Info for joining SGM factions with spoilers feature

Bandit faction:(Based in the Ranger station, Zaton)
-----------------
I do it early on. Although you do need to have earned a certain amount of reputation in the zone
or else the leader at the base will just laugh at you.
Base entry.
Just walking into the base will get you shot, You need to approach one of the two guards who cover the main gates. One gate is at the front of the base as you walk up the path from the Skadovsk and the other is opposite the Pred??? Bridge. Open a dialog with the guard and choose the option that leads to you saying you need to enter as you have a stash there.He will accept a bribe to enter, from then you can come and go as you please.
Note the Bandit trader is the only trader in Zaton who sells Armour repair kits.

Now you can talk to the boss who is upstairs. Once you have your reputation high enough he'll have text that will allow you to take a task from him. It involves a small group of merc's. (NOTE: In 2.2 this can affect a task given by another merc who can easily die in the shoot-out you
may or may not have depending on how you choose to deal with it as the mercs you are after are mingling with others you already know)

Once you complete the job and retrieve what is wanted you can join the Bandits faction if you want. If you do the leader has more work,There is also work from the trader plus a new bandit appears (version 2.0 on) inside the base who has work and also runs the local gambling games. Now that he is available you can do a new question game that can win you up to three new stashes that only spawn if you won. One of the stashes holds a unique weapon unavailable anywhere else (version 2.2 removes the weapon from the stash).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercenary faction: (Based in buildings at the side of the Jupiter plant)
----------------------

When you approach the gate entrance to the base you will be stopped by a dialog opening this may not happen under certain circumstances but if you enter when it does the base will go hostile. In the dialog bubble you will be told to go away or else. Agree and do it.
You can only enter there base when certain things have been done. It will have to be on the second Jupiter visit after you have returned to Zaton from seeing Sokolov. After returning to Zaton you meet with an SSU liason and he gives you stash co-ordinates.
In the stash there's a merc suit you must wear when you first approach to get into the merc base. The stash also contains a flash drive with info on a new task to rescue a captive operative who is being held by a smaller group of mercs. You need to rescue him by killing all the mercs holding him captive (It does not affect your standing with the main merc faction). One of the mercs holds a PDA which contains a password for the base, with the password and while wearing the merc suit you can gain entrance to the merc base through new dialog.
In the base you will find a trader, bodyguard and leader. If you talk to the leader he will want you to do something for him.
It involves visiting the Jupiter plant with a squad of men, follow the storyline and once you complete this he will give you a reward.
The next time you talk to him he will offer you a position within the faction. Accept this offer and from 2.0 on you will be able to start a series of tasks for him.

Note: One task new from 2.1 involves killing Jack who you must sort out for Vano. I advise you to leave dealing with Jack for Vano until the same time as you do it for the Merc boss. In 2.1 I found a bug where if Jack had left the base (as he does when you pay him off for Vano) when you kill him for the Merc's he game does not recognise the task as being completed and the quest breaks.
What I now do is for Vano I go free Mitay peacefully then take the Jack task from him. Now when I go do the Merc stuff and get to Jack
I can do both tasks together. So first I pay him off for Vano, then I wait a second and get awarded the Diplomat achievement.
Then I shoot Jack in the face and the Merc task updates as it should. Then I will be able to return to the Merc boss and take the next task. You can get around it by doing Vano's task with Jack and then killing him, that way the task won't be offered by the merc boss.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn faction: (There base appears in the train tunnel after you do the Jupiter Scientist's first task which involves a PSI artefact and a controller.)
----------------

When you make your first approach and attempt to enter the tunnel they have turned into there base a task will activate to help them guard against a wave of mutants that are coming to attack them. After you successfully help the task says get a reward from the Dawn boss. He will ask if you want to join them. If you do you will get a new stash message showing where inside the base they have put some goodies for you. The base has a trader who you can use whether you join or not. When you join the next time
you talk to the leader he will have work for you.

------------------------------------------------

Monolith faction: (Prometheus theatre in Pripyat)
-------------------
Note: I may have the order of events slightly wrong.

Although it may not be a requirement for me this starts in Zaton with the injured Monolithian called Leon who asks you to deliver a briefcase to his boss in Pripyat before he dies. After you deliver it go see the boss he basically snubs you but says come back in a day or two. (NOTE: He will deem you as unworthy and continue to ignore you until you have the Marked by the Zone achievement) You will also need to have done certain vanilla storyline elements before this can continue such as the Gauss rifle task at the Hospital.
Once you have fullfilled the criteria he will no longer ignore you and instead he will pull you about killing his men and offer you the opportunity to make up for it, To start you will need to take down a Military man who will be near to the Laundromat (this does not affect your position with those inside the laundromat)
Well actually it can do if you kill the wrong man. The man you want is with another man if you jump the gun and kill him before your mark makes a run for it then the laundromat goes hostile temporarily. Anyway let's say you shoot at the mark first, he legs it and his mate opens fire on you, now it's okay to shoot him. Then chase the fella you want, when you finally catch him do the deed and then return to the
Monolith boss who's called Cyborg. He thanks you and again says see him in a day or two. The next part requires you to have completed the Bookstore vanilla task where you kill the Monolithians and destroy the antenna there. Again he is not happy and says you need to atone for your sins, this leads to a multi area mission. And for 2.1 more tasks and 2.2 another on top of that.

------------------------------------------------

Duty and Freedom have not been included in this guide as there's not really a lot to them in the base SGM's, However, they'll need a separate guide to cover the SGM 2.0 Geonezis version.

There are also other tasks littered around as thing progress such as you will notice an extra head stood around in the main laundromat
room among the other soldiers after a while, Talk to him, he has a task to find out what became of his brother. Another one is Tremors
replacement who will ask you to do a delivery for him aswell as his being involved in another quest.

Also once freeplay kicks in all areas receive a new character at each areas main base who has a series of smaller tasks ranging from
finding things to killing.

This guide gives you a basic start to what you can do and find to do, I hope this helps, Happy hunting,

Nasha