Tunder S14

Tunder S14
Type	Assault Rifle
Ammunition	9x39mm 20 round detachable box magazine

The Obrazets TskIB 14 "Groza" (TskIB product 14 "Thunderstorm"), named Tunder S14 in-game, is a very powerful and uncommon bullpup assault rifle system with an integral GP-25 grenade launcher. It appears in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Background

The weapon was designed as a replacement for AKS-74U sometime in the early 1990s by the TsKIB SOO (Central Design Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Weapons) in Tula, Russia. Today, only the Groza-9/40 continues to be produced, made by Tula Arms plant based in Russia, and is currently issued to Russian Spetsnaz in close-combat situations.

Overview

The type featured in all games is the OTs-14 Groza-9/40s, though one of the original designs, the Groza-5.45/40, appears as a unique weapon in Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat. The variant of the Groza used in all games is the OTs-14-4A, which is the standard rifle using the long 415mm barrel with an integral underbarrel GP-30 40mm grenade launcher that also acts as the weapon's handguard.

The weapon uses all types of 9×39mm rounds and the grenade launcher uses VOG-25 and VOG-25P 40mm grenade shells.

Appearances

Shadow of Chernobyl

In Shadow of Chernobyl the Tunder S14 isn't as widespread as most assault rifles. The Tunder was the weapon of choice of most Duty veterans and experts. Spetsnaz experts may use this weapon, along with Military Stalkers. The Tunder is very accurate at close range and fairly accurate at long ranges, in the right hands one could pop headshots at long ranges using the iron sights. The weapon itself is very powerful and could easily rip apart the armor of an Exoskeleton. Combined with its grenade launcher, it's a weapon for all occasions. Its only drawbacks are that its small magazine limits its firing rate, it has lower accuracy than other high-end assault rifles, it is very prone to jamming, and most of its ammunition is heavy weighing at .70kg per box which would also restrict the player from carrying lots of equipment.

Availability

• Bought from Professor Sakharov after completing the task in Lab X16.
• Petrenko may also sell one once your relationship with Duty is good enough.
• Skull's team uses this weapon, and if you complete Lukash's mission to Destroy the Duty company, you can find several of these weapons and a varying amount of 9×39mm rounds depending on game difficulty.
• You can find one in X16. In the room where controller is, there is a WC section. The first toilet with a some kind of box over it. If you jump and push F right on the box, there is a Tunder S14 there. Not the easiest place to find.
• General Voronin will reward the player with a Tunder S14 for successful completion of his non-repeatable mission to Neutralize the bandit. By doing Voronin's other repeatable side-missions, it's possible to earn an unlimited supply of SP-6 ammo and VOG-25 Grenades. This is a good way to gear up for the endgame.
• Two stashes in Army Warehouses contain a Tunder S14: Chest with goods (Army Warehouse) and Secret stash in the log (2). Several stashes in the area contain suitable ammo.

Clear Sky

The Groza is an overall great assault weapon, where it can be upgraded for superior firing rate and stability and its magazine can also be expanded by 10 rounds. It can also be upgraded to use 5.45×39mm rounds instead of 9×39mm rounds, making it a more economical weapon, though the 9×39 ammunition has much better armor penetration. The underbarrel grenade launcher gives user options and when fully upgraded, the Tunder can obliterate unlucky stalkers at close range in a matter of seconds. The Groza only has one upgrade tree instead of the usual two for assault rifles and has no "accuracy" upgrade tree, only the rate of fire upgrades. It can accept a PSO-1 scope and silencer by default, though it makes a poor sniper analogue since it has no accuracy upgrades and unimpressive base accuracy.

Availability

Unlike in Shadow of Chernobyl, the weapon is extremely rare. It's almost exclusive to the Duty faction, and it is only held by Duty's powerful Exoskeleton units. Generally, to get it without killing a Dutyer, the player can only get one in the following instances:

• A Renegade trader uses this weapon in the Red Forest.
• Monolith experts sporting Exoskeletons and some Spetsnaz troopers use this weapon.
• Sold by Mitay once the player joins Duty.
• Stock Tunder S14 is automatically given to the player if they join Duty.

Upgrades

Fully upgraded, the Tunder S14 has the fourth highest firing rate, just behind an upgraded RP-74, GP-37, and the FT-200m

Call of Pripyat

The OTs-14 Groza with a Silencer.

The Groza returns in Call of Pripyat as, once again, a rare assault rifle. Duty forces rarely wield the weapon, and Military units instead rely on the AC96/2 and the SA Avalanche for assault rifles. Loners will not wield the weapon until much later in the game, where it can be sometimes found in the hands of those wearing Exoskeletons. One, however, can be found in Morgan's Duty cache. Ammo can be rather scarce, the best place to acquire the ammunition is in Pripyat, but if you completed Trapper's mutant hunting quests, ammunition will be deposited into your personal box in Yanov daily.

The Groza now cannot sport nor be upgraded to mount a PSO-1 scope as it did in Clear Sky, which limits its potential effectiveness at long range. This is offset by the fact that the Groza is one of the best close-quarter combat weapons available. Its caliber, paired with its high damage, manageable recoil and firing rate makes it a great weapon for urban combat and the integral GP-25 Kostyer grenade launcher makes it even more deadly against clusters of enemies and against dangerous mutants like the Pseudogiant and Chimera.

However, Tunder has surprisingly low reliability (probably lowest from any Warsaw Pact weapons), making it a questionable choice for player who wishes to compromise power, accuracy and reliability of his weapon and also due to very heavy ammunition (30 9x39 bullets weighs 0.7 kg, 4 times more than the same amount of 5.45 and NATO bullets) a player may want to stay with AC96/2 or AKM 74/2 if he doesn't want to spend 20,000 rubles for Storm.

A unique Tunder, called the Storm, can be purchased from Nimble for 20,000 RU. Like the unique variant in Shadow of Chernobyl, it is calibrated to fire 5.45×39mm rounds, with a higher rate of fire and appropriate bullet velocity to compensate for the drop in damage. It is also more reliable than the standard Tunder S14, though strength-wise, it is less powerful than the standard Tunder due to the former's weaker 5.45x39mm rounds. The Storm accepts both a Silencer and a PSO-1 Scope or any other Warsaw Pact scope by default, and with upgrades, it is arguably the best Warsaw Pact weapon in the game and can compete with the higher-end NATO weapons, despite its weaker caliber.

Upgrades

Depending on the player's choices, the Tunder can have the highest rate of fire out of any weapon while sporting favorable accuracy. Unfortunately, the upgrade tree is very Tier 3 heavy, which means the player will not be able to unlock Groza's full potential before reaching Pripyat and getting the Calibration Kit.

Tunder S14 Stash Locations

• Duty warehouse — There is one Tunder S14 inside the warehouse, among other things, along with ammunition for it. The warehouse can only be unlocked by giving Morgan's PDA to either Shulga or Loki.
• Volkhov AA complex — In between the driver and passenger seats of the van parked outside (includes several 9×39mm rounds).
• Kopachi Village — Atop the roof of the grey house in the south eastern corner of the village (includes 90 9×39 rounds, a GP-25 Kostyer grenade launcher, and 2 VOG grenades).
• Jupiter Plant — In the eastern part of the plant where the residences are, the buildings with many stairs. Its the same building with the Eliminator and documents. At the bottom of a flight of stairs behind a Burnt Fuzz.

You can also get one Tunder with some ammo for it for free if you will give General Tachenko's PDA to Lt. Shulga.

Also, there is a 5% chance that Owl will have one Tunder for sell even at the beginning of the game and without any achievements.

Development

The Groza is one of the first weapons that appeared in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. It appears as a usable weapon in Build 1098 with a completely different model, but disappeared until Build 1935, where it appeared with its final model.

Also, in Build 1935, its reload speed was almost as slow as that of the Dragunov SVU sniper rifle. It was sped up in the final release, likely due to its high firing rate, low magazine capacity, and assault rifle balance.

The Groza in Build 1098

World model of 1098 type Groza

The Groza in earlier builds

Trivia

thumb|right|209px|A Groza being fired in real life by a Spetsnaz operator

• The term "Groza" literally means "thunder" or "thunderstorm" (also "horror") in Russian. Hence it is most probably where the developers got the idea "Tunder" from.
• In Shadow of Chernobyl, if player loads grenade to underbarrel grenade launcher, changes shooting mode to normal and again to grenade launcher, a spinning grenade clipping through weapon's model can be seen.
• In Clear Sky, the Tunder can originally be modified for sniper fire at the cost of firing rate and it's magazine would be reduced to 15 bullets. When patch 1.5.05 was released however, this modification tree was removed and upgrades fully focused on firing rate and reduced recoil. This modification tree is brought back to Call of Pripyat, but without the drastic penalties to firing rate and capacity.
• In reality, the Groza – in "assault" configuration (meaning the integrated grenade launcher) – cannot mount a sound suppressor, as it blocks the launcher's barrel, which would lead to it breaking the silencer when fired. The launcher in real life can be detached, however, and then a suppressor can be safely used. A vertical foregrip is attached to the barrel when the grenade launcher is removed to give the user's non-trigger hand a convenient place to hold the weapon.
• Higher-ranking Duty NPCs often use the OTs-14 Groza when they are not using the AN-94 or the AS Val.
• For some reason, most Russian special forces units in reality no longer use the weapon.
• – excellent and rare vid showing the Groza and all its extras
• The 9x39-over-40mm configuration seen in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games is known as the OC-14-4A. A variant of the Groza-1 (7.62x39mm) appears in the Half-Life mod 'Paranoia'.

Gallery

Shadow of Chernobyl

Grozafirst.png

First person view

First person view with GP-25's ladder sight raised

Grozaload.png

Reloading the rifle

Reloading the grenade launcher

Grozasights.png

The rifle's iron sights

The launcher's ladder sight

Third person view

Shadow of Chernobyl's world model, note the all-synthetic parts.

Call of Pripyat

The weapon's World model seen in Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. Note the now brown synthetic parts compared to Shadow of Chernobyl.