Our STALKER 2 tips will help you battle mutants, avoid anomalies, and stay alive in the harsh regions of the Zone. Stalker 2 is an unforgiving game that can be quite rough in some spots - in many cases, it's not entirely clear if something is hard on purpose or just broken. With that said, there's plenty you can do stay alive and it's important that you know what you're doing, largely because everything is trying to kill you all the time. Below, I've laid out a range of tips to make STALKER 2 Heart of Chornobyl's cruel and ever-present threat a little more manageable.
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1. If anything looks dangerous, it is. If it doesn't, it probably still is
STALKER 2 is a game that loves to kill you. A lot. But in a very 'you stuck a fork in a toaster what were you expecting?' kind of way. Basically be prepared for anything and everything to kill you. Suspicious noise? Probably death. Suspiciously quiet. Also death. Hidden in a cupboard in an empty house thinking you're safe? You better believe that's death. Basically approach everything in Stalker 2 like it's going to suddenly and mercilessly tread on you in an instant, and you'll be better prepared for whatever you do actually encounter.
2. Save before doing ANYTHING
STALKER 2 is generous with its saves, so use them all the time. It's an incredibly unforgiving game and while it does have autosaves they are not always as regular as you might like, and can leave you with a fair bit to retread if you die or dislike an outcome. Because there are also a lot of choices as well, you can use saves to test what the results are. Things like whether to help or kill Squint or deciding who to give the sensors to in STALKER 2 have very different outcomes you might want to play around with before you decide what to go with
3. Always unload any weapons you find to take the ammo
You'll be killing a lot of people in the zone and they all have guns. If you select an enemy's weapon when you loot their bodies you can press L2 or G to unload it, separating out the ammo in their loot. Get used to doing that all the time and you'll never run out of bullets. I've had so much ammo because it this that selling it a useful way to earn a little money on the side.
4. Repair your guns and gear whenever you can
Get in the habit of paying a tech to repair guns in STALKER 2 and gear whenever you go back to a base. Everything has a durability, and keeping it all at 100%, or as near as possible, will mean it performs better. The thing you'll probably notice the most is that worn out guns will jam, leaving you hammering reload to clear the chamber. But everything from gas masks to armor can degrade and lose effectiveness over time, so you want it in the best condition you can afford. With STALKER 2 Heart of Chornobyl being such a ruthless game you want all the advantages you can get.
5. Look for the crosses on your compass, which mark corpses you can loot
This is a game that's light on any sort of useful indicators to guide you. The one exception is that any dead bodies nearby are marked on your compass with a little 'x'. It's easy to lose track of where anyone you shot was after a frantic gun fight so this a godsend for finding bodies to loot. And always loot them - most enemies will always have ammo, food and healing items on them and it's an easy way to top up on the essentials for free.
6. There are no grenade indicators so just run!
One thing you'll probably learn quite quickly is that there are no grenade indicators or icons. If you hear an enemy saying they're going to use one that will be the only warning you'll get. Your best option at this point it to just run away from where you are as quickly as possible. Grenades will easily kill you instantly and you can't always be sure a wall will save you if you don't know where the blast will be. Just be as far away from where you were as possible when someone talks about throwing one.
7. Watch indicators by your health to track bleeding and other important statuses
You'll see three important indicators near your health and stamina that will give you some important info:
- Bleeding - If you see red blood drops you're bleeding from your injuries. Use a bandage here by holding left on the D-pad or Q. You'll get a small health boost from them but the main benefit is that it stops the gradual health loss bleeding inflicts if untreated.
- Weight - If you see a little weight it means you're carrying too much stuff. It ranks up from draining your stamina a little more to full on stopping you from jumping. You can go a little over if you don't mind being a touch slower, but if you max out what you can carry miles from a base you might want to consider dropping something.
- Food - Hunger 'impairs combat performance' and is represented by a small chicken drumstick icon. The main food you'll have at any given time is bread, sausage, condensed milk or canned food so eat one of those from your inventory to make it go away.
8. Hearing gunfire means danger but also loot
Chances are you're going to hear some gunfire while you're out and about in the zone. If it's not directly at you, then take a moment to work out where it's coming from and investigate carefully. It's easy to get killed quickly by a surprise attack but if you can hear fighting that's not directly involving you it's worth checking it out from a distance, because there might be some loot opportunities. Always stay back until you can work out what's going on and who's involved, because if an enemy faction survives they might immediately attack you. Although they might also be weakened and easy to take out. The key thing here is that there will probably be some bodies you can loot for supplies and things to sell.
9. If you're heading back to base carry as much back to sell as you can
Generally you want to travel light in STALKER 2, as its encumbrance system can leave you slogging along at a crawl if you go so much as a bullet over weight. However, if you're heading back to base and don't mind some impaired sprinting it might be worth grabbing all the guns and other gear you can comfortably carry to sell at a merchant. You can make a fair bit of cash selling what you can loot and, because it costs a lot to repair things, that cash can keep you fighting fit.
10. Always grab the Journalist Stashes when you can
After you've completed the first couple of main missions you'll be contacted by a mysterious character with a list of Journalist Stashes you can find all throughout the game. It is always worth chasing these down when you reach new areas as they contain a range of good gear that seems designed to help you out - better guns, armor and so on. If you track them down as soon you're get near them you'll get a good advantage in terms of hardware. Although trying to reach the Journalist's Stash in the roof in STALKER 2 will drive you mad, check that guide for how. © GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides
I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run GamesRadar's guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.
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