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STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl guide—12 tips to help you survive the Exclusion Zone
J
Jason Rodriguez
Our STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl guide has numerous tips for long-time fans eager to return to the fray and for first-timers who are just about to step foot in the open-world wasteland. We discuss everything from survival mechanics to gear pieces, as well as anomalies, artifacts, mutants, and more.
Always bring restorative items, food, and drinks
One of the most important tips in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is to bring more than enough restorative items for your travels. Here are the consumables you should always have in your backpack:
- Bandages: Restores a small amount of HP; stops bleeding.
- Medkit: Restores a large amount of HP; does not stop bleeding.
- Bread or Sausages: Restores HP; reduces hunger.
- Water: Slightly reduces hunger; restores stamina.
Watch out for radiation build-up
As you explore the Exclusion Zone, you’re bound to hear the constant crackle and pop sound effect that denotes that you’re near a heavily irradiated area. This can also occur when you’re wading through bodies of water or when it’s raining.
Radiation gradually builds up in the bottom-left corner of your screen. As it reaches critical levels, your character’s HP will also get depleted. You can reset the gauge by consuming Anti-Radiation Drugs, giving you additional time to escape to a safer location. Do note that some hotspots are so heavily irradiated that there’s just no way of surviving them.
Get to shelter immediately when Emissions occur
Emissions are another deadly occurrence in the Exclusion Zone. You’ll know that one is about to happen if you hear loud thunder, followed by the skies turning blood red and NPCs warning everyone via radio.
Once the Emission is close enough to your location, Skif’s health will slowly get depleted until he perishes. The nearest shelter will be automatically marked as an objective, so make a run for it and hunker down until the Emission ends.
Settlements have NPCs for fast travel, equipment, repairs, and quests
Some regions have settlements, like Zalissya or the Cement Factory, which are populated by various types of NPCs:
- Guides: These take you to other Guide NPCs that you’ve spoken with for a cost. This is essentially STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s fast travel system.
- Vendors: Some might sell food, restoratives, weapons, ammo, or armors.
- Medics: They will heal your character for free and sell curative items.
- Technicians: Allow you to repair damaged equipment and upgrade gear pieces.
- Bartenders: They have repeatable quests that you can tackle.
Use weapon attachments and gear upgrades
One of the most important STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl tips is to use attachments for your preferred weapons. Some will prove to be invaluable due to added functionality such as silencers, extended magazines, high-magnification scopes, and even grenade launcher underbarrels.
We recommend putting all attachment mods in your personal stash, which you can access in other settlements. Those that are compatible with currently equipped weapons will have an “Attach To” option when you right-click on them.
Likewise, check out the available upgrades when talking to Technician NPCs. There are perks that help improve handling, accuracy, carry weight, and range, as well as those that unlock mod attachment slots.
Learn how to effectively fight mutant enemies
Mutant enemies tend to offer more of a challenge compared to human foes. This is due to certain abilities inherent in these creatures. Here are some notable examples:
- Bloodsucker: Can camouflage itself and attack in melee. Ideally, you should have your back to a wall so that the creature can only appear in front of you, and you can be ready with a point-blank shotgun blast.
- Psy Dogs: Shoot some of the clones and watch for the real Psy Dog, which will glow whenever a duplicate is created. Once you’ve found your target, take it out immediately to make the duplicates disappear.
- Chimera: Avoid fighting this beast head on since it can take and dish out a lot of punishment. Instead, look for high ground so you can keep shooting it without risking life and limb.
- Burer: These trench coat-wearing foes not only cause you to drop your equipped primary weapon, but they might even shoot you with it. We suggest finding a safe spot and dropping them with your pistol instead.
Be on the lookout for stashes
There are hundreds of stashes left behind by fellow stalkers and the unlucky wanderers forever lost in the wasteland. The most notable rewards are those found in Journalist Stashes from a collectible side quest called “Seek and You Shall Find.” These contain weapons and armors with preset modifications.
Improve your mobility by avoiding high encumbrance
By default, your character Skif can only carry up to 80 kilograms in total. As you get closer to that limit, you’ll realize how the encumbrance mechanic comes into play, such as slower movement and stamina replenishment. Here are some related tips:
- Bring only the necessary items if you’re just heading out.
- Leave most of your gear in your personal stash, since you can access it while in other settlements.
- Take only undamaged gear or those with slight wear and tear (i.e. yellow icon), since you can quickly sell these to vendors.
- Don’t loot heavily damaged items (i.e. red icon). These need to be repaired before they can be sold, and the repair costs might be unbearably high.
Use corpses as portable loot containers
If you really want to get creative, you can use the corpses of human enemies as portable containers for your loot. Here’s what you need to do:
- Grab all the weapons, ammo, and items that you’ve looted in an area.
- Open a dead NPC’s inventory by pressing the “F” key and move all the unnecessary items there.
- Hold the “F” key while mousing over the NPC’s body to lift them.
Watch your Echo Detector for signs of artifacts
Anomalies are dangerous and unstable disturbances that happen all over the Exclusion Zone. Some areas have more anomalies than usual, but they might hide rewards known as artifacts, too. Here’s what you need to know:
- Make sure your Echo Detector is equipped.
- Press the “7” key to bring out the Echo Detector when near an anomaly field.
- If an artifact is nearby, the Echo Detector will flash with a blue light.
- As you move closer to the correct spot, the device will blink rapidly until the artifact magically appears from thin air.
Mix and match artifact types and bonuses
On the subject of artifacts, keep in mind that they confer beneficial effects (green text) and detrimental effects (red text). For example, the Hypercube grants maximum bleeding resistance and thermal protection, but it also causes maximum radiation build-up.
Since most artifact types also cause radiation build-up, it can lead to a point where your character continues to suffer from radiation even while indoors. To offset this, you can equip suits with higher radiation resistance or artifacts that have radioactive protection, such as Urchin, Slug, or Slime.
Some quest decisions can lead to faction hostility
Your journey in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl will lead to many fateful decisions. Some might have adverse effects when it comes to your reputation or standing with a faction. If a faction becomes hostile to you, you might experience random encounters with their troops as they hunt you down. However, if you manage to speak with a faction’s leader to settle your debts, then your reputation might be restored back to a neutral state.
That does it for our STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl guide. We hope these tips help you as you make your way across the deadly and inhospitable wasteland.
Those eager to brave the dangers in the Exclusion Zone should pick up STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which is available now on the Epic Games Store. We also recommend the Deluxe Edition, which contains an additional side quest, costumes, weapon skins, digital artbook, and digital soundtrack. Lastly, there’s the Ultimate Edition, which includes all aforementioned content, as well as access to two story expansions that will be made available in the future.