I was indeed back in STALKER today, and I think I managed to get a fair bit of progress done.

I did a couple more minor quests for Sidorovich, but they’re starting to repeat themselves a lot (clearing out the same camp, returning the same kind of artifact, etc.), so I headed back to the Bar and got a few quests there. Those were also pretty uneventful, and one of them took me over to the Dark Valley area where the main story quest continues, so I figured I may as well work on that while I was there.

I had to infiltrate a bandit stronghold to get the key to a lab called X18, and then clear out the guards around the buildings where the lab is before I could head down. This is where things really start to get weird, as the lab is apparently connected to these anomalies that have been popping up, and you find a lot of them and some mutant types not seen before down there. Crates and small bits of pipe get picked up, hover in the air a bit, and are then thrown at you by something unseen. A bundle of electrical energy floats around, and you’d better not get in its way. A shimmering effect marked the locations of various fire anomalies, and I had to sprint through them quickly before they’d ignite. And this is where I first saw the ‘snork’ mutant type, which can leap a very long way and hit you fairly hard, and another short, round, blobbish mutant which absorbed a lot of damage. The unexpected appearance of a lot of these anomalies and mutants, the dim, eerie lighting, and sudden creaks, rustles, and other bits of background noise make for a very effective, creepy atmosphere in this base.

Upon finding the documents I needed, I was attacked by an anomaly that was mostly invisible but spewed fire whenever I got too close, but it didn’t take much damage to kill it. After that though, the military started storming into the base while I was still trying to escape it, and these were the elite troops. I had to waste a lot more ammo on them, but shooting near the head helped a lot.

I was able to get the Obokan rifle off these elite troops, and had been looking forward to an upgrade, but it turns out it’s not as good as I’d hoped. It jams constantly, even if it hasn’t worn down much on the durability meter, which is really annoying. I’d already discarded my old rifle before realizing this (carrying capacity is very limited), so I was stuck with it for a while.

After escaping the base and making my way back to Cordon, Sidorovich had a mission for me to go steal a package from the nearby military outpost, and told me it would be best at night when there would only be two guards. I ran back and forth between Cordon and the Bar for a bit doing minor quests to waste time until nightfall, and then headed to the base. There were a hell of a lot more than two guards though, and I must have taken down a dozen or so before I could safely enter and get the package.

At some point along the way (I forget exactly when), I managed to find a better set of weapons, and now I use a TRs 301 for NATO ammo and a Tunder 5.45 for Warsaw Pact ammo. They haven’t been degrading very quickly, but armour has, so I’ve been sticking with some of the crummier stuff like bandit armour in hopes of saving the better stuff (so far I have a merc suit and a suit of stalker amour) for later on. I can buy more armour at the traders, but the good stuff like stalker armour is really expensive.

I think I’ve pretty much exhausted the quests for the Bar, so I’ll probably start on the next part of the story quests soon, which will take me to another lab, X16. I should also start investigating what needs to be done to ally with one of the factions, though I still haven’t found the Freedom base yet.