Skull's group

Skull's group
Establishment
Part of	Duty
Leader	Colonel Skull
Locations	Army Warehouses
No. of members	8
Appearances
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Skull's group is an elite Duty squad appearing in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

Background

An elite special forces team under the leadership of Colonel Skull, established in the ruins of an abandoned farmstead in the Army Warehouses. Unsatisfied with General Voronin's policy to not actively battle Freedom, Skull and his men have actively disobeyed Voronin's orders not to engage Freedom directly.

Skull's group plans to storm the Freedom base by blowing up the base's western wall and kill Freedom's leader, Lukash. However, their attempts so far have been unsuccessful due to the base being well guarded, in particular by a sniper that killed one of Skull's men when he tried to plant explosives near the base's wall.

Members

• Colonel Skull
• Skull's second-in-command
• Six fighters
• Duty saboteur (K.I.A.)

Appearances

Shadow of Chernobyl

One of Skull's men signalling the player to keep quiet on their first encounter

The player can meet Skull and his squad by going to the Army Warehouses. On the player's first visit to the area, one will run into several of Skull's soldiers ambushing a three man Freedom patrol, taking the entire squad out without casualties. Skull's team will then invite the player to follow them and talk to Skull to join his mission.

Should the player accept to help Skull and his squad carry out the assault, they will be first tasked with eliminating the sniper in the watchtower that has been preventing the team from approaching the base's perimeter until then. Successfully completing this mission will allow the player to join Skull's raid. After a brief preparation, Skull detonates the dynamite, allowing his team to breach into the base. The squad will then start shooting their way towards the headquarters building and attempt to kill Lukash.

It is quite difficult to keep Skull's squad intact during the assault despite their equipment, mainly due to the large number of enemies inside the base. Unless the player somehow manages to kill as many Freedom members as possible, many members of Skull's group will be slaughtered in the attack, including the team leader, making the relevant side mission glitch, and prevent completion. Another issue is that if the player doesn't kill the sniper fast enough, he may kill half the squad single-handedly. If the player and Skull's group successfully kill Lukash, they will retreat back to the farmstead and become friendly to the player.

Alternatively, one may ignore Skull's offer and go directly to Lukash and warn him about the group's plans. This will prompt him to have Max and his squad carry out a counter-attack on Skull's camp. Though they are no match for the Dutyers equipment-wise, the Freedom strike team will usually be able to take down Skull's group, although they are likely to suffer numerous casualties in the process. Helping Max eliminate Skull and his men will likely turn the Duty faction hostile, as Skull's forces are considered as regular Duty soldiers from a technical point of view, despite being deserters in-game.

Should the player help out Skull and his team, the squad will usually disperse after a short while, traveling to other areas in the level, or even the Red Forest once the Brain Scorcher has been shut down. Due to unknowns and minor glitches, the members of Skull's group will become frequent victims of random mutant attacks, or fail to avoid the electro anomaly directly behind the farm on a hill, as many of their corpses can be found here after some time.

Related missions

• Kill Lukash
• Destroy the Duty company

Gallery

Campfire.

Skull detonating the dynamite.

Trivia

• Members of this group frequently appear in the list of top 20 stalkers.
• Skull's squadmates that appear at the entrance of the level are not displayed on the minimap until the Freedom patrol has been eliminated.
• If the player assaults the Freedom base on their own, then Skull's group may also take part in the assault, provided they are still alive.

References

Sources

Quotes