Evacuation

So... Among us you and Strelok have the most experience in the Zone. The difference is that while Strelok's experience remains hearsay, the fact that you're a pro is clear as day. What's I'm trying to say is that I'm counting on you, Major. Keep an eye on Strelok - there's not many of us left.
― Kovalsky

Evacuation is the final storyline mission of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Summary[]

The player must escort the survivors of Operation Fairway through the remains of Pripyat towards Prometheus Cinema, the site of the final evacuation effort. Depending on the player's actions, they may have as few as four or as many as eight characters to escort. The initial going is easy - the Military amongst the team make quick work of the horde of Zombified Stalkers - but the run grows steadily more challenging as it progresses. Mutants of nearly every kind make their presence felt, and in the last section of the gauntlet prior to the landing site, the Monolith itself projects a massive psi-field across Pripyat - killing the player if they do not make their way to the landing site.

The last stand at the landing site pits the player and any remaining survivors against massive numbers of Monolith snipers, foot soldiers, and dreadnoughts, making it by far the most intense gunfight in the entire series. After a certain number of Monolith stalkers have been killed, the helicopters begin to evacuate personnel and the quest is complete.

Walkthrough[]

It is highly recommended to keep as many soldiers alive up until the end of the story, as they will all partake in the Evacuation. The crew will be at the very least comprised of Kovalsky, Strelok, Kirillov and Rogovets. It may also include Tarasov, Valentyr and Podorozhny if they survived the mission Unidentified weapon, and Sokolov if he survived the missions Pripyat 1 and Monolith forces. Completing the side mission UAV and acquiring the three notes from Strelok's stashes is also helpful.

The final sequence begins immediately after the end of the mission Unknown, where Major Degtyarev and Kovalsky have a face-to-face meeting with Strelok. As an emission is about to strike, the men retreat inside the Laundromat. Strelok reveals that the helicopters crashed because the military failed to account for the fact that airborne anomalies change locations after each emission, resulting in them flying into the Zone with outdated mapping data (which completes the mission Stingray squad: find the source of the charges which hit the two helicopters). Kovalsky then informs the group that they will have to wait for the emission to be over so they can reestablish contact with HQ.

The first part of the mission simply requires the player to wait for the emission to subside. The player is given a chance to stock up on goods from the Military's quartermaster, as well as medical supplies and weapon maintenance. If Strelok's notes were acquired, the player should hand them over to him, as it will unlock the achievement A Keeper of Secrets, giving Strelok a slight boost in damage resistance for the finale. The emission lasts for some time, during which the player's contact count will steadily climb - one can expect around 15-20 zombies outside depending.

After the emission subsides, a new cutscene is triggered and the soldiers start getting into position. The player can wait up to four in-game hours before launching the mission (which can be helpful if the mission was started during nighttime). If the player doesn't speak with Kovalsky, he will initiate the mission on his own after the four hours have passed.

The Zombies[]

As the squad goes outside and sees the two evacuation helicopters flying overhead, they soon notice that the surroundings are full of Zombified Stalkers and open fire. The zombies will serve as the first obstacle in this mission. They pose little threat - Kovalsky, Tasarov, and any other military will make quick work of them and usually suffer no casualties. The player's goal is to escort Strelok however, and he tends to run up ahead while the others gun down zombies. After fighting through a few groups of zombies, Kovalsky orders Strelok and the player to go ahead regardless - don't worry, they'll catch up. This marks the start of the next 'phase' of the finale.

The Mutants[]

The opposition for this leg of the journey varies - the player will always fight at least Snorks, but other mutants such as Bloodsuckers, Pseudodogs and Rodents, or even a Chimera, may also be encountered as they are spawned randomly in Pripyat as part of the game's A-Life system. Unless the player uses the Gauss rifle on the latter mutant, casualties are guaranteed - someone will take a hit before the player does, and it will usually be fatal. If the player didn't bring a large team, they may need to quick-save-quick-load multiple times to get the entire party out of this section.

When going in front of the Hospital, a Chimera will often attack the group - as the Hospital is a fixed spawn for Chimeras. If this happens, run ahead and draw its attention, and quickly kill it using a powerful weapon - the Gauss Rifle and a fully-upgraded Eliminator are weapons of choice.

After going under a building, the squad goes towards the school, where they will be attacked by a large amount of Snorks. They shouldn't be much a problem, as the squad will quickly kill the mutants and will not suffer casualties. Just to make sure, go ahead the group and use a powerful shotgun (such as the Eliminator) to kill the mutants.

The end of this section is marked by a sudden wave of psychic emission, which hits the player for fairly substantial damage. If the player has Psy-block in their inventory, it can be left aside as it won't minimize the damage done. Lt. Rogovets is hit particularly hard, and starts to lag behind before collapsing. The rest of the group might stop while the player tries to help them - if they do, the emissions will kill them if the player doesn't die first. Run up to the medic and 'talk' to him to whack some sense into him, and prepare for the grand finale.

The Monolith[]

The evacuation team has been ambushed - Kovalsky apparently forgot to inform them that the Prometheus Movie Theater is the Monolith's base of operations. The Monolith throws everything they have at the player and the survivors to keep them from evacuating. A sniper will be on top of the Cinema, directly beside the letter sign. Snipe him off immediately, and focus on the right side the survivors push forward to the plaza. Monolith's main forces come from the docks and the cinema.

The snipers are the main threat - the Military has plenty of cover around the base of the statue, but the low walls don't protect them from above. Two more snipers will appear atop the Cinema, another will spawn atop the apartment building the team ran past on the way here, and two more will snipe from the River Port's roof. Lastly, one will walk out of the Cinema doors itself. To make matters even worse, a particularly strong Monolith has taken up the Preacher mantle, leading a unit of Monolith experts from the docks. And even more Monolith will pour out of the Cinema.

In any point during this finale, if the quest updates, it means either Kovalsky or Strelok were killed. It should only update right before the final cutscene - otherwise they're dead.

The best way to go about this sequence is to assume the Military are absolutely moronic and won't watch their own rears. Immediately take down the snipers, then focus on the docks - the Monolith Fighter and his men are the main threat. Because of his sheer resiliency and the number of bullets his escort throws, the player likely won't be able to take him down with the Gauss Rifle without exposing themselves to a fatal barrage of gunfire. Ignore him and focus on the other Monolith, as the finale's length is determined by the number of dead snipers and Monolith, not the quality. The others will march through the bushes, so if one has an assault rifle or sniper rifle with target-identification, it will save their life, and everyone else's.

Join the team around the statue to trigger the finale, take down the snipers, and whip out a hardest-hitting assault rifle - Strelok's SGI-5k and the Tunder S14 are particularly strong here. Try to avoid the Monolith Fighter - he's the only one in the initial wave wearing a Radiation suit so he's rather easy to pick out. Focus on the grunts, gun down the snipers that respawn, using the bushes and debris between the docks and the statue as cover. The Monolith will initially focus more on the Military - namely Strelok - so the player can often gun down one group, and flank another while they fire on the survivors. The player will receive a PDA note to retreat to the statue when the evacuation is ready.

An Exoskeleton, Zulu's RP-74, the Gauss rifle and explosives may also prove to be particularly helpful to deal with this part of the mission. A strategy is to kill the Monolith snipers first with the Gauss rifle as described above, then switch to heavy automatic weapons to mow down any remaining fanatics within range.

The End[]

Upon reaching the final evacuation, the player is given a choice to remain behind or to join the others in evacuating. If the player joins the evacuation, then the ending sequence is triggered immediately after the final cutscene showing the helicopters flying away, and the game returns to the main menu. If the autosave option was turned on, the game will automatically save when the mission is completed, allowing the player to reload this last save and choose the other option if desired.

If the player chooses to remain, the helicopters will fly away and leave the player behind. Once returning to the Laundromat, the play will see that it has been taken over by Yar and the Loners. Garry will also have returned following his absence at the end of Radio interference, resuming his traveling business across the Zone, which enables the player to return to Zaton and Yanov. The player can ask Pilot and Garry to leave the Zone at any time, which will also trigger the ending sequence.

If the player chose to remain, any surviving Monolith will immediately open fire on them. It is more advisable to flee then to try and fight them off - there's usually in excess of 10-15 Monolith contacts in the area. If the player does somehow kill them all, be sure to find the Monolith Master amongst them, and grab his PDA.

Survival Tips[]

The final battle will be easier if the player clears out both the Cinema and Docks before going to the Kindergarten (as it's the point of no return). The player will only need to deal with mission-spawned Monolith that way and the Monolith Master will be, of course, absent from the fight altogether.
Bring the Gauss rifle, and an assault rifle with 700 AP rounds at the bare minimum - put away any unnecessary drugs or items that might weigh the player down and replace them with ammo. Make sure everything is upgraded and fully repaired.
Keep tabs on the survivors. If Kovalsky goes down, the others lose significant morale and will panic or generally be stupid during the finale and get themselves killed. Likewise, if Strelok dies, the most 'important' part of the ending is bad.
Focus on the snipers. They pose the greatest threat to the squad while the player is the only one properly equipped to quickly deal with them. Once at the landing site, don't babysit the survivors. They have cover, but the snipers can still land potshots.
The Monolith Fighter will absorb an obscene amount of punishment even for an exoskeleton, but he isn't the smartest fighter and won't do much damage unless the player gets close to him.
It is a good idea to bring an Exoskeleton, however it is crucial to have it with the sprinting upgrade, which Cardan can upgrade with calibration tools.
Strelok has bursts of energy, or cowardice. At any point during the first two phases, he may holster his gun in favor of sprinting absurdly fast to the next section. It's highly recommended to follow him, as he can die at any section.

Glitches[]

After getting past the building near the Hospital and progressing towards the school, the squad will make a short break before pushing forward again. If the player is too ahead of the squad before it is on the move again, the squad's script will be indefinitely frozen, resulting in them standing in place near the building and never moving towards the evac site again. The player may complete the mission by going straight to the evac site, however the psi-emission wave will not happen and fewer Monolith forces will be at the ending area due to the bugged script. The game will also consider the entire squad to be dead, thus resulting in the player obtaining the bad ending slides for Pripyat, Strelok, Kovalsky and Sokolov. To make sure the bug does not happen, stick behind Kovalsky when he goes below the building, then wait for him to react to Rogovets' suggestion to walk around the school and move again to continue on.
When Rogovets is knocked out by the psi-emission, the player may not be able to help him, resulting in his death after some time. If this occurs, reload a save prior to the psi-emission and try again.
One or several soldiers may not follow the squad when quitting the Laundromat and stand with their weapon unholstered in the main room. On occasions, they will catch up after some time, otherwise they will remain there for the rest of the quest. The game may consider them as dead, but in some cases they will be reported as alive. Typically this affects Tarasov and Sokolov - however, it may affect Strelok, which forces the player to reload a previous save. What causes this to happen is the zombies which spawn to the left of the Laundromat, killing them makes the NPCs follow the rest of the crew.