As you step into the initial base of Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl, known as Zalissya, you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed with various side quests. These quests will guide you throughout the Lesser Zone and are essential to the game, offering unique and rare rewards that you won’t find in the main storyline.
One notable side quest is assigned by a character named Warlock, called Warlock’s Debtor. After completing this quest, you’ll unlock An Errand For Warlock, which presents you with three different options to choose from.
Which Quest Should You Pick From Warlock
After finishing the Warlock’s Debtor quest and returning to Warlock, you’ll discover new ways to earn some cash. He presents you with three quest options: retrieve an artifact, eliminate bandits, or take down a pack of blind dogs. Each quest comes with a specified reward.
Among these options, the artifact quest stands out as the most lucrative, offering a significantly better reward. However, this task can be quite challenging due to the randomness involved.
The other two quests are easier but involve longer travel distances. If you opt for either of the two enemy-killing quests, you’ll simply need to follow the blue marker on your map and engage the foes. Just be sure to prepare yourself, as both the bandits and the blind dogs come in large numbers, which can overwhelm inexperienced players.
A smart strategy is to get close to your targets and use a grenade first for maximum area damage while they are still gathered together. Once you’ve softened them up, switch to your most powerful weapon to finish them off.
How To Get the Whirlwind Artifact
If you chose the highest-paying quest, be ready for a bit of a time-consuming hunt based on your luck. The Whirlwind is an artifact that can randomly appear in various anomalous zones—regions where multiple anomalies cluster together.
You’re most likely to find it in a zone with a gravitational anomaly. Fortunately, there are two excellent locations near Zalissya where you can search for it: Deaf Meadows to the east and Ribs to the south. Venture into either of these areas to look for the artifact, hoping it will be the one you require.
Keep in mind that artifacts in these zones reset after some time. Additionally, if you really want to optimize your chances, you can save your game and repeatedly reload your save file until you find the artifact. Just remember that your save point should be far enough away from the zone itself to allow for the necessary journey back.
