The area around Jupiter

The area around Jupiter, usually referred to simply as Jupiter (Ru. Юпитер), is a location in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. It is also set to appear in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Overview[]

The area around Jupiter refers to the surroundings of the old Jupiter factory, the area's most prominent location. It is comprised of various abandoned industrial and military facilities, as well as residential areas. The area is frequently colloquially referred to as simply "Jupiter" by stalkers.

Like Zaton, Jupiter is located in the northern sector of the zone, an area up until then known only for being Strelok's preferred area to operate within the Zone. The Jupiter area is still relatively unsettled - much like Zaton, which was only settled after the Brain Scorcher was deactivated, Jupiter was not heavily populated until after the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

Enemies and Mutants[]

Jupiter is home to nearly every faction; Bandits, Duty, Ecologists, Freedom, Loners, and Mercenaries. The Bandits in Yanov operate separately from those in Zaton, in two different groups - one led by Jack and the other by Shishak. A group of neutral Monolith fighters - led by Strider - can also be encountered near Shishak's base.

Nearly every mutant can be found in Jupiter, some of them being found through side quests. Early side quests include wiping out a Bloodsucker swamp, hunting a Chimera, and hunting a pair of Burers. After completing them, Chimeras and Burers become randomly spawned mutants; the latter being a rare spawn. Other encounters include Blind Dogs, Pseudodogs, Rodents, Snorks, Controllers, and Pseudogiants.

Controllers appear after completing Intermittent psy-emissions. Pseudogiants may become a very common enemy after collecting the Documents concerning item 62.

Notable Locations[]

Yanov Station[]

The Station is the central hub of activity in this area. An old train station staffed primarily by Loners, the building is also home to both Duty, led by Shulga, and Freedom, led by Loki. The two factions have signed a truce confirming the Station as neutral ground, though at the game's onset both factions keep to themselves and avoid mingling in the central bar. Hawaiian is the local trader and Nitro is the technician. Bonesetter is the third trader and the medic in Yanov. Hawaiian's wares are influenced by the dominant faction in the Station, but with both factions evenly matched and poorly equipped at first, it is up to the player to disturb the balance.

The Station is the home of most of Jupiter's side quests - Vano, Grizzly, Uncle Yar, Flint, and Trapper all figure into various quests, and Nitro has his own job to give the player.

Mobile Lab[]

The home of the Ecologists faction in the center of the zone, the second mobile laboratory to be deployed so far, apparently only set up two weeks before Degtyarev arrived at Yanov. The Loners and Duty's association with the Ecologists has ended. Instead, Black leading his mercenary team composed of Skull, Duplet, Stake, Koshey, Surgeon, and Corpse are in charge of guarding the perimeter. Like the Yanov station, there are plenty of side quests to be picked up here from various characters - most importantly Prof. Hermann and Prof. Ozersky. Others characters residing inside are Novikov, Sokolov, and Garry. Topol and his crew consisting of Snake, Spirit, and Mace always stand outside, apart from the time when an emission is due and they take cover inside the bunker.

It also plays a key role in a minor faction war when Black's unit leaves the lab, leaving it completely undefended - letting the player decide between Hatchet's or Spartacus' group, Freedom or Duty to take the position.

Jupiter Factory[]

BQFFQ — The Jupiter factory in real life

A large, sprawling complex in the south-east of Jupiter, the Jupiter Factory is home to the Stingray 4 crash site, and the focal point of several main questlines in the area, requiring frequent visits and thorough exploration by the player. At first it is only home to mutants, but by the time the player makes his final visit it may be home to hostile Bandits, Mercenaries, Burers, and often Blind Dogs.

Volkhov AA Complex[]

Main article: Volkhov AA Complex

Also known as the SAM Site, it was once a typical Soviet hexagonal AA site for S-75M3 Volkhov (Volhov) or SA-2 Guideline (by NATO designation) medium-range, high-altitude SAM, which had a task of protecting the power plant (CNPP) as well as city of Pripyat from aerial threats and was installed in 1970 - the same year when Pripyat was founded. It was evacuated days following the disaster on reactor at power block four in April 1986 and since then it lies abandoned. In-game, it is one of the designated evacuation points for Operation Fairway, marked as Position B205. Originally overrun with Zombified stalkers, but after eliminating them, literally anyone or anything else can randomly spawn there. The player can investigate the area, finding Lt. Sokolov's Note, which can be returned to him in Scientist bunker in exchange for an Army Medkit and be used to unlock the underground entrance leading to the armory, which is guarded by a Burer and several Rodents. The armory contains several assault rifles, few 5.45x39mm AP ammo boxes, two F1 grenades, four PM pistols, and a rare and valuable RPG-7u launcher. After being explored by the player, the Complex becomes the site of large shootouts between factions or mutant attacks against groups of stalkers. Jack and his group of Bandits can be seen around the place (provided if the player does not eliminate him during Vano's debt quest, since until then, he and his gang never actually leave the Checkpoint). It is also the only place in the entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise which contains very realistically and in-detail recreated SNR-75M3 (NATO designated Fan Song) targeting and illumination radar for S-75M3 system (intended for guidance of its V-759 missiles) and is portrayed as being severely radioactive in-game. Ironically, in real-life the radar was actually never left-out there; the entire place in fact being completely empty and free of any vehicles and equipment, beside the structures (buildings and the underground).

Cooling Tower[]

While moving past this place, anxious radio transmission fragments can be heard. On the top of the slope there is a Space Anomaly, only visible with an active Svarog detector held in hand. The player visits this place during the Anomalous activity quest from the Ecologists, also starting another mission at the same time, Duty History - finding General Tachenko's PDA.

Kopachy Village[]

Jupiter Kopachy cop zsg dk — Kopachy overview.

Located west of Yanov Station lies the ruined village of Kopachy. A relatively quiet part of Jupiter, not much happens around this area - it is free both from mutants and anomalies, however a large amount of Zombified Stalkers are located here and others can be seen wandering. The area is radioactive, but not as a whole; there are smaller areas that are very "hot". The player only has to visit this area once in a sidequest: if one decides to help Yar with his mysterious problem it leads to a side-mission taking place at Kopachy. It is worth mentioning that around the area there are multiple stashes containing high-end rifles, ammunition, grenades, drugs, Medkits, and even a Veles detector. In real life, Kopachy consists only of mounds of dirt with radiation signs on top as, after the explosion at the Chernobyl NPP, the military decided to have all of the houses torn down and buried to see if it would reduce radiation levels; it didn't, and no other villages suffered the same fate.

Cement Factory[]

An old Cement Factory located North-East of the Quarry. This area contains several anomalies, namely Burnt Fuzz, Burners, and Electros. Over the course of the game, either Freedom and Duty or (rarely) Stalkers and Bandits will fight over the position. Zombified Stalkers are also commonly found in the area, as well as mutants. The factory itself contains the components needed for Nitro's Radio. The tower is an excellent vantage point and can be used to snipe mutants in the nearby swamp from safety. Pripyat is visible from here.

Crashed UAV Site[]

Jupiter UAV Site cop zsg dk — RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV crash site.

One of Jupiter's most cleverly hidden locations. It is situated to the farthest north-west corner of Jupiter. The easiest way to get there is through the Ash Heap Anomaly. From there, the player has to make his way up north across all the Burner anomalies. At some point, a canyon of sort can be observed, it leads straight to the UAV. Judging by the first look at the site not much can be found, apart from the crashed drone. Upon closer inspection of the wreck, it appears that the aircraft has an undamaged black box - the Memory Module. Unfortunately, the module is blocked and can't be accessed immediately. Thanks to having clever technicians nearby it can be unlocked, either by Novikov or Nitro. The exact causes of the crash are unknown, though one might suspect that some kind of aerial anomaly or an Emission made short work of the machine.

Substation[]

This place is where one can find Snag if you have taken his quests. When found, he is about to be killed by a bandit. The bandit is ordered to kill him by Sultan. Snag will have transferred the contents of the player's Yanov personal box to another box, in the basement of the Substation. Nothing else of interest happens around here.

Eastern Tunnel[]

An old railway tunnel situated in the far east part of Jupiter, even more eastwards of Bitumen Anomaly and south-east of Quarry. In the past, this area served as a railway entrance to the Jupiter Underground. It can be entered deeper through a door on eastern wall. If so, after going upstairs one will enter a large and dark "hangar". This place has to be visited if one is to earn Mutant Hunter achievement, during a series of hunt missions given by Trapper. The quest Hunting: Unidentified Mutants leads to this location; two Burers reside here that need to be 'taken care of'. After finishing the mission this location is not worth revisiting as there is nothing of interest here. In the general vicinity there are a few stashes, however they do not contain anything of exceptional value.

North-western Tunnel[]

The tunnel is located below Ash Heap Anomaly and features electric anomalies with a harmful passive psy-field. The tunnel itself is relatively safe, although Zombified Stalkers are clustered together here and a Controller will spawn after the Altered Insulator is retrieved with Topol. More Controllers will spawn in the tunnel after completing said quest.

Checkpoint[]

Ss yohei 03-31-12 08-12-43 (jupiter) — The North-Western Tunnel with Topol's team.

Another Bandit stronghold in the area, this is Jack's lair. The meeting that settles Vano's Debt takes place here. When the player first arrives in Yanov, the checkpoint will be teeming with activity at all hours of day and night. However, after the conclusion of Vano's Debt, Jack and his men start moving around Jupiter, and eventually the place becomes deserted (except for the night-time, when they always return back awaiting for sunrise, exactly like the Stalkers at Yanov and Skadovsk).

Parking lot[]

An open space with a couple of damaged cars and a tall building on one side, near the bridge and the stopped train. The area around the building is dominated by Electros and a radiation field. The site often has visitors: either Stalkers looking for artifacts, or, more frequently, Zombies in groups of two or three. Mutants, mainly blind dogs and pseudodogs also frequently roam here. There is a Monolith stash (marked with an atom symbol) in an electric panel next to a set of car seats on the side of the building. As usual it contains gauss rifle batteries and army medkits.

Ventilation Complex[]

The Ventilation Complex is an area located not far from the parking lot. It is home to a scripted Chimera's lair, and houses the Oasis as well as a Space Anomaly. The entrance to the ventilation complex is located a short distance west from its location on the area map, and this area is full of Zombified Stalkers and Rodents.

Oasis[]

The Oasis can be found in the Ventilation Complex. It houses the Heart of the Oasis artifact.

Container Warehouse[]

This area is far away from any other major structure in Jupiter. This makes it an ideal hideout for Bandits, who hold Mitay hostage. Mitay's liberation is the subject of the Hostage crisis quest.

Monolith Encampment[]

This is a small camp located near a tunnel not far from the Container Warehouse. Strider and his squad take cover here. They can be recruited to either Freedom or Duty during the Monolith survivors quest. After they leave, Bloodsuckers can be found roaming the swamp.

Helipad[]

This is the location of Stingray 1's crash site. It is surrounded by a minefield, and once the black box is retrieved, Fleshes and Boars will storm the minefield and nearly all of them will die, with the occasional 1 or 2 survivors that can be easily picked off.

Train under the Bridge

The train has an electrical anomaly moving up and down inside. Jump off the bridge on to the top of the train, run to the other end and enter the train through the skylight. Time and dodge the anomaly to get to the other end. Just on the seats at the left hand side as you get to the end is a set of basic tools. Past that is the end of the train carriage where you can hide from the anomaly as it doesn't enter, if you time it wrong but also on the left side is the exit.

Anomaly Fields[]

Each of the named anomaly fields, except the Rotten Grove, Jupiter Warehouse and Quarry, are part of a sidequest in the Mobile Lab. By taking Novikov's scanners and placing them in the middle of the anomaly field, the player gains the ability to check and see what artifacts are in each field, without having to investigate in person.

Bitumen Anomaly[]

The Bitumen Anomaly, also known as the Asphalt Anomaly in some translations, is a massive crater in the middle of the road leading to Jupiter Factory. It features both Burner and Vortex anomalies, but it mostly spawns gravity-based artifacts. Even a careful stalker must be quick when scavenging this anomaly due to the very high ambient temperature.

Concrete Bath Anomaly[]

Epos-zp-vanna — The "Concrete Bath" Anomaly.

Located just west of Jupiter Factory, south of the Bitumen Anomaly. The easiest of the fields to investigate, and safest. By running up to the ledge to the north and walking along it, the player can drop down onto the walkway over the anomaly field - walking to the end takes him to a ladder which puts him on a ledge, where the artifacts spawn. Soul is a fixed spawn here, but further spawns can be much more valuable.

Parking Lot Anomaly[]

Located north of the ventilation complex, this anomaly is often home to zombified Stalkers, who tend to wander into the stationary electro anomalies and kill themselves. The area is also extremely saturated with radiation, and most artifacts spawn near the tower in the middle of the lot.

Ash Heap Anomaly[]

Epos-zp-pepelishe — The "Ashes" Anomaly.

An anomaly field north of Kopachi Village, also known as "Ashes Anomaly" in some translations. It is an old graveyard riddled with dangerous burner-like anomalies and the idle temperatures in it are very high; staying in the middle of the anomaly too long will take a heavy toll on suits, even if said suit has great anomaly protection.

Plavni Anomaly[]

Also called the "Fen Anomaly" or "Smoothie Anomaly" in some translations. "Plavni" translates from Russian as "reed bed" or "flooded areas". Similar to the Concrete Bath field, it features only chemical anomalies, though the water underneath makes the anomalies easier to find. Mutants such as Boars and occasionally Bloodsuckers or even Controllers may spawn in the general area. It is located just northwest of the Cement plant. Trapper also gives a side mission that involves hunting 3 Bloodsuckers near this anomaly field. The player visits this anomaly during one of the Ecologists' missions involving guarding Topol's squad while they are taking measurements.

Jupiter Warehouse[]

An unmarked anomaly field, just southeast of the Concrete Bath anomaly. Located in a separated wing of the Jupiter Factory only accessible by the road beside the Concrete Bath anomaly, on the second floor of the building. The warehouse is riddled with many electro anomalies, and the player needs to low crouch to traverse a few areas. A Battery is a fixed spawn here and a fine toolkit can be found in the green locker on the other side of the field.

Quarry[]

The Quarry is yet another chemical anomaly field, similar to the Swamp anomaly field in Zaton. Unlike the Swamp it is quite irregular and much larger, meaning Major Degtyarev must take a great deal of care if he wanders there without the Svarog detector. Splinter will spawn in the middle of the field who is necessary to expose Flint, aka Magpie.

Anomalous Grove[]

The Anomalous Grove, also known as the Rotten Grove in some translations, is the fourth chemical anomaly field in the Jupiter area, located just southwest of the Quarry. It begins small, but explodes into a full-grown field when the player grabs the "unknown anomalous plant" artifact in the middle of it during the side quest Anomalous Plant given by Professor Ozersky. It has a higher concentration of chemical anomalies than the others and just like other chemical anomalies, the air is acidic. It only rarely spawns artifacts, even with the Svarog detector and the Seasoned Stalker achievement.

Main Missions[]

Side Missions[]

General[]

Grizzly's missions[]

Hostage

Nitro's missions[]

Trapper's missions[]

Professor Ozersky's missions[]

Prof. Hermann's missions[]

Gallery[]

Loading screens[]

Development[]

SCS Jupiter Map — Jupiter WIP map in *Clear Sky*

Interestingly, in the assets of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, there is a file called map_jupiter.dds, which contains a work-in-progress map of the Jupiter area. It includes a preliminary version of the factory that appears in Call of Pripyat as well as several locations marked with blue and yellow dots. Two locations are named - one of them is called container storage, just like the location appearing in Call of Pripyat.

Given the fact the location was not meant to be included in Clear Sky as per the Anarchy Cell design document and other pre-release documents, it is likely the map was made during early development stages of Call of Pripyat and was mistakenly included in Clear Sky's assets, as the development of both Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat was concurrent for some time.

Layout-wise, the map depicts the Jupiter plant having been rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees, the container warehouse was located to the north of the factory alongside the nearby lake rather than to the west, and the water channel alongside the road running parallel to it was located to the southwest of the plant rather than to the northeast.

Notes[]

Many of the locations represented in Jupiter are, in fact, very close and very similar to their real life counterparts. Yanov Station area is faithfully modelled after the real life abandoned Yaniv railway station. However, in real life the station is south of Pripyat and the Jupiter plant, not north as in the game, about half a kilometer from Pripyat and one kilometer from the CNPP. The real-life Jupiter Factory is within walking distance of Pripyat (and in fact has become a part of tourist tours of Pripyat because of the game), approximately where it appears in the PDA. However, in the game there is a very large anomaly field (type unknown, but from above it appears to be a large canyon) encircling Pripyat, creating the need for the underground passage.