The Zone might seem like the perfect place for a roadside picnic, but this placedevours new stalkerslike a bloodsucker that skipped its last meal.
This short guide forSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylhas a fewtips that can help both rookies coming from the Lesser Zone and veterans pouring in from the Cordonafter getting fed up with Sidorovich’s antics.
Even if you follow all of these to the letter, the Zone will find other creative ways to kill you, so try not tostress about ittoo much.
So long as you have ammunition and a positive attitude, you still have a chanceto survive.
15Listen To The Counter
Your Geiger counter is the most important piece of equipment in the Zone, but only if you listen to it.
The counter will warn you about a radioactive hotspot a few meters before it contaminates you.
If the counter is ticking, this is your call to do a 180 and get out of there, stalker. Or down four bottles of good old Cossack’s and run through it. It’s your call.
14Trust Your Ears
Very few things in the game make no sound. Whether it is a bandit coughing inside a building or a boar charging to attack you,if it can kill you, you can hear it.
Listen out for footsteps, howls, or the stressed beeping of your artifact detector as you are about to walk head-first into an anomaly.
It will save your life.
13Go Semi-Automatic Outdoors
Most stalkers and mutants travel in packs, so you will rarely get into a fight alone.
While it is certainly tempting and occasionally effective to hold the trigger down and pray, most of the time that leaves you with an empty magazine and a lot of angry enemies around you.
Setting the fire selector to semi-automatic on assault rifles and submachine guns lets you put out accurate fireat range, but it keeps you from panic-spraying and running out of ammo at a bad time.
12Mutants Hate Shotguns
Stalkers hate mutants, and mutants hate shotguns. This has been the natural order of allSTALKERgames going back toShadow of Chernobyl, and it will not change any time soon.
Even a basic gun like the Boomstick double-barrel12-gauge can make short work of the fauna in the Zone.
Buckshot is more versatile and effective against most mutants at close range, but larger beasts like boars go down even faster if you use slugs.
11Not Every Stash Is Worth It
Stashes are like lottery tickets: most of them are worthless. Unless it belongs to a faction big shot or the journalist, you’re able to skip most of them unless you are really hurting for ammo or cash.
Stalkers are not idiots usually, so most stashes are in areas with plenty of anomalies, mutants, or both.
You can get a good idea of how useful a stash is based on its description on your PDA. The best ones will have some non-generic information, so you do not waste 20 minutes just to get three bandges, a bottle of vodka, and 10 Makarov rounds.
10Stick To Roads
There are few truly safe areas in the Zone, butyou can avoid a lot of heartache by traveling on roadsandfootpathswhenever possible.
Most of these have relatively few anomalies and mutants waiting to get the jump on you, so you often get a quicker ride even if the path itself is longer.
9Travel Light
Like previous games in the series,STALKER 2makes a big deal out of encumbrance. Staying in the green weight bar lets you sprint for longer distances, which is a blessing considering the game has no fast travel outside bases.
attempt to have at least 10 kg to spare before going out on a hike, as that will allow you to bring home valuable finds like new guns or outfit parts without slowing you down too much.
Oh, and leave that broken gun you found behind unless you plan on using it now. Seriously. You can buy a new one for the cost of repairing it anyway.
8Running Beats Fighting
If you can solve a situation by running away orsneaking by, do so.
Human enemies typically drop a broken gun with half a dozen rounds, with maybe some bread and a bandage thrown in.
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This seldom compensates for the amount ofammo, grenades, and medsit takes to drop them.
The situation is even worse with mutants, as you cannot make any money off of them.
7Keep The Makarov Loaded
Skif has a Makarov pistol from his military days that you cannot get rid of.
There is no arguing that the Makarov is not a terrible weapon, but when your Kalashnikov jams and your shotgun is out of ammo, the PTM is there to save you.
The Makarov itself is weightless, and 9x18mm ammunition is the lightest in the game.
This can still reliably kill zombies, dogs, and rodents with a single headshot, and a few rounds can still take out other targets in a pinch.
6Stock Different Ammo
Do not put all your eggs in one basket. While vendors will have most ammunition on sale, you are on your own in the wild.
Even if you do not have a gun that fires a certain cartridge yet,resist the temptation to earn a few coups by selling ammo, and put it in your stash instead.
That way, if you end up low on cash to buy rounds for your favorite gun, you have a reliable backup with a few boxes ready to go.
