STALCRAFT – Stalkers Guide to Pickle Farming

This guide will show you the best way to farm pickles at Bar as a Stalker. I’ve gotten over 1000 pickles in under 5 hours with this method. Some of you might not like it because it’s more about being passive than PVP. I’ll explain more about that later.

Pickle Farming Guide

Loadout

First, let’s talk about the loadout you should bring. I’ve found that the most effective setup is:

• A pistol
• 120 rounds of 9mm expanding ammo with one mag already loaded
• 2-4 personal first-aid kits
• PVP armor (striker or better because of radiation)
• Bags of 9mm expanding ammo and personal first-aid kits

Optional items:

• Plates (I suggest using partially broken ones with 30% or more durability, picked up from Bar)
• A primary weapon (only if you need to hot extract, which isn’t recommended)
• Flashbangs (to get out of tough situations without being too aggressive)

Now, let’s talk about saving a pack at the vendor so you can get out there faster. If you already know how to do this, you can skip to the bold parts. To save a pack, go to the vendor and click “Manage Packs” at the bottom.

Now add 2 to 4 personal first-aid kits and 120 9mm expanding ammo and save it with a name of “Pickle Farm”.

Once you’ve done that exit the shop menu and press “T” (the default key) and you can quick buy this kit to get to the pickle farm faster.

Here is an example of the kit that I bring with me:

• Beretta 93R: My preferred pistol for the job, and obviously suppressed. The 3 round burst and perk of increased damage as enemy health drops make it possible to kill unarmored Bandit NPCs with 1 burst to the head.
• Seeker’s Hawk: It has the best Bullet Resistance of any armor that I have available to me at the moment
• A 46% Plate: Found on the ground at bar, it has some protection but didn’t cost me anything
• Hellboy Backpack with artifacts: This part of the loadout isn’t optimized, preferably you’d have bullet resistance and stamina or movement speed.
• Bagged ammo and meds: This is here in case you are making an extended stay on Bandit’s side as bagged ammo isn’t dropped on death.

Tactics

Alright, let’s talk about the best ways to get around and what to do in certain situations. I’ll show you some different paths you can take and how to use them well. I’ll also talk about how to handle fights. The most important thing is to be sneaky and always watch the player count on your map. If it goes over two, find a hiding spot and wait it out.

When it comes to dealing with AI enemies, you want them to shoot as little as possible. When they fire guns without silencers, it attracts other players, especially if they shoot a lot. Some AI have armor, so they take more bullets to kill. Always assume they have armor so you’re not caught off guard.

Now here’s the part that might surprise you: don’t kill other players unless you absolutely have to. Yeah, you read that right – avoid PVP in a PVP game if possible. As soon as you kill someone, that area will be flooded with enemy players and your run will probably be over. Your best bet is to actually let the enemy kill you, believe it or not. Remember their name and try to message them later to see if they’ll sell or trade your stuff back to you. You can do this in the chat by typing something like “@Username hey man i was just farming, can I get my stuff back?”

Another thing you can try is to run around with just your fists out. If an enemy player spots you, try spamming the surrender voice line over and over. This only works like 20% of the time but it’s worth trying if you’re out of options.

Initial Route

White: This is Stalker territory it should be pretty simple to make this route, if you are a time ♥ like me stop sprinting when you hit 30 stamina left and let it regen to 70% while walking and you can make it to Army Warehouse edge

Orange: This is where it starts to heat up. The strat here is to enter with fists out and run. Ignore Ai and the players. If you run a tight route you can make it back into Rostok Factory while still invincible to damage. You should stick as close to the wall as you can when you come back into Rostok. If you run into a player the suppression mechanic will slow your sprint down, so depending on how much they shoot you may or may not make it into Rostok again.

Red: This will be your first engagement into pickle having Bandits. If you are lucky, they will be at range and you can flank to close distance. If the Bandits are at distance use the Green Line to flank them and push up to a lip in the wall. If the Bandits happen to be exactly where you jump in you have two options: Fight and die or run left and hide behind a truck and wait for the AI to push.

Tier 1 Camps

Tier 1 Camps: These camps are pretty simple and usually can be taken without a bandit encounter

Green: This first camp can be a tricky one, many can push you at one and you have no area to run if they do. Remember corner peaking is your friend. Keep one NPC in your line of sight at a time. Aim for the head, and mow them down. Take every opportunity to reload as you never know when they will push you

Blue: This camp is a bit further north than the marker has it. The best way to clear it is to shoot a round or burst at an enemy and then strafe back into the door. Use sound cues and sight to watch for the Bandits to push you in the doorway and take them out as they walk in

Tier 2 Camps

Tier 2 Camps: These camps are a bit riskier and take more patience and skill to accomplish

Yellow: This route is the easier of the two secondary camps. For the most part, this can be done without Bandit player intervention. You will run into an office building and come to a door on the other side. From here it works similarly to the Blue route from the tier 1 camps section. Peak a door, kill or shoot one, and wait for them to push

Pink: This route is a spike in difficulty for two factors. One is proximity to the entrance point to Bandit player spawn and two is the bandit camp spawns at a distance from the shooting position. There are two ways to take this, gun them down with a primary at range and hope a bandit doesn’t come across you. Or you can shoot one and bait them into the warehouse that you run through. I suggest only going for this camp if the pickle run so far has come up empty, it’s extremely risky and has low reward for the risk

Tier 3 Camps

Tier 3 camps: These camps are only to be gone after if you haven’t gotten a successful pickle yet. Going after these will almost certainly result in a death and failed run

Brown: This is the hardest route to take by far. Usually, you will have 2 camps that you have to take out first, and at that point, it’s worth it to just run back instead. Brown is just the line to get there in the first place.

Light Green: In this route, you must stop right before a crane and regen stamina. You will want to preemptively heal for this as well. As soon as you round the corner they will start shooting. When you round the next corner there is a pillar, you must jump over a block and put the pillar in between yourself and the AI. If you survive this initial push the AI will then push into the building with you. Now treat this just like a doorway and peak and kill one AI in your sights shooting them down.

Purple: This route is a pretty easy one if you’ve made it this far. The biggest struggle is just getting here. The bandit AI won’t be able to see you here and you have two sides to attack them from. Adrenalin will be high from the run here so take your time

Extracting

When you’re done and ready to leave, just go back the same way you came in. I haven’t checked out the northwest part of Rostok much, so I don’t know if there’s a better way out.

When you get to the border between Rostok and the Army Warehouse, it might be better to hop out on the west side. Then you can run along the edge until you reach the line between the two sides.

Just remember there are enemy AI where the Bandits and Stalkers meet. If you jump over too soon, you won’t have invulnerability and they can get you.

Useful Tips for Fast Farming

Option 1:

Go to the bandit side and get what you can without being greedy. Try to go as far from their door as possible to get those bandit camps. If you go in from your top side to their top side, the AI will light you up. But if you find the right spots, you can farm. When you head in from the top side, there are many wandering AI that drop about 3 pickles each. Hiding in the top right when the counter increases can give you more safety to farm. If you can, play at off hours like 3 am. No one will bother you and you can farm quickly.

Option 2 (The Slow but Safe Option):

Go farm signals in the forest on the right side of the map. Get as much carry weight as possible to pick up all the trash you can sell from each signal box. (If you get a rare blueprint, you can make over half a million+) You can use all the money you earn to buy pickles from the auction house without dealing with constant deaths.

Option 3 (Secret Forbidden Option):

Talk to people in town and try to find a group to go over there with. You’ll be safer with a team. The problem is that the bandits will rush at you in endless waves like zombies until you clear them out.

How to Avoid Pickle Farmers

Quick map on how to avoid (most) pickle farmers.

Click to enlarge…