stalker
STALKER redirects here. For the game series, see S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
An average stalker

An average stalker

Stalkers (ru. Сталкеры, ukr. Сталкери) is the self-designation of people who are illegally present within the Exclusion Zone.

From the stalkers' own point of view, only those who actively explore the Zone can rightfully claim this title: for example, bandits and traders are not considered stalkers, even though they live in the Zone permanently. In an even narrower sense, the term refers only to loners who do not belong to the major factions of the Zone and act on their own.

At the same time, the term "stalkers" is often applied to soldiers who have undergone special training for operating in the Zone — despite the fact that they are there completely legally and not permanently.

Main activities and their legal status

Officially, the actions of stalkers are regarded as "illegal intrusion into a guarded area and the collection of radioactive and anomalous substances and materials for the purpose of selling them or otherwise", which in itself is a serious crime.

In practice, not all stalkers directly collect artifacts: they may hunt mutants, guard expeditions, conduct independent research of the Zone, carry out assignments from other stalkers, participate in conflicts between factions, or engage in digging or looting.

Appearance

After the second disaster, when the Zone came into existence, adventurers flocked to it. It quickly became clear that traveling through the Zone was deadly dangerous; but with skill and luck, it could be extremely profitable. Better and better-equipped adventurers crossed the perimeter, bringing stranger and stranger artifacts and amazing rumors back to the Great Land. Adventure seekers, lovers of easy profit, and those who wished for one reason or another to hide from the authorities or leave the larger world all headed into the Zone. The exact number of stalkers is unknown.

Graves

From the Cordon to Pripyat, all across the Zone, one can find roughly nailed-together wooden crosses driven into the earth. These are the graves of fallen stalkers, whose bodies, at least in some form, remained after death. They were buried by friends, comrades, brothers-in-arms, or other stalkers. By tradition, the respirator of the deceased is hung on the grave, often together with oxygen tanks. In some places — particularly near faction bases — there are entire stalker cemeteries. Such cemeteries exist at Duty's base, Freedom's base, the Clear Sky base, in Shadow of Chernobyl at the Cordon behind the rookie village near Sidorovich's bunker.

A simple inscription is made on the cross — the name, or rather the nickname, of the fallen. On the grave texture from Shadow of Chernobyl, one can find nicknames such as Fang, Wolf, Tank, Hornet, Wardrobe, Richard, Janusz, Volkov, Gray. In the bloodsucker village near the water tower there is a unique cross on which all these nicknames are written. Many crosses simply say "Unknown". Stalker Fang has two graves: one in Pripyat and another in the Army Warehouses. In Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, stashes are often located at graves. Although the stash's contents are buried, to search it one must "look" at the plaque or gas mask on the cross.

Notes