The home of the only neutral and friendly to your faction – the scientists. The only Stalker place you will find is the Flea Market, however all the missions you complete will be rewarded in Gordon. It was impossible to clear their base, but a hot fix came in one of the patches. Here you will be in wars with the Bandits constantly.
You can only upgrade the Vintar snipers in the Duty base. The constant missions for defending the base provide a nice income stream. There is also some shaft with a hermit who offers the best weapons in game. This is the home of Duty faction, but there is also a big Stalker camp in the base between the destroyed gas tanks. The nice thing about Gordon is that there are lots of veterans, so if you let them die you might get some good weapons and armors – SPAS 12, Vintar sniper, etc. Every time you receive a Stalker task out of this zone, you can grab your reward in the Stalker central to the North, or from Wolf. Starting zone from the first chapter, belongs to the Stalkers. Before you leave the training level, be sure to get the scope from the Lookout Tower, the Viper 5 in the Pump Station, the Chaser 13 shotgun next to the stash in Pump Station and the CS-3 armor – a reward for completing the quests. In the Stalkers base you can steal two AK-47 and a scope, if you manage to climb the roofs and keep above the tech guy.
All the guides and transportation are free in the training level, but later on you will have to give your last penny to benefit from these fancy tool. In the swamps, you will automatically join the Clear Sky Faction just to see how Faction Wars function.
They are trying to grab you with this first level, keeping your interest – or maybe the effects are just too fancy to pull off when the screen is full of baddies. You might notice how beautiful the training level actually is, full of DX10 effects which you unfortunately won’t see that much later in the game. It gives you time to get used to the interface and the new game options. The swamps are the training level for new players. My personal advice would be to stick with the Loners up to the midgame. They are the first to offer upgrades for the shotguns and Russian armors, and the second to upgrade sniper and standard NATO weapons. Keep in mind the Bandits have the same upgrades as the Loners, it’s just a matter of preference here.ĭuty are the rivals of Freedom. They get some nice upgrades for low and mid class weapons. The Loners have Gordon in control, and their enemy are the Bandits in Garbage zone. Joining a faction also means you will get the best prices when selling and buying stuff with them, which helps you, especially late in the game. Some specific armors and upgrades are only accessible in the appropriate factions. Choose carefully because every faction has an enemy, so in case you are friendly with one you become enemy with the other. Unlike the first game, now you can join one of several factions – having special benefits but also disadvantages.