Quests tactics Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Alright since the general forum isn't as active as it used to let's make this place hot again.

Please post tactics you guys have tried (innovative ones) regarding some of the tough quests where most of players will have to try multiple times.

In this thread please post the tactics you used to complete the quest "The hostage Crisis" where you have to extract Mitay from bandit infested storage compound. Please don't say pay my way out, that's just against the principle of the game.

A fun and efficient way to complete this quest for me was taking advantage of Gauss rifle's immense firepower and range. (Yes Mitay will have to wait) Sniping from top of the tunnel, bandits will have hard time firing back. My switch distance is 650, and I have seen them trying to rush through open field on my left flank before. Gauss rifle is simply the king of sniper rifle.

If you have great tactics regarding another tough quest please start an new thread.

Like you said, paying those arrogant bastards doesn't sit well... I have sniped from many directions. I have also walked in pretending I intended to pay and just inside the garage door there are a couple containers to the left. I hop up on those and blast the leader and others in the room. Picking off the rest of the twits as they come investigating is pretty easy. They don't look up by nature and their wide eyes are priceless. I generally like to come at targets like the processing plant mercs and the sawmill from distant and/or elevated positions like the very top of the bridge above the anomalies, hopping up on the pipeline above the permanent campfire west of the sawmill and working my way around the mutants to safely pick off the zombies and get behind the controllers. There are many interesting positions you can climb to if you are motivated. The top of the dredge ship, the roof of the zombie village by the ash heap, the top of the digging machine in Jupiter. Those positions and others like the side walls of the tunnel with the two Burers where you can hop to but mutants can't reach are great for thinning out the population.

Yes entering the building before turn on these suckers makes easier combat.

I have also tried that and use explosive traps to make things easier. Problem with mines is there are moving patrols sometimes step on it before Mitay is freed, he got into the crossfire and died.

Hiring a group of heavily armed duty exo squad helps a lot too. (cost about 11k, totally worth the coins) I usually wait for them to run back for few steps and then trigger the firefight. Duty exos are surprisingly deadly when they go head on with bandits. I have seen they only lost one guy while clean up 12+ bandits (with bit help from me of course).

It is ironic that the NPC's are so good at some tasks and then a simple mutant will wreck their day. I've never had Mitay die ever though. Pretty much anyone in an Exo makes mincemeat of bandits. The unpredictability of the zone is what keeps Mines from being overpowering, I guess. I would love to have some remotely triggered claymores for some ambushes. I use them for the Psuedodogs that attack after you grab the heart of the oasis and the controller in the tunnel. Even there sometimes one of Topol's crew trip one.

Oh man, I usually just negotiate for Mitay, even though the bandits are assholes. Live and let live, right?

Going to Jupiter for the first time in a playthrough is quite the heavy adventure. I've recently discovered a little strategy for dealing with an horde of snorks (if it spawns). All you need is an F1 grenade or two - you climb up the stairs on that abandoned structure (the one with chemical anomalies inside it, the place where strelok's assault rifle is found) and wait for the dumb snorks to bundle up and lob a grenade at them. You can take out as many as half a dozen with one, maybe even more.

Avoiding a fight and radiation at the dredge station when you're recovering the semi-artifact for Beard in the beginning is easy with the Sniper class' ability to prone. You climb up the stairs as usual, then jump on the broken guard rails and from them you jump on the roof of the dredge station. Then by prone-jumping you can enter and exit really easy.

Grabbing the Heart of the Oasis is usually a pain in the ass due to the psydog's psy aura and clones, but you can throw a grenade at the place it spawns (inside the door frame where you enter the Oasis from) and then pick up the artifact. If timed properly, our little psydog will have a nice breakfast of shrapnel.

Bond, Yakov Bond, it was Live and Let Die wasn't it? Just drop a small landmine right at the entrance to the Oasis and grab your prize. Loot the Pseudo before you leave. I just give the first guy who strong arms you the artifact and shoot him in the back of the head. The other two go down easy enough. You're right about that catwalk. Almost nothing will follow you up there and you can rain grenades upon them at your leisure as long as you keep from getting too irradiated. The sheds right below those catwalks are definitely not safe though. I try to save up my VOG-25's or M209's to take out whatever nasties are just inside the doors to the plant.

I did the hit and run strategy once. Every day I would kill 2-3 bandits and leave to do other things. After 3-4 days I would go to the main camp and kill what's left.

I don't remember if it worked though lol.

Oh if only games were sofisticatedenough so that they would remember where I ambushed them and try to set up a counter-ambush... Hope we get there someday...

Also, I was a bit annoyed in thath quest that you have to get to the chopper inside the chemical/wind anomaly in zaton.

I was on my merry way there and sudenly 2 bloodfuckers appeared. Lucky me I had a shotgun and managed to kill them. Then another 2 came up, killed them took 1 hit used bandage.

Then 2 pseudo-dogs came up, hit me, killed them and used a medkit.

Then ANOTHER 2 bloodsuckers. Killed them used bandage and stayed at 20% health because I got hit. Then I thought "Okay it HAS to be the last of them"

Another one showed up, I took 2 good hits at him but the managed to land a bloody claw at me when he was turning around to flee.

DEAD

Is this normal? It seemed like the game was stuck on a badly programmed bloodfucker spawning loop lol

Edited by: Gordyne

Luck of the roll. You definitely want to avoid the area North and West of there. I always go in and out from the exit to the bloodsucker lair. Anything North of that is mutant city. I only use medkits where I'm safe. The time that passes using a medkit lets mutants close in on the smell of blood. I wonder if you can get up on top of that chopper? I've been on top of others.

jasper34 wrote:

Luck of the roll. You definitely want to avoid the area North and West of there. I always go in and out from the exit to the bloodsucker lair. Anything North of that is mutant city. I only use medkits where I'm safe. The time that passes using a medkit lets mutants close in on the smell of blood. I wonder if you can get up on top of that chopper? I've been on top of others.

Is this a misery feature? If i'm hit and bleeding i'll attract more mutants?

Or does it only happen when I use a medkit?

I was going through the west part of that area because it's closer to the chopper and I don't have Sci-suit yet.

Never tried climbing choppers lol

Edited by: Gordyne

No, that's my imagination. Although there are references in dialogs like Mitay suggesting you should clear the area before the smell of bodies draws Pseudodogs, I believe. Medkits emulate some passage of time by blacking you out briefly. The zone never stands still so I would always expect hostiles of one kind or another to gravitate to any empty area. With the exception of Chimeras and snorks who can jump pretty well the top of anything is better than being pinned in the open. If you get trapped by a Chimera you're best off hunkered down against a wall or large object; they seem to only approach them so close. They can leap to the top of almost anything like the concrete plant towers, inside the elevated walkways between Jupiter plant buildings, etc.

Gordyne that's completely normal. If you tweaked complete neutral mutants like I did, you will find out north of saw mill is spawn points of mutants. There are 3 spawns not far from each other, and each spawn is about 4 to 8 mutants. If the first group dies the second group will spawn within secs if your computer handles game resources well.

My record there was 2 giants, 8 blood suckers, 10+ dogs and cats joined by 3 psudodogs. At same time. I was able to hop on the chopper so I could avoid most of the attacks.

No your bleeding will not attract mutants (as far as I know), but never ever stop for something if you are in the mid of the field. The numbers of death is beyond measure when I was caught in the animation doing something while I thought I was safe.

If you guys want to talk about the Oasis or Dredge artifact you can start another thread. I knew my way around that Dredge well. The path of Oasis will make me dizzy so I don't like to collect it.

Dizzy? Do it with your heavy fog. It takes a maximum of exactly 5 passes though to finish. Under a minute if you pop an Epinephrine.

Yeah I went back there to find 6 puppies and 2 giants.

The best way to do it is to get a good suit for anomalies or take the west path end kill all bloodsuckers.

Althoug it's just for completion's sake because that chopper is not worth visiting IMO.

The artifacts can be sold for a good price maybe...

Ticking off chopper missions is one of the keys to unlocking better inventories at the traders.

Yeah I do get dizzy sometimes. Oasis is overrated in my point of view, never bothered to go after it.

I am scared of playing heavy fog now. All too quiet and scary at night. When there are 5+ mutants the game is depressingly hard, and fog makes me got lost all the time, makes me panic easily. The fun side though is NPC are completely useless in heavy fog, so 12 mercs at plant become 12 dummies.

If you want harder, totally clear is hardest weather, especially if you're not Sniping. Staying at 250-300 switch_distance takes away most of the Sniping advantage too. When NPC's and Mutants can see you as well as you see them their numbers tip the scales. Scary, you've got it with no visibility hands down. Even in broad daylight lousy visibility makes it all fast twitch reaction speed.

OK last night I was so angry... I went with my recon to the iron forest anomaly. Brought 28 shotgun shells. A mine. 60 9.39 with AS-VAL. 60 hollow point with Five-Seven.

There was 2 burers and a chimera. when I was luring/kiting the burers, the chimera came after me, I managed to dodge it and took 3 good shots at it w my shotgun.

Mercs that were at the gas station started to shoot at me so I ran to the mercenary camp(already killed all of them) killed the 2 burers there. Went back to the chimera and used the trees to avoid it's jump, killed it w my shotgun.

This all happened in that little forest with white trees between the mercenary camp and iron forest. After that I finished the group of zombies and looted Iron Forest til it screamed. Used Hercules.

Then I was on my merry way back when 3 snorks appeared out of nowhere, to avoid them I jumped to slide the slope that would take me to the same forest that I killed the chimera.

Guess who was waiting for me there? In the open? Yes. 2 Controllers.

I only save at skadoswk so...

Edited by: Gordyne

If you read some of the other thread you will find out Iron Forest spawn can be insane. I had encounter with 8 bloodsuckers while 2 controller was aiming for my brain. Was a freaking nightmare until I was able to reload to early saves to lure them into merc camps.

Yeah they have to spawn somewhere, but the system could be better implemented.

But I guess misery can't do much about it, idk.

I don't think they will change it even it is possible. Just tons of work for these guys who doesn't get paid. I am just happy for what we got right now.

Since I turn my mutants into complete neutral I have noticed they spawn very fast and in larger number than I thought. Pair of giants are no long uncommon sight. 4+ blood suckers are become regular.

I always save at a minimum at the bottom of the stairs when I grab the toolkit (Sniper) before I go though my loot to decide what's worth humping back to ship. Epinephrine is the only booster worth using. They are not cumulative and you can hump up to 100 Kilos above your max before you are frozen in place. Always save after finishing sorting loot and before healing up, again after that. You must have been pretty excited to never save at all

Yeah, but I managed now that I tried again. I was attacked by surprise by a pseudo-dog but I managed to kill it and escape with 20% life. Lucky me I was near the northern ship and hid there to heal and back safely to skadowsk.

Yeah one of them moments, priceless .

The tweaks I do are:

-Reduced some mutant's speed so that you actually have a chance of outrunning them if you're light on weight(snorks, boars). Dogs can still get to you easily;

-Reduced some mutant's resistance to dmg, especially all dogs, cats and snorks, they already have the advantage of speed, numbers and high dmg;

-Reduced most Stalkers visibility through bushes. Seriously, before it was like you were out in the open even if you changed bushes and stay crouched.

To make up for it I try doing no-deah playthrouhgs(nearly impossible lol) and only save at skadowsk.

How can I get them to interact less with each other? This, thogether with my tweaks may increase the challenge without going "DERP you die now lel". It would be an interesting change.

Edited by: Gordyne

DesertEagle started a thread that has links to both his completely neutral mutants (they only hunt you and NPC's) and my greatly reduced interaction where for instance cats fight dogs and rats but don't chase anything else. Just about everything has something above and below it in food chain plus humans. My version is also on my profile page. Please post your opinions and feedback on his thread.