The Laboratory
A Soviet-era underground facility where experiments triggered the second Chernobyl disaster.
The Laboratory is a classified underground facility in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, established following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It is one of several secret laboratories where experiments were conducted that led to a second catastrophe in 2006.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Soviet military research facility
- Location
- The Zone
- Controlling faction
- Military
- First appears
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (franchise)
- Status
- Operational; partially overrun by Zone phenomena
- Access
- Quest-gated; requires Military clearance or hostile entry
Lore & Background
According to the series' backstory, a number of classified laboratories were established in the Chernobyl exclusion zone after the nuclear disaster of 1986. Due to the experiments conducted in these laboratories, a second catastrophe occurred in 2006, which caused physical and meteorological phenomena and mutation of local life. The Clear Sky faction is said to have come out of the scientist group leading the experiments that created the Zone.
Reader's Guide
The Laboratory first appears in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, where the protagonist uncovers clues to his past and learns about the nature and origins of the Zone by exploring mysterious underground laboratories. It is an abandoned underground facility overrun by mutants and anomalies, not a heavily guarded military outpost. The laboratory is not revisited in later games in a way that shows shifting conditions.
More in The Zone & Anomalies
Elsewhere in STALKER
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