All Into the Radius VR Enemies and How to Kill Them
Violence in Into the Radius is an inevitability. Even the stealthiest Stalker will inevitably be cornered by the various enemies that inhabit the Perchorsk Zone. So if you want to know what opponents and entities are in store for you in Into the Radius here is the complete list, and tips on how to beat them.
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Fragments
Fragments are the first enemies that you will encounter in Into the Radius, and can be found all over the Perchorsk Zone. Like all enemies in Into the Radius they are made of a shifting black translucent material. They look like tall, gangly people with their arms hung low, almost to the ground.
When a Fragment notices you they walk towards you. Their footsteps sound somewhat like normal footsteps, but a little off, as though they’re always walking through shards of glass. If a Fragment gets close to you it will try to punch you to death with its long arms.
To defeat a Fragment you need to shoot or stab it enough times that it loses its humanoid form, and becomes a little orb surrounded by the swirling black material that was previously its body. Sort of like a miniature copy of the Orb in the middle of the Radius. The Fragment will recollect itself and be fully restored if the orb isn’t destroyed in ten to fifteen seconds.
Since Fragments lumber slowly towards you and rarely show up more than two or three at a time it is easy to pick them off with firearms, even your starting Makarov PM will make short work of this enemy. If you want to save ammo first let the Fragment get close before shooting it. Then grab a combat knife off of your arm slot and stab the orb before the Fragment regenerates.
Fragments are also some of the first enemies that will wear glowing armored plates, starting in the Pobeda Factory area. These plates have a high chance to stop basic ammunition types (FMJ), so AP or P+ ammunition is much more effective against Fragments, and other enemies, with these glowing armor plates.
Phantoms
Phantoms are the hardest to see of all enemies in Into the Radius. They are so pale that even in the middle of the day they can be hard to make out, and at night you’ll never notice one without a light, except for the sound of its footsteps.
Otherwise they look exactly like Fragments, and act in exactly the same way. Though Phantoms can notice you from much further away, as they have better eyesight than their more visible cousins. Otherwise being hard to see is their main defense, as unlike Fragments they do not leave an orb after you shoot them. Instead they just disappear. Just let them get close so you can shoot them easily.
Unlike most other enemies in the Zone, Phantoms are never armored.
Mimic Policemen
Mimic Policemen are the first ranged enemies that you will encounter in the Perchorsk Radius. They are made of the same black shifting material as all of the other enemies in the Radius. Except they are very humanoid and have a prominent policeman’s cap on their head. Unlike Fragments they have a pretty normal shape. When they are nearby you can hear them say “Where are you?” and their footsteps sound like a boot hitting concrete, very loud and very distinct. They will also occasionally say “Come have Breakfast” or something equally creepy in a little girl’s voice.
Compared to the melee oriented opponents the Mimics are very deadly. Not only will they notice you easily from far away, but they respond quickly to noise. When it notices you the Mimic will crouch down and shoot at you with its PM Makarov pistol. Despite the small size of their weapon they shoot quickly and accurately, dealing a fair amount of damage very quickly even at medium range.
The Mimic Policeman will stick to cover and crouch walk out of it to take shots at you. When it needs to reload it will run to cover again, load its weapon, and crouch walk out to take more shots at you.
Always take cover when fighting a Mimic Policeman. While they are accurate if you are in the open, they will not hit you often if you fire back at them while mostly protected by a hard barrier capable of stopping bullets. Of course, if you’re fighting them with a pistol as well it can be very hard to land a good shot on them more often than they shoot you. So you may have to wait for the mimic to run out of rounds and then dash to a closer piece of cover while the Mimic reloads.
If you are in a very bad spot you can always run away to a piece of hard cover and let the Mimic come closer to you, though this doesn’t always work. If you stick to cover and aim for the head you will generally do alright. If you have trouble against Mimics then make sure to get a firearm that works well at a distance as soon as possible, like the SKS. You will know when you’ve killed one by the high pitched wail that it makes on death.
Seekers
You will first run into Seekers in the Bolotky Village area, the second map in Into the Radius. They look like an average man, but made completely out of darkness with their heads surrounded by dots of pink light. A seeker will charge you the moment it spots you.
Unlike Fragments, Seekers are very fast and sprint right towards you at about the pace of an adult human. Eerily their footsteps make no noise, so if you do not notice a Seeker after it’s initial wail it can easily sneak up on you. If a Seeker gets right beside you it will not attack you with its arms, but instead release beams of light from its head like those from the reflector anomaly. The beams are damaging and are also very bright and disorienting.
Seekers go down in just a few shots, though like Mimics they can be armored. When they are armored their heads will be exposed, so headshots are key. Seekers often force you to shoot them first while you are also being attacked by ranged Mimic enemies. In this case make sure to take cover and let the Seekers come at you before shooting them. Seekers make a great distraction for Mimics. All in all though Seekers aren’t too hard to take down with whatever firearm as they are spiriting at you full tilt, just make sure your gun isn’t empty!
Spawn
Spawn are little balls of black matter with several loose tentacles hanging out of them. They act and sound super strangely, unlike the otherwise human looking enemies found in Into the Radius. You will immediately know if one is nearby by the unique sound that they make, which is a sort of otherworldly chittering that you’ll just have to hear for yourself.
When a spawn sees you it will roll across the ground, tentacles splayed all over the place, until it gets within a few meters of you. Once it does it will momentarily stop completely, before levitating up into the air a couple of meters and then launching itself towards you.
If it hits you it will do a decent amount of damage before flopping back to the ground, and attacking again in a couple of moments. If it misses you it will stick to whatever surface it hit for a couple of seconds, before repositioning and trying again. If the Spawn doesn’t have a line of sight on you, or is too far away to attack, it will roll toward you until it can. The Spawn will do this over and over until you or it is dead.
Spawns move extremely quickly and so are pretty hard to shoot, so at first glance they can be very intimidating enemies. However, if you’re facing a Spawn alone they are actually pretty easy to take down. Just take advantage of how it attacks. The spawn will launch itself at you in a straight line, so if you constantly strafe around the spawn, it will miss you when it launches itself at you. Then shoot or stab it while the Spawn is stuck on the ground.
For such a fast enemy it isn’t very smart, though if coupled with other nearby enemies it can be hard to focus on strafing around the Spawn while dodging bullets or beams. Another way to take out a Spawn is to just hold out your knife and let it skewer itself when it launches itself onto the blade. Again they’re fast, but not super smart.
Just like Phantoms, Spawn are never armored.
Mimic Commados
Mimic Commandos are largely like Mimic Policemen, but with more firepower. Instead of the PM Makarov Pistols they wield automatic weapons and sniper rifles. As you enter the mid and late game areas there will be no enemy more plentiful than Mimic Commandos. They lack the policeman’s cap of their pistol armed counterparts, and instead sport a radio antenna to differentiate themselves. The sniper variant of the Mimic Commando wears a ghillie suit.
Mimic Commandos, also like Mimic Policemen, will occasionally say lines in human voices, like a little boy saying “Is Max coming out to play?” Sometimes these voices are extremely distorted versions of the same lines.
The Mimic Commandos armed with automatic guns will fire at you in bursts. Usually SMGs or lower end assault rifles like the AKM. Some are armed with shotguns, if you’re lucky. While not exceptionally accurate they will still zero in on you pretty quickly and do a ton of damage if you’re not in cover, especially up close. The snipers are the most accurate of all and do incredible damage, owing to their large caliber weapons.
Mimic Commandos sound and act mostly like Mimic Policemen, just with bigger guns. Though they do seem to be able to see a little further and hear a little better. The Mimic Snipers tend to stick to their positions, and be located in fortified locations like watchtowers and blockhouses.
By the time you run into Mimic Commandos you will need to have a long ranged rifle or assault weapon like the AK-74 or M4A1 to compete with them. While one or two Mimic Commandos can be found in the Bolotsky Village, by the time you go to the Pobeda Factory you will need to fight a lot of them.
Mimic Soldiers
Similar to Mimic Commandos, Mimic Soldiers of many types can be found in the Kolkhoz Zarya. They are essentially identical to Mimic Commandos, but have a different look and better weapons.
Mimic Hunters are hooded figures, commonly armed with rifles such as the Tiger Sniper Rifle, or a variety of Automatic weapons. Some are even suppressed such as the VSS. Mimic gunners look similar but carry an assault rifle. Meanwhile Mimic SWAT Team members carry SMGs and heavy armor. Mimic Scouts are more lightly armored looking, and carry AKS-74us.
Kolkhoz Zarya is where these many types of Mimic Soldiers begin to appear in both armored and unarmored forms. They are all differentiated by the types of weapons they carry, and have slightly different looks to them. Their behaviors are generally all the same, when they detect you they will stop and fire, and then advance slowly by crouch walking if you are out of sight.
There are also Mimic Snipers as in Pobeda Factory, with the same behavior of sitting in place in set positions, sniper nests if you will. In general the presence of Mimic Soldiers, and so many of them, in Kolkhoz Zarya and Pechorsk Castle means that firefights are much more common and much deadlier.
Sliders
Sliders can be found in Kolkhoz Zarya, and compared to other enemies in Into the Radius they are extremely frightening to fight. They look like people made of darkness with super long necks and halos around their heads, but bright white eyes like pinpricks of light.
Instead of running at you like other enemies, the Slider will teleport directly in front of you. Each time a Slider teleports it makes a distinct whooshing noise. They don’t just appear, but rather seem to stretch very quickly across space, so that they can get close to you and cut you with their clawed hands. Luckily Sliders will pause after sliding towards you, and give you about half a second before trying to claw at you.
Sliders are the most terrifying and otherworldly enemy in Into the Radius. So at first they can seem formidable, but just like Spawn they are easy to deal with as long as you take them one at a time and calmly. Just let it slide close to you and back up, just like Spawn don’t stop moving when one is after you. When it pauses after teleporting, just put a few rounds into its head, and keep backing away from it. Failing to do so, or getting cornered, will end in a quick death. Only a couple of hits from a Slider will kill you even fully armored and fully healthy.
The BTR
Here we are, saving the best for last. The BTR is the most distinct enemy in Into the Radius. It’s a giant armored car, or APC, whatever you want to call it, made of shifting black matter. Its engine is very loud, so you can hear it coming from a long way away. Wherever it is it will swing its searchlight around looking for you as it drives.
The BTR can’t hear, but if you step into its searchlight it will make you regret it. The BTR will immediately halt and open fire with its autocannon. If this happens your only option is to escape, because the BTR will outgun you every time. Not only will its cannon take you down quickly if you’re in the open, but you have basically no way to destroy it. Realistically no amount of firepower you can bring in will be able to destroy the BTR.
Your only option here is to find cover and then run away as soon as you can, if you can. You do not want to be caught out in the open when the BTR finds you. Just don’t get near it, because you won’t be able to kill it.
Well there’s all of the enemies in Into the Radius. Into the Radius is a fantastic VR game inspired by the book Roadside Picnic which also inspired the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games. It is 29.99$ on Steam and the Oculus Store, and will soon get a port to the Quest 2, so stay tuned for that.
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