Side Missions

"So here's the deal: there's a stalker by the name of Patriarch in a place called Radar, not far from here, I'm sure someone has heard of it so ask around a bit; and he owes me bigtime! let me tell you - and now the debt is due. You'll have to go north to the Dark Valley and talk to a scumbag named Borov for details on his whereabouts, so here's a Leather jacket, a Knife and 40 rounds of ammo for your pistol... whaddya say..? Deal?"

- Sidorovich


 * Kill the Patriarch is NOT a side mission in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost Alpha but is typical of the side missions that do get issued in LA.

Side missions

 * Side missions, as the name suggests, are branches taken from within the Main mission gameplay and do not in themselves affect the Main mission outcome (other than possibly providing the player's actor with resources that may be used in that process)
 * They are frequently undertaken by the player in order to increase reputation levels with some or all Factions involved so that a preferential reputation is effected. This also gradually improves the player's rank.
 * They are often repeatable missions but this may depend upon which missions have previously been completed for the given issuer and also upon the stage that the player has reached in the game.
 * (Successful assassinations on specific NPCs are obviously not repeatable)
 * Compared with the many side-missions in the Base Game, the rewards are frequently inferior in financial gain and material benefit.
 * Hypothetical and highly fictitious examples of this are listed in the Infobox above, along with an example of the mission briefing in the quote.

Storyline Missions

 * Side missions are similar to some Storyline missions and at first glance may be easily confused with them because some are acquired in a similar manner.
 * Storyline missions can be completed (normal play); acquired and ignored (subversive play); acquired and bypassed (not freeing the Dutyer keeps the player "friendly" with Bandits); bypassed and short-circuited (jumping to Yantar without visiting Darkscape); or even played out of order, overlapped with other tasks, or even attempted during Freeplay.
 * Storyline missions assist the player in relations with other Factions because they frequently provide Relation increase points as well as prestige enhancing reputation points.

Mission forks

 * Side missions are quite distinct from Mission forks. A Mission fork occurs when the player undertakes an action that significantly alters the stance of a faction to the player and potentially alters how the Main Storyline will unfold.
 * Examples would be:


 * 1) The player joins a paramilitary faction (e.g. Joining Duty or Freedom)
 * 2) The player assists a faction during a fork without joining the faction (playing the Military fork)
 * 3) The player irrevocably alienates a faction (opens fire on Duty or Freedom, or both)
 * 4) The player leaves the Sarcophagus without reaching the Wish Granter (permanently closes that option for an Ending)
 * 5) The player subverts the plot with or without breaking it.
 * All of these stratagems result in different, non-linear gameplay, which can usually be re-converged at a later stage of the game.

Mission acquisition

 * At least three modes of acquisition:
 * 1) The player just asks a major NPC and agrees to the terms.
 * 2) The player arrives on a level and is automatically tasked by PDA - (e.g. Free the Dutyer from prison), these are usually storyline missions.
 * 3) The player arrives at a location within a level and inherits the mission (variation on #2)
 * 4) In most instances, turning down the offered mission results in its not being re-offered at a later time. Exceptions to this are Sakharov, Deedee and Petrenko.
 * 5) The player talks via PDA to an NPC and agrees to a task (currently bugged beyond the first task)

Mission execution

 * Many Storyline missions are multistage in nature. Side-missions tend to be of the "get-it / bring-it" variety.
 * General experience is that completing stages out of sequence will not invalidate the mission (does happen in the Base Game)
 * For some missions a good degree of logistical forward planning is a major consideration.

Mission Types

 * There are seven types of mission issued by the various NPCs:


 * 1) Camp Elimination
 * 2) Camp Defense (not yet seen in LA)
 * 3) Assassination
 * 4) Find the artifact
 * 5) Find the item
 * 6) Obtain mutant body part
 * 7) Courier (only when player is a Duty member or working for Sakharov)

Side-mission issuing NPCs

 * There are eleven major NPCs that will issue side-missions if asked. All other missions - whether single or multi-stage - are Storyline missions, even the 'side-missions' that are spontaneously acquired from any of these issuers are storyline missions.

Sidorovich
(N.B entries marked +++ need corroboration with correct mission names)


 * Eliminate the boars (Cordon)
 * Kill the flesh
 * Kill a pack of dogs (v1.4000+)
 * Kill the poltergeist (v1.4000+)
 * Kill the tushkans (v1.4000+)
 * Kill the bloodsucker (v1.4000+)
 * Find a fleshes eye
 * Find dwarf's ear (v1.4000+)
 * Find a tail of a blind dog
 * Find boar's hoof +++
 * Find a Pseudodog tail
 * Find a Zombie hand
 * Find a "Jellyfish"
 * Find a "Wrenched"
 * Find a "Slime"
 * Find the "Droplets" artifact (v1.4007)
 * Find the "Thorn" artifact (v1.4007)
 * Find the "Sparkler" artifact (v1.4007)
 * Find the "Horn" artifact (v1.4007)

Nimble
(Gives a total of ten missions involving the retrieval of some unique weapons and armour from a variety of interesting locations, as a mixture of side missions and jobs (v1.4002))

Find the item missions (tasks) Special order missions (jobs)
 * Find mail jacket (v1.4002)
 * Find improved "Viper 5" (v1.4002)
 * Find anomaly jacket (v1.4002)
 * Find Duty hunter PS5 suit (v1.4002)
 * Find mercenaries' improved outfit (v1.4002)
 * Find improved "TRs 301" (v1.4002)
 * Find soldiers' healing outfit (v1.4002)
 * Find the Groza (v1.4002)
 * Find the revolver (v1.4002)
 * Find the experimental ecolog suit (v1.4002)

Seriy

 * An old friend (of Seriy)
 * Kill the zombies (Garbage)
 * Kill dogs on the Garbage (v1.4000+)
 * Kill the bandits near the construction site (v1.4000+)
 * Bring crow's meat (repeatable v1.4000+)
 * Bring rat's meat (repeatable v1.4000+)
 * Kill boars on the Garbage (v1.4000+)
 * Kill chimeras (v1.4000+)
 * Bring a zombie's hand (v1.4000+)
 * Bring fracture's hand (v1.4000+)
 * (Gives an additional three missions to clean out various infestations or perform a retrieval (v1.4002))

Ratcatcher

 * Kill the fleshes (deprecated to Mole from v1.4000+)

Mole

 * Prior to v1.4000 Mole does not issue side missions.


 * Kill the dogs on the hill (v1.4000+)
 * Bring artefact (v1.4000 - 1.4005)
 * Bring artifact "Heart" (v1.4007)
 * Find an anomaly detector (v1.4007)
 * Find an advanced anomaly detector (v1.4007 the renamed "Bring artefact" task)
 * Another task to bring a Detector "Echo".
 * Kill the squealing boars (v1.4000+)
 * Kill the fleshes (v1.4000+, previously attributed to Ratcatcher but uncoded v1.3003)
 * Kill the bandits (Agroprom) (v1.4000+, previously assigned by Barkeep v1.3003) (storyline conditional v1.4007)
 * Kill the zombies (Agroprom) (v1.4000+, previously assigned by Barkeep v1.3003) (storyline conditional v1.4007)
 * (Issues one other 'dog' mission from v1.4000+) (deprecated v1.4007)

Barkeep (at the 100 Rads bar)

 * Kill the bandits (Agroprom) (Deprecated to Mole from v1.4000+)
 * Kill the zombies (Agroprom) (Deprecated to Mole from v1.4000+)
 * Find the Meat chunk artifact
 * Find the Crystal Thorn artifact
 * Find the Night Star artifact
 * Find the artifact Flash
 * Kill the Hitman

Petrenko (when he becomes a Trader)

 * Eliminate the bandits (Forest)

Sakharov

 * Find the Flash artifact
 * Find the Pseudo-Dog Tail
 * Find the Gold Fish artifact
 * Find the Moonlight artifact
 * Kill radar zombies.
 * Bring the Boar's Leg
 * Find the Sparkler artifact
 * Find the Bloodsucker Jaw
 * Find artifact Droplets
 * The expedition (v1.4000+)

Barkeep (when 'transferred' to Outskirts bar)

 * Eliminate the mercs
 * Find the weapon

Deedee

 * Kill the snorks
 * Find a snork foot
 * Find a moonlight artefact (they really are this bad at spelling)
 * Find a calibration toolkit
 * Find a starter toolkit
 * Find a box of condensors (sic)

Lukash

 * Kill Ivancov

Hermit

 * Eliminate the bandits (Countryside)
 * Eliminate the boars (Countryside)
 * Find a blue parasite artefact (sic)
 * Find a green parasite artefact (sic)

Major Griboyedov

 * A petty thief
 * An old friend (of the Major)
 * Special Task
 * Illegal business

List of side missions

 * Camp Elimination: Cordon zombies
 * Camp Elimination: Garbage zombies
 * Kill radar zombies.
 * Camp Elimination: Kill the Boars
 * Camp Elimination: Kill the Flesh
 * Find the missing wagon key
 * Respond to the call for help (storyline)
 * Find the stolen rifle and return it to Hunter. (storyline) (optional)
 * Help the group of stalkers (storyline)
 * Kill the sniper
 * Retrieve the lost rifle. (storyline)
 * Find something of the dead composer. (storyline)?
 * Kill and identify the bandit target (Borziy, freeplay)
 * Retrieve the machine for Lukash
 * Find a fleshes eye
 * Help the Duty checkpoint (storyline)
 * etc

Trivia

 * Missions, both Storyline and side-missions, are scripted and controlled from the files: task_manager.ltx and stable_task_manager.xml in the LA gamedata file structure.