The Best Mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Our favorite mods to the base series. Get ready to get reacquainted with this classic first-person shooter as The Zone changes before your eyes.

Since GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was released back in 2007, the game has stayed alive through its healthy modding community. Popular modding site ModDB offers hundreds of mods for Shadow of Chernobyl and its sequels, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

There are mods offering everything from slight tweaks to full-blown, standalone adventures set the chilling, post-apocalyptic universe. If you don’t want to wait for the supposed 2021 release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, we’ve chosen our favorite mods to the base series. Get ready to get reacquainted with this classic first-person shooter as The Zone changes before your eyes.

Lost Alpha: Developer’s Cut

Requires: No S.T.A.L.K.E.R. version required

Lost Alpha is a mod which lovingly recreates what developer dez0wave considers, “the original version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” The game as it was originally back in 2002, years prior to Shadow of Chernobyl’s release. Lost Alpha features an expansive world built with many of the game’s original assets, including both remade versions of levels from the original game as well as all-new levels to explore. It’s worth noting that Lost Alpha is a standalone mod, and doesn’t actually require any version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. This means you don’t even have to own the game to play Lost Alpha.

Download Lost Alpha: Developer’s Cut here.

Call of Chernobyl

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat

TeamEPIC’s Call of Chernobyl is a massive mod for the third game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Call of Pripyat. Many new customizations options have been added, allowing you to customize everything from your character to the weather in each of the game’s 32 maps. Call of Chernobyl features an excellent “Freeplay mode,” offering an open world similar to Bethesda’s Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There’s also welcome UI changes, visual improvements, and an overhaul of the game’s AI and A-Life event system. It’s easy to see why Call of Chernobyl was selected as ModDB’s 2016 Mod of the Year.

Download Call of Chernobyl here.

Dead Air

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Dead Air builds on Call of Chernobyl’s massive world and offers an all-new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience, improving nearly every aspect of Call of Pripyat. Dead Air lets you customize your S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience right from the start, offering character customization, allowing you to select perks to tweak your character’s ability. Dead Air features a huge graphical overhaul, offering the ability to adjust the scenery, in case fog is really your thing. If you’re new to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Dead Air might not be the best place to start, as it can be mercilessly unforgiving. If you are up to the challenge, Redditor HuntyDaPro offers some great tips to help you get started.

Download Dead Air here.

AMK: Autumn Edition

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

AMK: Autumn Edition combines two separate mods, AMK and Autumn Aurora, to offer a visually pleasing, improved Shadow of Chernobyl experience. In AMK, guns look (and function) better, enemy spawns are increased, economy is improved, new quests are available, and other quality of life changes have been introduced. AMK improves many aspects of the vanilla game without changing too much. Autumn Aurora drastically improves Shadow of Chernobyl’s atmosphere, creating an immersive new world featuring overhauled graphics as well as improved sound and music. AA also features some fairly drastic gameplay changes, making surviving Chernobyl’s harsh world quite a bit more difficult. However, if you’re looking for a great “all in one” mod, look no further.

Download AMK: Autumn Edition here.

Radiophobia 2

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Radiophobia 2 is a newer addition to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s catalog of mods, and one of few receiving regular updates in 2018. Radiophobia 2 overhauls the base game’s combat system while also introducing notable graphical improvements, overall improving the atmosphere of the game. There are a handful of modifications to the difficulty as well, through improved AI and increased spawn rates.

Download Radiophobia 2 here.

L.U.R.K

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

L.U.R.K is a mod that once again tries to add to the original game, with interfering too much in the story and atmosphere that make that game so great. Definitely not a good way to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R for the first time, L.U.R.K kicks just about everything up a notch on the difficulty scale, while also polishing up features and introducing new ones. It overhauls weapons, changes the user interface, and gives a graphics and weather overhaul. It’s a great all in one mod for people looking to make their lives far more stressful.

Download L.U.R.K here.

Misery

Requires: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Misery is a mod that elevates the entire experience of the game. What was hard becomes hellish. What was a difficult world to survive becomes nightmarish. If you ever want to hold up a singular example of the power of games to inspire, and the power of the inspired to then effect change upon a game, Misery is it. The clue is in the name for this one, not really for new players to the game, but certainly a mod that all the old hands in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R community admire.

Download Misery here.