Stalker: Call of Pripyat → Walkthrough (Part 1)
Zaton plant
We were sent to the Zone to find out what happened to the crashed helicopters. They're systematically spread across two of the three locations. It's worth investigating the ones that crashed in Zaton first.
Boroda gives us several side quests, and you can learn about the helicopters from him. You can also ask the people around us. The people around us don't know much, except that Noah, the stalker who lives on an old barge north of Skadovsk, might know about the helicopters. What a great chance to explore the swamps.
We head to the barge. Noah will greet us with two shotgun blasts (before opening the door, it's best to move somewhere to the right to avoid having to look at the game loading screen later).
Noah, though mischievous, knows a thing or two about crashed helicopters. One of them is located on the Southern Plateau, accessible only by one means. Go with Noah for a walk through the burnt-out farmstead. There are a couple of artifacts there, but it's best not to venture there without due caution. It'll burn you. Jumping into the teleportation anomaly is best done with a good running start.
And the bloodsuckers quest is worth taking, if only because the swamps to the east are very close to where the quest ends. For the battle with the mutants, it's advisable to take an AK (not the shortened version, but the normal model) or an MP-5, also known as the "Viper."
Important: you'll be fighting the Bloodsows with a partner, which makes the task both easier and more difficult. Try not to hit the hunter.
You can tiptoe through the Bloodsows' lair, or you can run to the exit screaming "LYROOOOY JENKIIIINS" (or more accurately, TAREE ... It's best to ignore the ghost, as I haven't been able to kill it with any weapon. Simply stand still for a while—the ghost only reacts to a moving player.
The outskirts of the Jupiter plant
There are no artifacts there, but there are plenty of zombies and a note from the military on a table inside the building. It's not easy to spot right away, but it's located immediately to the right of the entrance.
Here it was just lying.
Now you can go down to the construction site below, open the code door, and, shooting the jerboas, travel forward through the ventilation system. Get your grenades and your best weapons ready. This is the Burer. He's tough. But four or five grenades will take even him down.
And now you have a grenade launcher and a full arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Believe me, you'll still need all of this.
Then you can head to the minefield. One of the helicopters crashed right there. At first glance, you might think there's some Cunning Plan to find the field. There really is. Leave all the most unnecessary things in your personal locker on Yanov, take a bottle of energy drink with you before you cross the field. Then run. No, that's not it. RUN! Maybe you'll manage to get past all the mines. Or maybe not. In the latter case, you'll see a loading screen ==> repeat the operation. Until the happy ending, when we reach the helicopter and learn we need to go to Pripyat.
Important: you can also walk across the field relatively calmly, as you can see in the comments below the post. Black ground indicates mines, or it's better to walk along the concrete wall. Perhaps it's safer that way.
We head to the "Bitumen" anomaly; this will be the starting point for our exploration of the plant. On the other side, there's an open gate—the entrance to the plant. For now, everything is obvious. Run for some documents, then for others. The less obvious comes next.
See the boards on the right? A couple of shots at them will open the way to the battle arena with the burer.
Important: you'll be given one "unnecessary" task when you're looking for documents. I didn't find it particularly useful, but... go ahead. I think this might determine whether you need a suit with a closed-loop breathing system. Maybe not, I haven't checked. But it wouldn't be good if the entire infiltration team (see below) died a minute after the level started, would it?
The areas we're looking for can only be reached by going far south through the plant, and then a little east. There's an entrance to the plant's machine room. To the left is a kind of staircase going down. We need to go down and go through a small "underground passage."
A few more minutes of wandering and we find the last documents, and further on, a crashed helicopter.
Important: I found two overly aggressive psi-dogs near the helicopter. For those unfamiliar, they can create intangible copies of themselves, but that doesn't make killing a dog any easier. The difficulty is that it's hard to distinguish the real dog from several.
We need to go to Azot, the mechanic on Yanov, and ask him to do something to make the airlock work. Azot refuses to go unguarded and suggests we assemble a team to infiltrate. He sends us to Zulu, a debt collector, who's eating not far from Yanov. The conversation with him will be long, and afterwards we'll fall asleep. Not everyone can drink that much vodka.
Candidates for the team:
Military Sokolov
- Location: Scientists' base.
- Requirement: Complete the scientists' quest to collect a rare plant species in an anomalous grove.
Stalker Vano
- Location: Yanov station.
- The requirement is 5,000 rubles to buy the suit, likely a completed quest to pay off his debts to the bandits. Total: 7,000.
Stalker: Wanderer
- Location: Yanov Station.
- The requirement is to complete the quest "Find a place for the Monolithists on Yanov."
You also need to buy a suit with a closed-loop breathing system.
This could be the "Seva," which, while listed as a suit for those who enjoy searching for artifacts, is characterized by one good phrase:
"Yes, we suck in close combat. It's a shame you'll never get to it.
" Simply put, buy a "Storm" or "SVD" and don't even think about an exoskeleton; you'll hardly need it. However, if you have a lot of money and nowhere to spend it, buy an exoskeleton. It provides good protection and a boost to your Sense of Self-Importance.
Underground passage
The first thing the group encountered were some angry jerboas. Oh well, they don't pose any particular danger if you shoot them in time.
The door opens and we move forward. The suits with closed breathing systems came in handy – an area contaminated with poisonous gas begins. Snorks attack. We shoot back. Then Vano (I hope he's still alive) finds a small anomaly, which we successfully bypass.
Jerboas
We walk through the large hall to the door and see that it's without power. To the right of the door is a building with a staircase - we climb the stairs, find a switch, and press it. And then the Monoliths appear. The most dangerous enemy is the one in the exoskeleton.
After killing the enemies, we return to the door. But it's locked. Well, let's go to the control room. It's in the eastern part of the hall, if you look from the door.
There's an anomaly in front of the control room entrance, be careful. You can also replenish your first aid kits here. We climb the stairs and press another switch. The door to the central control room opens, and we can see... what? Yes, another switch. We press it. Another door opens, the one we wired for. More Monoliths and their snipers appear. They're positioned on higher ground and need to be taken out as quickly as possible.
Next comes a fight with a large number of zombies, one of whom will even have an SVD (I wonder how someone with no brains can wield this, probably difficult-to-use, sniper rifle?). We run further, a few more zombies... and that's it. Here we are in Pripyat.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (part 1) (part 2)
See also:
Rifle sights in Stalker call of Pripyat