Bandits

Bandits are members of the criminal underworld who came to the Zone for different reasons; to make money by selling artifacts, hide from the law, or to trade in weapons. The Zone is full of Bandits, ranging from common thugs to serious criminals, most of whom are members of one gang or another. Although the Zone gangs frequently fight amongst themselves, the criminal element still poses a serious problem for normal Stalkers.

Bandits are ruthless and generally hostile to anyone not in their gang. Though depicted in Clear Sky as a united, highly territorial faction, the Bandit population in Shadow of Chernobyl consists mainly of roving groups.

Lore

He came at them right as they were frisking his teammate's pockets. There were three sitting at the victim’s backpack and sharing the booty, while another one was rummaging the pockets. Blood rushed to the stalker’s face making him blind with anger. He opened fire kill-thirsty. Bullets were a Zone currency, but he did not spare it this time, bestowing killers and marauders with his lavish gifts.

Appearance and Equipment

The common Bandit is usually seen wearing a black anorak and track suit pants, as well as a hooded shirt. Some higher rank Bandits are seen wearing long hooded trenchcoats. Bandits tend to be armed with light, worn weapons such as sawn-off shotguns and Viper 5 sub-machine guns. Bandits found in the series have the image of Marijuana on their backpacks and track suit pants.

Appearances

Shadow of Chernobyl

In Shadow of Chernobyl, Bandits are prevalent in the Cordon, the Garbage, the Agroprom Research Institute, the Dark Valley and the Wild territory. The size of Bandit groups vary, from small travelling parties, to large clans. Bandits are shown robbing other Stalkers, raiding camps, and taking prisoners.

Rankings

Tyro Bandit

• Rank: Rookie
• Armor: Bandit Jacket (sometimes with gas mask)
• Weapons: PMm pistol, Sawed-Off shotgun

Tyro Bandits are the Bandit equivalent of the Loner faction's normal Stalkers; inexperienced rookies who are the weakest Stalkers in the zone. These Bandits wear black anoraks and ski masks and are equipped with low-level weapons, namely the PMm pistol and sawed-off shotgun. They are quite weak and can be brought down with several torso shots from the pistol or submachine gun, or a single headshot.

Skilled Bandit

• Rank: Experienced
• Armor: Bandit Jacket (with gas mask)
• Weapons: Sawed-Off shotgun, Viper-5 Submachine gun, AKM-74U assault rifle

Skilled Bandits are similar to Tyro Bandits, but are equipped with better weaponry such as the Viper-5 submachine gun or AKM-74U compact assault rifle. Although their weapons are on the low end of the assault rifle class, they pose a reasonable threat to players wearing low-level armor. Like Tyro Bandits, Skilled Bandits can be brought down with several bullets from low-level weapons. Most Bandit encounters consist of a mix of Tyro and Skilled Bandits.

Master Bandit

• Rank: Veteran
• Armor: Bandit Jacket with gas mask or brown / black trenchcoat
• Weapons: IL 85 assault rifle, AKM-74U assault rifle, AK-74/2 assault rifle

Veteran Master Bandits can be distinguished by their black or brown longcoats. They are typically armed with AKM-74U or AK-74/2 assault rifles, although they can also be found with IL 85 assault rifles as well. Master Bandits typically start appearing in the deeper areas of the Zone, such as the Wild Territory, with 1 to 3 of them leading a group of Tyro and Skilled Bandits. Although their combat skills and weaponry are better, they can't seem to survive more damage than regular Bandits.

Pro Bandit

• Rank: Expert
• Armor: Brown or Black trenchcoat
• Weapons: AKM-74U assault rifle, AK-74/2 assault rifle

The highest ranking Bandits, Pro Bandits are pretty much identical to Master Bandits. Like Master Bandits, they can be distinguished by their black or brown longcoats and AK-class assault rifles, and are usually found leading a group of lesser Tyro or Skilled Bandits.

Relationships

• Allies to Mercs
• Neutral towards Freedom
• Enemy to Duty, Military, Ecologists, Loners, Clear Sky, Monolith

Clear Sky

In Clear Sky, the Bandits are depicted as a unified faction based in the Garbage. They capture other Stalkers and force them to dig through the irradiated piles of trash, even going so far as to set up a concentration camp for labor force prisoners. As part of the faction wars, the player can join the Bandits, and help them increase their influence, or team up with the united loners in order to release prisoners and fight the Bandits.

Robberies

In Clear Sky, the Bandits are notorious for their extortion. They take all of the player's money if one wants to pass through to another area. Below is a list of events where Bandits have an opportunity of robbing you and a countermeasure.

• Cordon to the Garbage - Your first encounter will be with Bandits guarding the receiving outpost from the Cordon to the Garbage. You can choose to sprint past them and risk several hits from them, or you could take a detour by going to the Dark Valley and taking the upper path to the Garbage instead.

• Basement tripmine - This is the part of the main questline where the Bandits will rig the basement where Fang's PDA is located, causing the player to be knocked out cold. During the player's incapcitation, they will take whatever cash and items he has on him. The player can still take revenge and get your items back from the Bandits nearby, as there is a Makarov and some ammo near his PDA. If you want to save yourself some trouble, dump all of your items in a stash or near the rubble at the entrance of the basement and simply get them back when you get Fang's PDA. As for your cash, this is not avoidable but there is a way for you to cut your losses. You can simply splurge all of your cash on upgrades, repairs, and supplies so it won't be a total loss.

• Garbage to the Agroprom research institute - This is immediately after the tripmine incident. You have 0 rubles but the flash drive near Fang's PDA can be traded to Limpid for 12,500 rubles. In order not to lose any money, it is simpler to delay in trading in the flash disk and wait until you complete the job for General Krylov; since by that time Duty will have already secured all their entry checkpoints in the Garbage and you can get it again for free. Once the Bandits stop you, they'll get nothing out of you (since you have no money) and you can make your way to Agroprom without too many problems.

Clear Sky Bandit bugs

In Clear Sky, the Bandits had a severe bug that would discourage and even prevent some from joining their faction. Before patch 1.5.05, Borov, Yoga and Senka would go out of the base and attack whenever the Bandit base was attacked. Although the death of Senka isn't significant and more of benefcial as one can search his corpse for a Black Kite, the death of Borov removes the faction's barman and the death of Yoga will permanently end any chances of joining the bandits. After patch 1.5.05, this bug was fixed, but not completely removed, as Yoga might still wander off and attack hostilities outside the base and become stuck in a location and prevents the player from talking to him. Reloading one's quick save will reset Yoga from this bug.

Call of Pripyat

In Call of Pripyat, the Bandits change into a slightly secretive faction, and they begin to act in a united and organized manner. The main leader, Sultan, has set up deals with several of the factions, including Freedom and Duty. These deals are usually artifact exchanges and weapon purchases. Along their new way of work, Bandits occasionally do raids on Stalkers and attempt to claim superiority. There also appears to be two distinct factions, operating independently of another. The Bandits of Yanov do not always listen to Sultan, and usually work in the more traditional sense, holding up Loners, even kidnapping and extorting others for financial gain - some of them go as far as to immediately open fire on Loners and unaffiliated Stalkers, such as the player, without warning. These 'classic' Bandits are led by Jack, who runs a loan-shark business that has taken some Loners such as Vano as victims.

Rankings

Rookie

Comparatively common, Rookie Bandits wear the trademark black anorak and blue track pants that they wore in the first two games. Their armory is somewhat upgraded, as all of them will carry at least a sawed-off shotgun, with some carrying AKSU-74s. Their jackets are in fact the worst armor in the game, with no protection whatsoever. They can be dropped with ease with nearly any weapon.

Experienced

Usually working in tandem with a Rookie or another Experienced, these fellows wear the brown trenchcoats that Veterans wore in Shadow of Chernobyl. They wield the same weaponry as Rookies, but occasionally equip AK-74s and Maverick 88s instead. They also carry grenades and can take just a bit more punishment then their less experienced comrades.

Veteran

Wearing the Bandit variant of the Merc Suit, the Veterans are the toughest of the Bandits regularly seen in the game. They tend to wield AK-74s and occasionally Maverick shotguns, as well as an ample supply of grenades. Otherwise they're fairly unremarkable foes.

Expert

Wearing the black trenchcoats, Expert Bandits are a rare sight, and have a fairly short lifespan compared to other Experts. Despite being fairly intelligent and tactically sound in combat, they simply don't have the equipment to match their opponents and thus often die in droves against them. They tend to use AK-74s exclusively, but some may make use of Protecta shotguns and AN-94s.

Some Merc Suit Bandits such as Knuckles are also considered Experts, but use weak weaponry such as MP-5s and Mossberg 88s.

Notable People

• Borov
• Friar
• Jack
• Knuckles
• Limpid
• Senka
• Poker
• Sultan
• Tooth
• Vasya Boar
• Yoga

Armaments

The bandits are using mostly low-end Eastern Bloc weaponry.

Pistols

• PMm
• Black Kite

Shotguns

• Sawn-off dbl-barrel
• Chaser 13

Sub-machine guns

• Viper 5

Assault rifles

• Akm 74/2U
• Akm 74/2
• Obokan

Gallery

Bandit.jpg