I'm fairly new to STALKER, but I love everything about the franchise. I love that you got different people from each faction to share their thoughts and opinions on things, really cool! :)
@@AstoraNoble Welcome to the stalker squad then! Glad you enjoyed this video - I hope to make more crossover content with the other creators in the future 💪🏼
First faction I joined by choice was Mercenaries in GAMMA. After playing through the original trilogy and mod storylines as a Loner most of the time, I wanted a challenge so being a Merc gave me that experience because it makes traversing The Zone harder than as a Loner - especially if you start at their base in the Dead City. They feel like the closest thing to Loners if you have your own goals yet can also be freelancers for higher paying jobs. The quick patch switch mod was incredibly helpful for times when I needed to sneak through places like Rostok as a "Loner", many firefights have kicked off after a squad leader noticed I'm being sneaky though. Enjoy roleplaying as an ex-Loner who came back after networking in the outside world with my previous experience of The Zone to help gather more funds for my outside life. Resonates with my real life personality which a friend labeled as Chaotic Neutral! xD hahaha
Chaotic Neutral Gang united! Yeah, i really prefer to play loner because i just want to live my life, not getting involved in other peoples schemes just because of affiliation
Imagine a fleshpig faction! I wanna play as a fleshpig! I wanna cosplay as a fleshpig! 1:16 Ecologists in Oblivion Lost 2.2 back in 2008. It also made me friends with both Freedom and Duty. Contrary to popular belief, ecologists are NOT "pacifists." My first character in Anomaly was also an ecologist. It's nice having so many factional friends and allies. That way, you can focus on fighting human predators (Monolith), human parasites (bandits), and mutant monsters. And you can do so without the annoying authoritarian command structure of Duty (not to mention their pathetic martyr complex) and/or the equally annoying careless licentiousness of Freedom. Edit/Note: You can probably tell by the way I phrase things that I jibe with Bes and Father Valerian. 1:24 No regrets. 3:20 In other words, they're idolators, and their belief system illustrates the dangers of idolatry. Some Freedomers are religious, adhering to a Bob Marley style of Rastafarian Christianity. 19:21 I wanna be an ecologist who's also a fleshpig a go go! Or a humanoid fleshpig who's also an ecologist a go go! More specifically, an ecologist guard. Oink Oink Fleshy Piggy! 🙃
I love these videos you make about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, I like to watch them on my PDA between two expeditions in the zone. :D My favorite faction is Mercenaries.
@@starioncostumes I like it, it's immersive. It feels like you're an experienced Stalker giving us tips on how to survive in the Zone. ☢ Sry if my english is bad, i'm french. haha
In Stalker, the "Loners," also known as "Free Stalkers" or "Neutral Stalkers," are a category even more loosely organized than the "Bandits." It’s hard to classify them as a true faction. They’re often treated as a sort of catch-all group, like, "If someone isn’t a member of any other faction, they’ll be classified as a Loner." However, this isn’t always accurate. Setting aside some of the nomenclature oversights from GSC, Clear Sky mentions both "Loners" and "Neutral Stalkers." (I haven’t checked the Russian text, so this assumption might be wrong; the trilogy’s translation is quite average.) This distinction is because Valerian leads a group that forms the Loner faction, but he alone doesn’t have the influence to rally everyone in the Zone. Therefore, it makes sense for "Loners" and "Neutral Stalkers" to coexist. Their relationship is somewhat similar to that between "Renegades" (which unfortunately have little backstory) and the "Bandits." The "Bandits" are a broader category, while the "Renegades" are a subset of them. A similar situation appears within the "Mercenaries" faction in Call of Pripyat, where Hatchet leads a group of neutral mercenaries, setting them apart from the other mercenaries in the game. In Stalker 2, with the internal splits within factions like "Black Rock" and "Liberty Company," we might see more examples like this. Hopefully, GSC will further clarify the connections and distinctions between "Loners" and "Free Stalkers."
Only two factions I like idea of joining in: Loners - because you can literally do anything and not listen to any rules being responsible for everything that happens to you Monolith - враг Mонолита! Уничтожаю его!
@@starioncostumes And the loners do actually have some rules sometimes, there's definitely safety in numbers w/ loners. Bandits could betray you for a can of meat.
I wish Loners were represented as wild cards more often. The OG trilogy presents them as always friendly, since they are generally conflict-avoidant. But loners aren't afraid of attacking mercs, duty & freedom, bandits, military, anyone really, *as long as it's necessary.* At least my experience, playing a loner meant taking contracts from both sides of Duty and Freedom, doing hits for both & even attacking Military, mercs, etc. just for random side-jobs. So the idea that there *are* motivated loners out there that don't fuck around and aren't afraid to kill some people, that makes them way more respectable. Bc you don't know who you're talking too. Sure, they may be a rookie. But they are disorganized. They might also be someone with their own agenda and goals, unafraid of putting down anyone that tries to impede them.
@@ahealthkit2745 I think CoP has a good representation of loners: a bunch of people that sometimes work together, sometimes not, sometimes against each other.
@@starioncostumes I agree! It even did a good job of showing how Loners might eventually defect & become bandits - By losing trust with other loners, doing shady stuff & pulling tricks until eventually, nobody trusts you and you're stuck roughing it with the skull boys.
years and years playing stalker and always learn something new, this game got "the best" faction work on types of games like this, BUT for being elitist and ball breaker, i dont think that factions works like that, i believe is more fluid and complex, at some point stalker is just a battle royale with teams, and the teams are just the same but with different colours xd (like skorpion-ermac-sub zero) still i try different faction and try the roleplay and they are very different each other, i dont know probably all of us think that will enter the zone, but we are floating in the river, dead by a x-ray engine bug, or a chimera
@@starioncostumes maybe the Zone reach the "outside world", i like to think like a...portal or another dimension. But if talking about radiation and emision, the "outside" world will suffer that
Lazy lazy version explaining stalker factions. Duty: fun sucks Stalkers: basics Freedom: weed Bandits: STAY AWAY FROM MY VODKA clear sky: my pronouns are they/dont/know/me/son Ecologists: SCIENCE! monolith: big rock says dis bad Military: "for everyone one of us who dies, ten more will take his place" Mercs: money
Yes, and because I wanted to focus on the vanilla factions as well. I know which groups you are referring to, but I consider their Background as a little bit too much
@@foreststalkerbrothers I had to keep the shenanigans low, since the challenge was explaining all faction with their relevant info within 20 minutes 👀 but the idea with the pda is pretty good and I will pick it up next time
the first faction i joined was the echologist... i didnt know they are only enemies with bandits and monolith.. My reputation gone to terrible in 2 days when is tarted murking Mercs
Honorable mention for ISG and Sin, two most famous cut factions
@@Sira_Kackavalj yeah, I didn't include them because of that. I wonder if they might appear in stalker 2 🤔
Reject faction wars become Loner
@@PaganHater333 gigachad move
(Laughs in bandit) So nothing new for us 2 ?
But… money… and documents… and more money
Even as a Stalker who isn't new to the zone, this video was still very informative!
@@Ashfired thank you stalker ❤️ We all need to be prepared for the next game!
I'm fairly new to STALKER, but I love everything about the franchise. I love that you got different people from each faction to share their thoughts and opinions on things, really cool! :)
@@AstoraNoble Welcome to the stalker squad then! Glad you enjoyed this video - I hope to make more crossover content with the other creators in the future 💪🏼
@@starioncostumes Zone Sportsmanship Challenges!
Freedom and Loners forever. 🤘🏻😁
Forever a-lone-r ❤️
DUTY !!!!!!!!!!!!!! DIE FREEDOM
What's the correlation between those factions and the "warding off the Evil Eye" hand sign?
First faction I joined by choice was Mercenaries in GAMMA. After playing through the original trilogy and mod storylines as a Loner most of the time, I wanted a challenge so being a Merc gave me that experience because it makes traversing The Zone harder than as a Loner - especially if you start at their base in the Dead City.
They feel like the closest thing to Loners if you have your own goals yet can also be freelancers for higher paying jobs.
The quick patch switch mod was incredibly helpful for times when I needed to sneak through places like Rostok as a "Loner", many firefights have kicked off after a squad leader noticed I'm being sneaky though.
Enjoy roleplaying as an ex-Loner who came back after networking in the outside world with my previous experience of The Zone to help gather more funds for my outside life.
Resonates with my real life personality which a friend labeled as Chaotic Neutral! xD hahaha
Chaotic Neutral Gang united! Yeah, i really prefer to play loner because i just want to live my life, not getting involved in other peoples schemes just because of affiliation
Imagine a fleshpig faction! I wanna play as a fleshpig! I wanna cosplay as a fleshpig!
1:16 Ecologists in Oblivion Lost 2.2 back in 2008. It also made me friends with both Freedom and Duty. Contrary to popular belief, ecologists are NOT "pacifists." My first character in Anomaly was also an ecologist. It's nice having so many factional friends and allies. That way, you can focus on fighting human predators (Monolith), human parasites (bandits), and mutant monsters. And you can do so without the annoying authoritarian command structure of Duty (not to mention their pathetic martyr complex) and/or the equally annoying careless licentiousness of Freedom.
Edit/Note: You can probably tell by the way I phrase things that I jibe with Bes and Father Valerian.
1:24 No regrets.
3:20 In other words, they're idolators, and their belief system illustrates the dangers of idolatry. Some Freedomers are religious, adhering to a Bob Marley style of Rastafarian Christianity.
19:21 I wanna be an ecologist who's also a fleshpig a go go! Or a humanoid fleshpig who's also an ecologist a go go! More specifically, an ecologist guard.
Oink Oink Fleshy Piggy! 🙃
thank you for this great overview for the factions!
always was a Loner and always will be. Till the day I die ^^
That's the right spirit! Two more days and we can finally venture out into the zone stalker 🔥🔥🔥
I love these videos you make about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, I like to watch them on my PDA between two expeditions in the zone. :D
My favorite faction is Mercenaries.
@@pargelenis5003 glad you enjoyed my content - what's your opinion on the new background if I may ask? 👀
@@starioncostumes I like it, it's immersive.
It feels like you're an experienced Stalker giving us tips on how to survive in the Zone. ☢
Sry if my english is bad, i'm french. haha
In Stalker, the "Loners," also known as "Free Stalkers" or "Neutral Stalkers," are a category even more loosely organized than the "Bandits." It’s hard to classify them as a true faction. They’re often treated as a sort of catch-all group, like, "If someone isn’t a member of any other faction, they’ll be classified as a Loner." However, this isn’t always accurate. Setting aside some of the nomenclature oversights from GSC, Clear Sky mentions both "Loners" and "Neutral Stalkers." (I haven’t checked the Russian text, so this assumption might be wrong; the trilogy’s translation is quite average.) This distinction is because Valerian leads a group that forms the Loner faction, but he alone doesn’t have the influence to rally everyone in the Zone. Therefore, it makes sense for "Loners" and "Neutral Stalkers" to coexist.
Their relationship is somewhat similar to that between "Renegades" (which unfortunately have little backstory) and the "Bandits." The "Bandits" are a broader category, while the "Renegades" are a subset of them. A similar situation appears within the "Mercenaries" faction in Call of Pripyat, where Hatchet leads a group of neutral mercenaries, setting them apart from the other mercenaries in the game. In Stalker 2, with the internal splits within factions like "Black Rock" and "Liberty Company," we might see more examples like this. Hopefully, GSC will further clarify the connections and distinctions between "Loners" and "Free Stalkers."
But this also means that these three factions offer greater freedom and provide more room for creating your own backstory
Join duty!
Only two factions I like idea of joining in:
Loners - because you can literally do anything and not listen to any rules being responsible for everything that happens to you
Monolith - враг Mонолита! Уничтожаю его!
@@aigaro9736 I mean loners and bandits have that in common though 👀
@@starioncostumes And the loners do actually have some rules sometimes, there's definitely safety in numbers w/ loners. Bandits could betray you for a can of meat.
Great video bro I hope you keep up the great content
More content coming soon! 💪🏼 Thanks!
First time I played a modded Stalker (EFP 3.0), I ran in to a Monolith exo right behind Rookie village - at the anomaly field.
@@furiousfelicia5751 Mods are a little bit random 👀 That's why I prefer light mods like the "clear sky complete"
@ I ain’t complaining, that Mono dude had a Gravi hehe. Nice find in like 3 min in to the game.
I wish Loners were represented as wild cards more often. The OG trilogy presents them as always friendly, since they are generally conflict-avoidant. But loners aren't afraid of attacking mercs, duty & freedom, bandits, military, anyone really, *as long as it's necessary.* At least my experience, playing a loner meant taking contracts from both sides of Duty and Freedom, doing hits for both & even attacking Military, mercs, etc. just for random side-jobs. So the idea that there *are* motivated loners out there that don't fuck around and aren't afraid to kill some people, that makes them way more respectable. Bc you don't know who you're talking too. Sure, they may be a rookie. But they are disorganized. They might also be someone with their own agenda and goals, unafraid of putting down anyone that tries to impede them.
@@ahealthkit2745 I think CoP has a good representation of loners: a bunch of people that sometimes work together, sometimes not, sometimes against each other.
@@starioncostumes I agree! It even did a good job of showing how Loners might eventually defect & become bandits - By losing trust with other loners, doing shady stuff & pulling tricks until eventually, nobody trusts you and you're stuck roughing it with the skull boys.
Amazing video 😊
@@Ali-l3o9x I hope it helps many new stalkers!
Loners always have had a special place in my heart but I really enjoy playing as a mercenary in my current GAMMA playthrough
@@lost_mythos_69 sounds like a challenge, which loadout did you choose for your Merc?
years and years playing stalker and always learn something new, this game got "the best" faction work on types of games like this, BUT for being elitist and ball breaker, i dont think that factions works like that, i believe is more fluid and complex, at some point stalker is just a battle royale with teams, and the teams are just the same but with different colours xd (like skorpion-ermac-sub zero)
still i try different faction and try the roleplay and they are very different each other, i dont know probably all of us think that will enter the zone, but we are floating in the river, dead by a x-ray engine bug, or a chimera
@@SrGillespie I am really curious how the faction system will look like in stalker 2! Since the world is huge, it might even be more complex as well.
@@starioncostumes maybe the Zone reach the "outside world", i like to think like a...portal or another dimension. But if talking about radiation and emision, the "outside" world will suffer that
Great vid m8, keep it up
@@-m1zuchi-71 thank you mate!
Lazy lazy version explaining stalker factions.
Duty: fun sucks
Stalkers: basics
Freedom: weed
Bandits: STAY AWAY FROM MY VODKA
clear sky: my pronouns are they/dont/know/me/son
Ecologists: SCIENCE!
monolith: big rock says dis bad
Military: "for everyone one of us who dies, ten more will take his place"
Mercs: money
@@VintageMarine 😂 stalker factions in one minute
This was a solid nutshell
Great video, but i see that u skipped two factions, is it cause of spoilers?
Yes, and because I wanted to focus on the vanilla factions as well. I know which groups you are referring to, but I consider their Background as a little bit too much
i just reacently ghot back into stalker gammma and im addicted thx for making this
@@PhantomMelody1876 hope it helped you out man. 💪🏼 ☢️ Which is your favorite faction?
So this you have been cooking ! Interesting
Was hoping the PDA would catch second life at the end and my message #2 would play from it, you know, 20 roubles bro.
@@foreststalkerbrothers I had to keep the shenanigans low, since the challenge was explaining all faction with their relevant info within 20 minutes 👀 but the idea with the pda is pretty good and I will pick it up next time
@@starioncostumes will be waiting patiently for it
Cześć, pozdrawiam Valentyn z PGA!!!
@@piratskiygaming pozdrawiamy! 👋🏼 🔥
duty
✅
@@starioncostumes the only correct answer is always duty
Дякую брате!
@@rkuper95 дякую! ☢️ ❤️
the first faction i joined was the echologist... i didnt know they are only enemies with bandits and monolith.. My reputation gone to terrible in 2 days when is tarted murking Mercs
@@Hexyteron 😂 man you sound like a loner to be honest.
@@starioncostumes Cuz i was, i alway switch them out half way across a playthrough I play GAMMA mostly so thats why
Merc money gang.
@@TheCobra114-o5e 💵💵💵
The best faction is Duty, because they have an owl there that watches over the sleep of others. His name is General Guardian of the Dream.
@@globan8 I am quite sure Owl is a loner 👀
Nice Vid again! I Like to watch it one more time.
@@TeaDogg86 thank you mate! More content coming, since stalker 2 is coming close
@@starioncostumes I look forward to it! :)