The Mercenary faction is a group of private military contractors operating within the Zone, though their exact base of operations is kept highly secret.
Background
In reality mercenaries are experienced fighters from all walks of life who offer their services as hired soldiers. They are perhaps ex-military soldiers, ex-special forces operators, underground fighters such as elite resistance/guerrilla troops or notorious terrorists of various nations who offer their services to the highest bidder. Having seen combat at least once outside of the Zone; Mercenaries are capable of dealing with virtually any kind of armed resistance using careful tactics, military precision and excellent equipment. However, since they do not spend much time wandering the Zone like most Stalkers, they lack the extensive knowledge of the Zone that many Stalkers have. Being professional soldiers, Mercenaries often charge their clients large amounts of money or anything of the same value (artifacts for example). Mercenaries have been known to be hired by wealthy and powerful corporations to retrieve artifacts and other unique objects in the Zone. The Mercenaries also prefer to avoid any complications with the Ukrainian government and the military, so as to not hinder their movements and connections within the Zone; as such they usually avoid all direct combat with the military or otherwise governmental personnel, although if the money is worth the risk some might make exceptions.
Lore
Their blue suits surrounded him, he knew he had nowhere left to run. The bullets whizzed past him closer and closer, as the group approached him like a hungry pack of wolves. The prey let out a few more stray shots before a bullet buried itself deep in his chest. Gasping for air the man raised his eyes up the pack leader. A weak question pushed itself over the mans lips: "Why..?" The answer was quick and with no emotions: "It's our job." After the final word, all the sound that filled the small room was the muffled bang of a pistol and a last gasp of a dead man.
Appearances
Clear Sky
In Clear Sky, the Mercs are typically viewed as a neutral faction that typically busies itself with independent missions into the deeper parts of the Zone, usually in search of rare artifacts. It is suggested that the Mercs' primary employer for most of Clear Sky is the Clear Sky faction itself. Indeed; since the Clear Sky faction lacks much in the way of manpower and has even less professional soldiers, the Mercs are an attractive option.
The player has only one opportunity to fight Mercenaries in Clear Sky; while assisting the Freedom faction. These Mercs are always hostile to Scar; whereas Scar can converse, trade, and even befriend the other Mercs in the game. In Clear Sky Mercenary Armour is surprisingly effective, and unlike Shadow of Chernobyl, Mercenaries do not carry Warsaw Pact weaponry.
Mercs appear more frequently as the story progresses, with one squad appearing in the Army Warehouses, returning to aid the player in the Red Forest, Limansk, and the Limansk Hospital.
Shadow of Chernobyl
The Mercs can be found working alongside Bandits in the Wild Territory region and a small outpost to the north-west of the Army Warehouses. Their only scripted appearance is during the first visit to the territory, where Wolfhound and a squad of Mercenaries are exterminating a band of Ecologists. The Mercs are one of the most heavily-armed factions the player will encounter midway through the game, using 5.56mm NATO weapons exclusively, and one of the few groups who regularly equip their weapons with attachments. Also, they are the only faction, aside from Monolith, to make use of explosives. However, their standard armor is sub-par compared to their Clear Sky counterparts, rarely taking more then a burst to bring down. On the other hand, you may encounter some Mercs wearing SEVA suits, making them a greater threat on the field. In both Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl, you may find a Mercenary with an Exoskeleton.
The Mercenary faction is allied with the Bandits as the Barkeep explains, due to a large payoff on the Bandits' part, and the prospect of mutual benefit from the two factions hunting any Ecologists and Loners that travel the Wild Territory.
Call of Pripyat
After the loss of numerous Mercenary units to Strelok, the Mercenaries take a more complacent, and less hostile role in the game. Only three squads of Mercenaries are active in the Zone, with two holding outposts blocking the way to Yanov, while the third has taken over for Duty in protecting the Ecologist laboratory. Owl pays handsomely for any information the player can gather on the squads, though eventually the player will end up killing off all three on his own.
In Call of Pripyat the squads seem to be working for a single unified purpose under one employer, whereas in Clear Sky there were various Merc factions, and in Shadow of Chernobyl where they acted upon their own self-interest. As a result, these better funded Mercenaries pose a severe threat to a new player - there are several Merc experts that wear Exoskeletons (although this can be seen in the previous games as well), and nearly all of them employ scoped and silenced assault rifles, alongside more powerful shotguns and even an FN F2000 at times. They can be found with Soviet weaponry more often than in Shadow of Chernobyl. However, once disposed of the Mercenaries never return in Zaton or in Yanov, giving the player freedom to explore the areas they defend. They only spawn randomly in Pripyat. During free play, Mercs spawn in Pripyat in larger numbers, commonly equipping the Exoskeleton and the FN F2000 rifle.
It is never established who they work for, though it is suggested it is another faction interested not in the artifacts, but rather the information developed inside the Zone, the X labs and C-Consciousness. The player can find out they work with a group of Ecologists, who supply them with X-Lab keycards and other valuable information. The leader of this rogue Ecologist group, Serbin, is the target of an optional assassination mission, along with his counterpart Jackal. They also attempt their own raid on the X8 Lab, but it appears it is unsuccessful - Serbin's second in command dies trying to restart the generator.
Rankings
Shadow of Chernobyl
Trained Mercenary
Trained Mercenaries are the most common members of the Merc faction. These Mercs are experienced soldiers equipped with decent armor and mid grade TRs 301 asssault rifles. They are noticeably tougher than Bandits, and slightly tougher than standard Sunrise Suit-wearing Stalkers, being roughly on par with basic Military soldiers in terms of ballistic protection. However, they are not quite as strong as Veteran members of Duty, Freedom, or the Military Spetsnaz special forces. Mercs can survive about 7 to 8 shots from their own TRs 301 assault rifles, or about a dozen shots from an AK-class assault rifle.
Old Hand Mercenary
Veteran Old Hand Mercenaries are similar to Trained Mercenaries. They have slightly better combat skills, and are typically equipped with slightly more powerful Sig Sauer 550 assault rifles. In the Wild Territory, several Old Hand Mercenaries, equipped with scoped LR 300 assault rifles, serve as snipers on the rooftops of a few of the area's buildings.
Tough Mercenary
- Rank: Expert
- Armor: SEVA Suit
- Weapons: SGi 5k assault rifle
The highest ranking members of the Mercenary faction, Tough Mercenaries can be distinguished by the fact they wear SEVA Suits instead of Merc Suits. Their superior SEVA Suits give them better protection, allowing them to survive about twice as much damage as standard Mercs. Tough Mercenaries are fairly uncommon; a group of Trained or Old Hand Mercs may have a Tough Merc leading it into combat.
Tough Mercenary (Exoskeleton)
- Rank: Expert
- Armor: Exosuit
- Weapons: SGi 5k assault rifle
Extremely rarely, a Tough Mercenary may be seen equipped with a power armor Exosuit instead of a SEVA Suit. Like any Exosuit-wearing soldier, they rank as some of the toughest Stalkers in the game.
Equipment
Mercenaries are typically well equipped, and usually use NATO class weaponry. In few cases they are seen with Soviet weaponry. This is most common in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.
Armaments
Pistols
Submachine Guns
Shotguns
Assault Rifles
Armor
- Mercenary Suit - Lightweight Western-made suit. Provides slightly better protection than the PSZ-7 series suits. Offers slightly better ballistic protection than the Stalker Suit (except in Shadow of Chernobyl), but offers worse anomaly and radiation protection than the Stalker Suit.
- Mercenary SEVA Suit - A SEVA Suit colored blue in some areas. Only seen on NPCs in Shadow of Chernobyl, worn by Scar in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky.
- Mercenary Exoskeleton - An Exoskeleton with different color scheme. Rare in Shadow of Chernobyl, extremely rare in Clear Sky, but common in Call of Pripyat.
Notable Persons
Gallery
Behind the Scenes
Development and cut content
- Originally, the Mercs were supposed to literally be the U.S. Army, and this is reflected in their NATO weapons and attacks on the Ecologists. This would also make sense in terms of the Clear Sky faction as well; who, if indeed they actually were a United Nations group, would greatly rely on the Mercs to further their goals.
- During Shadow of Chernobyl, their base was supposed to be in a place known as the Dead City, where Doctor and later on Strelok were held captive. The city was shared between the Mercs and Bandits. While the town was removed from the game, it appears in Clear Sky, remodeled and renamed to Limansk. The Mercs were also working for unknown foreign intelligence services.
- The mercenaries' original armor was supposed to be based on the Sunrise suit, recolored and refurbished to their faction's colors. This concept was removed and used a different layout that incorporated a professional and special forces look, the Merc Suit
Notes
- Mercenaries are encountered in all of the areas only in Call of Pripyat.
External links
- Mercenaries entry at the Shadow of Chernobyl official site
- Mercenaries entry at the Clear Sky official site
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