The Key To Freedom side-mission is located in the northern reaches of the Zaton region in STALKER 2. Travel directly north of the Sultansk base to reach the Fish Farm area where a group of bandits are holding some Stalkers hostage. You’ll need to act fast to save the Stalkers — and finding the key is surprisingly difficult. While there are clues to the key location, they’re easy to lose in the open-world weirdness of STALKER 2. If you’re sick of searching, here’s how to complete The Key To Freedom side-mission.
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The Key To Freedom | Side-Mission Guide
The side-mission begins when you approach the Fish Farm area in northern Zaton. The farm is south of the large lake, south of the entrance to the modern institute in the north. Approaching the Fish Farm, you’ll hear bandits yelling. Before long, a gunfight will break out.
Wipe out the group of bandits, then approach the building with the locked door. Talk to the Stalker trapped inside through the window to learn more. The Stalker will ask for help getting out — you’ll need to find the key to save the Stalkers.
- Key Location: The Key is found on the rooftop opposite the locked door building. Climb the ladder on the left side of the warehouse, on the exterior corner.
- On the rooftop, use a bolt to activate the electricity anomalies and run past. Follow the winding path on the rooftop to reach the back-right corner. There’s a hanging stash here with the key.
- Bonus Reward: The stash bag with the key also contains a Coupled AKM-74 Magazine upgrade.
Use the key to open the locked door, then talk to the Stalker leader once they leave the room. Talk to him and he’ll give you a small reward for saving him. You won’t get anything unique here, but you can loot the bodies for valuable guns and ammo. You can also find a stash inside the nearby warehouse. Jump to the center and avoid the anomalies to locate a stash backpack full of healing items, ammo and other loot.
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How To Find The Key: While completing this quest, if you talk to the Stalker through the window, you’ll be directed to find Adik Pedal’s PDA. This is the leader of the bandits. By searching his body and reading his PDA, you’ll learn the location of the key instead of randomly looking around the area. The body can be anywhere so look for ‘X‘ marks on your compass showing bodies you haven’t looted. Loot all the bandits and you should eventually find Adik Pedal, but reading the PDA isn’t required. If you know where to look for the key, you can go and get it first. The mission won’t update, but the PDA will tell you in text that the key is on the roof. That’s your big clue.
