The Palace of Culture, also referred to as Monolith Headquarters, is a location in Pripyat featured in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Overview[]
The Palace of Culture "Energetik" (Дворец культуры Энергетик) was one of the 137,000 Palaces of Culture built within the Soviet Union. It was designed as a focal point for people to enjoy a range of recreational and artistic activities all under the banner, quite literally in many cases, of political propaganda. Pripyat’s Palace of Culture included a cinema, theatre, library, gymnasium, swimming pool, boxing/wrestling ring, dancing and meeting halls and even has a shooting range in the basement[1].
Located in the center of the city, the Palace of Culture is among the most iconic landmarks of the city, as a remnant of the art and Soviet propaganda from the 80s. Although indeed being realistically recreated in-game, the Palace of Culture is actually depicted as being much smaller (narrower) than in real-life, what can be very easily noticed when standing in the center of the main square and overlooking directly at the building. This was deliberately made due to severe restrictions of the map sizes in general.
Appearances[]
Shadow of Chernobyl[]
The Palace of Culture was turned into the Monolith main headquarters in the city of Pripyat. Located in the center of the map, the Palace of Culture is a heavily protected location. The building itself contains more than twenty Monolithians, which makes it one of the largest enemy-populated buildings in the entire game and the most enemy-populated one in the whole level. The front entrance (through the square) is guarded by two Monolith marksmen (using SVUmk-2 sniper rifles) on each corner of the frontal balcony and the interiors of the building are heavily defended, leading to a large close-quarters firefight inside the building. The square in front of the palace is relatively empty, although it is not uncommon to see groups of snorks roaming the area.
The building has three floors:
- The top one is accessible from staircases, and is lightly defended
- The ground floor is the largest and most protected floor. The theater room has a Monolith structure with praying Monolith fighters around it. Most of the floor is defended by heavily-armed veterans and experts, protecting the different rooms.
- The basement is the living quarters for the Monolith leader Charon. The basement has a few Experts protecting Charon, along with Charon himself.
Raiding the building takes some time and ammunition, as the player will have to face no less than 20 enemies. However, the Palace of Culture is entirely avoidable - the player could simply go through the right and left lanes to avoid the Monolith experts guarding the area.
The Palace of Culture is just south to the Stadium, west to the Ferris Wheel and the Hotel.
Loot[]
The large opera room in the back of the building contains a large trash-improvised structure in the middle, around which the various rare and expensive artifacts are scattered (including two very rare and highly valuable Night Stars, along with a Battery and a Kolobok).
There is also a Monolith suit in the basement.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The fresco found in the entrance lobby is also featured in the Agroprom Research Institute, on the wall of the main building. It is a replica of a fresco found inside the real-life Palace of Culture.
- The location can be seen on the world map in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, to the northwest of the playable area in Pripyat.
References[]
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