Should you help Vitya get the pigsty cache or help the stalker in STALKER 2?

There are several random encounters you can find while exploring the Zone in STALKER 2. When you first enter the region known as Garbage, one of the first interactions you can find is the bandit Vitya who is trying to get into a stalker’s hidden cache.

You can choose how to go about this situation, where you can work with the trio of bandits to split the loot, or you can go out of your way to help the stalker. Like many other choices you can find while wandering the Zone, your decisions matter, and it can reflect how the other factions treat you as you progress further in the game. If you’re wondering if it’s better to help Vitya get the pigsty cache, or to help the stalker in STALKER 2, we can help you how and show what happens based on your decisions.

Is it better to help Vitya get the pigsty cache or help the stalker in STALKER 2?

Although Vitya and his bandits present a choice about what you can do about the pigsty cache, it always leads to violence in STALKER 2. You can choose to split it with the group, offering half of it to each party. They don’t tell you what half you get and the half they get, but that’s partially the point. It’s easy to expect a fight with the bandit faction.

If you choose to work with the bandits, you can just head inside the pigsty building they’re standing in front of and explore the area. The location where you can find the cache is on the left side, inside one of the left compartments. It’ll be blocked by several wooden boxes, which you can break or jump over, depending on if you have the room. From there, look for a room in the back partially blocked by wooden planks, and you can break those apart using your knife or a swift melee attack.

After you break the wood, head into this room and look through the trash in the back. You’ll find a satchel on the floor of the trash, which you can loot and obtain all the leftover items. When you return out front, the bandits ask you if you discovered the loot yet, and after you confirm it, they’re ready to split it up. But while they say that, they’ll begin attacking you, and you have to fend them off or you’ll perish.

Because of these outcomes, you’re better off attacking the bandits when you meet them immediately. There’s no talking any sense into them, and they’ll be hostile you regardless of your decisions through these discussions in STALKER 2. There’s also an upside to attacking them, too. After you dispatch them, help the wounded stalker on the ground. This may cost you a medkit, but he’s willing to share the cache’s location with you, and shows you exactly where to find it.

So long as you help the stalker and heal him, he’s willing to share the cache location with you, and doesn’t ask any from you. He’s happy to be alive, and you stopped to get rid of the bandits. Overall, you want to choose to help the stalker in this situation in STALKER 2. It’s a good lesson on what to expect for the rest of the game, especially if you consider what someone is willing to try and steal from you.