The Stories Untold update for Stalker 2 opens with Dark as a Dungeon, a short but dense mission that sends you through a flooded mine packed with bandits. The quest introduces Banzai, a new NPC, and establishes the larger Stories Untold questline.
Dark as a Dungeon is tightly scripted once it starts. The confusing part is knowing how to trigger it and how to navigate the mine without backtracking in circles. The structure is simple: pick up Banzai’s distress call, reach the Old Mine, free him, shut down a pump, then track down a bandit leader named Pickaxe to recover a drive.
How to start Stories Untold and unlock Dark as a Dungeon
Step 1: Progress the main story until you can freely move around the open world. Stories Untold content only becomes available once fast travel and region hopping are unlocked.
Step 2: Travel to the Burnt Forest region. There is no fixed marker to walk to. Simply roam the area on foot for a short while and a distress message from a stalker called Banzai will arrive on your PDA or over comms.
Step 3: Listen to Banzai’s message. He explains he has been captured by bandits and is being held in the Old Mine located in the Red Forest, specifically in the southern part of that region. This message is the functional start of the Stories Untold content.
Step 4: Open your map and plot a route to the Old Mine in Red Forest. You can travel there immediately after receiving Banzai’s call; no additional prerequisites are needed.
Once you enter the Old Mine and reach Banzai’s cell, the game formally assigns the Dark as a Dungeon mission.
Entering the Old Mine and reaching Banzai
Step 1: Approach the Old Mine in Red Forest. Bandits guard the surface entrance, so expect a firefight as soon as you come into view. Clear the outer group before you move inside to avoid being flanked.
Step 2: Before you descend, equip a gas mask and make sure you have enough ammo and medkits. Parts of the mine are flooded and hazardous, and you will be in close-quarters gunfights for most of the mission.
Step 3: Enter the mine and move straight down the main tunnel. Stay on the train tracks; they are the key landmark for this entire layout.
Step 4: When the tracks split at the first junction, take the right-hand path. Follow it until you see a cell block on your left. Banzai is locked inside one of these cells.
Step 5: Shoot the lock on Banzai’s cell door to break it and then speak with him. Once the conversation ends, Dark as a Dungeon is officially active and your objective shifts to dealing with the flooding in the lower sections of the mine.
Turning off the pump and stopping the flooding
Step 1: From Banzai’s cell, walk back along the tracks to the same junction where they split earlier.
Step 2: This time, follow the branch that goes straight ahead from the split instead of turning right again. A blue quest marker will guide you in this direction.
Step 3: As you move forward, watch for a door on your left. Enter this side area when you reach it.
Step 4: Inside the room, immediately turn right and walk toward the sound of heavy machinery. The pump you need to disable is loud; using your audio makes this much easier to track.
Step 5: At the end of this path you will find a wooden door secured with a simple lock. Shoot or melee the lock to break it, then open the door.
Step 6: Go inside and locate the lever on the left side of the room. Interact with it to shut down the pump and stop the flooding. This completes the second major objective and triggers the next phase of the mission, focused on the bandit leader Pickaxe and Banzai’s missing data.
Dealing with Pickaxe and the bandits
Once the pump powers down, the bandits respond over the intercom, and a voice identified as Pickaxe orders his men to reactivate it. The mine becomes more hostile from this point on.
Step 1: Leave the pump room and return to the familiar train track split. As you proceed along the track, expect another group of bandits directly ahead. Clear them before you push deeper.
Step 2: After the encounter on the tracks, go back to Banzai’s cell area. He is no longer standing in the open and will be hiding to the right side of the corridor, using cover from the fighting.
Step 3: Directly opposite Banzai’s cell is a doorway that leads further into the mine complex. Move through this door to reach the lower levels where Pickaxe’s people are entrenched.
Step 4: Drop down when the path slopes or opens into lower chambers. You will face more bandits at each level. Engage them methodically; there is little room to maneuver, so short controlled bursts and grenades are effective.
Step 5: When prompted, interact with the nearby controls to turn off the electricity. Cutting power is required to make progress and to safely move deeper into the flooded section.
Step 6: After disabling the power, continue downward until you reach an area with metal poles and a visible ladder. Climb the ladder to a higher platform and follow the corridor ahead; this brings you closer to Pickaxe’s position.
Finding Pickaxe, getting the PDA, and recovering Banzai’s drive
Eventually you reach a locked door that blocks the most direct route to Pickaxe. The mission quietly shifts into a short detour through his hidden workspace.
Step 1: At the locked door, look around the room for boxes or crates you can destroy. Break them to reveal a path forward.
Step 2: Move along this new route until you come across a breakable section of wall. Destroy the weakened wall to open a passage into a small chamber.
Step 3: Inside this chamber you will find Pickaxe’s body. Loot him to obtain Pickaxe’s worn-out PDA, which includes messages referencing a figure named Skull. The PDA is not required to complete the mission but helps set up the broader Stories Untold arc.
Step 4: Search the rest of the room. This is effectively Pickaxe’s workspace. Look for a large blue chest in the area.
Step 5: Open the blue chest to receive Banzai’s drive. This item is the key quest objective for Dark as a Dungeon. The chest also contains a Two-O-Three Underbarrel Grenade Launcher, which you can attach to compatible rifles for future encounters.
Finishing Dark as a Dungeon
Step 1: With Banzai’s drive in your inventory, retrace your route through the mine back to his cell area. The path is now largely clear, although a few remaining bandits may still be patrolling depending on how fights played out earlier.
Step 2: Talk to Banzai and hand over the drive. During the conversation, you have to confirm that his tools could not be recovered; there is no alternative way to save them within this mission.
Step 3: Once the dialogue ends, the game marks Dark as a Dungeon as complete. This closes the opening chapter of Stories Untold and unlocks the rest of the questline, including later missions such as Down Below and The Road to the Foundation.
Once Dark as a Dungeon is wrapped up, you are free to leave the Old Mine and continue exploring Red Forest or return to other regions. From here, Stories Untold unfolds as a separate thread alongside the main campaign, with Banzai, Pickaxe’s PDA, and the mention of Skull tying into the DLC’s later missions.
