Faction Wars

Got a job for you, Marked One...

This article is a stub. You can help S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Wiki by expanding it.

The faction wars are a major part of the gameplay in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. As the name implies, different Stalker factions are involved in bloody struggling for land and treasure. The player can opt to join some of the factions and assist them.

Factions and locations

• Clear Sky - Renegades, fighting for land in the Great Swamp.
• Loners - Bandits, fighting for control of the Garbage, as well as freeing or keeping prisoners.
• Duty - Freedom, engaged in fighting over principles and ideals, situated in Agroprom and the Dark Valley.

To a lesser extent, the army, the mercenaries and Monolith also get involved in the wars.

How it works

Faction wars are all about capturing and holding enemy strongpoints which are the entrances to their base's area while protecting your own and assaulting their main base. Capturing these offer you safe passage and increased manpower and resource, the more you control the more you have the 2 supplies.

Faction number

The first part will be how many stalkers you currently have in your faction, this increases as you control more territories. The more stalkers you have, the better you are at being reinforced and the more they can send out there.

Resources

The second part is resources, resources will gauge how well-equipped your stalkers are and this increases as you control more territories. If your resources are low, your stalkers won't be equipped with anything too heavy and will usually be confined to Tier 1 assault rifles and armor, if you have very high resources your faction will send better equipped stalkers out ranging from Tier 2 armored individuals to those wearing an Exoskeleton equipped with high-end weaponry.

Overview of each battle

Here are the things you should expect when taking sides in faction wars:

Clear Sky vs the Renegades

This is the only faction war you are forced to partake in, Clear Sky needs to drive the renegades off the swamps in order to continue their operations unhindered and you automatically take Clear Sky's side by default. The renegades aren't armed with anything heavier than a Hunting Rifle and most of them won't have any armor capable of stopping pistol rounds. By far this will be the easiest war you'll partake in. You will have to keep the renegades from capturing the Fishing Hamlet and capture their main base: the Machine Yard. All you have to do at first is secure the pump station and several other territories: The Burnt farmstead, Northern farmstead, Southern farmstead and the Old Church, all others will be secondary targets.

After securing the Machine Yard, you will then secure the southern farmstead to gain access to the Cordon. Once you exit the swamps, you are automatically a mercenary again and free to partake in the other faction's matters.

Rewards for capturing the main base: CS-3a Body Armor

Loner's side

You will have the option of joining the Loner's faction immediately after helping Father Valerian with his problem with the kidnapping of Major Khaletskiy. Your only opposition will be the Bandit faction, which is fairly weak and mediocre in number. It is also very easy to take out the Bandit base, as you only have to secure a few positions in the Cordon and Garbage. This faction is often the best choice for the player if he wants to partake in the faction wars and still not create a difficult path for himself later on, since you will run into Freedom and Duty on several occasions later on.

Taking out the Bandit base can be fairly easy, the only problem you may encounter are the two small squads near the entrance to the base, which are under strong cover, you'll have little to no cover to take these two groups out. After taking care of these two squads, the actual base itself is fairly easy, you have some strong cover, and most Bandits will just pour out of the base in single file, ready for you to take them out. Since they are all very low in armor and firepower, low tier weaponry will make quick work of them. A few Bandits will be on the catwalks near the back of the base, requiring you to move in and take them out, but the majority of the Bandits will walk right into your crosshair.

Rewards for capturing the main base: A few artifacts from the base itself, and the Loners will reward you with a SEVA Suit. == Advantages to joining the Loners==

• Quick and easy way to make early game money farming the bandits that constantly attack The Cordon or Argoprom.
• You will not affect your relationships with Duty or Freedom.
• You can leave the Loners to Join Duty or Freedom later on.
• Can obtain a SEVA suit early game.
• Loners across the zone can become more well equiped and experienced depending on how well you maintain your faction.

Disadvantages to joining the Loners

• Joining the faction too early will lose your chances to fully upgrade the SEVA Suit - as the Bandits technician can only do these upgrades.
• All Bandits are hostile.
• You can be called for help often, especially at Argoprom.

Duty's side

You have the option of joining Duty once you've flooded the underground, where if you accept you will recive an OTs-14 Groza and a PSZ-9d Duty Suit. Duty by far has the easiest time with the faction war. Their boys will usually be equipped with upgraded high-end weaponry and there will usually be an Exoskeleton or PSZ-9d Duty Armor wearing stalker in the group. You won't have to assist Duty very often with territory defense since they can handle it without much trouble, seeing as Freedom won't have many powerful weapons at this stage.

At first your task is securing Agroprom and taking over the entrances to the dark valley from Freedom, it won't be that hard since Freedom won't give much resistance as by this time, Exoskeletons and Veterans will start converging to the Dark Valley. Taking the base is less simpler: There are snipers on the ground and if you aren't careful they could end you end you from a distance. After you've dealt with the outer perimeter guards: proceed to the hangar and you'll end the campaign after you've neutralized all resistance there.

Reward for taking the main base: PSZ-9d Duty Armor and a PKM.

Advantages to joining Duty

• They're by far the most well-supplied faction overall.
• They can hold the line without your asking for your assistance very often.
• Most troops will come out as veterans and experts
• You fight for the greater good of us all.
• Ready access to some of the best assault weapons in the game.

Disadvantages to joining Duty

• Their side of the conflict is easy, removing challenge and it won't be very profitable.
• Freedom and the bandits hate you.
• Their armor is standard at best.
• Will make continuing the main storyline more difficult, as you will run into freedom on a few occasions.
• You cannot use ask Hog for Freedom's help when attacking the warehouses in Army Warehouses.

Freedom's side

You can join Freedom after assisting them defeating the Mercenaries in the Dark Valley and after you've assisted General Krylov. After you have joined you will receive a SIG SG-550 upgraded to mount a SUSAT-Scope and a Guardian of Freedom Suit. Freedom's side is the hardest in this conflict as Duty outguns them heads-down, your only advantage over this conflict is that they have a lot of stalkers to send into the fray. At first you have to secure all exits of the Dark Valley if they aren't secured yet. Then you begin to push into the Garbage, capturing the embankment to the north (which leads to the Army Warehouses in CS, and Rostok in SOC) and can optionally capture the Flea Market. You then push further towards the Agroprom Research Institute (Duty's base of operations) and are required to capture and hold all entrances to the Agroprom until reinforcements arrive. After all entrances are secured you can make your push into Duty territory. There are two camps at the entrance to capture and hold until you can make your final push towards the base of Duty. Note that once you DO secure the entrances in Agroprom, you will have a real hard time of ambushing the hoards of heavily armed Duty stalkers attempting to take their territories as Freedom squads have a low chance of repelling an attack against Duty.

Freedom squads are generally less well equipped compared to their Duty counterparts. They do not use their sniper rifles effectively, e.g. seek higher ground and snipe at a distance but instead engage in close combat with weapons not made for such short distances. Duty squads are sometimes lead by an exoskeleton wearing veterans with a PKM who is single handedly able to take on to several Freedom squads alone, especially at higher difficulties. Once you have secured the Duty base, the Freedom squads are unable to hold the Agroprom and most of the Garbage without your help.

Reward for taking the main base: Freedom Exoskeleton (a lighter version of the Exoskeleton), a Walther P99, a Dragunov SVD, 150000 RU and lots of NATO ammunition.

Tips

• Duty squads are usually not equipped with sniper rifles (but with less accurate Warpact Weapons) so the safest bet to take down and entire squad is to secure a higher position and snipe the squads from afar.
• The Duty base can easily be bombarded with grenades from the hill the Agroprom Research Underground exit is, as charging head front is not recommended. This spot is also perfect for sniping into the Duty base.
• Charging from the entrance that leads north to Yantar is also a good strategy as there are only a few guards stationed there. Then use the street to this entrance as a bottle neck.
• Bring lots of ammo with your for your rifle and bring some extra 5.45x39 rounds in the event you can't re-supply yourself.
• Bring lots of medical supplies, this will be bloody.

Advantages to joining Freedom

• Ready access to the game's most powerful sniper rifles: The SVD and SVU along with ammo for it.
• Your armors are centered around maneuverability than strength.
• The Freedom Exoskeleton.
• Your only enemy by default is Duty.
• By default, you are the largest faction.

Disadvantages to joining Freedom

• Freedom will lose ground against Duty rather quickly unless assisted.
• Freedom stalkers aren't armed with upgraded weaponry unless they are experts.
• Lack of deployed Experts.
• Despite being neutral to bandits: Freedom stalkers will always attack bandits on sight.
• Will make continuing the main storyline more difficult, as you will run into freedom on a few occasions. They are camped in the Red Forest by default, you will have to fight your way through the camp by Forester and Duty will constantly harass it. Requires traveling to the Army Warehouses to get Freedom to attempt to secure it.