Raid 36 - The Bunker - Level 12

 I've been practicing offline lately - trying to get better at tackling Raiders. I streamed several of those offline raids as well, and learned some things: I tend to keep my weapon aimed too low, when aiming down sight and leaning out I'm not lining up the shot right, and streaming sometimes introduces performance hiccups into my gameplay. So I did not stream todays raid.

And the end of last wipe, I would often practice fighting Raiders. They are usually in sets of three, and so when practicing I would typically kill the three in the bunker, pull the switch for D2, which would spawn three more, kill those, then go outside, pull the hermetic door switch, which would spawn more three more raiders near the train station and then go die trying to take those on. But right now this wipe I'm only level 11 and don't have access to the flea market. So I have to make-do with the armor, ammo and weaponry at hand, and that is a struggle. But, after several days practice, I can now usually kill the raiders in the bunker and survive. Usually. 

Today I had some extra real-world time and decided to run a bunch of raids. But, as usual, I was wrong and only able to run one.

Raid 36 - The Bunker (part 1) completed

Loadout: Bruised Class 4 armored rig, Silenced AKM with several mags of PS gsh ammo. Ears, meds. Flashlight. One grenade.  I have a 6x Valday scope on the AKM. It's working pretty well, just need to remember to switch to 1x when underground.

I spawned in the bedsit behind the vehicle repair bays - near the manhole extract.  Looted some jackets and headed out. Checked behind me, no sign of any players. Checked in front. Clear. I ran across the open area and dove into the King garages. Door to the gym looks open - someone is in front of me. Footsteps outside, approaching. I went upstairs.

I wasn't in the looting mood. I crossed the third floor and partly descended the staircase - taking up a hidden position between the second and third floors. This is not a great location, but if anyone approaches I should hear them and I'll probably surprise them. 

Sounds of battle from downstairs. Repeatedly. At some point I heard heavy breathing and mag reloading - it seemed to be on the other side of the wall from me, but I bet it's from the basement. Things grew quiet again. Time check. Ten minutes have passed since the start of the raid. OK, enough cowering, time to move. I slowly crept downstairs.  When I reached the basement I scoped ahead - no sign of anyone. Very quiet.  I turned on the flashlight and advanced.

I started descending that last metal staircase from King into the bunker when I heard a shout directly below me. A raider or scav crouched next to the staircase. I fired but the shots weren't going through the floor - I aimed down site and leaned over - but I forgot to put the scope in 1x mode. In my confusion my adversary got off a good shot - giving me a bleed and blacking my arm. I zoomed in on his left nostril and put a blast of autofire through his head.  I hustled down the stairs - taking cover - waiting for his backup. But no one came. 

I healed and then surveyed the area -  lot of bodies down here. A PMC, two raiders, my victim when not zoomed in was obviously just a scav, which is lucky for me, had he been a raider I'd be dead.  I scanned the side passage, the bathrooms, stepped towards the water. There was a body with red pants near the water. Shit. I've only seen the red pants a few times in my offline raids. It's a glitch that happens sometimes to Glukhars guards when they are in the basements. I've never seen one of Glukhars guards in the bunker before, but I've encountered them in the basements of both pawn and bishop buildings, and I've had them follow me anywhere, up the roof of white pawn even. 

I didn't approach the water any further. I turned back and checked the big room. The door that leads to the offices was open. I stepped into the big room - expecting to get shot from across the room, but nothing. I peeked the open offices hallway - empty. I closed that door. 

The body of the PMC is in the doorway, exposed to a lot of angles. But that raider over there I can loot from cover. So I went and carefully started looting him. He had some cool Thor Level 4 armor, but it was zeroed out. Pass. An AK-74SU. Pass. 30 round magazines, instead of the 60 rounders I so badly need. Pass. I started to search his pockets when I heard footsteps from across the big room. Cancel.

I really do not need an encounter with one of Glukhars guards. As I recall, they each are in pairs, so the dead one near the water has a buddy.  Also, by my count there are only two raiders accounted for - there should be a third. If so, I'll need to kill him from close up - can't win a fight with him at range. I withdrew up the ramp towards D2. 

I circled around, descending again into the bunker from the white pawn side. I heard rustling footsteps to my right - I could see the edge of a shoulder behind a doorframe.  I 6x zoomed, leaned out, still can't see his head, but I can get a much better shot on his thorax now. I put a round in him. He screamed something in Russian and ran away.  Scav.  I'm not chasing him - Glukhars guards could be in black pawn or black bishop.

Instead I ran across the big room and entered the side hall heading to the D2 switch. Empty. No bodies. I opened the door to the control room - the lights were on, which means the switch has been activated. No shouts. I entered the control room, exited, closed the door, double checked that the switch was pulled, popped a pain and headed out. As I reached the big room, I heard shuffling footsteps again from the area under black pawn.  I don't need this battle. I threw my grenade. The scav shouted and ran off again - I crossed back to white pawn.

Before descending to D2 I took one more look down the ramp leading to the bunker, but no one. Made my way to D2 - the hermetic door there was closed. I opened it and extracted.

Time In Raid: 19 minutes, 19 seconds
Exp: 870
Kills: Leva Psih (scav)
Ammo Used: 29, Hits: 3, Accuracy: 0.1, Damage to Body: 127, Damage to Armor: 21

Mistakes

• apparently the "red pants" glitch can affect raiders as well. So Mr. Red Pants was a raider, not a Glukhar guard. I was freaking out and being overly cautious for nothing
• Very little loot. I could have looted the bodies, the big boxes, file cabinets, but I didn't.
• Frankly, a little boring.  I should probably have been braver and fought the raiders myself, instead of letting others do it.
• Shouldn't have passed on the AK-74SU - it probably had a B-11 mount which I need for one of my gunsmithing quests.

Successes

• Survived
• Completed Quest
• Achieved Level 12
• Found the key to Dorm Room 206, which is one I need for a quest.

Postscript

I dislike that so many quests are "Survive and Extract". It makes sense that they are, obviously, but when I'm quest focused I'm all business. If I didn't need to survive and extract, I could stay longer - maybe hunt me up some player scavs.  

I have mixed feelings about this raid. On one hand, I'm very glad to have successfully completed the quest. Also, I like this suppressed AKM and I'm not eager to lose it. So it's great to survive and see another day. But on the other hand, I dislike that I'm avoiding confrontation. I could have gone through that first open door and maybe caught up with the player in front of me. I could have fought the raiders head-on, instead of tip-toeing around their bodies.

Well, Prapor wants me to return the bunker and map out its entrances.  So I guess I'm going back. Will I change my modus operandi?  Should I?

Post PostScript - Tips for Offline Reserve

When playing online, the number of scavs and raiders, as well as the loot to be found, is directly proportional to the number of PMCs in the raid. The more players, the more raiders.

But offline, things are a little different.  The "AI Amount" controls the number of scavs that will spawn initially on the map and how fast they'll continue to spawn over time.  However, AFAICT this setting does NOT directly affect the raiders and Glukhars guards. But it does affect them indirectly.

So, if you choose "Fewer" for your AI Amount, but also choose "Enable Bosses", then you'll get a raid where in the first minutes Glukhar and his 6 guards will spawn (in one of their spawn locations) and three raiders will spawn in the bunker.  If you click the D2 button, you'll cause three more raiders to spawn, and back outside pulling the bunker switch will likewise spawn three more raiders near the trains.   However, if you choose a different value for AI Amount (like "High" or "Horde") then the game will spawn a bunch of scavs (in the bunker and everywhere) and whenever it goes to spawn raiders it may spawn fewer or none. I think this is because in offline mode there is a max NPC count and the scavs end up taking all the oxygen. 

So if you want to practice fighting raiders offline, I recommend using the "Fewest" option for the AI Amount.  This will ensure that you see the most actual raiders. Try it yourself.

Secondly the "Difficulty" setting affects normal scavs in a couple of ways. It changes their loadout. Impossible Scavs tend to have Class 4 armor, Easy Scavs often have none, and Easy scavs are more likely to have pistols or shotguns. It also makes the scavs more sensitive to hearing or spotting you. It changes both their reaction time and their accuracy when firing.   Impossible Scavs are likely to have grenades and use them, but otherwise their overall scav behavior stays the same. They crouch. They stand. They run from place to place. And those places are the same regardless of their difficulty.

But it is unclear to me if the Difficulty setting has any effect on raiders or Glukhars guards. Maybe it affects their loadout ( Class 4 vs Class 6 armor?)  But as far as I can tell, it has no effect on their hearing, vision, reaction time or aiming.  It might make them more aggressive. I'm not positive, but I sometimes feel like if I have Easy mode on then I need to bait the raiders more to get them to assault me, but that could just be coincidence, I don't have enough evidence. 

I highly recommend fighting the raiders using offline mode. It will definitely makes one a better player.