Overview
Mod guide from someone who has been modding the series since 2008. Most English speaking modders and guides are unaware of the majority of what’s going on in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod community, since their knowledge is generally limited to ModDB. However, ModDB and the English speaking community in general doesn’t see the newest mods or most mods at all, the mod community is most active in Eastern Europe. This results in lots of poor and misinformed recommendations. Despite this, many of those mods are available in English. So here is a modding guide and recommendation list for English speaking players that is actually up to date.
Things You Need to Know
Most mods will work only on version 1.0004 or version 1.0006. If you get Shadow of Chernobyl from GOG or Steam, it will be version 1.0006, so for mods that require version 1.0004 you’ll have to downgrade. Here is patch 1.0004 to downgrade your version 1.0006 game to version 1.0004.[drive.google.com]
Don’t get too alarmed at the need to “downgrade” since version 1.0006 contains regressions.
This is important especially considering the fact that you might have to keep two versions of SoC installed in order to use all mods. You can copy your Shadow of Chernobyl game folder and appdata folder contents to a new folder, so that you can have multiple copies of the game installed at once.
The file structure of the game is as follows:
- Main Install Directory – For Steam, this refers to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl folder in your Steam Library folder.
- AppData – By default this refers to the DocumentsStalker-SHOC folder and its contents.
The concept for creating a separate install of the game is to copy both of those folders above into a single new folder, and edit the fsgame.ltx file to update the AppData directory reference.
To do this, you need to copy the main install folder into another folder, then copy the AppData folder (DocumentsStalker-SHOC) into a new folder, preferably inside this new SoC game folder you just created. Then you have to update fsgame.ltx to point to this new AppData folder. See these variables in fsgame.ltx:
The first line is telling the game to set its app data root directory to a folder called appdata within the main game directory. The second line is telling the game to read from a gamedata folder in the same location.
So don’t even think about using multiple mods unless you are a programmer who knows X-Ray engine very well and can manually merge them yourself.
If you want to discuss S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modding with people who actually follow the entire mod scene closely, join the C-Consciousness discord[discord.gg].
Vanilla or Modded on a First Playthrough?
This is a common subject, and the common answer differs depending on the game community. For S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the vast majority of the community says vanilla first, but I strongly disagree and vote for modded first.
Everyone should play the game modded first because:
- It’s potentially only objectively better, depending on the mod you’re using – Every game has flaws and shortcomings, but moddable games have the advantage of allowing the community to improve the game. This has been done countless times with Shadow of Chernobyl.
- You don’t know if you’re even going to like the game much less replay the game therefore you might as well play the objectively improved (modded) version from the get go, to ensure the highest chance of liking the game.
Here are the common arguments people give to play vanilla first:
- “You should see vanilla first, to see what the devs intended” -> Retort: None of the Stalker games were released exactly as intended, especially SoC and CS – there are mods that actually make them as INTENDED (Oblivion Lost Remake for SoC, various mods that add back cut levels and content to CS). That, and developers’ intentions are imperfect as these mods show since some only objectively improve things.
- “You should see vanilla first, to see what was improved” -> Retort: Most people don’t replay games, so they shouldn’t take that chance. Instead they should play the improved modded version first, and if they like it, then maybe check out vanilla one day, but they don’t need to play all of vanilla to understand what was improved. Hell, videos can suffice.
- “Mods change the style and alter the core identity of the game” -> Retort: Not necessarily. Autumn Aurora does this, AMK 1.4 does not for example.
- “Graphics don’t matter” -> Retort: And? I doubt they actually believe this, they wouldn’t want Stalker to have Pong graphics, but even then it obviously matters to MOST people, so might as well improve it since you can. These idiots are saying “Graphics don’t matter to me, so they probably don’t matter to someone else” which is an arrogant self-absorbed and almost certainly incorrect generalization.
- “I just like my vanilla experience, maybe it’s nostalgia” -> At this point they’ve already been destroyed.
Recommended Mods for First Timers
I’m not going to recommend every mod under the sun, that’s useless. I am very specific in my recommendations and my reasons are given below for each mod.
Thanks to STALKERvoir for putting so many mods together on this spreadsheet[docs.google.com].
The ultimate mod for Shadow of Chernobyl noobies, this mod pack uses OGSR 64-bit engine with its DX11 engine, includes an unofficial patch, texture mods, the best weather mod, and an HD weapon mod without adding new weapons. It actually looks better than the screenshot above, I’m just too lazy to install it and screenshot it.
Top Recommended Mods for Subsequent Playthroughs
This is the ultimate version of Shadow of Chernobyl. The best tech, being built on OGSR 1.0007 64-bit engine which improves stability and performance. The best gameplay mechanics after with NLC 7 Build 3.0, such as:
- Several fully customizable guns in which you can upgrade the magazine (e.g. 30 round, 45 round, or 60 round mag for AK-74 type weapons), use multiple optics, use a picatinny rail mount on dovetail mounts to use NATO optics on Russian guns. The AK-102 allows for all of this as well as a custom furniture set and a vertical foregrip. Another example is the Stechkin APB for which you can attach a stock, silencer and vertical foregrip. Here’s a quick glance at one such gun: [link]
- Double optic weapons, or the ability to aim down an optic and switch to a backup iron sight
- Dual render/picture-in-picture scopes.
- Aim sway, weapon bobbing, first person movement inertia.
- Separate slot for night vision goggles or thermal vision goggles. Using night vision/thermal vision and then aiming down a magnified optic will force night vision/thermal vision to disable.
- Artifact detectors.
- AMK repair kits (all you need is a repair kit and a similar item to the item you want to repair).
- Exoskeletons are ATTACHMENTS that work with existing outfits.
- Mask slot for outfits without an integrated helmet, but there are only two gas masks available.
- 40mm grenades and RPGs don’t detonate at short range, safety precaution.
- Can fire both barrels out of breach action sawn-off shotguns at the same time.
- Emissions, which move anomalies like in the lore.
- Companion/squad system.
- The hand radio item has an actual use now: it can be used to give orders to companions.
- Vehicles with fuel tanks and a very nice trunk system with item filters. This is one of the only mods that improves vehicle handling too.
- Cut mutants and some new mutant variations.
- The best Controllers in the series. They emit a psy-field and up close they really disorient you and spin you around so that you can’t just blast them, and they can easily make you kill friendlies if you’re not careful. They also zombify NPCs.
- Can ignite light sources.
OGSR is an unofficial expansion of OGSE 0693. It uses a new 2019 build of OGSR engine, features DX11/DX10 and all of Clear Sky’s and Call of Pripyat’s rendering features, it has a lot of new quest content, and also new items and weapons. And this custom fork includes an adapted version of OGSE Weapon Expansion Project which I put together, to boost the total projectile weapon count beyond 160!
OGSE 0693 (not 0692) has many times more side quests than vanilla and most other mods, some of the best lore and world building in the series, and some of the best side quests. It doesn’t rewrite SoC’s dialogue, it mostly keeps the story intact but expands it a little bit later on.
This mod is totally STANDALONE.
Alpha builds containing this older, more ambitious content were released. The most popular one was Build 1935:
One mod sought to resurrect these old ideas faithfully: Lost Alpha. That changed mid development, and their new goal was to create their own re-imagining of Oblivion Lost, but it is not at all the Oblivion Lost we were all waiting for. The end result was a poorly written jankfest with Illuminati and even worse examples of writing. Biggest disappointment ever.
Luckily, Oblivion Lost Remake came out. It is a very faithful adaptation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Oblivion Lost, it is stable and actually one of the best balanced mods (way better than vanilla which sucks in this regard). It has the best atmosphere I’ve encountered in the series by far, and the best main quest design. A-Life isn’t unrestricted yet but it far surpasses vanilla and most SoC mods.
Version 3.0 is on the way with unrestricted A-Life and who knows what other improvements, but that’s far off so you might as well play 2.5.
It has a few side quests and ideas not present in Oblivion Lost design documents, and even crazier mutant swarms in some places (the worst being X-18 rats), but is otherwise very faithful to the original and shows us what we could’ve gotten in 2004 instead of Shadow of Chernobyl.
Vector of Alienation was once an addon for Oblivion Lost Remake but is now optional. The story is a bit different than that of Oblivion Lost Remake, but the writing is deeper. Due to the differences, it is vital to play both. The downside to Vector of Alienation is that it is limited to static lighting. The download includes tons of optional addons, and there is a separate weapon replacement pack which uses OWR 3 guns which is highly recommended since like with Oblivion Lost Remake the default gun models are 2003 quality.
SFZ Project is a work in progress mod, but Episode Zero is currently available. It takes place after another massive emission that changes The Zone as we know it. During Episode Zero, the entire area of the Cordon is occupied by a strange space-time anomaly and is covered in fog, which along with the Silent Hill menu sounds are direct Silent Hill references. The next release will be the rest of the mod and its story. SFZ Project makes use of OGSR engine so it is filled with modern graphics features and fast loading times thanks to multithreaded texture loading.
Episode Zero English Download (Alternate Link)[drive.google.com]
AP-Pro Page[ap-pro.ru]
2016 is the latest and greatest version of the original Narodnaya Solyanka, the original soup mod. This particular version is not only ~90% hand translated into English (and is still in active development) but has other enhancements as well, especially to graphics.
Machine Translated Mods
Because these are machine translated (by Yandex or a mix of Yandex and Google), they are full of broken English and not everyone can handle them.
NLC 7 is technically a Soup mod, but it might as well not be. It is the only one that should be taken seriously, as it is a serious re-imagining of SoC meant to be really complex and difficult, but also meant to be one of the best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experiences ever. And it is. This is the most intelligently and professionally designed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod in existence, the most well thought out with the most polished engine.
There are more ways to approach quests, with more cascading effects later on down the line based on how you do them, than most RPGs. Its quest design is utterly unmatched in the series, and so is its character development, as it makes it a point to make every NPC, even less significant ones if you do business with them, actual people instead of just obstacles for your gun.
Forget Misery, this is the only mod that does “hardcore” mechanics right, such as the new inventory system that is somewhat conceptually like Arma 3 but actually greatly reduces inventory clutter and ease of use, while Misery overloads the default inventory causing massive clutter.
It has some of the best shooting mechanics and animations in the series, with shooting animations that rival modern AAA games. All of its scopes are 3D opposed to the vanilla game and most other mods that just display a texture over your screen. It incorporates other hardcore mechanics from other mods like the use of artifact containers, which is better implemented than Misery once again.
Here’s an overview of many of its unique gameplay mechanics:
- The ultimate inventory system with a perfect artifact container system (not terrible like Misery’s), cleaning your mask with water, and a lot more:
- 3D scopes (albeit not dual rendered), can toggle illumination and change reticles on the Kobra like in real life. Brief example: [link]
- Weapons can use multiple optics.
- Aim sway and bobbing, but no first person inertia.
- Custom repair kits – not nearly as obnoxious as Misery since you don’t collect a million scrap items.
- An economy that revolves around trading artifacts by tier.
- Two of the same types of artifacts (e.g. Jellyfish) do not always have identical properties.
- Flashlight has different modes, e.g. wide close range beam vs more narrow longer range beam.
- Can ignite light sources with matches.
- Emissions, which move anomalies like in the lore.
- Gas mask system – it’s not a separate item, it’s part of outfits that come with it. The mask is used specifically for filtering out harmful chemicals and works like in Metro minus the filter swapping. Some areas need a mask. Night vision can only be used with the mask on since it’s part of the overall headgear set.
- Morrowind style quest logging (first person journal).
The only problem is, the only English version is machine translated, so it’s broken English and due to the complexity of the quests, you’ll need help from youtube walkthroughs for this.
The only reason I recommend playing it machine translated is because there is no hand translation in progress for this mod. One veteran translator is interested in doing this after the Goldsphere translation, but he will obviously need help.
The versioning of this mod is confusing and misleading: NLC 7 Build 3.0 (sometimes just referred to as NLC 7 3.0) is the latest one, it is newer and more stable than NLC 7.5.
Download (ModDB)
Machine translation and save anywhere mod[drive.google.com]
Goldsphere (aka “Golden Ball”) is known as one of the absolute most atmospheric mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., ranking up there with Oblivion Lost Remake. Luckily, this one is in the process of being hand translated. I’ll update this guide when it is done.
It tells a brand new story and is filled with brand new gameplay mechanics. I haven’t even played it yet since I’m waiting for the proper translation. So honestly don’t download this yet, but keep an eye on it for when the translation finishes.
Sure, you can play New Arsenal with machine translations, but not a more serious story driven mod like Goldsphere, unless there’s no real translation in the future but that’s not the case for Goldsphere.
The download can be found here.[docs.google.com] I can’t link to mega directly, Steam removes the link.
Lost World Origin is set in the early days of The Zone. Its main feature is the fact that it includes alpha build levels as the image above shows, like Oblivion Lost Remake. It has Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat levels as well, and apparently the upgrade system for the Stalker Suit/Sunrise Suit is one of the best things ever.
Install the following files over a standard SoC 1.0006 installation IN ORDER!
Conclusion
In conclusion, large scale mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can usually be grouped into one of the following categories:
- Vanilla+ mod – These mods don’t alter the story at all, they just improve gameplay mechanics and maybe visuals. My top recommendation for a vanilla+ mod is OGSR engine from GitHub plus OWR 3 as you get a 64-bit more stable, better optimized, and better looking game with much nicer guns and everything else is untouched. Most people these days couldn’t tolerate any less.
- Story mod – Mods that seek to alter the story of one of the games or write their own, just a story driven mod. My top recommendations for such mods are OGSR, Oblivion Lost Remake 2.5, Vector of Alienation, and NLC 7 Build 3.0. Also wait for the Goldsphere translation. But I can safely say of all mods that still identify as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., NLC 7 Build 3.0 is quite simply the best there is. It is the best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience one can possibly have despite being machine translated.
- Freeplay mod – Mods without story focus, sandbox gameplay usually focused on faction warfare. SoC only really has one such mod whose name I have forgotten so I don’t have any recommendations here. These are most popular for Call of Pripyat thanks to Call of Chernobyl and its many forks. My most recommended CoP freeplay mod is Call of Chernobyl by stason174 since it’s the only CoC fork so far that combines both MLR 8.3 or newer (with its wonderfully improved level design) with a Warfare equivalent (Extended Offline), and has no Misery clutter/bloat. It has the most faction warfare content and side quests of any Call of Chernobyl based mod. However, this will soon be dethroned by Call of Chernobyl – Back to the Roots once it receives a few more patches.
- Joke Mod – These mods are not meant to be taken seriously, like W.I.T.C.H.E.R., Diana Mod, and the upcoming Lost Aloha and S.T.A.L.K. H.E.R. Predator mods.
