What Happened To Strelok In Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl

A mysterious figure that’s first introduced to us from the lips of an amnesiac we pilot around, Strelok is a name that goes hand-in-hand with the Stalker games. In Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl he makes a reappearance, and plays a much larger part in the events that go down in the zone this time around.

He’s an odd chap that’s popped up in a lot of the Stalker games over the years, and if you haven’t been following them, or couldn’t get them to run, then it can be a little overwhelming to learn all the lore. To help you get up to speed, or to provide some handy exposition to those wandering the zone in the new game, here’s everything you need to know about Strelok in Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl.

Who Is Strelok?

First introduced seemingly as the antagonist and then protagonist of Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, Strelok is a man that’s exceedingly familiar with The Zone. Known locally as the ‘Marked One’, he’s considered by many to be the most experienced Stalker to have lived.

Over the years he’s encountered mutants, ghosts, a mind controlled army, reality breaking anomalies, a hive mind, and a rock that grants Monkey Paw wishes. He’s also behind the majority of civil upheavals within the zone, fighting for, against, and then helping to overthrow the sinister Monolith organisation that exerts the majority of control over the radiation blighted area.

However, his actions and intentions aren’t always the purest, especially in Heart Of Chornobyl.

What Happened To Strelok?

Old Streloks had quite the run of things in The Zone, and by Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl it seems the mysterious area has finally sunk its claws into him for good. In the game he is one of four characters in the storyline that offer the player character a choice on what happens toward the end of the game, with the decision reshaping The Zone forever.

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The other main character we’ll be touching on is someone known as Kaymanov, or ‘The Doctor’. An intellectual that wants to see a free zone without mercenary faction control. Strelok on the other hand wants to take total control of it and the armies within, using them as puppets to bar anyone from entering or leaving The Zone.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, to emphasise just how far gone he has become, it’s worth breaking down the timeline somewhat to fill in some blank spaces.

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

When we’re first introduced to Strelok he’s being rescued from a Death Truck and goes by the moniker of ‘Marked One’ as he’s suffering from amnesia. With a PDA in his pocket that simply says “Kill Strelok”, he sets off into The Zone to search for this mysterious Strelok person.

From there it’s a whistlestop tour of all the lovely locales of wide-spanning open world of The Zone and the NPC’s within. Over time our boy makes friends and enemies, fights mutants and mind controlled Monolith Soldiers. Turns off a Brain Scorching device that was plaguing The Zone, and with the help of a few members of opposition groups manages to make his way to the Wish Granter.

Which is a huge rock that lies at the heart of the Nuclear Power Plant.

Also, throughout his journey, the ‘Marked One’ regains his memories, discovering that he is in fact Strelok. He had his brain blasted by the Scorcher and was on his way to being made into another mind-controlled mercenary for Monolith.

Speaking of, it turns out the Wishing Stone is just another Monolith weapon.

It’s a trap used to capture and kill, or mind-control and recruit, anyone that comes upon it. Any wishes that are granted are simply illusions or elaborate methods of killing those that use it. Plus, whenever a wish is granted The Zone expands by five kilometres in every direction. In reality, it’s a trap and last guardian of the C-Consciousness, a group that Strelok has a score to settle with.

The C-Consciousness was a hive mind formed by Soviet scientists to control the Noosphere. This is a seemingly tangible force surrounding the planet that can impact, and is affected by, human thought and emotion.

Their theory was that by linking into a single consciousness of enough strength they could alter the noosphere to remove things such as greed, hate, anger, cruelty and so on from the rest of humanity. However, their resulting experiment backfired and created The Exclusion Zone, since then they’ve been fighting a losing battle to contain the spreading damage of The Zone.

When Strelok finally reaches them he’s given the option to join them and keep things as they are, or kill them.

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Despite being our third interaction with Strelok, Call of Pripyat carries his story forward whilst the second game Clear Sky is a prologue. Though it does cover how Strelok operated in the background in The Zone before the events of Shadow of Chernobyl.

It’s also revealed that even back then he was being influenced by the C-Consciousness before they ultimately fried his brain and tried to take control of him.

Call of Pripyat picks things up a littler after the events of Shadow of Chernobyl. Despite Strelok again primarily operating in the background, we eventually meet him as the game kicks things into gear when the Fifth Emission hits.

Here he pops up to provide the local military with information and aid, before later joining them in a huge firefight against Monolith remnants as they try to evacuate people and escape from the Pripyat area. After these events Strelok becomes an advisor to those in The Zone as he joins a team dedicated to researching and unearthing the mysteries of the exclusion area.

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl

Spin the timeline up to the big sequel and we’ve got Strelok returning once again, this time with ulterior motives of his own. In Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl he returns as a main character that aids and guides the new protagonist through the story, alongside Kaymanov, who goes by The Doctor now.

By this point in the overall timeline of the series we have Strelok pointing out he feels like he is deeply connected to The Zone. Claiming that he needs to protect it from those that seek to take advantage of or destroy it. A worrying and conflicting change from where he used to be back in the first game.

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He first pops up after ambushing Skif and Dark, questioning Skif why someone else is in The Zone with a PDA that once again says “Kill The Strelok”. Though it turns out Dark was a sleeper agent for the C-Consciousness. Strelok seems a little detached as a person during the interaction, perhaps from too much isolated time in The Zone.

But he agrees to help Skif, cynically saying everyone wants to control the zone but him and he just wants it to be left alone. But he shows no animosity toward The Doctor.

From there the interactions with Strelok are odd. He expresses a deep connection to The Zone, referring to it as “She”, speaking distantly as if The Zone itself is exerting some form of control over him. Saying her power is attractive, and that she can’t defend herself from the filthy hands of others looking to exploit and control her. A further sign of its deepening influence on him.

His overall plan is to take down the Stalker programme that keeps luring in others for the C-Consciousness to control and then return to where The Zone was created in order to free it. His general attitude to others by this point is best summed up as; If you’re not against everyone else right now, I’m against you.

Strelok becomes increasingly paranoid of The Doctor, with every interaction with Skif involving him trying to win Skif over to his side. Going so far as to ask Skif to kill Kaymanov (The Doctor) before meeting him later for the final big showdown.

Strelok’s Ending

It’s at this point the story diverges where Skif (the player) is given the option of killing Kaymanov and siding with Strelok, or joining Kaymanov to stop Strelok. Once you get fairly into the game there comes a time where you’ll need to decide which particular faction you’re siding with and who’s getting to sit in the big magic tube at the end.

Here’s what happens in the finale with old Strelok.

Joining Strelok

Joining Strelok leads to Skif shooting Kaymanov and then later joining with Strelok as the pair teleport to where X7 and the remaining C-Consciousness Pods are stored. Though he gets wounded on the way, it’s not fatal and Strelok joins Skif in a room with a series of stasis pods. The same ones seen at the finale of the first game.

There’s nothing but skeletons in the other pods, and after repairing and activating one Strelok enters it and has Skif seal him inside. It’s at this point Strelok goes a little super villain-esque. The machine he’s plugging himself into activates and Strelok takes total control of everything.

Mine-controlled soldiers obey his commands, his voice echoes out of radios throughout The Zone, and nobody including Skif can ever enter or leave The Zone again. Crossings are prohibited, and anyone that tries is to be shot on sight. The weather starts to worsen, previously controlled exits become warped with impassable anomalies, and The Zone starts to become more dangerous and wilder for everyone.

Killing Strelok

If you choose to side against Strelok there’s a fiery confrontation on a rooftop instead of a calm discussion. Strelok insists that Kaymanov betrayed him, despite all the times The Doctor saved Streloks life, and Skif accuses him of thinking only of himself. Then fists start to fly.

Strelok flees through a portal to X7 with Skif hot on his heels. The two have a firefight within a storage room, with Strelok losing and then dying on the ground. Skif then removes the PDA that Strelok took from Dark that reads “Kill The Strelok” and marks the mission as complete. Skif then enters the remaining C-Consciousness Pod and frees The Zone.

Though this just results in new zones forming all around the globe.

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