The Stalker 2 Solder choice to shoot him or knock him out seems like it might have some quite serious consequences, but it’s entirely down to your preference. With Solder being set up as a scumbag who sold you out with bad information in the prologue for Stalker 2, he seems like he might be quite a substantial threat, but it turns out you deal with him in one of two ways very early on in the game. I’ve explained the outcomes for shooting Solder or just knocking him out in Stalker 2.
There’s a lot of decisions to make in Heart of Chornobyl and just to get this far you’ll have to have decided whether to help or kill Squint and who you should give the sensors to in STALKER 2. And while Squint doesn’t really change anything, the sensor choice decided how you got to Solder and goes on to affect where you go after.
Stalker 2 Solder choice explained
Both shooting Solder dead and knocking him out in Stalker 2 seemingly have no immediate consequences, so it’s up to you how you deal with him. You get the information you need before this choice, so you’re effectively just tying up a loose end. Whatever you decide, make sure you loot the entire room and his bunk afterwards for healing items, food, and the High-Capacity PTM Magazine attachment,m a useful addition to your STALKER 2 guns.
In the confrontation before this choice, Solder admits that he just marks anomalies on maps and occasionally sells that information on the side, so he did not intentionally stitch up Hermann and yourself with bad information. He also explains that he has no idea where the Scanner has been taken as a person known as Nestor oversees the “Scanner business”, not him, and he reveals that Nestor is north of Zalissya.
It might be that this Solder choice is more significant if knocking him out causes him to reappear later in Heart of Chornobyl, but no one on the GamesRadar+ team has seen him again. Solder also admits he’s small fry in his work as an IPSF technician and that Nestor is more important, so it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll make a significant comeback. You also don’t get anything for either option, unlike something like when you have to choose who to give the religious icon to in STALKER 2, a choice that comes with very different rewards.
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