Stalker Anomaly: How do I get from the great swamp area to Zaton?

[Sophie]

my second ever quest was basically telling me to go across the entire zone just to drop off a pda. I figured that was a main story quest and took it. Holy crap what a journey it has been but now I'm faced with a hell of a dilemma and have tried the three ways to get there:
The Red Forest
The Radar
or Limansk

Am I missing a way to get there or something? The Radar won't let me progress because of so much psychic power there, the forest's entrance is being guarded by something big, red, and is on all fours (I can't do enough damage to it to kill it and can't run by it. It also leaps at me and instakills me), and the only direction to go in Limansk is through a TON of monolith soldiers, which frankly, I don't mind. What I do mind is the construction site that is covered in extreme radiation and I can't get through it because of all of that. How the hell do I get to Zaton???

Edit: I found a way to get through most of the red forest but to get to Jupiter I need to pass through a LOT of monolith with what looks to be exosuits??? how the hell do I do this??

[Gunslinger ☢]

That is infact a sidequest, and is not needed, also just, like stay south of Radar and Red Forest until you have enough gear to either punch through Red Forest or pay Sakharov in Yantar to make you a Psi-helm and turn off the Scorcher.

[Sophie]

Originally posted by ☢ Nebo Strelok ☣:

That is infact a sidequest, and is not needed, also just, like stay south of Radar and Red Forest until you have enough gear to either punch through Red Forest or pay Sakharov in Yantar to make you a Psi-helm and turn off the Scorcher.

Oh. ♥♥♥♥ lmao I somehow just punched through the monoliths that were guarding jupiter and am resting at the train station right now. Probably going to do some local jobs and get some more cash, gear up, and continue to zaton

[J9]

I am also struggling with the navigation on the map. I wish it all would be a large open world, not some hills I cannot climb or fence etc. Also PDA doesn't help navigating - could work like in Skyrim...

[Sophie]

Originally posted by Jake997:

I am also struggling with the navigation on the map. I wish it all would be a large open world, not some hills I cannot climb or fence etc. Also PDA doesn't help navigating - could work like in Skyrim...

PDA does, just hover over the arrows to see where to go in your current position. If you need to figure out where a place is, say Jupiter for example, scroll out and hover your mouse over that area. Thankfully nowadays portal movement is no longer a thing so in the new stalker it will be open world

[Murvcv]

you should not go to zaton/jupiter in a fresh start, just grind till you get decent gear to either pass through the red forest or get the psy helmet by sakharov in yantar and disable the brainscorcher for good, anomaly alone with no modpack is kinda easy, you should be able to do brain scorcher run in not even 4 hours from start.

[J9]

Originally posted by Murvcv:

you should not go to zaton/jupiter in a fresh start, just grind till you get decent gear to either pass through the red forest or get the psy helmet by sakharov in yantar and disable the brainscorcher for good, anomaly alone with no modpack is kinda easy, you should be able to do brain scorcher run in not even 4 hours from start.

That is the thing - you say: you should not go somewhere. How am I supposed to know? I am a big fan of open world games with freedom - like in real life. So I do not enjoy this aspect of this game.

[Murvcv]

Originally posted by Jake997:

Originally posted by Murvcv:

you should not go to zaton/jupiter in a fresh start, just grind till you get decent gear to either pass through the red forest or get the psy helmet by sakharov in yantar and disable the brainscorcher for good, anomaly alone with no modpack is kinda easy, you should be able to do brain scorcher run in not even 4 hours from start.

That is the thing - you say: you should not go somewhere. How am I supposed to know? I am a big fan of open world games with freedom - like in real life. So I do not enjoy this aspect of this game.

the game is open world, not being able to go to jupiter/higher area of the game is part of the plot since the brainscorcher would kill you when going there without psy protection or without disabling the antennas first.

[J9]

Originally posted by Murvcv:

Originally posted by Jake997:

That is the thing - you say: you should not go somewhere. How am I supposed to know? I am a big fan of open world games with freedom - like in real life. So I do not enjoy this aspect of this game.

the game is open world, not being able to go to jupiter/higher area of the game is part of the plot since the brainscorcher would kill you when going there without psy protection or without disabling the antennas first.

Being killed should be part of the game.

[Murvcv]

Originally posted by Jake997:

Originally posted by Murvcv:

the game is open world, not being able to go to jupiter/higher area of the game is part of the plot since the brainscorcher would kill you when going there without psy protection or without disabling the antennas first.

Being killed should be part of the game.

you do not understand, you can literally go to jupiter and north of the map before disabling the brainscorcher, but on the travel to go you will eventually die of psy-radiation

[Sophie]

Originally posted by Murvcv:

Originally posted by Jake997:

Being killed should be part of the game.

you do not understand, you can literally go to jupiter and north of the map before disabling the brainscorcher, but on the travel to go you will eventually die of psy-radiation

I found a way into jupiter but it involves a LOT of save scumming...

[J9]

Originally posted by Murvcv:

Originally posted by Jake997:

Being killed should be part of the game.

you do not understand, you can literally go to jupiter and north of the map before disabling the brainscorcher, but on the travel to go you will eventually die of psy-radiation

I do not need to understand.
We do not have to agree.
We can disagree. It is ok.
I'm not playing this game anymore.

I recommend Fallout: New Vegas to everyone.

[Murvcv]

Originally posted by Jake997:

Originally posted by Murvcv:

you do not understand, you can literally go to jupiter and north of the map before disabling the brainscorcher, but on the travel to go you will eventually die of psy-radiation

I do not need to understand.
We do not have to agree.
We can disagree. It is ok.
I'm not playing this game anymore.

I recommend Fallout: New Vegas to everyone.

i played new vegas, and it has the same problem or worse since you can't go on certain locations like the divide without having to get to a certain level

[J9]

Originally posted by Murvcv:

Originally posted by Jake997:

I do not need to understand.
We do not have to agree.
We can disagree. It is ok.
I'm not playing this game anymore.

I recommend Fallout: New Vegas to everyone.

i played new vegas, and it has the same problem or worse since you can't go on certain locations like the divide without having to get to a certain level

I spent hundreds of hours playing F:NV.
But I spent only 8 hours playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Wondering why...

[Murvcv]

Originally posted by Jake997:

Originally posted by Murvcv:

i played new vegas, and it has the same problem or worse since you can't go on certain locations like the divide without having to get to a certain level

I spent hundreds of hours playing F:NV.
But I spent only 8 hours playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Wondering why...

i also have 200 h on new vegas, my favourite fallout but still i admit that there's a minimum level cap for certain areas or quests

[Project153]

So as Nebo mentioned, it was indeed a side quest, you just went on a long trek for something that is a fairly common side quest and probably not worth the danger lol. So in base Vanilla STALKER games, a white circle around the objective item = sidequest, yellow is mainquest, however I haven't actually played story mode in Anomaly so I don't know what it looks like in Anomaly. But to be frank, I didn't download Anomaly for the story mode, its for the STALKER experience.

As for the "great psy wall" that requires the Brain Scorcher to be turned off or probably some alternate route. I think this is only an issue in Story mode. I read somewhere, If you play in Freeplay mode (not having Story mode checked), I think you have access to the Northern parts of Chernobyl without the great psy wall hindering your travels. Like Murvcv said, its a plot thing. I'm pretty sure Warfare and Survival mode also falls into Freeplay mode to some extent and you can travel far North without the psy wall being an issue but I could be wrong but I've gone North without issue in Freeplay, Survival, and Warfare just fine and I think I read somewhere how its accessible without disabling the Brain Scorcher and apparently it has nothing to do with accessible zones being turned on or off.

I mentioned how I play this for the "STALKER experience" and not the story mode. Gonna be real with you, if you haven't played the base STALKER games, IMO you should start with those first. Depending on who you ask, its not uncommon for people to say STALKER is way more hardcore than anything Fallout has offered. Its definitely scarier and has better atmosphere (might help that STALKER uses accurate real world locations) but from what I see online, I've seen people say STALKER is much more hardcore. That is just base game. Mods like Anomaly for example (which is a standalone mod)? Made by hardcore STALKER fans for STALKER fans. Anomaly and some of the other mods were built around STALKER players who already know whats up and want a more hardcore or authentic experience. Chances are, a majority of Anomaly and other STALKER mod players are not new.

I play this because vanilla STALKER follows a protagonist with a mission, that is cool for a first timer. For someone like me, I've played and beaten said STALKER games. I'm fascinated by the world. I want to hang around a campfire with the boys eating some bread and sausages and doing mundane ♥♥♥♥. Not saying you should drop Anomaly, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to familiarize yourself with the franchise/lore/environment beforehand. Also because I've heard that the story in Anomaly isn't that strong, which is no surprise because I'm pretty sure the goal was to make an openworld STALKER experience where you get to play as just another STALKER in the zone, not a main protagonist.