Exploiting the Cave Dream

Normally, everything in the Cave dream disappears after waking up. The quest happens in the real Cave, but stashing your stuff to come for it after the dream and have a huge boost in the early game is not possible, because all containers and mutants are deleted upon waking up. However, it's possible to save the gear by getting to the Cave before triggering the dream.
This is not advised for the first-time players as this is an important part of the plot.
== The exploit ==
Here's the exact sequence:
* At the beginning of the game, start the Serviceman's PDA normally while passing the [ road bridge]. You need the VSSK "Vykhlop" from the sniper. PM ammo can be obtained in a breakable box under the bridge.
* Go to the Rookie village. Speak to Doctor in the basement, and get the vial from him. Do not drink it.
* Break into Sid's room by tossing your VSSK or a barrel into the door hinge. (demonstration below)
* Play the game normally until you reach the Bar.
* Talk to Baldy and receive the transition to the Cave, along with the Treasure hunter quest.
* Travel to the Cave. Grab the rucksack under your feet and the artifact nearby. These are items from the Cave dream.
After grabbing those, you can play normally. You can use the items you borrowed, you don't ever need to finish the Cave dream unless you're aiming for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. achievement.
=== How to bug the door ===
The typical way to break the door open is to throw a long weapon into the hinge by pressing G. It might take a few tries to get right. Never do this with arbitrary doors, you will break the game! Sid's door is one of the few ones verified safe to pry open.
After doing this, you can permanently block the door in the open state with a barrel.
== Repaying the debt ==
Although finishing the cave dream is optional, you may want to do this for plot consistency, unblocking Sid's door, or any other reason. You can do it any time you want by returning some of the items:
* Take a Rucksack and the items required to speak to Miner: Assaulter exoskeleton, USAS-12 "Shaitan", Desert Eagle Mark XIX, Porcupine ×5, Emerald Wrenched, Moss, Poltergeist's Heart, Cave map.
* Enter the Cave from Dump.
* Put those items in a rucksack under your feet right as you spawn there. You might also want to put an Electrica grenade or something like that to make the cave dream easier.
* Travel to Cordon and drink Doc's vial in the Rookie village (any other place and the game will crash).
* Play through the Cave dream normally.
* After waking up, go to Sid and pick your gear up in the chest near him.
If you want, you can postpone beating the cave dream until Fenrir's lair at the Old Village. This is a quest from the mid-late game, and it's a bit bugged because it leaves an undroppable 5kg item in your inventory. Finishing the dream will drop it into Sid's chest by force, and you can just leave it there. 
== Bugs ==
* Upon speaking to Miner, certain quest items get permanently deleted, not reappearing in Sidorovich's chest after waking up. So far, it has been confirmed to be the case with Strelok's flash disk (from the Agroprom Underground hideout) and Playboy magazines. Make sure you don't have any important undroppable quest items on you (Sniper's PDA is whitelisted for obvious reasons) and empty your inventory before drinking the vial. Strelok's flash disk cannot be dropped but it's not required anywhere either, so it's safe to lose.
Category:Core mechanics
Category:Exploits