Loners

In the Zone, joining a faction is just as important as taking one's daily intake of nutrition, H20, education and many more essentials for sustaining one's life. Apart from the apparent benefits of gaining access to exclusive stocks such as weapons and protective gears, making good money is also a walk in the park. However, some prefer the life of a nomad, one that would never have a stop, one that would mean remaining adventurous for the rest of one's life. These stalkers later become known as the **Free Stalkers** or **Loners** or just simply referred to as *stalkers*. They make up a large portion of the Zone's population, being widespread across all areas while remain neutral towards the warring clans. They are the second largest "faction".

## Loners

"Hey, let me tell ya some interesting fact about me, eh? I would never, ever talk to someone whose shooter's pointing at me. SHOCKING, eh?!"

## Overview

Being mainly unaligned and uninterested in the Zone's local politics and conflicts, the goals of these guys vary greatly from person to person, group to group and finally, a whole subfaction (like Strelok's Group and Vampire's group of Indian scammers). They take whatever jobs is available to them and hunt artifacts from time to time for either contracts or personal profit. Because of this, factions enjoy hiring stalkers due to their general standing with the locals: true neutral.

## Background

> Long before the Zone became a well-known phenomena across the entire world, scavengers were already a thing. Inside these heaps of radioactive waste, there would always ought to be some useful metal left for selling. Perhaps, that's what Sid was before, being a vendor for all of these kinds of stuff... Anyways, after the very first artifact was discovered and recovered by one of the first stalkers here, it gave rise to a boom. A boom of the "stalker" culture... In 2010, that boom became so severe that the army just simply gave up on controlling it! And kids, that's how we stalkers are, today...
>
> -A wise old man

## Infrastucture

### Overview

Like the mercenaries, the stalkers have no formal leader whatsoever, with Father Valerian being an extraordinary exception due to the fact that possibly all free stalker groups decided to either elect or follow his leadership to fight against two common enemies: the Military and Bandits. Each group have their own leader which oversee the group's general ideology and field of work.

### Notable character

* **Most Influential Traders**:
	1. Sidorovich
	2. Barkeep
* **Artifact dealers:**
	1. Beard
* Others:
	1. Razza
	2. Aurora
	3. Stechkov
	4. *"Dot"* (played by Krunch)
	5. James "Fox" Kowalkzyk (Played by Fox)
	6. Horus

### Ranks:

* Rookie
* Trainee
* Experienced
* Professional
* Veteran
* Expert
* Master
* **Legend of the Zone/Legend**

### Bases:

Loners have bases spread across the Zone. The major ones are:

* Rookie Village, Cordon
* Northern Farmstead, Cordon
* The Village, Meadows
* The Depot, Garbage: A heavy contested area between them and the local gangs
* Flea market, Garbage
* The abandoned factory, Agroprom
* The abandoned pigfarm, Dark Valley: A place notoriously known for had been the hideout of Vampire and his group. He was later killed by the Strelok.
* Devilish encampment, Red Forest: Usually unoccupied
* The area around Forester's tower, Red Forest
* Laundromat, Pripyat Outskirts

### Area of exploration:

Literally every single corner of the Zone (except for the Generators and Pripyat City, **and** the CNPP, duh).

## Politics and general population

*See:* Zone Politics and Factions' Infrastructure

## Equipment

### Overview

Free stalkers make use of everything (lit. everything that got in their line of looting) that is available to them. Of course, they tend to avoid faction-exclusive suits such as the "Bulat" military armored suit or the PSZ-9Md Universal Protection Suit despite their highly appealing protective properties so as not to complicate things between factions to factions.

### Protective gear:

#### Headgears:

Literally everything. The most common are:

1. Respirator: Handmade breathing aids for those who can't afford a reliable supply chain of vodka.
2. Balaclava:
	1. "I guess we're just trying to be cool here."
3. Cloth mask: For really poor mfs.
4. Retrofitted PBF gas mask: Has somewhat became a symbol of factions around the Zone, more specifically the free stalkers. A simple rubble face piece with two external 40mm GOST filters screwed into the mask, it has been proven to be a rather cheap and effective protective headgear whenever a stalker goes out to the Zone's highly anomalous environment.
5. Steel helmet: Cheap (and hopefully, efficient) way to protect your head from shrapnels and small bullets. Is commonly used during factional conflicts.
	1. "I'm telling ya, I saw a guy running towards a nest with all the boolets ricocheting off his steel helmet."

#### Body armors:

Literally everything... The most common are:

* Leather jacket: Simple jacket for anyone who's planning not to die to the coldness of the Zone at night.
* Stalker suit: A term used to describe all locally produced suits used by stalkers commonly.
	1. "Sunrise" stalker suit: A suit that has earned legendary status. Made and manufactered by the Zone's local technicians, it was designed to be a highly economic suit while still providing adequate protection against anomalies. It is comprised of a rubberized jumpsuit, light bulletproof vest (that only stops the weakest of rounds, including 9x18mm PM rounds), homemade shoulder pads and knee pads, as well as hiking boots.
	2. "Predator" stalker suit: An upgrade to the Sunrise. Apart from the new camouflage pattern (which is roughly based on Flecktarn), it features extra ceramic plates for better ballistic protection as well as durability. Elemental protection has also been slightly improved.
	3. "Drought" stalker suit: It's just the Predator but trades ballistic protection for even more elemental protection.
	4. "Tigerstripe" stalker suit: A relative new model. Features a tiger stripe pattern, as well as even more ballistic protection and slight increase in elemental protection, at the cost of increased weight.
	5. "Salamander" stalker suit: It's just the Tigerstripe but heavier to accommodate additional pouches for carrying more essentials.
	6. "Voyager" stalker suit: It's just the Sunrise but comes with a cool bandolier and even more pounches.
* NBC suit: A Nuclear, Biological and Chemical protection suit, used by the liquidators during the cleanup of the 86 incident and later, ChEZ examinators during the early period of the 2000s, before the 2010 stalker boom. They are still manufactured today for CBRN troops of the Military. Stocks were smuggled into the Zone, possibly through traders, and later modified by the local technicians. The current iteration of this suit comprises of a light bulletproof vest and several additional sewn cloth pieces for "slight restoration of the suit's protective properties". As such, it's not well liked by the stalkers. Another major factor is a moderate chance of acquiring a contaminated unit, completely neglecting the need for one's protection... *since they are going to die to the suit anyway, lol*.
* "The Wastelander": A totally new "stalker suit" (it's not even one at this point). Features a NIJ Level III bulletproof vest with a rather strong compensate suit, providing moderate levels of elemental protection. It's the most expensive model available commercially.
* SEVA suit: Developed by one of Kiev/Kyiv's top research institutes, this suit was meant to be the replacement of the SSP-99M due to the sheer cost of just a single unit. However, later in trials, it was deemed unfavorable and consequentially, put into storage. With the usage of stalkers in the Ecologists' line of work being approved however, the suit was later allocated to be sold as legitimate stock for them. Compared to the 99M, the suit possesses roughly the same protective properties, while having a slightly higher durability and better cost, making it a far more economical option than its' predecessor. Its' enclosed breathing cycle module is perhaps the most attractive factor. It's mainly utilized by high-ranking stalkers and professional artifact hunters.
* Heavy armored suit: Also called as the "exosuit" or erroneously as "the **radiation suit** (I don't know the fuck why that happened, but it happened)", this suit and helmet is the "underwear" of the legendary exoskeleton. It provides nearly the same protection as the exoskeleton, while remaining lighter and "more affordable". Used by veterans and experts alike.
* Exoskeleton: The best of the best, for free stalkers. This version of this legendary armor set was the first to ever appear on the markets. Heavily associated with so-called "Legends of the Zone". Despite it no longer being a competitive model compared to other factions' variants (except for the Renegades and Bandits), it's still widely enjoyed by stalkers.
	+ "With certain upgrades, this thing can still be a crushing menace. You can trust me on that."

### Weapons:

The Zone is known to be a hub for all kinds of weapon smuggling operation, from civilian hunting rifles being illegally shipped into the perimeter, to military-grade models appearing on the common market like fresh shrimps for sale. Because of this, it's impossible to list all the weapons utilized by the Loners, since every day almost mean a new gun being imported, the list would just go on forever. It's logical to generally assume that the Loners make of literally every single gun, from pistols to RPGs, that is commercially available in the Zone of Alienation.

### Vehicles:

There had been cases of stalkers using cars in certain areas, such as the military warehouses. One stalker was documented so as to have luckily obtained a Hind (in some wacky and comical manner) and flew it around the Pripyat city. However, he had to briefly stop his fun since it ran out of fuel later. Legends said that he's still searching for fuel.

## Gallery

A Northern rookie armed with an AKSU. The AK family has become an iconic symbol for stalkers around the Zone, especially free stalkers.An experienced armed with a Nikonov.