The Wild Territory

As you exit through to the center of the Wild Territory, a gang of mercs will crash a military chopper and surround the science team that you’re supposed to be interfacing with. Your goal is to kill the mercs and reach Kruglov, one of the scientists here. The mercs are outfitted with the new TRs 301 rifle, so they’ll pack a punch, but when they go down, they’ll drop plenty of ammo for your new toy. One of the soldier will also drop a rocket launcher, so be thorough in your body searches.

The game doesn’t end if Kruglov dies, but you’ll presumably be rewarded if you manage to keep him alive. Begin by sprinting around the north side of the battlefield, near the electrical anomalies, until you reach Kruglov’s position on your map. You’ll be more capable of defending him from the incoming mercs if you stand near him. Start taking headshots at the soldiers, and when they die, collect their ammo before speaking to Kruglov.

Lead Kruglov to Yantar

Kruglov requests that you take him out to the Yantar part of the map nearby. He’ll start moving as soon as you talk to him and agree to the escort, so get moving!

Kruglov will only be lightly armed here, so keep him protected.

You’ll have three battles to fight through here. The first two will occur when Kruglov ducks behind cover and tells you that people are following you, and indeed there will be in each instance. Kill off the mercs as they attempt to reach you. The third fight will occur after Kruglov yells "Ambush!" and cowers like a baby. These mercs won’t really attack you, and instead will wait for you to move ahead and kill them. Which works out well, all things considered.

Eventually you’ll reach a tunnel filled with Burner anomalies, where Kruglov wants you to go on ahead. If you need more ammo for your new rifle, feel free to backtrack and loot some bodies. The tunnel itself isn’t terrible bad; just stick to the white strip in the middle if possible and shoot any zombified stalkers that come at you. When you reach the end, Kruglov will come through as well. He’ll give you his flash drive, which he says the Barkeep will pay you for, and will promise you a scientific suit if you visit the scientific lab in Yantar. If you return the flash drive now, Barkeep will pay you 5,000 RU for it.

Yantar

Head down the road into Yantar and take a left into the swamp in front of you, and head towards the bunker-esque building there. When you reach the interior, Kruglov and Prof. Sakharov will be discussing the situation. If you speak to him, he should give you an ecologist suit that will greatly increase your resistance to radiation (but which will reduce your resistance to gunshots!). Accept the main task from him, and any others from him that you wish to accept, and then speak to Kruglov to move on to the next task at hand. In order to reach X16, you’ll need to help the scientists develop some kind of psi-armor to protect you from the effects of the creatures inside.

Escort Kruglov To The Measurement Site

Watch out for zombies here; they can still shoot their weapons.

This is a pretty simple escort mission. Kruglov will head to a sewer pipe near the bunker and start to take rad readings. Stay ahead of him as you proceed through the tunnel (keeping your bulletproof armor on) and wade through the soldiers. When you reach the far end of the tunnel, clear out any enemies, sit through the odd cutscene, then wake Kruglov up and hightail it back to the bunker. Sakharov will reward you with a psi-helmet, which should protect you from the effects that cause anyone who enters X16 to go insane. We can hope so, at any rate.

Search Vasiliev’s Body

In order to get into the lab, you’ll need to find the documents on Vasiliev’s body. He’s a scientist that attempted to enter X16 with a stalker named Ghost (who just happens to be a comrade of Strelok’s), and never returned. Sakharov will point you towards his body, which lies near a helicopter to the west of the bunker. It’s surrounded by zombies, though, so be careful. Zombies, in case you haven’t noticed, are tougher to kill than normal opponents, but knife kills appear to be instant deaths, so if you can catch them reloading, feel free to rush them and knife them.

When you find Vasiliev’s body, you’ll hear his audio log, which will reveal how to enter the lab, or at least give you a marker for it on your map. You’ll have to clear out or avoid a number of zombies and snarks in the area around the entrance, so come fully loaded with ammo. Since you’re going to be inside a facility, purchasing the Chaser 13 shotgun from Sakharov might be worth your while here.