Should you help The Ninth?

There are several side quests you can get while exploring the settlements in STALKER 2, or by simply speaking to people you meet along the way. If you talk to Lens, the resident technician in Zalissya, he’ll offer you a job called The Lost Boys.

A regular group who works with Lens has gone missing, and he’d like you to try tracking them down. He can tell you where they were headed and what they were doing, but what happened to them is entirely up for you to discover. When you reach the quest’s end, you’ll encounter a difficult choice that may have positive and negative repercussions with how the stalker faction views you moving forward. You’ll want to pick your choice for The Lost Boys quest carefully in STALKER 2 and see if you can figure out your moral compass.

Where to find The Lost Boys group in STALKER 2

Lens sends you to an abandoned location south of Zalissya. If you spend a lot of time here at the start of the game, you may have visited this location on a whim to further explore STALKER 2, expanding your growing collection of items and helpful tools.

When you arrive at the location, you’ll want to explore the primary building, but make your way to the waypoint. Here, you’ll discover an abandoned bunked that the group had been studying, but be prepared to find several dead bodies, as it looks like the group Lens wanted you to find was eliminated. While searching this area, look for a closet with a power outlet and a nearby fuse inside a backpack. You can place the fuse inside the fusebox and activate the lights.

When you advance to the next room, there are multiple electricity-based anomalies scattered throughout the area. If you’ve searched for artifacts before, you’ll know the best way to deal with them is by flinging your bolts at the piles. This activates the electricity, giving you a brief moment to safely run through them and reach the other side of the hallway. Take your time moving through here, but quickly run through after activating these anomalies, as they can heavily damage you.

When you arrive at the bottom, be prepared to find mutant rats throughout the area. You can take them out with a well-placed pistol shot or use a more deadly weapon to eliminate them. On the left side of the room is a wind-based anomaly, and you can expect to find at least one living person on the ground named Saturday. They are incapacitated, which means you need to spare a medkit to heal them and get them back on their feet. Nothing comes cheap in STALKER 2. You may have found one on your way down to the bunker.

After you get Saturday up, he explains that a Monolith worshiper attacked their entire group. The Monolithians used their psychic powers on him and the group, eliminating them all. Before he left, the Monolithian took the group leader, Mastiff, and Saturday asked you to bring him back. You’ll need to save him if you want to get paid by Lens for finding The Lost Boys.

Where to find Mastiff in STALKER 2

Mastiff is a good distance away from where you find The Lost Boys in the bunker. It’s not a huge hike, but it’s further than you might expect. Thankfully, there’s a direct location showing you where to go. Getting there will take a bit of time, and when you exit the bunker, expect a pack of blind mutant dogs to appear. They normally roam in packs and can quickly overwhelm you if you’re unprepared.

When you reach the abandoned house where the Monolithian is holding Mastiff, make your way to the backyard and go inside the shed. Here, you’ll discover a large hole you can follow which takes you inside the house. When you get inside, you’ll find Mastiff on a bed writhing in pain, and a Monolithian nearby who is praying.

When you speak to them, they share their name, The Ninth, and their story with of how The Lost Boys group was attacked by a mutant, which lines up with what you found in the bunker. He then explains he took Mastiff back with him to let him heal and rest, and will be letting him go shortly.

However, after you speak with The Ninth, you can hear shouting in the front yard. Although Saturday told you to go after Mastiff and save him, he also told other stalkers where to find The Ninth and eliminate him. You now have a choice to side with The Ninth or let him die in STALKER 2.

Should you help The Ninth or let him die in STALKER 2?

This can be a difficult choice, as those who worshiped the Monolith are greatly hated by many of the stalkers. If you want the straightforward route for increasing your faction standing with the stalkers, eliminating The Ninth immediately is the better choice, and the people outside will thank you for doing it. By taking out The Ninth, you can loot his body and his AKM-74S, which is not the best quality, but you can repair it elsewhere. You can also receive a PDA to learn that the Monolithians are gathering elsewhere.

The alternative is to fight against Dew and the other stalkers who showed up to kill The Ninth. If you try to talk to them and convince them to leave, they’ll attack you. But talking with them gives The Ninth time to descend from his house and likely end up dead. If you want to save The Ninth, not having a conversation with Dew is important, so speak with him to ensure he’s safe. Attack Dew immediately. After you save The Ninth, he’ll tell you he’s going away to an island and he’ll be there in the future. For his safety, he’s vague about the location.

Regardless of your choice on if you choose to help The Ninth or take him out, the final step is to return to Lens in Zalissya. You’ll report everything that happened, and you can’t lie about not killing The Ninth. You tell Lens all of your choices and what happened to Mastiff’s group. Lens will pay you either way. However, he is wary of you if you let the Monolithian live.

If you helped The Ninth, the Lens pays you 500 coupons, and if you killed The Ninth, he gives you 1,000. When you help The Ninth escape, Lens tells you that it’s a bad idea and how the stalkers used to clash with that faction all the time.

Although this might be a step away from siding with the stalkers in STALKER 2, it doesn’t wholly bar you and make you hostile to them in the game. If you’ve been helping them in other ways, such as assisting them when they wanted to find Squint, you should be fine and you won’t need to worry about it. The big difference is if The Ninth gets away or not. I believe letting The Ninth escape is a good idea, but it could lead to other ramifications later in the story that you see beyond The Lost Boys’ quest.