Immediately after progressing STALKER 2With the campaign far enough into the Trash region of its map (yes, that’s what it’s called), players will likely hear a call for help emanating from the nearby ruins of a farm. It’s Vovchyk Koldyba, and he finds himself in trouble: Fellow Stalker Vitya Sheepskin and his band of merry men have discovered that Vovchyk has a stash stored in a local pigsty. However, they were unable to find him and Vovchyk does not speak.
Random encounters like these are a central feature of STALKER 2. Vitya agrees to conclude a deal with Skif: if he finds the stock for them they will split it 50-50. Instead, players can threaten Vitya, telling him to kick rocks – but it’s easy to imagine how that happens. This is a difficult match, as with Vovchyk’s fall the situation is clearly unbalanced and not in the player’s favor. However, there are plenty of items available at the end of this random encounter, as long as Skif plays his cards right.
What happens if you threaten Vitya?
Pros and cons of telling Vitya to get lost
If Skif decides to threaten Vitya, it will come as no surprise that he and his allies will immediately attack. Depending on the player’s equipment and resources at this point, it could be a difficult fight; Vitya and his friends are no tougher than the average human enemy, but they have strength in numbers here. Consider running around the pigsty as soon as the battle starts to get a decent vantage point, where it should be easy to peek around the corner and pick them off one by one, or lure them out individually.
Vovchyk starts this battle down, but if he is revived with a Medkit, he will fight alongside Skif. Just walk up to him and as long as Skif has at least one Medkit in his inventory, there will be the option to hold F for healing. This alleviates some of the disadvantages (although it doesn’t completely negate them). However, Skif is not well defended and this requires the player to expose themselves to a few seconds of enemy fire. Therefore, they should only attempt to revive Vovchyk if they are sure everyone else is busy reloading or taking cover.
If he is still down after the battle, Vovchyk will continue to cry out for help. Reanimate him, he will explain the situation and offer to let Skif take your stash (along with everything Vitya and his cronies had with them) as a thank you. Or don’t, and go after the hiding place without his help.
If Skif is out of Medkits to revive Vovchyk, he will likely find one by looting some of Vitya’s henchmen.
Vovchyk does not reveal the exact location of his hiding place, but gives a hint: Skif will have to break a bunch of crates to find him. Go inside and start breaking the boxes, or use the second image above as a reference point. The hiding place is on the left side of the pigsty, at the end.
Players will need to jump over a waist-high stack of crates (possibly breaking some) to access a small side area to the left, then break a handful of boards by patching a hole in the wall. This will lead to a small back area where inventory sits in a chute, covered by a final series of breakable crates. The inventory contains a variety of items, including five Medkits, some ammo, and a single weapon, but most importantly, a Tactical Pistol Silencer.
Vovchyk will stick around, playing on his PDA until further notice. Skif can then walk off into the sunset with his loot, and with that, the encounter ends. It doesn’t appear that Vovchyk reappears later in the storyso there is no urgent need to revive him, although it is the good thing to do.
What Happens If You Split Stock 50-50
Pros and cons of Vitya’s offer
Now, if Skif agrees to Vitya’s offer to share the stash, the encounter begins the same way: he will have to locate it in the same part of the pigsty, before returning to tell Vitya that he found it. Vitya will congratulate you before hitting you with the butt of his rifle, betraying Skif and intending to confiscate the entire stock for himself.
More or less the same battle ensues: it’s four against one, Vovchyk can be revived, etc. The problem is that this time Skif is trapped in a bad position and stunned by Vitya’s initial blow. This means that running around the pigsty isn’t really an option, as Skif moves much slower and there is much more distance between him and the nearest cover point. Your only option is to run back to the pigsty, which has plenty of cover between the boxes – but all that mess turns it into a maze.
Either way, Skif will eventually come out on top and still be able to take home the stock. If Vovchyk survived, he doesn’t really seem to care that Skif is willing to betray him. He’s happy to be alive and even agrees to let him keep the stock. Once again, the unmarked mission comes to an end, barring the announcement of some unexpected event focused on Vitya. STALKER 2 DLC does not appear to have any influence on the later story.
You should threaten Vitya
An Easier Way to Earn Stock
Ultimately, it is better to threaten Vitya in this encounter for one reason and one reason only: strategy. The version of this fight that starts with an ambush is significantly more difficult than the version that doesn’t. The nasty stun that Vitya delivers at the start of the fight leaves Skif open for a long time and reduces his strategic options to zero in the space of a second. It’s a much easier fight when the player knows what’s coming and can plan accordingly.
That being said, the results of both options are almost identical, except for the initial moments of the firefight. There’s nothing wrong with taking the naive route and trying to ally with Vitya only to be stabbed in the back (or, more accurately, punched in the face). It does not appear to have any lasting effects on a STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl game.