: To navigate the gas-filled tunnels, he assembles a team of survivors, including the debt-ridden Vano and the former Monolith fighter Strider .
The narrative follows Degtyarev as he navigates the desolate landscapes of , the Jupiter industrial plant, and eventually the ghost city of Pripyat to uncover why five military helicopters, ostensibly equipped with maps of all known anomalies, were inexplicably downed. The Investigation: From Zaton to Jupiter
: He locates several downed "Stingray" helicopters. One was incinerated from the inside, another fell victim to an unseen electrical surge, and a third crashed at a high-altitude plateau reachable only by following the instructions of Noah , a local "crazy" stalker who lives on an old barge.
Degtyarev enters the Zone posing as a common stalker, arriving first in the swampy marshlands of . Here, he establishes himself at the Skadovsk , a decommissioned freighter serving as a neutral hub for stalkers and bandits.
The path to Pripyat is sealed, but Degtyarev discovers documents in the Jupiter plant detailing an underground transportation tunnel, .