STALCRAFT – Stalkers Guide to Pickle Farming

In this guide, I will explain the most effective way to farm pickles at Bar from a Stalker’s perspective. For reference, I’ve amassed over 1000 pickles in less than 5 hours of farming.

Some of you might not like this method as it involves playing a pacifist role rather than a PVP-focused role.

I will go into details regarding this later. Sorry for the formatting this is my first guide. This guide will also work for Bandits but I do not know the routes to take.

Loadout

All credit goes to Gryphon The Lad !

So first off is the loadout that you will bring. What I’ve found most effective is a pistol, 120 rounds of 9mm expanding with one mag loaded already, 2-4 personal first-aid kits, PVP armor (striker and up due to radiation), and bags of 9mm ex and personal first-aid kit bags.

Optional items: any plates (id suggest using partially broken plates, pick one up from Bar and only keep ones that have 30% or more), a primary weapon (incases you need to hot extract, which isn’t recommended), Flashbangs (this is used to get out of a sticky situation while not being overly aggressive)

Now lets talk about saving a pack at the vendor so you can get out there faster. If you know how to do this you can skip to the bold parts. So go to the vendor and click manage packs in 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

Now let’s talk route and tactics. Below I will show different routes and how to use the effectively and engagements and how to take them. The main thing to remember is you want to be stealthy and ALWAYS pay attention to the player counter on your map, if it’s over two, hide and wait.

As for dealing with AI you want them to shoot as little as possible. Unsuppressed fire from AI attracts players, especially lots of shots. Some AI will have armor that makes them take more shots, always expect them to have armor so you aren’t suprised.

Here is the part that most people won’t like, do not kill players if you don’t have to. You read that right, don’t PVP in the PVP game unless you have to. As soon as you kill a player that area will be swarmed by Bandit Players and your pickle run is as good as dead. Your best option is to let the bandit kill you in all seriousness. Take note of their name and try and message them to ask them to sell or trade the bag to you (you can do this in chat by typing @Username: he man i was pickle farming, can I get that back?).

Another method that can be useful is to run around with only fists out and if a Bandit does notice you, try spamming the surrender voice line. This works maybe 20% of the time but it is worth a shot if all else fails

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

For all of these routes, the best way to extract is to just go back the way you came in. I have not explored the northwest side of Rostok enough to know of a better exit.

When you come to the Rostok-Army warehouse line, it may serve you better to jump out on the west side and then run along the edge until you make it to the line between sides.

But keep in mind there are bandit AI where the lines of Bandits and Stalkers meet and if you jump over too early you wont have invulnerability.