I understand stage 2 is more power then stage 1, but what is included in stage 1, 2 and so on? How do you know what stage you are at?
It depends on who the tuner is. Cobb goes up to stage 2. After that, you being playing with Sti turbos for stages 2.5 and up. http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/power-s.html#stage2 Vishnu uses a different stage setup and goes up to Stage 4+ for bigger turbos. Stage 2 for Vishnu is like a stage 1 for Cobb Tuning.
stages are very subjective. totally depends on manufacturer. typicall when the mnsubaru wrx owners talk about stages its the cobb stages