Please note that if you have a Echo Detector equipped when you complete this mission your reward will be a Bear Detector; if you already have that detector (or a better one), you'll be rewarded with a Fireball artifact instead.

Strange indeed!

Tuna is a rotten liar!

If you are doing this mission at the beginning of the game, it can be a bit tricky because Tuna and his friends are fairly well armed and you only have little room when they attack you. One option that may work is to give the artifact to Tuna, and then follow him and kill him on the way back to the Skadovsk. Another option is to stay inside the barge and attack the three stalkers before you even talk to Tuna; they will all spawn as soon as you pick up the artifact, and the cover from the cabin makes this an easier solution.

Meet the stalkers outside the Ranger Station

Putting some pressure on the bandits!

Following Spartacus into a small building nearby, you'll see a short cutscene which reveals that the bandits are looking to buy weapons and equipment in exchange for some artifacts. Once that is finished, Spartacus will tell you to move out - it's time to take them down. If you move out of the small building and to the east you can quickly see some of the bandits and get some shots off; you can also throw some grenades at them, just be careful later on as the stalkers have a tendency to enter the building, and you don't want them taking friendly fire.

Be sure to loot the "trader"

The "trader", wearing the exoskeleton, is the toughest foe by far, and he is usually the last man standing among the bandits and mercs - while he is your top priority, make sure you provide as much help to the stalkers as possible to avoid them taking any casualties. Once they're all dead make sure you loot the body of the "trader"; he's carrying a PDA that will prove valuable later on. Also, before you head off stop by Spartacus who will give you the first part of your reward: 2,500 RU and the location of a stash. Return to Beard to receive another 3,500 RU and complete the mission.

One shot? Why not make it two!

The first group is heavily armed

When you arrive, you'll be given the SVD sniper rifle along with 10 7.62x54 mm 7H1 rounds, which should be enough firepower and ammunition for your needs. You are located inside a room on the top floor of a building overlooking the Apartment Complex to the south - this is where the meeting will take place. You'll have to be a bit patient as it takes the first group of mercenaries a while to get there, and the second one arrives even later.

Be sure to retrieve the keycard from the "egghead"

Wait for both groups to arrive, and for the two leaders, Jackal and Serbin, to position themselves near the center of the yard. This is a perfect opportunity to take out both targets; there is no need to worry about the other mercenaries as they'll quickly evacuate the premises once their leaders are dead. If they do start to fire at you, make sure the leaders are down before taking cover - they will all try to slip away eventually and if either of the two leaders manage to do that you'll fail the mission.

Once the two head mercenaries are dead, and the others have either left or been dealt with, go down the stairs and locate the body of Serbin, one of the mercenaries in a green scientist suit. He's carrying the Red X8 Keycard which can be used to open a locked door inside of X8, giving you access to a sizeable weapons depot. When you return to Kovalsky he'll tell you that you can keep the rifle and will give you an additional 30 7.62x54 mm 7H1 rounds, which I guess is a decent bonus.

Flint

Poor Splinter

Now head to the large machinery at the Quarry; as you approach you'll notice an extra PDA showing up on your scanner and as you get closer you should see a dot on your mini-map. Head over there and you'll see a wounded stalker, Splinter. Talk to him and offer him help. He'll explain that he came to the Quarry along with a Freedom member looking for artifacts. They managed to find one, but after Splinter walked into a Gas Anomaly the other guy just took the artifact and left, leaving Splinter to die. Tell Splinter that you'll look for him; you'll get a new mission, Retribution: avenge Splinter. Shortly after you end you conversation with him, he'll sadly die. While you can loot his body, I tend to just leave him be and let the Zone claim him.

Return to Yanov Station and go see Flint; you'll hear him talking about how he went to the Quarry the other day and found an artifact. Talk to him and hint that he was the guy who left Splinter to die. He'll tell you that you can't prove it, and no one will believe you over a member of Freedom. As you end your conversation with him he'll start to tell another story about him helping some guys hunting a Chimera. Listen to his story and the mission will be updated - Flint just revealed that he is Magpie. You now have several options; you can tell the Freedom commander, Loki, or you can tell the Duty commander, Shulga, about what Magpie has done. Either option will improve your status with the faction, and it is a requirement for getting either the Friend of Freedom or the Friend of Duty achievement. The final option is probably the most obvious one: tell Gonta that you've found Magpie; this is a requirement for the Man of Balance achievement. Once you tell either of them you'll complete the mission and receive the Courier of Justice achievement.

Grizzly and Torba trying to decide what to do

Shishak, the bandit leader

The first solution is probably the easiest and fastest, but it's going to cost you either an artifact or about 17-19,000 RU; you'll get a Goldfish from Grizzly to use as pay, but you when you talk to the bandit leader, Shishak, you can give him money instead (and keep the artifact for yourself); you can also give him a different, high-level artifact such as a Flame if you wish to neither part with money nor the Goldfish. On your way out, a bandit called Dwarf will stop you and demand more money; you must agree to pay him or all the bandits will attack you, and since you're basically surrounded by this time it's usually best to just give him the money. The amount appears to be random, I've payed as little as 2,200 RU, but other times about 4,000 RU.

The second option means that you, along with a couple of other guys, will attack the bandit base at night. Obviously this is a risk since you or Mitay may die. If you're really looking for a fight with the bandits, why not complete the mission peacefully and then attack the base in your spare time? Just a thought. If you choose this option, you'll need to meet up with some hired goons at the car south-east of the Container Warehouse at about 1 AM. When you meet them, talk to the leader to begin the assault on the bandits.

You also have the option to tell Grizzly you'll deal with the situation yourself which means you'll either have to pay the ransom or attack the bandits and free Mitay alone; in this case you'll receive a Goldfish and the stash locations as a reward if you get Mitay out alive.

Bloodsucker lair!

There you'll meet Grouse outside; follow him inside and deal with two Bloodsuckers. You then move into the basement, going through an elevator shaft. Eventually you'll make it to a small room with alot of sleeping bloodsuckers in it. Keep following Grouse, and try not to wake the bloodsuckers You'll come to a hole in the floor where Grouse will drop down - he'll ask you to tell Beard about the lair and that he'll meet up with you later. Head back to the Skadovsk and talk to Beard - he'll pose the idea of gassing the lair and ask you to go talk to Owl, who supposedly knows where to find some poisonous gas. Owl will demand 2,000 RU for the information, but there's no need to buy it from him - just go grab the required items from the Preobrazhensky Bridge: Key A, Key B and finally the Perin B3 gas from a locked box. Once you have the gas, make your way to the area just north-west of the Krug Antenna Complex. There you can hook up the gas to the ventilation system - do so by using the left then turn the valve on the right side. A timer will pop up indicating that it will take some time for the gas to have spread out; you will soon be joined by two bloodsuckers so either prepare for a fight or run away. Return to Beard for your reward; this completes the first part of the mission.

Caught in the act!

Once you're back you may notice that Tremor is gone, and Grouse hasn't come back yet. Something is surely amiss! In fact, make your way up to the Dock Cranes, specifically the small building there. Inside you'll first come upon a dead stalker - search him and you'll see it is Danila the pathfinder, one of the missing stalkers that Grouse told you about; open the door next to him and you'll find Tremor inside along with the body of Grouse. When you talk to Tremor, you'll learn that it was him who has been the cause of the missing stalkers - with a growing hemoglobin addiction he needed fresh blood, and preying on wounded stalkers was one way to satisfy his hunger. Eventually he was exposed by Grouse so he killed him. He's not particularly proud of his doings, and after you've talked to him he'll sadly commit suicide; if you kill Tremor instead of letting him commit suicide, you'll find a PDA on his corpse. You can now report back to Beard and tell him that it wasn't bloodsuckers that were the culprits behind the missing stalkers, but actually the Skadovsk medic. You'll complete the mission, receive the second reward, and get the Detective achievement; the achievement comes with a nice perk - once a day, stalkers will put some medkits, bandages and/or antirads into your personal box on the Skadovsk.

Once you've completed the mission, I believe the Owl will start to carry certain drugs and medical supplies seeing that Tremor won't be coming back. If you decided to gas the Bloodsuckers, the lair beneath the Krug Antenna Complex will be full of toxic fumes, and you'll constantly be drained of health while exposed - even if you're wearing an armor with a closed-cycle respiratory system.

Video walkthrough - radio equipment for Nitro

Take the stairs down. You'll enter a small hall - move down to the end and enter the small office; on a desk there you can find some copper wire (south-western corner). There is another doorway there, leading out behind a Burnt Fuzz anomaly; heading through there, you'll notice a hole in the floor. On the other side of the hole, on a shelf, you'll find a box of transistors. Now you need to drop down through the hole, but beware - there's a Burner anomaly waiting for you, so throw down a bolt first to see its exact location.

Drop down and move into the room to the east - you'll find some textolite base on a wooden desk. Continue east and fine a can of colophonium on another desk; in the same room, up against the north wall, you'll find more textolite base on a metal shelf. Backtrack and go out into the main hall, on the same floor, and go west until you reach the stairs; head down to the second floor.

You'll enter a room with some sort of pressure tank and pipes in it. In the north-eastern corner you'll find more copper wire on a desk. On the opposite side of the room you'll find a pack of capacitors on another desk. Grab them and locate the ladder going down in the south-eastern corner of the room.

Take the ladder down and you'll come to a very similar room; on a desk on the southern side you'll find more textolite base. Close by is a small ante-chamber, in the south-western side of the room. Behind a burnt fuzz anomaly you can find another can of colophonium on a metal shelf. Once you pick it up, the mission should be updated - you have all the nine components for Nitro. Go to the stairwell in the north-western corner, head down and drop down to the ground floor and out the door. Make your way back to him to complete the mission.

A sneaky entrance

Taking down the mercenaries from a distance

If you decide to take down the mercenaries, make sure your equipment is up to par; as noted above, the mercenaries have got some good equipment and they can take you down with just a couple of shots if you're wearing a basic Sunrise Bodysuit or similar armor. It's doable, obviously, but you're easily turned into swiss cheese.

Use the slope for cover

A good place to approach the camp is from the north-eastern corner of the plant; there are some gaps in the walls where you can sneak in, and the slope going up to the main building can provide some needed cover. Once the mercenaries are aware of your presence they'll usually hang out on the walkways outside the building, as well as near the doors on the ground level. Staying in cover behind the slope and waiting for them to pop out is a good strategy. Once you've dealt with them be sure to loot their bodies; the two senior mercs, Hook and Ridge, not only carry TRs 301 assault rifles with various accesories, but also PDAs that you can sell to Owl; when ready, head upstairs to the second floor and find the table with the notebook. Bring it back and sell it to Owl to complete the mission.

• You can find a Veles Detector at a stash inside a digger at Kopachy in Jupiter.
• Completing Find the missing hunter, given by Grouse, will net you one of these detectors.
• If you acquire the Wealthy Client achievement, Owl may sell this type of detector (I haven't confirmed this yet).
• Another option is to start working for Professor Hermann in Jupiter as he may sell them once you've completed Intermittent psy-emissions.

Returning and talking to Owl you'll learn that he has received the new detectors, but that he has also made an agreement with Beard about letting stalkers use the new detectors in exchange for a cut of the profits they make off artifacts. However, he feels Beard doesn't live up to the agreement, and asks you to go talk to him. Beard has a different understanding of the situation, saying he very specifically lives up to the agreement; he's bought two detectors and has paid Owl for them - but he's not buying the third one, so he gives it to you - you get the Svarog detector prototype. Head back to Owl who will have a proposition for you; you can turn him down and get a cut of his profits - 1,500 RU - which will complete the mission. However, if you wish to help him out, go talk to Sultan. Tell him that Beard owes you money and it'll lead to the mission Shady business. Be sure to check out the details of the mission before you pick it up since it has consequences for your relationship with Beard.

Morgan and his compadres

Head off to the Ranger Station and go talk to Morgan inside the large building. You'll move into the small room nearby and eventaully about six bandits will show up. Go stand next to Morgan and you'll see a short cutscene where the deal is initiated and eventually interrupted by a number of stalkers sneaking up on you. At this point the bandits will go hostile and a firefight ensues.

The stalkers are likely your main concern

Now starts the tricky part as you'll be directly faced with the bandits, and stalkers are closing in on you from behind - you are, in other words, pretty much caught in a crossfire, and keeping Morgan - let alone yourself - alive can be a frustrating affair. Morgan is wearing an Exoskeleton which gives him good protection, but he is not invincible and he will go down if you don't take out the enemies fast enough. Sadly, the two mercenaries that Morgan brought are probably not going to be of much use - at least for me they tend to be full of lead before the fight has even properly started. While the bandits seem like the most obvious threat, I believe that the stalkers are actually your main concern; quickly deal with the bandits and put your focus on the stalkers.

Once the fight is over, and Morgan hopefully has survived, go talk to him to receive your reward and complete the mission. As you may know, Morgan is carrying a PDA containing some valuable information, and getting your hands on it is part of a partial requirement for three mutually exclusive achievements; once this mission is complete, Morgan will travel to and stay inside Yanov Station, so this is your last chance to get it from him - and the only way to do that is by force. Although Morgan is part of the Duty faction, I don't believe there is any negative consequence for eliminating him.

A short-range weapon is good at the Plavni anomaly

And a long-ranged one at the Ash Heap

At the Plavni Anomaly you'll be charged by groups of mutants, Boar and Flesh mainly, about four or five creatures at a time over a total of about four waves. Be sure to look around when it's quiet, the mutants may come from different sides. Once the stalkers are done with the measurements, go talk to Topol; you have the opportunity for a break back at the Scientists' Bunker in case you're running low on ammunition or other equipment, otherwise head straight to the next location.

At the Ash Heap Anomaly you'll be fending off zombies - what's worse, when you arrive there the game has a nasty tendency of spawning large group of zombies right next to you. It's easy to lose one of the stalkers here, but it is possible to survive if you're fast enough - also, the stalkers are pretty tough, and they defend themselves pretty well. Once they start taking measurements watch out for zombies coming from Kopachy; they tend to come through the house or from the right side (western side of the village). Pick them off from a distance to avoid them getting any shots in at the stalkers. Once the stalkers are finished, talk to Topol to head back to the bunker. Talk to Hermann to complete the mission and receive your reward.

Night-vision can be helpful in the dark tunnel

While freaky, this is not the source of the emissions

Head inside the tunnel, and be on the lookout for zombies - there are about three or four about so be sure to kill them before you investigate the emissions further. Once they're all down you'll get a short transmission from Topol, so you'll know it's safe at that point. Locate the hole in the fence on the southern side and move west; as you approach, you should spot a moving blue "cloud" - it's a Tesla anomaly. Move forward to the corner, avoiding the Burnt Fuzz along the way. Take a moment to watch the path the Tesla is following. You need to move around the corner to the left and then quickly take a left again into an adjacent room - so watch the floating anomaly to see when the path is clear. Make sure you also keep an eye on your health, as the psy-emissions are likely to drain it constantly.

The source of the psy-emissions

Moving around the corner and into the adjacent room you'll see some shelves and more Electro anomalies. There is somme ammunition on the group and on one of the shelves here. Keep moving and you'll eventually come to a small room clear of anomalies, with your objective sitting on the ground: the Altered Insulator; this artifact is causing the psy-emissions and picking it up will end the bombardment. There are some more items in this room, including some food and an AKM-74/2U, so pick up everything you need not forgetting the artifact. Before you head out the door to the north, prepare yourself for a fight - a Controller is up ahead.

Deal with the controller as fast as you can

Move out of the room and quickly move into to the tunnel and look towards the exit - as you do, you'll probably hear Topol and his men warn you about a Controller as they grab their heads, overwhelmed by its influence. Time is of the essence at this point - you must kill the controller pretty fast, otherwise Topol and his men will come under it's influence and start to attack you. If you kill it, Topol and his crew will recover and make it out of there alive, even if the Controller managed to get them under its influence - so you can still save them, even if they go hostile. The Controller is initially located back at the train car near the entrance - so a good, long-range weapon is definately useful here. Keep hammering the Controller with everything you got, making sure it goes down before Topol et al does. Once it's dead, give Topol and his men a minute to recover, then talk to him. He'll thank you by giving you the location of a stash. Head back to Hermann to complete the mission. He'll be surprised to hear there actually was a Controller there, but very thrilled that you all made it out of there alive - given of course, that you did. If Topol and/or some of his men doesn't make it back, they'll be replaced by random guys for the next missions.

As you end the conversation with Hermann he may address you again right after, asking for your help in a different matter. If you accept his offer this will kick off the Anomaly research, part 1 mission.

Another beautiful day in the Zone!

Once you place it, make it out again fast - about 8 or so snorks are going to be joining you real soon, and you don't want to fight them while being inside the anomalous area. After you have placed the scanner you need to wait for it to collect the required data - this takes a couple of minutes, so dealing with the snorks in the meantime is a good idea especially since you also have to pick up the scanner again. When the scanner is done, grab it and head back to Ozersky and tell him about the results - the measurements done by their equipment does attract mutants! He'll give you the 3,000 RU as a reward and you'll complete the mission.

Entrance

Mom, there's a zombie in the bathroom, tell him to hurry up

Make your way towards the railroad west of the Ventilation Complex in Jupiter - you'll find a small building there, right up against a concrete wall, directly east of the swamp. Refer to the screenshot on the right, or the interactive map, for the exact location. This is the entrance you're looking for - well, it's not like you enter the door and... hey, the Oasis! It's the first step, so to speak. As you arrive you may notice a number of PDAs in the vicinity - they're zombies, so once you enter the building be ready to deal with them. There are also plenty of hamsters around, but they should be less of a problem as long as you don't let them group up on you.

Three sets of almost identical pipes

Moving through the building you'll eventually come to a couple of rooms with large pipes going up - you can climb into these pipes and up into the next set of rooms; more pipes will follow, but the next two have a ladder inside of them. At first glance the place may seem like a maze with rooms and pipes, but the only way you can go is either forward (towards the Oasis) or back towards the way you came.

The puzzle

Eventually you'll come to a room full of pillars - this is actually one of the reasons why the Oasis has become such a legend or mystery - the room has an anomaly in it, a kind of puzzle that you need to solve to go any further. If you just run through the room you'll eventually find yourself back where you started, ie. it seems like you just go in circles.

If you look at the screenshot on the left you can see that there are several rows of pillars - the first row has four pillars closest to you; behind that is another row, then another, etc. further away from you. - a total of four such rows. As you'll notice, with four pillars per row, and a wall on both sides of the outermost pillars, you get a total of five ways you can move past a row. To solve the puzzle you must find the right path for each row, and eventually take all four right paths to reach the Oasis. When you move through the room and end back where you started, you may see some shimmering lights fall down from some of the ways - this is an indication of a correct path. When you have found a shimmering light in each row you've also found the right path. Run through these lights in each row and you'll reach the Oasis. You can't ruin or break the puzzle, so run through the room as many times as needed until you've found the way.

The Oasis puzzle

Refer to the video on the right to see a simple way of solving it, in case my explanantion makes little or no sense to you. Please note that the puzzle may have a different correct path from game to game, so the path I take in the video may very well be different from the one you'll have to take.

The Oasis

Once you've solved the puzzle and move on you'll reach the Oasis: a small gathering of bushes, trees and water inside some sort of silo at the Ventilation Complex. You'll find what you're looking for here; the Heart of the Oasis is an artifact hanging off a tree in the center. Before you pick it up, look around - directly opposite the artifact you should see a ladder - this is the easiest and fastest way out. When you pick up the artifact, a couple of mature Pseudodogs will come charging into the room, so be ready for a fight - or to scramble for the ladder. I'll leave the choice up to you. Once you have the artifact, get out and head back to Ozersky to complete the mission.

Bandits at the Dock Cranes

As you reach the Cranes you can see the aforementioned bandits, but they are not hostile. Go talk to their leader, and he'll ask you if you're Snags friend. No matter what you answer, he demands your "loot", which actually means a good amount of your money (about 35-40%) and some of your weapons - you can get your weapons back, but not the money; in any case you probably aren't going down that path as it's neither satisfying nor profitable. The other option is to turn him down which means that the bandits will become hostile. Kill them and be sure to loot the body of the leader, he's got a PDA on him. It appears that Sultan is looking for Snag as well; sadly, you cannot talk to Sultan about it and none of the bandits on the Skadovsk will mention anything about Snag as far as I know. Now it's time to head to Yanov Station in Jupiter.

At the station you may run into Snag - he'll deny that he's been deceitful and claim that Nimble is "messed up in the head". To progress the mission from this point you need to either sleep or take a trip to another area like Zaton; once you do (and return to Yanov Station if you went to a different area) go look in your personal box - it's empty! You'll receive a new mission, Theft, that is connected to this one - you need to find out who stole you loot and where it is. Go ask around in Yanov Station about your missing stuff - not many seem to know anything, not even Trapper who appears to spend all his time in the basement, close to your personal box. Eventually you may run into someone (possibly Bonesetter) who saw a suspicious person leaving the station; if you ask further, he'll say the person went north-east and that perhaps Zulu saw him. If you haven't visited him yet, Zulu is the guy living in a tower slightly north-east of Yanov Station. Pay him a visit and he'll tell you that a couple of guys had an argument near the tower; tired of their loud bickering, Zulu scared them off and they headed towards the Substation... so that's you next destination.

Snags shady past has finally caught up with him

Your precious loot!

Arriving at the station you may hear someone talking - head over to the small building on the eastern side; inside you'll find a bandit standing over a wounded Snag. This is a messenger sent by Sultan; if you get close enough, he'll ask you what you want - give him the more polite "just passing by" answer or he'll attack you. What you do from here I'll leave up to you - you can help Snag out with a medkit and he'll tell you about the location of your items. You can also kill him and loot his PDA off his body to discover where your items are. You can also kill the bandit or let him go, I'll let you decide. As for your items, they're hidden down in a small underground room behind the Substation.

If you're like me, you'll now have to haul hundreds of kilos worth of stuff back to Yanov Station... as I say, you never know when 227 bottles of vodka are going to come in hand - well, I feel the punishment for that at this point. Anyways, you may find a few extra items among your own stuff - last time I played there was a Berill-5M Armored Suit that I didn't have before... I guess you can consider these extra items the reward for completing the mission.

Jump on the ledges to safely reach the bottom

The car

• A modified Fora-12 (+10% Fire Rate and Weight reduced by 0.33 kg)
• A modified AKM-74/2U (+10 Magazine size)
• A modified Steel Helmet (+10% to both Chemical and Radiation protection)
• 3 Scientific medkits
• 3 antiradiation drugs
• 5 bandages
• A Soul artifact

Strider in his Monolith suit

The faction commander will need to trust you enough first, before they are allowed to join one of the two factions. This can be obtained by eg. finishing the mission In search of Magpie by telling the commander about Magpie; you can also give him some of the more important intelligence items, such as Morgan's PDA or General Tachenko's PDA, to gain his trust.

Duty: strict and formal

Freedom: relaxed and casual

Once the commander of your choice trusts you enough, you can talk to him and say you're ready to lead a group to the former Monolith. You'll automatically be transported back to the Monolith camp where you'll witness the initiation ritual which is quite different depending on which faction you've chosen. Duty demands a strict discipline and depends on a strict hierarchy, whereas Freedom has a more casual and relaxed attitude. Once the ritual is over you can talk to either the faction representative or Strider for an automatic trip back to Yanov Station. Once there you can find Strider outside Lokis office if they joined Freedom, or in the room next to Nitro if they joined Duty.

Don't mind his manners, Noah is a fairly peaceful guy

Sledgehammer and his crew

Go talk to Beard and pick up and order for an artifact; the mission will be updated and you can now locate the stalkers. There are two groups consisting of three men each; they will be marked on your mini-map so locating them shouldn't be a problem. The first group, lead by Sledgehammer, is heading to the Claw Anomaly, and the second group, lead by Crest, starts out near the Scar Anomaly. You can get the detectors in several ways; killing the stalkers and looting their corpses is one option, but as mentioned each group is three man strong and they carry some decent equipment, so you may prefer a peaceful solution: talking to them and convincing them to hand over the detectors. Sledgehammer will only part with his detector if you bring him a new rifle - I haven't tried that many, but he did accept a Vintar BC. You can tell Crest that you killed the other group and he'll hand over his detector without further incident. Once you have both of them, return to Sultan and finally go talk to Beard. You'll complete the mission and the artifact order will be cancelled.

Zaton is a dark place at night...

...so bring some night vision!

The mission takes place during the night, and if you talk to Knuckles and start the mission during the day, you fast-forward to sometime after midnight, and you'll start the mission outside of the Shevchenko; Zaton can be a very dark place at night, so if you have a suit or helmet with night vision, that is probably going to help alot. If you talk to Knuckles early in the morning, you may start the mission right then, possibly after the sun has started to rise, which can eliminate the need for any artificial lighting.

Helping the bandits
If you decide to help the bandits, the mission is quite simple: go to the Shevchenko and eliminate all the stalkers there. You'll have help from Knuckles and three of his friends, so this shouldn't be too difficult. Also, the stalkers at the Shevchenko are unexperienced, with the possible exception of Spartacus, and they carry gear to that effect. There are usually one or two stalkers inside the first room on the ship; the rest, about six in total, are up the stairs. Although the bandits rush forward, staying at the bottom near the stairs can be a good staging area since you can easily strafe to the side and find cover if you need to reload. Once you've dealt with the stalkers, go talk to Knuckles and receive your reward - 1,500 RU and a stash location; if he died during the assault, you should be pointed to one of the other bandits who will give you the reward. You can now pick up the next mission, Transaction, from Sultan.

Helping the stalkers

Betraying the bandits

If you wish to help the stalkers, go pick up the mission from Sultan and then head over to Beard and tell him about the bandits' plan. He'll ask you to go through with the raid, saying that he'll tip off the stalkers and setup a plan to give the bandits a "warm welcome". Head on back to Knuckles to start the raid, or if he's already on his way to the Shevchenko follow him and talk to him once you arrive. After you begin the assault, taking down the bandits should be a simple affair - just stay behind them and wait for the right moment. On their way into the ship, they'll be close together and this is an excellent opportunity for some quick bursts, some blasts from a shotgun, or even a grenade or two; also, attacking them at this point will mean that the stalkers are less likely to have any casualties. Even if one or two of the bandits manage to make it any further, they are likely to meet a barrage from the stalkers. Once the bandits have been dealt with, locate and talk to Spartacus to complete the mission and receive your reward; I am not sure if this is semi-random, or perhaps depending on the success of the mission (ie. how many of the stalkers survived), but last time I checked I got ten bandages, two medkits, two antirads and four bottles of vodka. Following the completion of this mission, you can now pick up the next one, Transaction, from Beard (but only if Spartacus survived this mission).

Staying neutral

Stalkers vs. bandits

The final option of dealing with this mission is perhaps the easiest, but not necessarily the most satisfying... I don't know. But it means that you pick up the mission from Sultan and then start the raid along with Knuckles. After that, you just sit back and watch the show, attacking neither the stalkers nor the bandits. If the stalkers manage to win the firefight, the mission will be cancelled and no reward will be waiting for you - you can however return to the Skadovsk and talk to Owl who will have a proposition for you - refer to this mission for the details.

Brothers in arms

What we've got here is failure to communicate...

Talk to the leader of the bandits, this will be Knuckles if he survived the last mission, and follow them inside the nearby building where the "trader" and his friends - and a couple of mercenaries - are waiting for you. They'll start to talk about how the bandits are looking for better equipment and the trader has exactly that; the conversation will be interrupted by a number of stalkers who are sneaking up on you, and the mission will update now requiring you to eliminate all witnesses.

Be sure to loot the "trader"

At this point everyone, except the bandits, will become hostile and a firefight ensues. Since you're pretty close to the "trader" and his mercs, things can go very bad right here - try to make your way either outside or into the nearby room for some cover. You will be joined by the stalkers very soon, and you don't want to get caught in the middle. The back, where you originally met up with the bandits, is usually a good place to hang out. Once you've killed all the mercs and stalkers, go talk to the bandit leader (again, Knuckles if he made it out of the last mission alive), and receive your reward. Before you leave the area, be sure to loot the body of the "trader" - he is carrying a PDA that will come in handy later on.

This is a good and safe spot

Hmm, flying crates, eh? Oh wait...

Head off to the tunnel in the far south-eastern side of Jupiter, just north of the Jupiter Plant; you'll find a doorway on the eastern side of the tunnel. Enter and make your way through the rooms - it's pretty much a one-way street so it should be easy to find them. Eventually you'll come to a large room with some train cars inside; this is where the Burers are. You may wish to stick it out here as you can use the small room you're coming from as a safe place - the Burers wont come up there. Take your time dealing with them if needed - a sure way to fail is to try and rush them; this may work for a lone Burer, but two - or even three - can be a very lethal combination. Watch your endurance and health as well. Once they are dead head back to Trapper for your reward.

Use your crosshair to spot them from a distance

Another possible option is to head up to the roof of the Cement Factory and use a good long-ranged weapon take them out from a distance, which also puts you out of harms way. In this case the mission marker will be off your mini-map - use your crosshair to spot them instead, as it'll turn red when you're aiming at enemies and mutants, including cloaked bloodsuckers.

Once they are all dead, return to Trapper for your reward.

Who's hunting who?

Climb the silos for safety

If you engage it at the Ventilation Complex the story is very different - you can use some of the structures there to move around, preventing the Chimera from having the opportunity to jump straight at you; there is also a fence there which you can use to the same effect. Another option is to climb on top of the two silos; the height of the structure means that you'll be completely safe up there although the Chimera has a habit of hiding behind the large dome meaning that you'll have to leave your safe haven if only for a short while. Finally, you can solve the mystery of The Oasis and use the exit from the Oasis to get on top of the dome where you'll be safe from the Chimera.

When the Chimera is dead, return to Trapper to complete the mission and receive your reward.

The peaceful village of Kopachy

Zombies vs. Mercs

If there actually are zombies at the village, follow Yar and don't start shooting - the zombies aren't going to attack you, at least not at this point. When you get to the attic you can basically sit back and watch the show - the zombies, along with Yar, are very likely to take down the Mercs on their own. Feel free to join in the shooting if you like . The zombies will be hostile once you reach the attic, so dont draw their attention during the firefight, and watch yourself when you leave the village.

When all the mercs are dead, Yar will walk down the stairs and tell you to come talk to him. He'll offer an explanation of the whole deal - he was recently caught eavesdropping on some mercs, who were talking about some urgent order and a lab in Pripyat. Yar made a run for it and got away, but knew that the Mercs probably wouldn't settle with that. He made a plan to ambush the mercs but needed some extra help, and so waited for an outsider to come by; he didn't want to involve the Freedom faction as it really wasn't their problem and he didn't want them to become involved. You can leave with Yar and head straight back to Yanov Station or decide to stay; if you're looking for some extra loot and cash, choose the latter as it enables you to loot the dead mercs (and zombies).

The checkpoint is heavily guarded

Hostile negotiations

Obviously, killing Jack will remove the need to pay any debt, so you can keep the 5,000 RU for yourself. The Checkpoint is filled with bandits, though, so this may not exactly be the easiest solution, and it ruins your chance of getting the Diplomat achievement. If you are itching for a fight, you can always go fight the bandits after you pay off the debt.

Jack, the racketeer

You can also go for the peaceful way out which is simply to deliver the cash to Jack. When you talk to Jack, he'll say the debt is actually 7,000 RU - I guess more interest has been added since Vano last talked to him. However, if you bring a good weapon, you can threaten Jack by showing him your gun - if he is intimidated, he'll lower the debt to match the 5,000 RU you got from Vano. To succesfully threaten him you'll need to have a good weapon in one of your weapon slots in the inventory - a mere AKM-74/2 or Chaser 13 won't cut it - you need something like a SGI-5k or Vintar BC. So, even if you don't have a good enough weapon, you can just pay the 7,000 RU to release Vano of his debt.