S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl: Walkthrough & Boss Guide

This is a condensed story outline of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (GSC Game World; Windows and Xbox Series X/S from 20 November 2024, PS5 from 20 November 2025), not a full quest-by-quest walkthrough. The main-mission order follows ONE Esports and Gamer Guides, the story and endings follow Wikipedia, and the Faust notes follow the Patchcrazy, VGTimes and PPE.pl mission guides. Traders, base ownership and item details are not covered because they could not be verified. The protagonist is Skif. Spoilers follow.

Skif is a Ukrainian Marine Corps veteran who returns home to find his apartment destroyed by an anomaly; a scientist, Professor Hermann, smuggles him into the Zone with the Scanner, a device that creates anomalies (Wikipedia). The first main missions, in order, are There and Back Again, A Needle in a Haystack and Behind Seven Seals (Lesser Zone), then Answers Come at a Price, The Price Goes Up, Deal with the Devil, King of the Hill and Back to the Slag Heap (Garbage), then Hot on the Trail and Chasing Ghosts (Wild Island) and Dead Frequency (Zaton) (Gamer Guides). ONE Esports orders them slightly differently, nesting some of these as sub-quests, so treat the order as approximate.

Wikipedia describes the main factions: Spark, an anarchist faction led by Scar that wants to turn the Zone into a utopian "Shining Zone"; the Ward, backed by the SIRCAA scientific base; and Noontide, the freed Monolith soldiers, split between Strider, who wants a safer Zone, and Faust, who keeps the original Monolith ideology. In the main-mission list the story branches at mission 14: To the Last Drop of Blood on the Spark path and Law and Order on the Ward path (ONE Esports).

The Assault on the Duga (mission 19, after An Invisible Threat and Dawn of a New Day) differs by faction. On the Spark route, per Patchcrazy, you meet the Spark squad and Scar, follow the allied soldiers, capture the Comm Center, enter the Monolith headquarters (a room with a PSI emitter) and kill the Monolith Leader on the scaffolding beneath it, which is not shown on the compass. After that a cutscene with Faust plays and the objective changes to retreating from the Duga; this is not the end of Faust. The next mission, A Minor Incident, begins at the watchpost east of the Duga. On the Ward route the mission involves clearing a checkpoint and destroying a portable PSI installation.

The Faust boss fight comes later, in Happiness for Everyone (Spark) or Once More Unto the Breach (Ward), mission 22 in the list. Per VGTimes (Spark), you reach the Duga area through a sewer route, reboot three transformers to shut down the Duga, enter the Comm Center, destroy a Monolith totem and fight up to the roof, where Faust flees and the fight takes place. Wikipedia says that at the Duga Skif fights Faust, a psychic who apparently dies after showing Skif a "subtle matter" afterlife. Faust is a human leader of the Monolith faction, not a Controller-class mutant. See the boss entry below.

After the Faust mission, the list continues with Visions of Truth, Dark Times, An Act of Mercy and Legends of the Zone, then Subtle Matter and Dangerous Liaisons, where your choice decides the ending, followed by Escape from the Cage, The Boundary and The Road to the Foundation. ONE Esports marks Down Below as the point of no return. The finale missions are The Last Wish and Let No One Leave Unsatisfied, with Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and The Eternal Shining (Spark) or Eye of the Storm and The Last Step (Ward) as the variants. This page does not document what is in Pripyat or the reactor area, since those details were not verified.

Per Wikipedia, at the final C-Consciousness pod Skif's choices lead to one of four endings: (1) Ward: Colonel Korshunov enters the pod, the Zone stops expanding and SIRCAA gains control, and Skif leaves the Zone; (2) Spark: Scar enters the pod, the utopia is an illusion and the stalkers are catatonic in an unchanged Zone; (3) Strelok: he takes control of the Monolith and lets Skif leave, but a barrier traps all stalkers inside; (4) Doc's advice: Skif enters alone, the Zone spreads across Earth and Doc turns into Faust.