Tips for playing Stalker 2

If you’re just starting to play Stalker 2, or you’re already playing, we’ve rounded up a few more tips that you might need.

Important information, save games as often as possible, automatic quicksave is usually only at the beginning of a mission or during a mission. At the same time, it must be taken into account that the game cannot be saved during battles. By the way, the game has three save slots, so you can play the game three times. Each slot can hold 50 saves. If you achieve this, you have to rewrite the old positions.
Since the tutorial tips at the beginning can quickly disappear, it is so important to know that on PC the light is turned on under the L key, or you can turn it on under the Tab view and with the E key.
The policy in the zone is to loot every corpse and take whatever you see if it seems useful.

In the inventory, you can add four items for quick access, which is via two keys, namely Q and E, while holding the keys will trigger a secondary use. While Q is for bandages and a first aid kit, E is for energy and anti-radiation stuff. Once you get used to it, it’s not a problem, but when playing you can often accidentally press E, especially when you go to reload via R.
Since the character can also bleed, it is necessary to use bandages, not just first aid kits. You can see the bleeding by the blood drop icon near the health bar, and you can also see how your health gradually disappears.
In the environment you will find boxes marked with bullets or first aid kits, they cannot be taken, but you have to break them and then take out their contents.
Your inventory fills up quickly and your maximum load is 80kg, so always remove ammo from picked up weapons and discard them if you don’t need them. Food and drink are also very important.
For weapons, consider that practically each one has its own cartridges and you have to choose weapons according to which cartridges you have enough of. The situation is often rough, especially if you have weapons that you have little ammunition for
Some weapons work with multiple types of bullets, you can switch them in the Tab menu, or they will automatically change when you run out of one type of bullets.

Food and drinking water are not fundamentally important, but it is good to have at least a small supply. You certainly do not need 10 kg of bread. Salami and cans are more effective than bread, but you only need them once in a while. Water is enough for you when you run out of energy and want to replenish it. Energy is consumed only when running and jumping. Just expect that if you drink, you’ll start to get hungry.
Since you are in the radiation zone, you have to reduce your radiation, you will experience it with injections, which you will find continuously, but also with alcohol. At the same time, it makes you slightly drunk, everything is more colorful then and makes you slightly confused. However, when you drink alcohol, you also start to feel hungry.
Sometimes, but very rarely, the character also gets tired and has to sleep. Beds can be found in settlements or faction camps.

In the camps you will find several characters that you can trade with. There is a merchant who will sell you things to eat, drink and health, a weapon repairman who will repair your weapons very expensively, or your remaining equipment, mainly the vest. At the same time, the weapons and the vest can be improved. For example, the vest has additional pockets for artifacts. Weapons can have useful upgrades. If you can upgrade your weapon, take care of it and have it repaired on an ongoing basis. It is a good idea to choose two weapons with different ammo that you will have as standard and possibly a third one in your backpack if you run out of ammo, but you can also take more from enemies, even if they are usually broken
In the camps, sell everything you don’t need to the merchants.
Some characters also offer side missions for which you earn money
Weapons have three states, fully functional, semi-functional and almost non-functional. Accordingly, they will jam on you and you will have to charge them to get them going. But even the almost non-functional can work.
Artifacts give you various upgrades, but only if you store them in your vest pockets. For each artifact it is written what effect it has. They have no other effects, nor do they alert you if any have been activated.

You search for artifacts using a sensor that you sometimes get on the first mission. Subsequently, when it starts to beep, you can select it and try to find the place where the beeping is the most intense. The artifact will then appear.
The game does not have vehicles, but it has fast travel from camps, where some camps have a person who can move you to already unlocked camps for a certain amount
When fighting, try for headshots, which are the most effective, and you can also use leaning out of corners, the game has a well-developed system for this
A little interesting thing is that if you find a guitar, you can pick it up and play it at any time.
Watch out for animals in nature, they are often dangerous, and you have to spend a lot of bullets on them unnecessarily. It is best to run away from them or go around them.
The game has four endings that you can reach by your choices. If you get to one, you can already watch the others on youtube. Already they are all there.