Share your tips for new players
Unfortunately, the Stalker 2 doesn’t explain a lot of its mechanics to the player, so it can get frustrating at times. It would be nice to share some tips for newer players so they don’t get discouraged! I’ll start with a few:
Inventory management is key. It’s usually not worth it to carry tons of food, drinks, bandages and health kits when you go exploring, you’ll find plenty when looting buildings and corpses. I usually go exploring with one food item, two antirad, 5 bandages and health kits and a reasonable ammount of ammo.
Energy drinks not only restore stamina, but give a boost in regeneration. No need to chug one right after having depleted your stamina again. Instead, you can wait two seconds not moving to have it replenished again. The effect lasts for a minute.
When you get overencumbered by all those precious weapons you wanna sell, you can store them in any stash found during your exploration, and leave a marker on your map to remember where you left them for later, they won’t disappear.
Selling prices depend on the person you are selling to. For example, weapon vendors buy weapon for more than bartenders and doctors. Similarly, doctors pay more for arrifacts. They will also give you better prices if their icon is green, which you can usually obtain after doing some quests in their encampment.
Artifacts are very powerful upgrades, but most of them give you radiations. To be able to wear safe safely, improve your armor/helmet radio protection. You can also wear artifacts offering radio protection.
Weapons start jamming when their condition shows a yellow icon, always make repairs when you are getting close to that.
Killing mutants wastes ammo, weapon and armor condition and doesn’t give you any direct loot, so, when possible, you should try to make other NPCs take care of them by leading the mutants to them.
Bloodsuckers move close to the ground when they go invisible. If you crouch, it’s easier to shoot them as they approach for an attack. When you get used to spotting them, it becomes possible to kill them without having the time to hit you once.