). Drop
the mercs with your NATO rifle and take their NATO ammo and health items. Once
all the mercs near the wrecked HIND are dead, you can save and take back a few
of the weapons to sell (check them all for NATO ammo). Once you talk to
Kruglov, you start his escort mission.

Escort Kruglov through three firefights (save when safe). Drop enemies as they
come and never tell the guy to "walk through it". Kill all the enemies until
you reach the underpass with the fire traps. At that point, you can save
again, and explore the wilderness area (there are no more enemies until you
get through the underpass).

There are several unique handguns found here (firing SP-5/6 and .45 ACP ammo)
and those you can take back to Rostok. Come back to Kruglov when you are ready
to continue.

Before going through the fire trapped underpass tunnel, take out the enemies
at the other end of the tunnel first. From there on out, use bolts to find the
fire traps and go through it. Kill the opposition (zombies) on the other side,
talk to Kruglov and get his flash drive. Take that back to the barkeep in
Rostok and get a mission about the mobile lab. That's great, since you're
headed there anyway dammit. Note that each time you pass through the Wildlands
map, new enemies will appear using NATO ammo.

There's about 10 stashes with items in the wildlands -- some have mercenary
armor, reinforced armor (at the crane), but the easiest stashes to get to are
often hidden in various spots; where you got the 203 launcher at the motor
pool, the drive shaft at the blocked off tunnel; the stash on top of the multi-
tier building with the snipers; the stash box on top of the tunnel with the
electric anomalies; etc. Since there're so many enemies here, don't leave too
many items here. Put them all at the 203 launcher box near Rostok so you only
have to kill five or six guys to get your loot back out.

When going towards Yantar (for real -- and you haven't escorted Kruglov
completey yet), take just a NATO rifle with scope and a "disposable armor"
since you will leave it at Yantar (and never come back for it). You need some
room for a pump shotgun (or two) from Yantar, which should be about 10 kilos
or less.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Lake Yantar
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assuming you're ready and moved all your inventory to your liking, move out
with your NATO arsenal. There's a safe place in Yantar, so heading there
nearly full will let you unload at a stash at the professor's place.

If Kruglov survived (he doesn't need to for you to continue), the professor
has a free SPM-99 spacesuit for you (orange). It's not good against bullets,
but it will protect you from the radiation fairly well. If Kruglov did not
survive, not only will you need to do the next part by yourself, you also need
to buy the radioactive suit yourself (if you have plenty of anti-rad, you can
risk it with the Duty or Stalker suits).

Also, if Kruglov dies or is dead, the "prototype psi-helmet" you get will be
crappier, and gives you less time later in the game. Consider saving inside
the scientific dome at Yantar just in case you blow the next part.

Main Quest Mission
"Help Kruglov get science readings"

The first task in solving the mystery is to help Kruglov get some readings
while zombies are attacking. If he dies, you fail, go back to the professor
and get a crappier quest item. Load up on lots of bandages first (about 60
would be good), and a sturdy "precision rifle". Head out, follow your package,
and keep enemies from getting close by blowing their brains out first. A few
of the beast zombies (called snorks by the game) might require a shotgun,
which you should apply generously. Once Kruglov gets near the bus, a cinematic
occurs.

When you wake up after the "blow out", get out of the bus, locate Kruglov, but
talk to him only if there are no enemies around. When Kruglov is in
his "dying" frames, he's pretty much ignored by enemies (unless shot
accidentally and he dies). Clear the area of enemies, talk to the wiener
assistant and head back to the mobile lab. Get the good psi-helmet item and
you are set for the next part of the story.

Main Quest Mission
"Breach the Yantar lab and shutdown the monster"

This mission is tough if you don't prepare. There are a fair number of enemies
and the dark areas do not help. Get about 300 to 400 NATO rounds (if you have
to, go back through Wildlands), a new TRS301 (should be easy) and a NATO
scope. If you have a left over GP37 or IL86, they can also help but they do
weigh more than the TSR 301.

Bring bandages, a few healing kits, a dozen grenades, and most important -- a
pump shotgun (buy it from the professor) with about 40 extra shells. Notice
the absence of handguns. Handguns are used mainly for suicide in Aliens VS
Predator, or for Capcom games where lots of gunfire occurs and nothing
happens, because you're using a steen-kin' pistola, ese.

Load up and use whatever armor you are about to dispose of (the SSP-99 won't
be needed north of the mobile lab, just for the Kruglov mission). The
professor does not upgrade his shop until after the Yantar lab mission is
done. However, if you see a "SEVA suit" at the shop, buy it. It is a little
bit shittier than what you will get later if you do the crucial side quest
concerning the "Ghost suit" (see below).

Head into the lab's grounds and try to ignore enemies. If you have Lukash's
mission to find the armor, good luck -- it is above ground and outside the
building with the lab entrance. All those zombies and respawning snork beast
zombies don't help. For the lab though, go into the marked building and head
to the basement. Like the Dark Valley lab, the Yantar lab will be below
ground. If you want to explore the area later, enemies will be lessened.

Steve Godecke (Gmail):
I read your advice on entering the lab, so I was carrying 800 TRS rounds and
plenty of medical supplies, and I didn't bother to stop and pick up anything
until after I'd shut off the psychotronic brain. After getting out of X16
with Ghost's suit and talking to the scientists, I stashed some items in the
mobile lab and headed back into the aboveground X16 complex to see if I could
recover that armor for Lukash without getting fragged by zombies or the
attacking Hinds.

The helicopters had stopped circling and attacking, and were no longer in
sight, although I could still hear their rotor noise. There were a few stray
zombies, but nowhere near their earlier spawn numbers or frequency. Snorks
were plentiful, but I stayed out of trouble by looking for and sniping them.
The 'disorientation' effect still happened to me around the building with the
lab entrance, but it caused no damage.

After a long search, I finally found a unique armor called "Healing Beril" on
the corpse of a military officer named Lieutenant Sedyh. His body is located
straight ahead from the complex entrance. It's just behind the extra-large
dumpster, near the sandbag wall. The description for the suit says, "The
fabric of this suit is saturated with a streptozoidal lotion, which speeds up
the healing of wounds."

Healing Beril
Condition: Pristine (even though its former owner is dead! ha)
Value: 12,000ru
Weight: 7.00kg

Protections:
Burn 30%
Electric Shock 30%
Impact 20%
Rupture 40%
Chem burn 30%
Bulletproof 45%
Radiation 30%
Explosion 45%

This was the only thing I found in the complex worth mentioning, besides a few
launcher grenades in a wooden box, but the box loot may be generated randomly.

I've done some work for Lukash and got up to the mission where he asks for the
armor from Yantar. The one I had found was indeed what he wanted. The reward
he gave me was:

Guardian of Freedom suit
Value: 12,500ru
Weight: 6.00kg

Protections:
Burn 50%
Electric Shock 50%
Impact 60%
Rupture 50%
Chem burn 50%
Bulletproof 50%
Radiation 40%
Explosion 40%

-- Better than what I gave him, but rather wimpy for this point in the game,
when the player most likely already has the SSP-99M. Guardian of Freedom
seems to be about the equivalent of the Duty armor that you can find in the
armory of Borov's bandit base in Dark Valley.

Still, it may be worth doing the Freedom quests, because after turning the
Yantar suit in to Lukash I went downstairs in the Freedom HQ and noticed that
their trader had begun to sell GP37 rifles. And the "snitch" (that Lukash
asks you to kill as one of the missions prior to getting the Yantar suit) is
armed with a Chaser 13 shotgun, so that's an alternative source for one
besides trekking to the scientists in Yantar.

Simalcrum sez: Cool but the Ghost and Beril suits need to have their shit
combined (self-sealing wounds, no life lost while bleeding) to make the armor
(s) really worth it. You mod hackers get off your lazy ass and give us a cheap
SEVA plus suit with those abilities to be sold at the bar, ay?

Hopefully, you didn't loiter too long fighting a losing battle above the lab.
The professor will tell you the psi-helmet will stop working at the room you
need to investigate. To prepare for this, consider creating a mini-save
history leading up to the room in case you use up too many resources. You want
ammo to snipe the zombies in the timed room, and many bandages to stop the
bleeding before it's too late.

The lab is traight forward and one-way in, but with many enemies you cannot
afford to squander resources on. Kill the enemies from far off and don't
bother with the exploration; even if there were free items here, you're hard
pressed to get them out intact with so many enemies. Head snipe the zombies
and check their weapons if they are NATO or not (usually not). Always take
bandages before anything else, since they stop you from dying from blood loss.
Use the shotgun on the beast zombies, or if you have the room -- grenades.
Note that once you descend the lift shaft, you cannot get out except through
the scripted exit.

You will reach a room where a timer will appear and start counting down. You
need to activate a lever on each level of the three floors (lower, middle, and
upper). Once all three levers are activated, you look for the control room at
the very top and shutdown the brain monster. This isn't the Brain Scorcher,
but it will zap you into a CG movie.

Main Quest Mission
"Escape the lab and locate the stalker called Ghost"

Now that the brain thing is dead, your timer stops and the psi-helmet has done
its job (it will come in handy later). Kill the zombies and escape in the
brain chamber's upper level. This short hall will lead to the psionic
controller mutant you fought at Agroprom before. Rush the monster quickly to
trick it into fighting up close, then back off and empty a magazine into its
head.

Once the "controller" mutant is dead, you will find a corpse of the stalker
you're looking for. Take the quest papers, as well as the unique item "Ghost
suit". The armor isn't great, but it does stop you from losing health when you
are bleeding (although too much bleeding will still cause you to die
eventually). Pretty neat, but the "Ghost suit" is weaker than the Duty and
Monolith suits. Take it with you (5 kilos) and jump in the hole in the palace
if you go. Hahahaa. Simalcrum never gets tired of that joke.

Escape in the tunnels is easy -- if you know when to back-up and use the
shotgun to kill the beast zombies, snipe the zombies, and snipe the muscle
mutant. The sewers are one way (kinda) and the exit is past the muscle mutant.
Once you get out, you will be at the Yantar area map again, and a little west
of the mobile lab. Head to the professor and give him the "Ghost suit" for a
SPM-99 special guard suit (it will be green). Although the SPM-99 green suit
looks baggy and stupid, it's better than the "SEVA suit" and beats the "Duty
suit" in defending against radiation. Take it!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Old Areas and New Friends
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, your only lead to Strelok is a stalker named "Guide" at Cordon.
Once you find him, you will be on the trail of Strelok. Take this chance to
buy all the stuff you want from the professor at Yantar, since you won't be
coming back (due to the military presence at the lab base). The trip through
the Wildlands also takes a toll on your resources (except NATO ammo) so if you
want to play around with a shotgun, buy a few (like three) and take them back
with you to Rostok. The Tunder you should have found a few unbroken ones from
randomly killed NPCs at the Warehouse.

Note that while the shotgun is handy, don't go out of your way to get it if
you can't carry it (or don't like shotguns). You will find enough shotguns
later if you decide to change weapons. The reason to get shotguns from Yantar
is if you decide to use them in exploring some of the other areas you may have
missed before.

Once you deliver the lab papers you found on Ghost (or in the control room --
they're all the same) to the Rostok barkeep, the Duty faction shop opens up
and you can buy PAB-9 ammo for the Tunder there. Naturally, carrying all the
loot back through Wildlands will be a chore, but gives you a chance to collect
some items if you're thrifty and careful.

The grenade rounds you collected for the Kosteyer EGLM you can spend on the
Tunder or wait a bit until you get the Bulldog grenade launcher. Either way,
it's seldom you need to employ the EGLM since the ammo for it is so rare. As
for your NATO 203 launcher, you will not find much ammo for it until you reach
Pripyat and Chernobyl. Make your way back to Rostok and take stock of your
inventory.

After you bring the Yantar lab papers to the Rostok barkeep, talk to him and
ask about the Duty faction's leader. Head to the Duty base (east side of the
town) and speak to the checkpoint guard leader to avoid being shot. Once you
agree to abide by their rules (just don't shoot any weapon; you can still
break boxes with your knife), you can go in.

It's very strongly advised not to piss off either faction of Duty or Freedom,
since you want access to their shops. The Duty faction shopkeeper (right turn
after passing through their checkpoint) is by far the most helpful, since he
sells Tunder PAB-9 ammo. If you used the faction exploit earlier at the
Warehouses, you should have a few good Tunder weapons from Duty soldiers
killed by Freedom fighters. By all means use the chance in Rostok to stock up
on the Tunder ammo and bring it forward to the Freedom checkpoint bordering
the Red Forest.

Note the Duty base shopkeeper is unlike the Freedom base shopkeeper -- he can
buy all the items you trade to him since he has no money-cap.

Main Quest Mission
"Look for the stalker in Cordon for Strelok clues (True Ending)"

The person "Guide" you want is in Cordon, and a short walk south from Garbage.
Meet him and he will reveal that the "Doctor" will be in Agroprom's sewer --
specifically, Strelok's secret base. Head there, keeping in mind the enemies
are as weak as before, but their weapons haven't changed. Take an AKM 74/2
with scope and maybe the Kosteyer EGLM. Locate the sewer outside Agroprom or
the entrance inside the base. You should take the one that is the easiest to
get to. Go through the sewers, keeping in mind that a shotgun might come in
handy against the invisible mutants. Go to Strelok's room and get a cut-scene.
This mission is important if you want to get the true ending of the game.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Red Forest
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Red Forest is a radioactive deathtrap. You need to prepare by doing one of
the following -- buy the "SEVA suit" armor; get the unique SSP-99M (green)
spacesuit from the professor at Yantar; or get the unique "Duty spacesuit" by
doing a side mission for the Duty faction leader (it's the special mission to
get the Bulldog grenade launcher from the Warehouse map).

The SSP-99M green space suit is the easiest to get and possibly the best armor
in the game (if the stats can be trusted).

If you want to get the Duty spacesuit (looks pretty cool, but the stats make
it worse than the green suit), get to the Duty leader -- you can enter their
base after bringing the Yantar lab papers to the barkeep and talking to him
about Duty. Ask the Duty leader about the grenade launcher and his war with
the Freedom faction. Buy or trade three bottles of vodka (you might need a few
more), and head to the Freedom base. Locate the Freedom stalker "Chef" who is
in a house in the east side of the camp. You need to follow the conversation
threads to get him drunk (share drink, have some vodka, etc.) until a thread
about grenade launchers is offered. If he doesn't give a good answer, keep
drinking with him and he'll talk eventually. The launchers are in a village
west of the Freedom base. Go there, and locate a basement (or cellar) in the
marked house. Since the Duty guy is only after the launcher, you should take
the ammunition and stash it for your Tunder or Kosteyer EGLM.

Once you have your choice of armor, try to get a pristine GP37 and 400 NATO
rounds (regular is fine if you headshot). You will not be using the Tunder or
anything else, since you need the room to pick up the SVD-2 sniper rifles in
the Red Forest. The 7.62 ammo for the sniper rifles are very hard to come by
until after you deal with the Brain Scorcher, so stick with your NATO assault
rifle for most of the killing; bloodsuckers being struck in head still drop
faster than if you try to shred it with automatic fire on its body. You will
also want about 100 bandages and a few medikits to hold out until you find
more (say five to ten); if you have the yellow medikits, carry those instead.
Take about 20 to 30 anti-rad needles with you and two tins of food. Leave
about 15 kilos free for loot. Now you're ready to attack the base the Brain
Scorcher inhabits.

The Monolith faction will be your predominant enemies on the road to the Brain
Scorcher. Their weapons start off Russian but quickly degenerate to NATO
weapons, hence taking a GP-17, scoped TSR 301, or IL86 will be most
beneficial. Although you can bring along the Tunder, the lack of a scope and
the rarity of the ammo in this area means you might have to abandon your
expensive toy half-way to kill the mutant brain and that's not good,
considering all the enemies on this map. Additionally, there are "phantom"
enemies that will attack your character when the Brain Scorcher is still
alive. So far (the initial release version of Stalker) only the enemies in the
swamp (with the web anomaly) causes damage; other illusory enemies near the
scorcher's lab will spawn and ram you, but do not seem to damage you. All
illusions are dispelled with one gunshot.

On your way to the Brain Scorcher's lab, find and take the sniper rifle ammo
(7.62 mm) but do not worry about securing a sniper rifle just yet; the NATO
rifle is your best bet right now to the scorcher's lab. Unless the development
team releases some mega-patch that adds vehicles back in, the rocket launchers
you find are next to useless against the enemies. Against mutants, that's just
overkill. At least none of the mutants can deflect rockets fired at them ....

Main Quest Mission
"Destroy the Brain Scorcher"

Okay, once you reach the base's entrance, you do not have the option to go
through a sewers as you did in Agroprom. The entrance to the lab is actually
close to the breach in the wall at the above ground base. Simalcrum walked
around and depopulated the Monolith ranks, but they seem to respawn
constantly. Instead, follow the road to the base. At the guard checkpoint,
place the outer wall on your left, and follow it to the breach. Easy.

The lab entrance is past a railroad car pointing south, and it is literally at
the sheer drop once you get past the base's outer wall. Find the train tracks
and there will be a cargo carrier that has a ramp built into it. Go inside the
railcar and pop out the end to the lab entrance. That should cut down the six
billion Russian fanatics you need to wipe out at the base above. Inside the
lab, there are only a few invisible mutants. Use your gun on automatic and
don't be stingy with the hand grenades. Save often, but not too often. The
real fight is actually after the puzzle is done.

Collect items going down and when you reach the switch that keeps the brain
scorcher alive, turn it off. Time for a massacre.

You have to fight your way back up and out of the laboratory, but kill about
30 Monolith soldiers using NATO rifles. Proceed up carefully, and note there
are choke points where you can fire and kill one soldier to lure the rest in.
When you don't hear any more Russian, you can temp_save and proceed forward.
Collect as much NATO ammo as you want (it will be very common), but pay
attention and collect the grenade rounds for the Russian Kosteyer EGLM and the
NATO 203 launcher. You can also collect about 150 sniper rounds (any more is
frivolous). Exit the lab (easier written than played) and you will find the
Red Forest pleasantly filled with random Freedom faction and Duty faction
soldiers.

Note there are some small spots at the edge of the map where Monolith and
Military soldiers appear; scout ahead with your cursor and if the enemies fire
at you (or if your cursor is not yellow), kill the NPC.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soviet Shodown - I must break you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unless you violated Freedom (girls) or Duty (women), you should should not be
molestado by either side. Wait for them to kill one another but stay out of
their way when the fire. This lets you collect ammo from the dead (you should
leave the wounded alone unless you have tons of medikits to spare). Naturally,
dragging all of this back to the Warehouse is a tedious task, but so is
preparing for Pripyat.

By now, you should have collected a few hundred rounds of PAB-9 ammo as well
as several grenade rounds for the Kosteyer and 203 launchers. Also useful for
the Tunder -- SP-5 and SP-6 ammo galore. For Pripyat, you want to prepare
(from the Warehouse or Rostok) and have a good set of undamaged armor, a
Tunder with all the grenade rounds, 100 rounds of SP-5 (not 6) ammo (you will
use it later; try not to use any in Pripyat), 400 rounds of PAB-9 ammo (for
Pripyat, later you discard it all), 50 to 100 rounds of 7.62 mm sniper ammo
(get the gun in the Red Forest), a half-dozen hand grenades (the one with the
wide radius not the piss-ant one that does no damage), all the NATO grenade
rounds you have, 100 (or more) bandages, a little food (like one or two tins),
20 to 30 yellow medikits, and any other medikits you can carry (blue ones are
best).

Take along all the artifacts you can use (meaning five) -- you won't be coming
back. If you have the artifacts that increase endurance, stack them. Have one
for health, one for impact damage (it was found in the village west of the
Freedom base) so you can fall from higher places, and one to stop bleeding.
It's tough, but consider wandering around and doing the Cordon and Rostok side
missions to get a few clues about artifacts. Some simalcrum believes to be
random or taken from NPCs who died mysteriously.

Outfitted thusly, you should be around 42 kilos. You should leave the extra
weight for the sniper rifle (the big one) since you need it for a little while
before you dispose of it. Once you're ready, kiss your old haunt goodbye and
head north to Pripyat. If not, you should take the time to do the rest of the
Duty and Freedom side missions without destroying their trust. This nets you
some more ammo for the launchers, artifacts and other awards. Failing a side
mission means you can do it again after a few days time and get a repeat
reward. When it comes to artifacts, that means you can stack them and get more
effects!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Pripyat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assuming you prepared, head through the Red Forest and visit all the old dead
bodies you killed on your way to the Brain Scorcher. You should be able to
find a fairly unbroken full length SVD rifle. Take it and use your most
powerful 7.62 ammo (usually the heaviest). You only want to use the SVD
Bullpup or SVD/2 at Pripyat, so make the most of the sniper ammo now.

Main Quest Mission
"Head north to the NPP" and "Get the door decoder" (True Ending)

When you enter Pripyat, the city is a nest of Monolith soldiers and snipers. A
few neutral stalkers will gather and included you as part of their invasion
force. You can ignore them, although their route takes you to the hotel where
the door decoder (for the true ending) is. Instead, you want to head west and
locate a bonfire near an open cargo container. About four wind anomalies will
be around, so be careful. There is a stash box you will find useful if you
saddled yourself with too much crap. Otherwise, you can move along with the
stalkers and use your Tunder on single fire and the PAB-9 ammo to drop enemies
up close. Against snipers in the windows, you use the sniper rifle you picked
up in the Red Forest.

Follow the road north, east, then when the stalker force leader says (he might
be dead, but his voice keeps talking) "There is a tunnel up ahead", you should
find a tunnel that leads down to a parking lot (of sorts) where there is a
camp bonfire. You should use the tunnel, as the road above it is blocked by
electric anomalies. Although you can sprint through, the snipers in the next
area will be able to destroy you.

Past the tunnel, there are a few snipers using a new Gauss gun that can kill
you instantly (Parker's Red Faction syndrome). Use the sniper rifle and kill
them all as you're able. The hotel with the door decoder is basically
surrounded by the snipers (it's marked on your PDA). Enter the hotel and go
into the second floor. Room 26 has what you want. Continue through the hotel
hall and go back to the first floor.

Outside the hotel's backside, there is a Ferris Wheel. A sniper is on the
right (somewhere -- depends on your vision distance setting in the video
option) and an RPG soldier on the left -- he's on the roof of a small
building. Take out the RPG soldier first and take stock of your inventory. Do
you want to head back to the Warehouses and swap out items?

This is your last chance to turn back, since once you keep going north and hit
the cut-scene, you cannot go back.

If you are satisfied with your Tunder ammo stock, your grenades, health items,
etc., consider saving the game on some file (pre_chernobyl, pripyat_bak, or
something), then go north on the marker. You will automatically get a cut-
scene, skip past the Monolith guards at the stadium (somehow) and enter the
Chernobyl map. Otherwise, you can keep coming back to Pripyat with a Tunder or
NATO weapon and harvest the dead for items and ammo until you're completely
bloated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Area Guide - Chernobyl NPP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once you are on the Chernobyl map, you cannot go back to Pripyat. The gate is
there, but there is no node to reverse course.

Main Quest Mission
"Find the secret door" or "Find the Wishmaker"

At the front gates, the initial release of Stalker has a bug where your
player's marker does not appear on the map. You have a hazy way of getting
inside the plant and that's through a breach on the west side. Follow the road
and sprint with the Tunder on semiautomatic so you can drop enemies quickly.
If you have PAB-9 ammo left over, you might start getting it reduced to under
100 rounds. Enemies here almost all carry NATO or SP-5 ammo, meaning you use
the high power ammo to knock down enemies quickly. Note a blow out will occur
in less than five minutes after you enter the map; not making it to the plant
before time runs out will probably kill you.

You cannot sprint with the sniper rifle -- keep it stowed for a little while
but don't bother with ammo for it. Keep the Tunder's SP-5 ammo busy as you
blaze west along the road. Avoid the Hind's gunfire, drop soldiers and sprint
past enemies if you can (if you get hit, hit the sprint key again). The
bandages and extra endurance from the Flash or Moonlight artifacts help
immensely. For any bodies you do stop to search -- grab banadges, then yellow
medikits, then anti-rad needles, then ammo.

Follow the road up the hill and the ground drops off steeply (not a cliff, but
a steep drop) to a hole in the side of the plant. Dash inside and the map will
change to the inside of the NPP.

Inside the NPP, you will notice your geiger counter will not stop ticking.
This means you are constantly in a hot zone and without the SSP-99, SEVA, or
Duty HEV, you are in deep trouble trying to stay alive. Notice there is also
no way back out (because of the blow out). Inside the NPP, your sniper rifle
can be discarded unless you want to use it to drop a few of the early enemies.

chifusin (hotmail)
When you go into the nuclear power plant, there is a staircase between some
pipes in a room underground where you can find a military (probably means
exoskeleton) which has a modification that does allow you to run. Pretty
worthless where you are, it weighs around 9, and the protection against
radiation blows, but it does allow you to run with it.

Simalcrum sez: not going to test this one, but you can complain the guy who
mentioned it via his e-mail if it's wrong.

Gwion Rhys (gwionrhys) / rhiridflaidd
I can confirm this exosceleton, but more importantly, in a crate next to the
suit is a smashable big crate. Inside I found 3 rare artefacts - goldfish,
nightstar and soul. Before turning right into the first big room full of mono
soldiers in the power plant, go straight on, round a corner, and there's a
room to the Right. the stairs are in the left near corner.

Simalcrum sez: You British doctors need to capitalize your sentences.

jonitheman86 (hotmail)
I noticed that you didn't have "Military armored suit" in your armor list. I
myself found it first at the hotel room on the couch, and the next time inside
NPP down some ladders where there was Military Armored Suit on the ground and
Exoskeleton in the staff. There was also about three 5000 worth artifacts in a
box. I believe it's the same room which chifusin is talking about.

Simalcrum sez: Boof, boof, boof. Me go fat.

The Monolith enemies here carry a mix of ammo, but mostly PAB-9 or SP-5, as
well as the Gauss Gun. Use the more powerful rounds for the Tunder now. Take
the Gauss Gun and some ammo. Note that like a sniper rifle, you cannot sprint
while holding the Gauss; each shot also takes time as the gun needs to charge
its capacitor to fire the next round. There is a scope built into the Gauss
Gun, so use that as your new sniper rifle.

Go through the first level of the NPP and drop enemies as you go. Your goal is
to find the stairs to the next level up -- the enemies here are hard with the
Tunder, but they are not too far off your gun is useless. Just make two quick
saves judiciously and you'll be fine.

At the top of the stairs, you can go towards left for the Wishmaker (note any
interaction with it will end the game with a "fasle ending"), or go right and
look for a side shaft with a ladder leading up. Both sides have about 20
enemies (the hallway loops around), so if you decide to go one way, you can
try to get to either the Wishmaker (no enemies there, and a lot of radiation)
or go up the ladder (enemies cannot use ladders in this game).

False Mission
"Wish at the Sarcophagus"

Going to the sarcophagus and making a wish will depend on what your play
behavior was. Most endings will probably be the "Rich" ending, which occurs if
you have way too much money. Other endings are available, depending on what
you do, but these endings not only are false, they are on the disc somewhere
as CG movies, so you can hack them out. Besides, that's not the secret of the
Wishmaker. Some other endings are: kill both leaders of Duty and Faction; do
not get too much money (keep it around 15,000 rubles); get lots of money
(simalcrum -- without trying -- easily accrued 250,000 rubles). Not sure if
there are more, but honestly, just hack out the movies :-\

True Mission Versions A and B
"Find the secret door"

Head to the secret door and note the cover provided by the boxes. Once you use
the decoder on the sealed lab door, enemies will TELEPORT into the hallway at
the end. Talk about being cheap sons of bitches! You need to survive for three
minutes for the decoder to unlock the door so you can go into the secret lab.
Stay behind cover, snipe the heads of enemies as they get close and don't
bother fighting them all off (they are infinite). Go through the door to the
lab and change maps. Avoid using the Tunder's grenades for now (normal hand
grenades are okay, but a waste since you cannot loot the bodies). Just sit low
and use up all your PAB-9 ammo on the enemies.

In the secret lab, drop all your Tunder's PAB-9 rounds (or use them up). Use
only the SP-5 ammo as that's the only thing powerful enough to kill the
enemies here. The secret lab is a figure-8 wrapped by a donut; where the cross-
over in the figure-8 occurs, it is blocked off, as well as the hallway leading
right (to the exit). What you want to do is kill the initial few enemies to
the left of where you come into the lab; this drops about 8 to 10 of the
enemies on that side. Drag their bodies to a small room and search them for
ammo and stuff.

At this point, use your Gauss Gun to snipe enemies down the hallway. Leave the
NATO ammo and weapons and take only the Tunder stuff. If you want to use your
Tunder's grenades here, do so (but keep in mind that damages weapons). Work
your way through the halls (takes a while) and once the HUD detector reads
only one radioactive source near a doorway with some strange circle of lights,
you can save without fear of being killed (don't go through yet).

Now, with all enemies save one dead, ask yourself if you are a good enough
sniper with a GP-17 or the FT-200M to drop your Gauss Gun. The FT-200M can use
your NATO grenade rounds (if you remember to bring them), but if you don't
that's okay. The GP-17 or FT-200M do the same damage. Take either of those
guns and all the NATO ammo you can carry. Keep the Tunder and about 150 rounds
(or stash them at a body near the doorway). Consider taking a shotgun and
about 30 shells. Loot all the bodies in the lab for medical supplies (bandages
mostly) and you should be set.

If you brought along the 203 launcher and its ammo, there are not that many
TSR 301s until later ... in such a case, you should keep the 203 launcher and
find an FT-200M for your NATO grenade ammo. The key is to have as close to 50
kilos as possible of healing and weapon/ammo items without going overloaded.

Go back to the doorway leading to the room with the light circle and green
crystal. Try saving the game if you want (this is right before you make an
ending decision and fight a boss).

Don't go inside, or you will be trapped and cannot get out. Instead, stand at
the doorway and use the Tunder's remaing stock of ammo to shoot out all the
light fixtures around the crystal. As lights get destroyed, you will see
pyrogeist enemies appear in the room (these are the ones that shoot fire);
however, as long as you are outside the room shooting in, you will not be
attacked. Once you shoot out the last light, you will be warped to talk with
the green crystal.

Ask all the questions you want and make your final decision.

True Mission Version B
"Russia sucks! They're wussies!"

Like simalcrum thought, U, S, and A is "teh best". Upon getting outside the
NPP, you will be assailed by an infinite number of Monolith soldiers, so you
need to clear the area quickly. The final part of the game is basically
looking for the white distortions that warp you forwards. Some warps are hard
to get to, some are tricky, but most are just guarded by enemies already
there, or enemies who teleport in (spawning). Therefore, you should consider
making a quick save before jumping into a warp (this assumes your current
status is good and no enemies are killing you). Each section here, is
therefore a "warp room", where you came in one way and go out another.

Begin by dumping the useless Tunder (or use it all up) and switch to your NATO
gun (or find one on a dead guy). If you still have a Gauss Gun, you can use
that to snipe enemies, or with the shotgun, you simply get close and blast
them (only in some warp rooms). If you have grenades for the FT-200M, you can
forego too many shells for the shotgun. Otherwise, step outside and turn
right. Look for a ladder leading up onto the NPP roof.

Go up on the roof and down the other side. You constantly look for white warps
to move forward. After taking the warp at the broken bridge where an RPG
soldier is, there will be two beast zombie mutants that attack you on a roof
with seemingly no way to flee; there's a break in the railing where you need
to make a short jump and land in the warp on the side of the building.

At the broken red and blue pipes, hop onto the metal platforms on the side,
then the crane pallet, then the other side of the pipe bridge and continue
moving forward. Enemies who can snipe at you usually are your destination;
spare a few minutes and kill them from afar with the NATO rifle or the Gauss
Gun before you move on.

As you progress through the warps, enemies get more numerous and more
aggressive (and armored). There is a camp of sorts in the middle of the level
where you can destroy white boxes to get items. Since the game is basically
about warping now, you should try to warp as enemies teleport in. If you can
sprint and hit a warp before enemies materialize, chances are you will leave
them far behind. If you must fight, use the shotgun, the NATO rifle on
automatic (the ammo here is all NATO), or use the FT-200M's grenades.

The final warp room is atop a few rooftops connected by sky bridges. Enemies
constantly teleport here, and what you want to do is fight only enough to
clear a path to the next sky bridge. Sprint from one rooftop to the next and
warp out before the enemies overwhelm you and your limited resources.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tippes - und non-losung material
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank Keough (Lewiston, Maine)
General Game Comment: Saving the game and then reloading it after dying, or
reloading to try different strategy , seems to cause weapons and ammo & items
to spawn / re-spawn differently.

On the "Help Kruglov" mission I recovered only 1 IL-86 rifle, but I found an
RPG and one rocket. I later restarted the game (I wanted to try other
things) and re-fought this fight; finding 4 IL-86 rifles and NO RPG. Now, I
can live without the RPG; not nearly enough ammo and much too bulky to lug
around for long; but this started me thinking about weapon / ammo spawn.

I have also had occasion to re-check bodies of previous killed enemies and
find they have also re-spawned ammo even though I had stripped them. It is
always worth while, I believe, to check everything !

Simalcrum sez: Don't you have a real job to do in Lewiston -- like good civil
service?

John Ciesla
A good way to move a load of items! Yesterday I was playing in the Warehouses
section, watching the Duty and Freedom soldiers kill each other off, and
reveling in all of the equipment that they were dropping. The downside, as we
all know, is that moving all of that equipment around is a major pain in the
butt! However, I found that I could load anything that I wanted into one of
the dead bodies and then carry HIM around (default SHIFT-F) without any
problem! So I had about 10 different assault rifles, tons of ammo and
grenades, and all sorts of other stuff crammed into (?!) this body, and then I
would just calmly carry him to whichever stash box that I wanted to unload at,
and then "unpacked" him. Bonus: you can even point at him and use the "F" key
WHILE YOU ARE STILL CARRYING HIM to access his inventory! Sweet!

Some caveats:

First, while you are carrying someone you are using both hand, so you can't
have a weapon ready. If you get attacked you have to drop the body and then
draw a weapon. That could get ugly...

Second, the body can get caught on things as you are moving, causing you to
drop him. This is especially true of doorways. You can always tell when you
have dropped the body because you suddenly speed up, so then you just have to
turn around and pick him up again.

Third, much to my chagrin, you can't take the body with you when you leave an
area. If you try you will wind up empty handed when you finish loading in the
the new area. If you go back the body will be lying near the exit point, but
it will have a generic load of loot.

Fourth, and related to the above, if you just leave the body lying around and
leave the area then when you come back it will just have some generic items.

So, this trick should only be used to move stuff from stash to stash. Or, in
the case of the Warehouse area, I managed to find a Stalker who was dead, and
I loaded him up from my stash box and then walked him down to the bar and used
Take All while I was standing in front of the bartender. Then I sold stuff off
all in one shot.

Anyway, I hope this helps other people who are frustrated with the 50 trips
you have to make back and forth just to move stuff from one stash to another!

Simalcrum sez: Very true but cumbersome. Useful if you honestly fucked up and
placed a lot of shit somewhere (say in Garbage) and want to make just one
trip. This makes the promised "cars" crap from the game's inception more
useful. Remember Gordon's buggy with the SMG ammo in Half-life 2? Now think of
it as a stash box. Simalcrum bets you just wet your pants.

b f (diggit89) (hotmail)
before entering into the facility where you enter x18, over by where you save
the dutyer, well go to the left of that facility where the anamolies and some
machinery, up the ramp of the machinery you can pick up a "guitar"
and "hand_radio", im not sure what they do, i had to leave behind because of
weight issues.also there was a random artifact. i remember what artifact i got
with the guitar and the hand_radio, it was spring "thought to be a mix between
2 artifacts"

Simalcrum sez: O.K.

Leland (arcticdj) (yahoo)
What seems like a tiny, not that very rewarding mission, is getting the so-
called, "Family Rifle". The family rifle turns out to be a mear sawed-off
shotgun, but bringing it back gives you some very valuable infomation
regarding a boarded up house, which turned out to be a train station of
sorts....there is a stash on top of the building which has a little bit in it,
but when you go down into the building (take the large burned log down and
traverse the 'pit of death' I like to call it) you find a safe there, and the
first time I did I found 5 SEVA suits with the direct value of 30,000 ru per
each, although the trader will only give you just under 20,000 for each. The
second time I went through the game there were only 3 SEVA suits in the safe,
could maybe be because I didn't have the rifle just yet??....don't know. Lots
of radiation in the building so bring a number of anti-radiation packs with
you and also ditch most of your weight as it's a load to bring out those suits.

Simalcrum sez: Stash items are randomized on map/level creation.

ryan finco (rhfinco) (hotmail)
You can buy the exoskeleton from SKINFLINT the freedom trader for 200,000.00
(so thats like... 20 bucks in real life... 1 exo suit for 1 pair of levis.). I
bought it, just cause I could - it lets you carry more stuff but you can't
run. - you can carry up to 79.9 KG before you can't move, and if you stack
your endurance artifacts you can just cruise around at a normal (read:
glacially slow) pace. its a good transport device to shuffle things around,
which is what I use it for mainly.

--In the X-16 lab there are some great things in there if you look around, and
because of the first find - you are free to casually search for things. I'll
explain. Before you drop down into the "pit" and you are going down all the
ladders there is on one of the levels (I think its the top level) a electrical
junction box that is a stash. In it you find 2 pristine Vintar BCs and some
blamo. then, after that if you search around a bit in the x16 and smash all
the metal boxes, and wooden crates you will fiind about 150+ rounds of ammo
for the vintar (mostly "standard" blamo). Now, that rifle against most and
they have no chance. 2 rounds will take out any zombie (frogmen (snorks)
still need to be shotgunned though)

--On the 3rd level of the timed room (since the vintar took care of everyone
quite quickly) I looked around and grabbed all the artifacts I could (hey,
make a profit off the run - why not - especially if I can just go sell them to
the professor and make double the amount on the artifacts than the regular
trader) in the corner by the stairs leading to the control room there is a
Beneiil suit of armor (in case your current armor is shreadded at tihis point)

Heres another good one that I found stumbling around:

--Freedom leader gives you a mission to wipe out the mercs at their little
camp to the north. If you do this (I did it without the mission, i just
didn't like those SOBs) in the back of their camp in a little shelter there is
a modified TRS with a silencer and a non-detachable scope. Later the Duty
general will ask you to get the special rifle from the MERCs. Give him that
and he gives you a VINTAR BC for your troubles. (so thats 3 vintar BCs that
are relatively easy to get)

--Duty general gives you a mission to kill a bandit named..."Bandit". He's
off in Dark Valley in the complex where Borov was. When you wack Bandit
(this stuf is super easy now with the vintar BC, you can just walk all over
soldiers and bandits now) Bandit himself is carrying a modified SPAS shotgun
which says in the description "UNIQUE WEAPON". I then go tell Duty he's
sleepin' with the fishes and Duty gives me a Tunder for my troubles.

--In the tunnel where you get the family rifle: If you check the dead
stalker's body he's carrying the "BLACK KITE" modified .45 If you then
check the container behind him and smash the metal box on the floor you'll
find the "BIG BEN" handgun which shoots rifle ammo and kills everything in its
path. Handguns are fairly "eh" as you mention but the Big Ben is pretty sweet
especially as a close in secondary weapon for the shotgun. (if you exhaust
your 5 rounds from the combat chaser then you switch to the handgun quick
instead of reloading and getting hit)

--When you go after Strelok's secret hidng area the first room that you enter
when you come down the tunnel from above ground (the one outside the military
base, over to the left is a set of stairs going up that leads to a room with a
electro annomoly that goes in patterns. If you get caught in it - you're as
good as dead, but if you follow it there is a moonlight and a bunch of sparks
in there very handy for endurance stacks.

--The AK 74 upgraded model that you find in Strelok's hiding spot - snap a
scope on that puppy and it is really a fantastic weapon. It fires very fast,
and has one of the highest accuracies of all the rifles. Its one of the
weapons that I never throw away.

Simalcrum sez: For actual conversion rates, use Thomas Cook's travel site.
Anyone who takes issue with this, tell the guy who sent it. Period.

Leland (arcticdj) (yahoo)
I looked at the Pripyat level you had and thought I might add to it a bit for
your knowledge if you havn't 'gone there, done that' yet....that place where
you enter into the next level and see the cut scene of the stadium? You can
go around that building and get to the stadium, take out the goons...there is
also a pseudo-giant there and some snorks, then continue on up into the
stands, here's where it gets interesting, about 2 thirds of the way across the
stands, you'll come to a place where you can go underneath them and once
there, prepare for battle against a bunch of mutant rats and a snork, at least
that was my encounter....this is the only place I've run across those mutant
rats, and they seem to be pack hunters, in this case, anyway.

Latif Xhindi (latif_xhindi) (hotmail)
1.003-ww randomisation can result in a very sour tour in the Zone. Imagine
getting to Yantar lwith Merc and Stalker suits (or Suck of Fredom suit).
First, the charge of the Cordon tradrer for a Stalker suit is steep 60K when
you hardly have 20K (RU). I found out later that Barkeep in Rostock sells it
for 30K but, is off limits for the first part. You have to arrange with Bandit
and Merc Suits. Second, NO DUTY armour in the Dark Valley (Borovs armory),
only a Bandit outfit. Tough luck, because Merc suit is no good for lead
poisoning. It was compensated with a Monolith armour in the X18 room with the
Kosteyer thing. Third, some arifacts are not generated at all. Stamina did not
show until Wildlands and the Crystal artifact for radiation protection, is
COMPLETELY missing. I doesen't pop out in any of the secret stashes or at DV
as in 1.000. I starting to believe that the game doesen't like me and is
setting up a hell of a path.

...

I have played three times in a row 1.003 at Veteran difficulty. I can confirm
now something that happens regularily. Initially, Barkeep asks for several
artifacts Meat Chunk, Flash, Crystal Thorn and Night Star. Later in the game,
I believe after Dark Valley mission, after Night Star asks for the GOLD FISH.
Her was the big SURPRISE. On three different games I was rewarded with:

- TRS
- silencer
- SUSAT Scope
- M203
- grenade(s) for the launcher

If you have more than one Gold Fish you obtain the full set agin and again. If
you have come through a Gold Fish at the central stage of the game, you can
skip the trouble to get into Freedom's armory (unless you need armour or the
second Bulldog).

ozzyman wrote:

Below are the things of importance i encountered up until the Red Forest... if
i experience anything major after i'll let you know. Anyway, the point is
that maybe you can post this somewhere for the game (Like a forum) or include
some of it in your guide. Whatever you care to do, i have no problem with. I
just don't feel like joining another forum for one or two posts, as i don't
game that often but find this one deeply addicting.

P.S. - I did elaborate a few parts of the game that your guide didn't cover
very well and might be helpful to include for those very slow to catch on
gamers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------

I started playing the game using Simalcrum's strategy guide... So far i
completed Lake Yantar missions and have not proceeded into the Red Forest yet.

I have several experiences, findings, and recommendations to both Simalcrum's
guide and the actual game itself. They are as follows in order from the
beginning of the game...

1. Stalker Suit (Cordon) - It was mentioned that there is a stalker suit in
one of the buildings next to the loner camp in cordon. I am using the latest
version of the game and the stalker suit was exactly where the guide says it
is.

2. Silencer Attachment (Garbage) - Again, i used the tip mentioned in the
guide and found the silencer exactly where it was said to be.

- After traveling into Garbage, i took the "Dark Detour" mentioned in
Simalcrum's guide. I highly recommend doing this and obtaining the scope if
you didn't get it when Bes got killed. It will help out immensly in Agroprom.

3. Strelok's Secret Stash - It isn't mentioned until later in Simalcrum's
guide after you have already gone through Agroprom, but there is a Fast-
Shooting AKM 74/2 in the room, make sure you switch it out with the normal AKM
74/2 you are using as this one is brand new. There was also a random armor in
a wood crate.

4. Detour after Rostok - I highly recommend going through the Wilderness and
Army Warehouses before you accept the next mission from the Bar Keep to go to
Dark Valley.

5. Wildlands - I cleared this area, completed the "Help Kruglov" mission,
then explored for goods first.

- When you first enter the level there is a cross with a stash point in it
to the right of the truck. Use that to hoard and store any weapons and ammo
for this level before you go back and forth. I recommend following Similcrums
hoarding instructions with the snipers weapons upon entry to the area.

- There is a brief paragraph in Simalcrum's guide that talks about a NATO 203
launcher in the motorpool. I did not find it. However, there was a safe
behind a tree to the left of the motorpool that had a NATO rifle and a Merc
armor in it.

- When you first start the mission "Help Kruglov", i would get to him as
quickly as possible taking out as many mercs as you can along the way.
Otherwise, the merc's kill him and end the mission. I highly suggest you save
several times along the way and do not fail the mission at any cost. Once you
get to him, do not talk to him, guard him until you take out all the remaining
mercs (Check your radar counter for number of people in the area). Once you
take them out, head towards the Lake Yantar cheack point (Still without
talking to Kruglov). Take out any remaining mercs along the way. There
should be 4-6 in the building under construction with a crane, then past that
there are 3 next to a rail car. After you clear the 3 at the rail car, you
can head back and get Kruglov. Once you start talking to him, 2 mercs will
immedietly show up and start to attack. Once you kill them, a couple more
will show u p near the crane again. After you get to the tunnel with the
zombies, you can clear them out then proceed to escort Kruglov to the end of
the map and complete the mission. (I did not proceed into Lake Yantar at this
point, i went to the Warehouses).

- On your way back, you can search the area for goods. If you attempt the
mission, "Retrieve the family gun" in the Wilderness from a loner in the
Rostok Bar, it is in the tunnel, specifically A long shipping container, with
all the anomolies near where you first talked to Kruglov.

- SEVA suit - Simalcrum's guide talked about the boarded up house next to the
rail road tracks with train cars. You have to move a crate up to the only
unboarded window to get in. If you go in, and search one of the rooms near
the end of the hall on the right, there is a safe with a SEVA suit in it.
Very good to have at this point!

6. Army Warehouses - After i cleared out the Wildlands, i went to the
Warehouses. As soon as you enter the map, there is a group of duty soldiers
that gather in a small village to the right of where you enter the map. If
you talk to the leader, he asks you to kill the sniper in the tower of the
Freedom base. I recommend not accepting or attempting the mission. Also, if
you go into the freedom base, you can tell a guard at the door that there are
duty soldiers in the town (That allows you access to the building), but i
recommend not accepting the mission from the Freedom leader to take out the
duty soldiers. If you start the mission and do not attack duty, freedom will
turn against you and kill you (Rather quickly!). So moral of the story, don't
help duty or freedom kill each other; otherwise you will screw up the rest of
the game for yourself.

- Freedom base wall - Simalcrum's guide mentioned that you can knife a part
of the wall closest to the village that has the Duty soldiers in it. You can
tell which part it is because it's a brighter white and is brick instead of
paneling and there is a small green box of explosives under it. If you do the
stab technique with the knife on the wall itself or the explosives, the wall
will dissapear. That is easier for traveling in and out of the base/map.

- Vintar BC Sniper Rifle - I did not read about this in the guide nor have i
seen anyone mention it. If you walk into the front of the Freedom base, there
are two buildings to the left after you cross the bridge. Go to the second
building (furthest from the bridge), in there right on the floor near the far
left hand corner, i found a Vintar BC sniper rifle. It was not in
anything.... it could be random, but i doubt it since it was out in the open.
So if it isn't randomized, you will have a quiet sniper rifle very early in
the game.

- Bulldog 6 Grenade Launcher - There are two of them in the warehouse map.
One is in the basement of a house in the village north of the map entrance
point. It's one of the houses in the middle, you have to knife boards off of
the front door then drop into the basement. Beware of many bloodsuckers in
the town.

- The other Bulldog is in the ARMORY of the Freedom base. Obviously it is
guarded by a Freedom guard and he won't let you near the door. Simalcrum's
guide mentioned doing a stealth knife attack on him. However, everytime i
tried it, the other guards were alerted and killed me. So, i walked outside,
went to the window where the guards back was turned to me, waited for a
patroling guard outside to go out of sight. Then i shot the armory guard with
the new Silenced sniper rifle i found (Any silenced weapon will do). The
guard dropped and no one was alerted. Once he is dead, go to the armory door,
knife the lock, and the Bulldog is in a stash box on top of the lockers. You
will need one to give to the Duty leader in a special mission later on. Make
sure it is unloaded when you give it to him.

- PSO-1 Scope - If for some reason you do not have a scope yet, get a couple
bottles of vodka. In the Freedom base, behind the main building where the
leader is... there is a junk yard with a lone soldier next to a tv set. If
you give him a bottle or two of vodka (can't remember exact number), he will
give you a PSO-1 scope.

6. Dark Valley and Secret Lab - BUG ALERT - Everything in Simalcrum's guide
was accurate for me when i went through these two parts of the game. However,
i did experience a bug. After i beat the Borov mission and retrieved the key,
i tried to go back to garbage. I do not know if this was just my
computer/game/installation (Whatever you want to blame), but when i got about
100 feet into the level of garbage, the game crashed and went to the desktop.
I tried all kinds of different things to get through or go around, but nothing
worked, the game crashed everytime. So i was forced to do the Secret Lab
mission without transferring my stash of goods. After i beat it, i tried the
garbage exit again, with the same crash result. I then took the South exit to
Cordon (Opens after you beat the Secret Lab level) and had no problems with
crashing. However, when i went to garbage from Cordon, i was able to get near
the duty checkpoint to Rostok when the game continued to crash again. The
only way i was able to get into Rostok was by going through the radiation pile
to the left of the main road (Or take the long way around it)... walked up to
the map barrier (Got infected with radiation) and followed the map wall up to
the Duty checkpoint (To Rostok). That was the only way i got around the
crashing. After i completed the mission and brought the lab papers to the
BARKEEP, the map of garbage DID NOT crash on me again.

- Cordon Trader Mission - Army Outpost - This was not mentioned in
Simalcrum's guide. If you exit the Dark Valley to the south and see the
Trader in Cordon. He will ask to see the papers from the Secret Lab... Let
him... he pays you and gives them back. After that you can ask him for a
special mission. He will ask you to retrieve documents from the Army Outpost
(South of the trader you are at). I did the mission at night (game time), and
was able to kill all the army guards with out any enemy respawns and retrieve
the documents pretty quickly. After you deliver the documents to the Trader,
Cordon will be overrun with army guys... nothing you can't handle. The camp
of loner's right next to the Trader will be wiped out by mercs and the army...
so be weary if you come back this way. Personally, the reward for the mission
was miniscule and probably not worth your time unless you really need a couple
thousand dollars.


8. Lake Yantar - I followed the guide for this area's missions and had no
problems with anything. Before you leave the area, ask the Professor for side
job's, accept the mission where he asks for unique armor. Once you accept it
(As long as you have Ghost's Armor), click on the "I'm here for the job"
selection and the mission will be over. In exchange for Ghost's armor, the
Professor will give you a SPM-99 green suit. The one that Kruglov wears.
Make sure you save that suit for later on in the game!!

That's all of the things i can remember that would help people out or answer
questions that Simalcrum's guide didn't cover. As i mentioned, i haven't
proceeded into the Red Forest yet... i am still exploring and taking side
jobs. I will post more things i notice when i get further in the game. Hope
this helps!!!

Weapon Notes - Handguns
Handguns are fairly useless. There are basically five main types of ammunition
for handguns and each handgun can fire usually two types of ammunition. Some
unique handguns can fire different ammunition types, leaving simalcrum to
believe an item generator is hidden somewhere in the game. Must ... cheat ...
and ... hack ... items ... If you get a handgun with high damage and some ammo
for it, remember Corporal Adrian Shepherd only carried a baby Eagle (.357
Magnum) and 36 rounds. Take Opposing Forces as an example and tailor your
sidearm to do the same (if you bother with one).

Weapon Notes - Submachinegun
This weapon only appears in commonplace in Garbage, Agroprom, and Cordon. It
is a light weapon designed more to injure through bleeding than actually
stopping someone. Spies VS Mercs already showed you a shotgun was the
preferred weapon even in cases when range would matter, since one shot stops
the spy. There is only one common SMG in the game, the Viper 5 and it uses the
9 mm FMJ and +P ammo.

Weapon Notes - Shotguns
Shotguns are mostly like the Mad Max shotgun early on. Until you reach Lake
Yantar and complete a few missions, or reach Pripyat and Chernobyl, you will
only carry a shotgun for "emergencies" when your assault rifle lacks the take
down power to kill the six invisible mutants hungering for your blood in a
dark sewer underneath Mother Russia. Shotguns have two types of ammo in the
single player -- slug and shell. Slug ammo weighs more but kills most enemies
without trouble.

BM17 Shotgun -- This is the double barrelled shotgun from many western movies.
The Russian use of a practical weapon means it has a low malfunction rate, and
easy to handle. However, it only has two rounds, so you can't afford to miss.

Pump Shotgun -- The Jewish professor at Lake Yantar sells a six-round shotgun.
Buy one if you intend to travel between Yantar and Rostok, since the stopping
power is impressive. However, once you complete Yantar, you have access to a
lot more versatile weapons than the shotgun.

FRANCHI Shotgun -- The SPAS14 is an updated SPAS12. It holds eight shells and
you can only find it among dead soldiers in Chernobyl and occasionally in
Pripyat. Take one only if you run out of grenades and need a shotgun for up
close take down power. At the point when you find these weapons, you will also
have your choice of the Gauss Gun, which fires slower, but has far more range
than the shotgun.

Weapon Notes - Assault Rifles
Assault rifles are the main weapon of any land warrior (or warfighter, or
whatever). All assault rifles have selective fire -- semiautomatic and full
automatic. Some have two and three round burst, but for the most part
semiautomatic is a far better choice for engagements at range. Assault rifles
also are the only ones that can mount a scope and a launcher attachment. Note
that the initial version of Stalker describes a lot of items incorrectly, so
don't be surprised if you can't do some pairings.

AKM 74/2U -- This is the infamous AKSU for Soviet tank crews. It is the basic
assault rifle but cut to the size of an SMG. The CAR-4 pretty much had the
same idea, but is more in step with the AKM 74/2. AKM 74/2Us are shorter than
the 74/2s and cannot mount any extra equipment. This weapon fires the 5.45
standard and 5.45 AP ammo.

AKM 74/2 -- This is a modified version of the AK-74 that fired a 5.45 mm
round. Updated to its "second" generation, this weapon has decent accuracy and
can kill most enemies at Cordon, Garbage, and Dark Valley with no trouble. AKM
74/2s can equip the Russian POS-1 scope and the Russian grenade launcher
attachment, making it a versatile weapon. The downside is its low killing
power, which makes it obsolete by the time you explore Lake Yantar and the Red
Forest. However, ammo is plentiful south of Rostok -- when visiting old areas,
using this weapon makes sense.

AK Obokan -- This is a full length version of the 74/2. It can mount a PSO-1
scope but not the grenade launcher. It does more damage than the 74/2 and is a
decent weapon if you are exploring the old areas of Cordon, Agroprom, Dark
Valley, and Garbage. All AK series weapons use the 5.45 standard and 5.45 AP
ammo and have the practical semiauto and full auto settings.

IL86 -- This is an updated SA80, without the shedding parts or shitty English
workmanship. A scope is fixed as standard to the weapon, making it a good
sniping weapon. Of all the NATO weapons in the game, this one has the lowest
damage. IL86s can fire in a wide degree of rates, but has the most important
two available. Since the TSR 301 is lighter, you might consider dropping the
IL86 instead of using it. NATO rifles all use the 5.56 standard and 5.56 AP
ammo.

TSR 301 -- A new light tactical assault rifle. It can use the SUSAT scope and
attach the 203 grenade launcher, making it a truly versatile weapon. It uses
the 5.56 standard and 5.56 AP ammo. Almost all the mercenaries in Wildlands
carry this weapon, and it is plentiful and cheap. Selling the extra SUSAT
scopes you find will be a side job. If only this game was on the Xbox 360 (or
PS3) then you'd have some cranky achievement like "collect 100 SUSAT scopes -
10 points". Frank Keough's tip about the silencer (could be random since it is
a "spawn item" box, makes the TSR301 probably what you want to bring north
(and west) of Rostok, since the silencer attachment makes you a very efficient
sniper.

SGI5K -- This weapon resembles (very strongly) the G-3 from H&K. It's greatest
weakness is its inability to mount any scope and by default, it has no scope
to begin with. Weird. However, this gun can mount the 203 launcher which makes
it pretty much the Tunder S14 in terms of game balance. It uses 5.56 standard
and 5.56 AP ammo.

GP37 -- This is basically an upgraded IL86, complete with its own scope. High
damage and high fire rate means a full magazine at close range will destroy
your life and armor. It's fairly rare and uncommon, so if you find a pristine
one, hang onto it and take it with you to the hardest dungeons (Yantar and
Scorcher labs). If you think you can brave Pripyat with just NATO weapons,
this is the gun to do it with; count yourself lucky if you find a good GP37 in
the Chernobyl secret lab or at the start of the warp battle at the NPP. It's
the gun that works -- a testament to German efficiency. NATO rifles all use
the 5.56 standard and 5.56 AP ammo.

FT-200M -- This is basically a GP37 that has a built in grenade launcher. It
uses the NATO grenade ammo for the 203 attachment. You can only find this
fairly commonly inside the NPP at Chernobyl, meaning you can almost never find
it elsewhere so you can mess around with it. NATO rifles all use the 5.56
standard and 5.56 AP ammo.

VLA Special -- This is a Russian rifle that uses the PAB-9, SP-5, and SP-6
ammo. It is silenced but has no scope and cannot take on any attachments.
Unless you like silenced weapons for some reason, you should empty the ammo
from this weapon and drop it.

Tunder S14 -- This is a Russian rifle that uses the PAB-9, SP-5, and SP-6
ammo. It also has the ability to fire the Russian grenade rounds from its
built in launcher. It is basically a short range assault rifle, but the rounds
it uses do more damage against enemies. A good many of the Monolith faction
uses the Tunder inside the NPP. The trick is to get inside with your life and
ammo mostly intact to use it. Free Tunders are sometimes dropped by various
soldiers. If you want to buy one, you can do so at Lake Yantar.

Weapon Notes - Sniper Rifles
Sniper rifles are outdated since assault rifles with scopes fulfill the same
role. Counter-sniper rifles like the .50 caliber pieces the U.S. Special
Forces use are not in this game, so sniper rifles are only used in cases when
there are great draw distances and you need a powerful, accurate shot to be
delivered. The only case where this occurs will be in Pripyat and in Chernobyl
when you opt for the True Ending version B. Since you get sniper rifles so
late in the game, you will find keeping only the most powerful 7.62 mm ammo
useful since the cheap common ammo is far too weak to be useful for single
shot take downs. Sniper rifles prevent you from sprinting if they are
equipped; sling them back if you intend to sprint.

SVU Bullpup -- This is a bullpup version of the SVD rifle. it is every bit as
functional as the full length rifle, weighs less, but for some reason, does
less damage. Go figure. It has its own scope and uses the 7.62 standard, 7.62
AP, and 7.62 improved ammo.

SVD/2 Dragunov -- The infamous Dragunov is a tough customer. Re-vamped for
more accuracy and more powerful ammunition, the SVD/2 is your weapon of choice
until you get a Gauss Gun. It has its own scope and uses the 7.62 standard,
7.62 AP, and 7.62 improved ammo.

Vintar BC -- A silenced weapon with its own scope, the Vintar BC uses the PAB-
9, SP-5, and SP-6 ammo (same as the VLA and Tunder). You might find this
rarely among Monolith soldiers. If you do, you might want to take it into the
NPP and see if the silenced ability works for you (it does not for simalcrum).
If you do one of the Duty side missions, you get a free one (the one about the
sniper assault rifle) but this weapon is only ordinary.

Dan iota80 comcast:
Here's a nifty way to pick up a Vintar BC for free:

1) Once you enter the Freedom Warehouses/Base, head to the intersection at the
sidewalk and hang a left.

2) On your left you will notice two long rectangular structures, the first of
which will have a sleeping Freedom Stalker in it.

3) The second structure ( the one without the sleeping Stalker ) will have a
Vintar BC lying on the floor, near the part of the structure furtherest from
its entrance. You will notice a storage room entrance at the back of this
structure, and it will be lying on the floor a few paces before the entrance.

4) This is not a randomized object to my knowledge, since it has appeared
there every time I've played the game. Plus, it's in 100% condition.

Gauss Gun -- A powerful sniper weapon using special ammo found only in Pripyat
and Chernobyl. The Pripyat snipers usually do not fall off their perches (on
roofs you cannot get to), so you can get one (for sure) once you are in the
NPP. Consider keeping it and about extra 30 rounds for later. Anything being
shot by this weapon will die in a hurry. Additionally, the weapon requires a
long time between shots; don't expect to rapid fire this weapon like the
Governator.

Weapon Notes - Explosives (Launched and thrown)
Explosives can be launched from special launchers or more commonly thrown.
There are two grenade launchers (Russian and NATO) that you can attach to the
SGI5K, TSR 301, and AKM 74/2 rifles. In addition, there is a grenade launcher,
a rocket launcher (RPG) and hand grenades you can find. Almost all explosives
come in two types: concussion (offensive) and fragmentary (defensive).
Defensive ammo has a larger explosive radius and killing potential. However,
you can also kill yourself if you are not behind shelter or the explosive
falls short. Offensive explosives have a smaller radius, meaning you may not
be able to kill yourself, but the enemies can avoid it more easily. Change
between ammo types as you would with other weapons. When taking explosives,
ditch your shotgun. The weight adds up if you start piling on the kilos.

Bulldog Launcher -- This is a weapon found on a Duty faction quest. Talk to
the Duty leader once you can enter his base without being shot and take some
vodka (about five bottles) to the guy he told you to meet at the Freedom base.
Drink the Freedom guy "Chef" under the table and he will reveal where the
launchers went and mark them on your PDA. The ammo used is the same as the
Russian grenade launcher, so unload the ammo from this weapon out before you
give it to the Duty leader.

RPG Launcher -- The basic rocket launcher. You find one in the Dark Valley if
you take the time to explore the empty buildings, but a Monolith guy sometimes
has it when you fight through the Red Forest the first time (you can retreat
from the scorcher lab, back to the warehouse and re-load the Red Forest after
passing one day to see if people respawn). Unless the game's developers are
sending tanks after you like the Mexican military in Ghost Recon Advanced
Warfighter 2, you don't need to worry too much about this. However, stash it
somewhere just the same.

Russian (Koystov) EGLM -- A Russian made grenade launcher to be attached under
the AKM 74/2 rifle. Simalcrum only found the just one in the first level
locker room of the Dark Valley secret lab (one of the X-labs ....) along with
a Monolith armor suit. It should be there, attached to an AKM 74/2. Take the
launcher, the grenade ammo, and ditch the gun unless you don't have an AKM
74/2 already. There are two types of ammo for this launcher (same as the
Tunder and Bulldog ammo).

NATO 203 Launcher -- A grenade launcher for NATO weapons that can be attached
to the TSR301 and SGI5K rifles. Find this in the Rostok Wildlands. Just after
you go through the first sniper building to the courtyard, there is a sniper
tower with a motor pool across from the tower. The motor pool building has
several anomalies and artifacts inside. If you enter the motor pool building,
go to the corner with all the fire anomalies and you can find a secret stash
with the launcher and grenade ammo. Someone mentioned you can kill the guard
guarding the Freedom base armory for a similar launcher, but that was an FT-
200M (checked by saving, then reloading the game after the fact). There are
two types of ammo for this launcher (same as the FT-200M ammo).

Offensive hand grenade -- A commonly found hand grenade in the north areas of
the Zone. Small blast radius. Carry a few around when you can spare it unless
you are using the EGLM ammo.

Defensive hand grenade -- An uncommon hand grenade in the north areas of the
Zone. Very large blast radius. Carry a few around when you can spare it unless
you are using the EGLM ammo. Just keep in mind that these are harder to find,
and work very well in small areas.

Ammunition Notes

9x18 Makarov -- standard ammo. Easily the most available ammo in Cordon,
Garbage, Dark Valley and Agroprom. Used by almost all the weaker handguns and
should not be used by anyone except at the newbie village.

9x18 FMJ -- armor-piercing ammo. Fairly common in Garbage, Agroprom, and parts
north of the Rostok. Used in handguns and the Viper 5 SMG.

9x18 +P -- improved ammo. Somewhat uncommon but sold by merchants at Rostok.
+P ammo is sometimes found on enemies. Used in handguns and in the Viper 5 SMG.

.45 ACP -- big bullet ammo. Takes two spaces in the inventory. Used by certain
large caliber handguns that do good damage. You can buy this in Rostok, but it
is a fairly common ammo type on enemies in the Red Forest and Pripyat.

.45 ACP JHP -- jacketed hollow-point ammo, the brand name is "Hydra-Shock" and
mentioned by Burt Gummer in the first Tremors movie (which is one of the
greatest movies ever made). Takes two spaces in the inventory. Used by certain
large caliber handguns and does more damage than the standard .45 ACP round.

5.45 mm x 39 -- Standard ammo for the AK-series of rifles. Very common on
enemies in the Cordon, Garbage, Agroprom, and Dark Valley areas.

5.45 mm AP -- Armor-piercing ammo for the AK-series of rifles. Distinguished
by the black stripe on the box. Uncommon but you can get some from stashes and
from doing some quests. Don't bother using this ammo until you are wandering
around the Dark Valley lab. It does make killing enemies much easier than
before.

5.56 mm NATO -- Standard NATO round, equivalent to the .223 caliber (slightly
larger than the .22 LR). Does tremendous damage to enemies but is not a common
ammo type until you enter the Wildlands, Warehouses, or the Red Forest. Used
by all NATO weapons.

5.56 mm NATO AP -- Armor-piercing NATO round. Used by all NATO weapons. Fairly
uncommon but some enemies use this ammo to be a tougher "challenge" (does more
damage to you and damages your armor). If you manage to collect several
thousand rounds of this stuff, consider lugging 600 some rounds into Pripyat
and towards the Chernobyl NPP for the final "shodown".

PAB-9 ammo -- Special heavy bullet used by some Russian weapons. Not very
common until you start fighting in Pripyat and find the Monolith grunts loving
this ammo for their VLA special rifles.

SP-5 ammo -- Special heavy bullet used by some Russian weapons. Does more
damage than the PAB-9 ammo and curiously common amongst the elite Monolith
soldiers inside the Chernobyl NPP and the secret lab within it.

SP-6 ammo -- Rare special armor-piecing heavy bullet used by some Russian
weapons. If you never use any of it and just hoarded a bunch, consider taking
all of it for your final "shodown" at the NPP. Armor disappears with a few
shots from this weapon (if fired from a Tunder or VLA).

7.62 x 54R -- Standard sniper rifle ammo for the SVD series. Does a decent
amount of damage and can take down people with a few shots. Common in the Red
Forest (you cannot buy this ammo unless you mod your game you cheap bastard).

7.62 AP -- Armor-piercing sniper round. Heavy and very uncommon. Found mostly
in the Red Forest or more commonly from military soldiers in the Chernobyl NPP
(before you go into the plant).

7.62 Improved -- Improved sniper round with faster and more accurate
ballistics. Similar to what the +P round does for 9x18. Heavy and uncommon.

Grenade ammo -- For the launchers, there are offensive and defensive ammo
types. You will find the defensive rounds in Pripyat or deep inside Chernobyl,
so don't worry about using them yet. If only the game was more open ended!

Items and Consumables Notes
Double click items to use them, or right click to bring up a context menu. Not
all items are used as consumables. Ammo for example, must be consumed using
your weapons.

Food -- Bread, sausage, and tins are food items. Every 6 to 12 hours, you need
to eat. Sausage and tins are heavy but are the most filling foods. Bread
satisfies hunger less. Vodka does not count as food in this game. Unlike Deus
Ex 2, food stacks only with its own type (bread and bread, sausage and
sausage, etc). If you are going to one dungeon, two tins of food (and maybe a
sausage) are enough unless you plan on exploring the place by stabbing every
box you see. Food restores life as well and should be used first (unless it's
the last of your food) since it weighs more than medikits.

Soda -- Energy drink for staving off hunger for a little while. Not effective.
Drink one when you find one (it decreases your invisible hunger meter
slightly). Plus your stalker never has to piss, so it's win-win.

Xiushan Mai (shoeshine1984) (gmail)
Soda actually replenishes your stamina instantly. Our character's stamina
recovers fairly quick when he's standing still, but in some instances it can
be life saving. Like in the exterior of the NPP before getting inside, I was
sprinting down the road to reach the building entrance while the enemies are
shooting at me. Taking shots and explosions consumed all the stamina, and the
4 sodas in the bag came in handy.

Vodka -- Used to reduce radiation sickness (don't ask, it's a Russian thing).
You use vodka for some quests as well but using vodka to reduce radiation will
be cheaper than anti-rads early on. Vodka will make your vision blurry however.

Bandages -- Bleeding will hemmorhage and kill your character (red blood sign).
Bandages will stop bleeding and restore a little life. Bandages are perhaps
the most important commodity in the game, so always bring a lot when you
expect to fight many enemies (like 50 to 100 bandages).

Red Medikit -- Standard health kit. Restores 60 to 70 % life but does not stop
bleeding. Reduces radiation by a small amount.

Blue Medikit -- Army health kit. Restores 60 to 70 % life and stops all
bleeding. Uncommon but you can buy them in Rostok. If you buy about 100, you
can carry fewer bandages (bandages are lighter) and use these for the
final "shodown" at the NPP.

Yellow Medikit -- Scientician health kit. Restores 60 to 70 % life and
eradicates all radiation (bleeding is not stopped). Uncommon but you can buy
these at the Warehouse and Yantar. Unless you are intending to stay long at
the NPP's inside, you need maybe about 10 to 20 of these for the
final "shodown". Some areas you will want this type of kit but not always.

Armor Notes

Leather Jacket -- Light armor you have on at the beginning of the game.
Useless against most damage. It even looks Russian made.

Bandit Armor -- Light armor that is slightly improved from the leather jacket.
You can find one from Nimble's side mission or in Borov's basement arsenal.

Mercenary Suit -- Improved light armor you can find in various stashes in the
Wildlands, Agroprom (in a building's locker where you first rescue Mole), and
some other places. Not very helpful.

Reinforced Armor -- Unique armor that clones the Mercenary armor graphic and
makes almost zero improvement. You can find this in the stash on top of the
crane in Wildlands. Is it worth it? No.

Stalker Suit -- Buy it first in Rostok, or find a free one right when you
start the game (see Photec's tip in the armor section). Medium grade crap.
Ghost's unique suit is a Stalker suit, but one that stops you from losing life
when you are bleeding (just like Regina's rubber suit from Dino Crisis 2).
Since you can buy it, it's pretty much your standard suit until you travel to
Lake Yantar.

Monolith Suit -- You can find this in one of the many unlocked lockers in the
Dark Valley lab's locker room (on the first level). Make the extra effort to
transport the item to Rostok before you complete the lab's mission, or you
will be pursued to no end with too much stuff to carry.

Duty Suit -- If you help the Duty faction, you can buy this armor from their
shopkeeper, but all Freedom fighters will shoot you on sight once you get that
purchase option. You can find a free Duty suit from Borov's Basement (sounds
like some Russian thrift store).

Wind Of Freedom -- At the Warehouses, there is an insane stalker in the swamp
northeast of the Freedom base (past the land mines, start running ...). His
hut has a light piece of armor, which simalcrum suspects to be similar to the
Freedom armor.

SSP-99 Orange Spacesuit -- Buy it at Lake Yantar (or get it free if Kruglev
survives to reach the professor). Protects against the Zone's dangers, but not
bullets. Expect to die quickly if a zombie or enemy empties a full magazine of
GP37 on your nerdy ass.

SSP-99M Green Spacesuit -- Normal looking suit that is improved from the
orange spacesuit. Armor protection is about that of the Monolith and Duty
suits and has the same environmental protection. Get this suit only by trading
Ghost's "anti-bleeding" suit to the professor at Yantar, an easy task. You
want this suit if you intend to survive the NPP's interior.

SEVA Suit -- A suit sold after you finish Lake Yantar (at the Yantar shop).
You can buy a crappier version of the green spacesuit if you want Ghost's suit
of armor (for some reason). It has the same stats as the Duty HEV suit but you
can buy it (important if the armor starts to wear out).

Duty HEV Suit -- After getting to talk to the Duty leader, he will want a
special Bulldog grenade launcher. Give him the empty weapon (you can use the
rounds in the Russian EGLM or Tunder) you get this suit for free, which is
almost identical to the SEVA except the color.

EXOSkeleton -- Someone on IGN mentioned you can help Freedom and destroy the
Duty faction and the Freedom shop will sell this armor. Someone else mentioned
they found it as part of a stash in Pripyat. In any case, the general
agreement is that you cannot sprint while wearing this armor (unless you crack
the game's data files) meaning it is useless once you reach Pripyat and
Chernobyl. It is reasonable to assume that EXOs are vulnerable to AP ammo --
since that's what the AP ammo is for.

Faction Notes
All NPCs are part of a faction. When you kill an NPC belonging to a faction,
you incur the wrath of other NPCs in a faction. However, there are exceptions
to this absolute rule. Some NPC groupings are flagged to be a sub-group of a
main faction. This means if you kill just members of that particular group,
only those NPCs in the sub-group will attack you. Unless you plan on saving
and loading a lot to find out who is in league with who, keep your rampant
killing urges to zero and only attack in retaliation. Note that there is no
difference in the neutral and friendly status, since you almost never trade
with friendly characters anyway.

Loner -- Starts neutral. This is an actual group. Killing loners will incur
the wrath of other loners who are always neutral to your stalker. Don't bother
with killing neutrals, since your ammunition and health items are finite.

Military -- Always hostile. This is the Russian military, here to contain the
Zone and execute stalkers. The "land forces of Russia" are predominantly at
the edge of the Zone at their strongholds and can call infinite resources to
their aid once you decide to attack them. Military NPCs can spawn right in
front of your character (if an alert is sounded) and will immediately shoot on
sight. Occasionally, military NPCs will appear at certain spots in the Zone to
guard it for reasons known only to the Kremlin. Military NPCs favor
predominantly Russian gear, but usually do not carry the Tunder, VLA, or
sniper rifles.

PMC (Mercenary) -- Always hostile. These are ex-military individuals who have
taken to exploiting the Zone for a paymaster. Mercenaries don't have any
agenda except to do a job, but they appear in the oddest places and are
immediately shot at. Mercenaries appear in small groups and while they have
above average gear, being out-numbered means they usually die in battles with
other factions. Mercenaries carry predominantly NATO weaponary, but little
else.

Duty Faction -- Starts neutral, but unfriendly. A general by the name of
Voronin heads this facist group. Duty's creed is to keep the Zone contained,
perhaps one day destroying it and the horrors that dwell within. Duty NPCs
automatically fire on Freedom NPCs (and vice-versa). Many special missions for
Duty involve actions against Freedom, which may jeopardize your relations with
Freedom. Duty's base is in Rostok, which is central to your survival since it
is the only semblance of a city in the Zone. Keep your nose clean in Rostok
and you can deal with Duty profitably. Acting foolish, greedy, or against them
is not only stupid, but ultimately unprofitable.

Freedom Faction -- Starts neutral, but unfriendly. A man named Lukash heads
the Freedom movement, which aims to explore the Zone and share its wonder with
the world outside. However, radioactives transported outside pose a serious
danger as a possible WMD so Freedom must bide their time and educate the
outsides about the Zone. Freedom NPCs automatically fire on Duty NPCs (and
vice-versa). Many special missions for Freedom involve actions against Duty,
which may jeopardize your relations with Duty. Freedom's base is in an army
base on the Warehouses map, which makes it another handy spot to have pacified
before you go north towards Pripyat. Keep your weapons holstered and don't
harm Freedom in any way to keep them on your side. Having a few dozen armed
neutrals firing on the rampaging mutants in the area helps immensely. Besides,
you have enough enemies in the form of mutants, mercenaries, the military, and
those damned Monolith soldiers.

Monolith Faction -- Always hostile. This is a cult whose worship is based
around the Sarcophagus (or Wishgranter) in the Chernobyl NPP. Monolith
considers the heart of the Zone (centered around the NPP) to be sacred.
Basically, non-believers are to be irradiated or killed on sight. Because of
incursions by Freedom fighters and stalkers looking for a quick buck, Monolith
launches periodic attacks on the Freedom faction (you experience one when you
first go to the warehouses). However, Monolith is content with using the Red
Forest as a buffer zone; the Brain Scorcher that turns people into zombies
does not seem to affect the Monolith soldiers. Monolith's outer base in
Pripyat is the building west of the Ferris Wheel -- there are several rare
artifacts that spawn there over time. Refresh the map after a few game days
and see if you can score a few lucky charms before you enter the Chernobyl NPP
proper.

Faction Status Notes

Hostile -- Reticle is red. Hostile NPCs open fire on your stalker immediately.
There is no method to turn hostile NPCs to neutral, so never open fire by
accident. Friendly fire is what got Specialist Tillman's brains splattered all
over the damned desert. Check the hostility of targets with your binoculars
(that's what they're for) and if there's a red bracket around an entity, get
ready to rumble. Otherwise, don't simply fire at a target in the distance
simply because their backs are turned and they have not noticed you ....
sometimes, one faction's NPCs at a checkpoint are replaced by another one that
may be neutral towards you.

Neutral -- This is the most economical state you can get since it means NPCs
won't fire on you. This is good since they can be talked to, traded with, or
simply act as decoys and fire on mutants so you can save on ammo and
resources. You can help a neutral NPC by giving them a medikit when they are
dying on the ground to make them friendly, but the other way is to do special
missions for them (Duty and Freedom basically). Yellow dots indicate neutral
NPCs.

Friendly -- This state can be achieved with individual NPCs, but has no effect
on you. However, befriending Duty or Freedom (you cannot do both) will allow
you to purchase extra items in their shops. Keep in mind Freedom's shop is
more limiting when you want to sell items and Rostok is central to your
adventure early in the game. Unless you plan to spend an entire day to wipe
out an entire city by yourself, you should avoid antagonzing either faction.
Green dots indicate friendly NPCs.

Fauna and Mutant Notes
All enemies are tied to a zone of wandering. If you go beyond their patrol
boundary, enemies will turn around and not attack you. This is true with
enemies possessing only melee attacks. With a scoped rifle, you can punish
them from afar without impunity.

Red Tick Beer, Needs More Dog -- There are mutant dogs that pretty much act as
wild beasts (le fauves). Dogs attack on sight and do not give off radioactive
signatures. However, they do make noises and have a behavior that gets them to
flee once they sustain enough damage or if a number of their pack is killed.

Fake Tick Beer, Needs More Pseudodog -- Some mutant dogs you will notice have
a man-like face. These man-faced mutts (not Rosie O'Donnell) are occasionally
used as a side-quest for the pseudodog's tail. If you have a dog tail, that
won't cut it. Otherwise the same as the mutant dog. Note one spot in the Red
Forest will spawn an infinite number of pseudodogs as "hallucinations" but
they will actually hurt your character and eventually kill you. However, when
these illsuions are killed, they disappear in a flash. Pseudodogs do not
retreat like the mutant dog.

Rabies Beer, Needs More Rat -- There are mutant rats the size of Paris
Hilton's small bitch that jumps for your throat. Very weak, they are often
killed once other NPCs take note of them, so it's rare you find one alive.

Bacon Beer, Needs More Boar -- Mutant boars run around Cordon and some other
areas. These are visibly boars, with their tusks and stuff. The great part
about boars is that their heads are so large, you can headshot them easily and
drop them quickly. You cannot get food from mutant animals, so don't bother
wasting ammo on mutants unless you are being chased. Boars do not retreat, so
you may need to sprint faster, or turn around and kill the sum'bitch before it
kills you.

Mutant Pug or Pig -- Called "Flesh" or "Meat" by the game, these resemble
nekkid overgrown babies that are running wild. The behave exactly like the
boars and live mostly north of Cordon. Don't think too much what one will
smell like once you get it set ablaze with its flesh and blood melting on an
open fire.

Zombie -- Though still alive, they are technically brain dead. The voluntary
functions of the brain are scorched by the Brain Scorcher and these zombies
now attack everyone on sight. They have little supplies on them and it's
unknown what happens if you leave one "dying" on the ground. Simalcrum doesn't
think they get back up, but having an active enemy on the ground means the
game won't spawn another to take its place (it's called thinking smart).
Zombies inhabit the Lake Yantar and Warehouses mostly.

Invisible Mutant -- Called "Bloodsucker" by the game, these mutants are
invisible to the naked eye and since you have no thermal goggles, you're
screwed. They have a distortion around them and they appear briefly when they
attack with their claws. What's worse than an invisible blood thirsty monster
is hunting you down in a dark sewer? Possibly an unwanted pregnancy from a
crazy woman you don't want to live with, but the difference is the bloodsucker
will kill you rather than torture you to death. A shotgun is what you want to
use against this enemy until you get your hands on a lot of NATO ammo and
maybe the GP37 or SGI5K. It can be tricked into running into anomalies if you
can sprint for a while as well. These enemies appear in the dark facilities
(like secret labs) and occasionally above ground in the Warehouses area. NPCs
will not see this enemy when it is invisible, so if you don't attack the
mutant, you get a front row seat to what happens when a Yautja drops in the
middle of a Colonial Marine squad.

Beast Zombie -- Called "Snork" by the game. You meet this enemy first in the
Dark Valley lab. They appear bestial and from their apearance, they appear
transformed by necromantic processes. The probiscis is actually remnants of a
breathing suit, and this enemy predominantly kung-fus your character with
kicks and punches. Snorks can leap like lickers or reapers from Resident Evil,
so step sideways and kill them with automatic gunfire or shotgun shells.
Headshots are hard against this enemy since it moves around quickly and the
head is human sized.

Muscle Mutant -- Called "Pseudogiant" by the game. This resembles a large
version of the mutant pug pig and delivers shockwaves that knock your
character down. Since it only attacks at short and medium ranges, you can
easily hang back beyond its detection range and snipe it to death. The first
time you meet it will be under the Dark Valley laboratory, and your scoped AKM
or NATO rifle (through exploring the Warehouses or Wildlands first) will turn
its face into something that looked like it came out of its butt; i.e., messy.

Psionic Mutant -- Called "Controller" by the game. This resembles a human with
all of its features smoothed out by plastic surgery (like Michael Jackson but
more inhuman). Being near one will cause your vision to blur and turn red.
This enemy can psychically pull your camera from your atavism's body and in
doing so, will cause you damage (although the initial version doesn't do much
damage at all). If you get close, the enemy will rake you with its claws. They
are exceedingly rare and found above ground only in Yantar and Warehouses, but
occasionally walk a map if a bad spawn occurs.

Poltregeist Mutant -- This enemy is visible as a white anomalous spark. It
attacks you by throwing objects (includes weapons and items you can pick up --
hence the intrinsic kilogram value of an item). Although the enemy looks non-
corporeal, you can kill it with regular gunfire. The picture in the PDA is
that of the corpse.

Pyrogeist Mutant -- This enemy is visible as a red anomalous spark. It attacks
you by generating fire that spouts from an arbitrary point in space. It's a
power you wish those wussy wieners in NBC's hit show "Heroes" would have but
that would just be ripping off Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Like the
poltregeist, you should kill these with regular gunfire (or explosives) since
they only appear once or twice in the game -- both times, you are trapped in
the room until you kill the boss or kill the mutant (not so much the second
time).

Game Bugs (launch ver.)

-- GP37 has no holster animation

-- Key NPCs killed during quest(s) will result in dead game (quests cannot be
completed)

-- Grenade rounds vanish from launcher magazine when ammo is switched, item
screen visited, modes switched, or launcher attached/detached from gun

-- Grenade round is sometimes a "blank" when fired after saving/loading, or
visited from item screen

-- RPG rocket disappears when unloaded from item screen

-- Conflicting side-jobs may sometimes result in friendly NPCs opening fire on
your character, killing your sorry Russian ass when you have your weapon
holstered in a supposedly safe area, and there's no real escape, because not
only were you not expecting it, but two guys with GP37s can totally fuck your
face up fast before you can even apply a blue medikit and get the hell out to
try to find out what went wrong (Skull at the farmstead VS Freedom squad
missions; guilty party was Lukash's guards)

-- (Reported) Having no hand grenades (by using them up) results in you not
being able to switch weapons; or simalcrum calls that: HAHAHAHHAHAHAA

-- (Reported) Game time speeds up if a map transition occurs when you are in
sprint mode, inadverdently killing you through fast starvation or bleeding
(autosave on new map will not help, since it saved the game state at fast time
already)

-- Torch function is mysteriously unbound after a certain part of the game;
cannot get it to function anymore (even with old suits/armors)

-- Freedom Base wall can be destroyed with a knife blow (this is awesome; try
it first before you patch it -- Russian martial arts kick ass)

-- Chernobyl PDA map overlays the markers for the player, making things
interesting before the blow-out

-- Quest markers linger if key NPCs die and do not execute quest related
actions or conversations

-- Gray pseudo-dog at Red Forest Swamp causes overstack or out of memory with
infinite respawning

-- Certain map nodes do not appear on the PDA but the transitions are still
present

-- Some side-jobs (help Seriy defend the base from bandits) never end; this
means enemies are constantly there on the damn map

-- GSC Game World should not use Bethesda as a model for game development;
that is all

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Simalcrum want more

The copy of the game simalcrum is playing is tied to a machine at my brother's
office, and too much dingbats there make simalcrum uncomfortable. Maybe
STALKER gets added to the library down the road (yeah right) but since there's
more console stuff coming out later, STALKER will go the way of the old games.
That's a shame since the game is damn cool in the beginning and kinda in the
middle. But aside from the patching (which changes PC games ala NGE for Star
Wars Galaxies) there's more stuff that should be listed:

-- Unique armors. Armor does wear out eventually, although if you're playing
only some side missions and all story, you should not experience destroyed
armor even if you go for the toughest ending (the true ending version B).
Still, unique armor is like unique weapons; they look cool but unlike unique
weapons, they are harder to find and worth more. A unique weapon is more of a
money source than a true curiosity.

-- Rare artifacts. Someone on IGN's board told simalcrum about some moonlight
locations which turned out to be hazy, incorrect, or otherwise didn't pan out.
Artifacts get moved around by explosions and gunfire. Sometimes they don't
spawn (bug). If there's a reliable sighting of a rare (not crap) artifact each
time you play, let simalcrum know about it.

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