The two remaining men started to run, seeing no chance to kill the creature. Dropping a PDA beacon entitled "VERY DANGEROUS AREA - STAY AWAY" they quickly left the area, as the giant started to drag the two bodies back into the factory.
― Local folklore
The Pseudogiant is one of the rarest and most fearsome mutants in the Zone, appearing in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. It has developed incredible strength, inhuman resilience, and a grotesque form which heavily deviates from human-based mutations.
Overview
The pseudogiant resembles a massive, drop-shaped abdomen with a pair of disproportionately large limbs. The limbs are arms and legs at the same time. The creature uses them to move around and grab its victims. An adult pseudogiant can weigh up to two tons and stand 2 meters tall. Their clumsy appearance might be deceiving, since they can move very rapidly if needed. Their muscles are exceptionally powerful and their bones are as hard as steel. The creature's brain is protected by a sturdy (up to 10 centimeters thick) skull, while many complex functions are controlled by the spinal medulla. Another astonishing feature of the beast is its ability to create local shock waves, which damage all living things in the vicinity.
― Shadow of Chernobyl PDA description
Pseudogiants are very unique in the Zone's fauna, as they seem to be heavily-mutated humans. Pseudogiants are incredibly tough enemies which can withstand large amounts of damage before being killed, and are very dangerous to unprepared stalkers due to their ability to deal a large amount of damage when it attacks.
The Pseudogiant uses four attacks: a headbutt; a swing/grab with one of its muscled arms; a surprisingly effective stab from its smaller, clawed arms; and a ground pound that creates a damaging impact shockwave. The first three attacks can be avoided by being out of range, and the last area-of-effect attack can be avoided by jumping just before it pounds the ground, which can be a bit tricky - this does not apply to Call of Pripyat.
Appearances
Shadow of Chernobyl
The player will most likely first encounter the pseudogiant in Lab X-18 as it guards the room where a ecologist body that must be searched for a door keycode is found. The player will encounter another creature in the tunnels below Lab X-16, and three will be in the Pripyat Stadium, though it is likely they will be caught by the whirligigs in the area and die before they could pose a threat to the player. Pseudogiants may respawn randomly in the Dark Valley, Wild Territory, Army Warehouses and the Red Forest, but this is relatively rare.
Pseudogiants in Shadow of Chernobyl are not as hardy as their later incarnations, but are still amongst the toughest mutants in the game. Also a consideration is that most of the Pseudogiants appear relatively early in the game, before much of the game's end-tier gear is made available, forcing the player to make do with lower-end weaponry and armor. The Fast-shooting Akm 74/2 that can be found in the Agroprom Underground is surprisingly effective against pseudogiants as one or two magazines will be enough to kill it, and the weapon's fast fire rate will prove to be very helpful during the fight.
Fortunately, however, with some quick maneuvering, the player never actually needs to fight any of them and may escape the areas they spawn in before they get in close enough to be a problem.
Clear Sky
Locations
There is a Pseudogiant atop a hill in the Agroprom, that the player will have to fight most likely to recover the Ripper shotgun that the creature guards, as part of a side mission. One or two can be found at the Red Forest near the Symbiont anomaly.
Pseudogiants are made a lot more resilient, easily capable of shrugging off repeated salvos of high-powered bullets and explosives in higher difficulties before being brought down, although a direct hit from an RPG-7u will instantly put it down if Scar acquires a usable one. It isn't especially clear whether headshots inflict more damage or not, considering their thick skull. In general, firing at their head is the best way to kill them, but players who are exceptionally skilled with grenades can do a lot of damage.
Call of Pripyat
Locations
The first (and only) scripted Pseudogiant will occur in the Testing Workshop. It is located in a testing room on the other side of the Documents concerning item 62 room. Its shockwave can knock Degtyarev off the walkways and railings above if the player attempts to use them to get around the giant. As such, the player is likely to kill the beast before acquiring the documents. Afterwards, they will spawn randomly (though quite rarely) in Yanov once the player has returned the Gauss rifle to Cardan.
Pseudogiants in this game gain the ability to hurl objects at the player with their attacks, and are one of the mutants granted a special scripted attack – capable of knocking the player down onto the ground, and dealing heavy damage with a follow-up attack. This, if it connects, can often outright kill a poorly equipped stalker, but it also seems to require the player be either standing still or immobilized by a shockwave.
Lastly, every Pseudogiant emits large amounts of radiation, often enough to induce at least minor radiation poisoning just by getting within range of attack. This radiation emission persists even after death.
Resilience
In Call of Pripyat the Pseudogiant's resistance to weaponry has been further increased. They are the toughest mutants in the game, even more resilient than the deadly Chimera. On Master difficulty, they are so tough that they can take about 2-4 Gauss Rifle shots, and they can survive even direct hits from an RPG-7u, while the ground pound attack can deflect the rockets if used at the right time. Reliably taking one down with standard assault rifle ammunition takes hundreds of rounds - on the other hand, it only takes around 60 buckshot rounds to do the same, although the lengthy reloads on most shotguns make this a difficult and dangerous task. An RP-74 upgraded with a 200 round belt box magazine with enough 7.62x54mm PP rounds is a good choice. Surprisingly, pistols can also work well: even on Master difficulty, a bit under 200 .45 ACP Hydroshock rounds will kill a Pseudogiant.
Despite their resilience, Pseudogiants appear to be more territorial than offensive. They typically will not pursue a target more than a short distance before abandoning the chase and falling back, only attacking when another target gets within range. The Pseudogiant also may retreat from a battle after having lost only about half or even a fourth of its health. Such events bring into question the nature of the creature, as despite its gigantic strength, fierce appearance, and viciousness in combat, it's not as relentless and persistent as more predatory mutants like bloodsuckers and chimeras.
Survival Tips
- Preparation is key. A tough suit of armor and plenty of medical supplies, a large stockpile of ammunition and a high perch will go a long way. Pseudogiants take an incredible amount of ammunition to kill, and if one can't confront them from a secure position with good equipment, they'll likely get too close for a player to use weapons comfortably, especially explosives such as the RPG7.
- Pseudogiants are, like the lore states, deceptively agile. A player cannot reliably outrun and gun down one simultaneously, especially in the consistently cramped confines of their preferred homes.
- However, if the player's not weighed down heavily, with use of Energy drinks, it is possible to exploit the beast's movement when reloading the current weapon. Through zig-zagging and quick jumping, one can avoid melee attacks entirely.
- The higher ground is vital. They're completely unable to climb, so nearly every Pseudogiant can be taken out safely if the player can find a ledge or railing it can't take down.
- Pseudogiants in the wild are thankfully rare, but far more dangerous – not only will the player be often unable to get a high position, it makes quick work of any NPCs that could assist. It's more advisable to run and let NPCs whittle away at its health, or just sprint away from the mutant's territory entirely.
- The RPG and RG-6 may not instantly kill a Pseudogiant, but a direct hit or salvo will soften them up dramatically. A follow-up shot, if the player has time to reload, will finish them off.
- The first Pseudogiant encountered in Call of Pripyat in Zaton can easily be killed without health loss, as it is too large to attack a player who has retreated back through the doorway with anything but its area-of-effect ground pound. Using the elevated catwalks and train car as an attacking position also works, but once again, the area-of-effect attack can still do damage and knock the player off his perch to the Pseudogiant's level.
- Out in the open, players can sprint away and use hills and obstacles to break line-of-sight with the Pseudogiant, It will lose interest and wander off.
- On the easiest difficulty, two M209/VOG grenades are enough to kill a pseudogiant on a direct impact.
- In some cases it is possible to shoot it until it gets close, then fleeing into a building where it cannot follow. This will probably cause the giant to wander off, giving you the chance to leave the building and continue shooting again or leave it behind entirely.
Trivia
- It is not specified in-game how a Pseudogiant mutated to the extent it did, as all other human-based mutations still retained their humanoid form, and had they been engineered by scientists, they would have inherited psychic abilities. While it retains a visage of a human face and limbs, it has greatly deviated from the standard form of a human being. It is possible that the Pseudogiant is a conglomerate of several humans that have mutated together, or an artificial, lab-grown human experiment gone wrong, which would explain why most scripted encounters with them involve being near or inside X-Laboratories.
- It also has remnants of human body parts, such as the two little arms on its sides which, as mentioned, it uses to stab their victims with, and a deformed and seemingly useless foot sticking out of its lower body. The two larger arms seem to have mutated out of its body.
- The ground will quake whenever a pseudogiant is on the move.
- There appears to be a hand growing out of the Pseudogiant's behind.
Gallery
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