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In Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, you’ll eventually find yourself in the high-tech laboratories at SIRCAA, located in the eastern part of the Zone. During your time there, you’ll undertake several missions, including one called "The Forge of Progress." This mission will take you deep into the facility, where you’ll uncover some unsettling truths that the Association would prefer to keep hidden.
The Forge of Progress mission isn’t overly challenging, as the focus of the SIRCAA section primarily centers on the narrative. Nonetheless, there are a few challenging moments to navigate, which will be highlighted here.
How To Complete The Forge Of Progress
You commence The Forge of Progress mission in a rather unsuspecting way. After your conversation with Dr. Dalin at the conclusion of the previous mission, A Long Overdue Visit, you’ll be directed to the ARL to meet Dr. Kryvenko. The mission kicks off shortly after you exit the meeting and head toward the lab.
Leave the meeting room and take a right, then go through the door on your left that opens into a large garden. Continue right toward the building in the distance that’s surrounded by scaffolding.
Dr. Kryvenko will be waiting for you just beyond the lab doors. He’ll ask you to walk with him. As you stroll past the closed windows, have one last chat with him, and when the option arises, choose "I’m gonna go take a look."
Return to the main foyer where you met Dr. Kryvenko and go through the door behind him, where there’s a glass-paneled section. Make your way up the stairs and turn right to enter a control room. Passing through will lead you to a corridor with a door that opens to another clearing—go through that door.
Once inside, gather any ammunition and healing supplies you can find. Then break the yellow-painted boards to access the tunnels. Make your way down into the fan room and enter the open pipe at the bottom. Keep moving deeper until you arrive at a pipe spewing steam over a waterlogged hallway.
When you reach the large chamber filled with a deep pit, use some grenades to clear out the rat swarm, then head to the far side of the room and shoot the lock on the ladder to drop it down.
Next, proceed to the following room where the spatial anomaly resides. To access it, first, you’ll need to defeat the Burer mutant that’s standing in your way.
This Burer isn’t as tough as a Controller, and once its shield is down, you’re free to deal damage to it. The most effective strategy is to use a shotgun and get up close, as at point-blank range, it has few defenses and can’t keep its shield active indefinitely.
The mutant is capable of telekinetically wielding weapons against you, and it can even make you drop your own gun. So, once the mutant’s shield is down, unleash your firepower, and it should go down without much trouble. Then, exit through the red-lit door located under the stairs to continue onward.
The corridor through the red door leads to a staircase. If you turn right at the fork, you encounter a trapped scientist. If you manage to eliminate the mutant that’s endangering him, he will offer you a key to a supply room on an upper level. Helping him is a choice you’ll need to make.
Should you choose to assist him, the supply room is located on the right side of the room at the top of the stairs and contains a wealth of ammunition, food, and healing supplies.
Across from the supply room, there is a long hallway that provides a clear view of the spatial anomaly. Go through and descend the stairs in the next room.
At this point, you find yourself facing The Guardian Program, which is a series of combat training exercises spread across four different rooms, featuring various challenges involving combat and platforming.
How To Complete The Guardian Program
In the first phase of the Guardian Program, your task involves avoiding anomalies. The easiest way to navigate this is to jump across the tops of the lower walls. Use the large steps at the room’s entrance to elevate yourself.
To reach the open door that leads out, stick to the left side… jump through the floating glass segments, avoid the elemental anomalies, and loop back around to the right to find the door.
The next room presents a simple button-pressing challenge. There are four buttons, and you must press them in the correct order to proceed. The correct sequence is 1-3-4-2.
In your subsequent challenge, you must defeat a Bloodsucker and then turn some knobs. The initial room is infested with Bloodsuckers, so eliminate it before moving to the next room, which is filled with toxic, radioactive gas.
To clear the gas, you need to rotate three pipes to the "off" position by turning their cranks to the right. The first crank is typically found directly to the right of the entry door.
Follow the walkway along the wall opposite the entrance. Jump on it, turn left, duck under the grating, climb the ladder, and look left to find the second crank.
The final crank will be positioned over a series of blue pipes, marked with a light and a red metal number two behind it. Turn this third crank to vent the gas and unlock the door leading forward.
Once beyond the door, grab healing items from lockers, navigate through the decontamination area, and continue through the next door.
Instead of heading straight toward the objective, you should check the bathroom on your right. You’ll find a modified Fora-221 rifle, an M860 Cracker, and the SSP-99 Ecologist Suit.
Push ahead through the lab rooms until you finally reach the spatial anomaly. Jump inside for a unique encounter through dimensions.
Once you exit the anomaly, you’ll arrive in an underground facility swarming with Snorks, which are humanoid mutants covered in blood sores. Clear them out and stick to the right until you hear Hermann’s voice calling from beyond a set of turnstiles. Talk to him through the windows, and he will "open the door" for you, indicating yet more dangers ahead.
Take the door to the right of Hermann’s location and duck under the anomaly blocking the path forward.
Drop down, turn left, and when you reach the room with dead Snorks and floating glass, make your way across to the other side, bypassing or traversing the anomalies as you go. Continue until you reach the stairs and ascend them. Behind one last set of doors is Hermann, who has plenty of lore to share along with one more spatial anomaly to traverse.
Going through this anomaly will thrust you into a chaotic scene filled with pig mutants and then into a small compartment with a chimera. Fortunately, the third teleportation will safely transport you back to the Zone’s relative safety. Once you’ve exited the SIRCAA facility, you’ll have successfully completed The Forge of Progress mission.