Tip #
Avoid encumbrance, it will get you killed. Remember to periodically sell those extra items you don't need, or stash them for future use. Backpacks bought from traders can be used as stashes.
Hunting mutants will allow you to loot them for parts. You can sell mutant parts or save them for later, in case they might fit the requirement for a task.
Basic, advanced, and expert toolkits are required by many mechanics in order to perform certain upgrades on weapons and outfits. Such items can often be found in stashes received as rewards for completing tasks.
A rare, special variant of vodka can occasionally be found in other stalkers' inventories.
Helicopter patrols are an optional feature with powerful effects on the Zone. When engaged in combat, members of the helicopter's faction may often call on it for air support to help destroy attacking or defending forces.
Ironman mode gives a true sense of mortality. When the player has lost all their lives, all saves for that specific character are deleted and can never be restored. Pick your faction and starting location wisely.
Maintenance kits are a fantastic way for keeping your gear in top condition out in the field. They can be crafted at the workbench.
Backpacks can be bought or found and then used to create a custom stash. Stashes created by the player are never de-spawned nor are they ever looted by other stalkers. They are permanent until all items are removed.
Sleeping bags are a great way to rest in the Zone if you are unable to find a decent bed to sleep in. They can be purchased from most major traders.
Truck Cemetery is a large graveyard of irradiated agricultural, civilian, and military vehicles. As a great place to hide a stash, an eagle-eyed stalker may find many valuables among the wreckage.
Artifact types are indicative of the anomalies they are found in. Want one that boosts your burn resistance? Search for a 'Burner' or 'Comet' anomaly and go hunting with your detector.
Completing tasks for factions will increase your goodwill with them. As it increases their traders will begin to show you their more powerful stocks, and sell them at greater discounts.
Rank has eight different levels and can be increased through almost any in-game activity. Certain features may require reaching a high rank before they can be used or fully unlocked.
Most tasks can be cancelled after you agree to complete them. You can do this by speaking with the stalker who gave you the task. Just remember that cancelling a task will decrease your reputation and goodwill.
Reputation is a representation of how a stalker is viewed by their faction. It is gained and lost by helping or harming non-hostile stalkers respectively.
Reputation is dynamic and can frequently change, the available reputations are as follows: 'Terrible', 'Dreary', 'Awful', 'Bad', 'Neutral', 'Good', 'Great', 'Brilliant' and 'Excellent'.
Darkscape is a large forest between Cordon and Dark Valley. There are few reasons to visit it, but should you need to cross it, make sure to visit its anomalous fields during your trip.
Remember to ask regular stalkers if they have any jobs available. Just because they aren't anybody important doesn't mean they won't be willing to pay you to do their dirty work.
Rostok's arena hosts two types of competitions: the traditional fights where stalkers battle each other for cash rewards, or challenges where they attempt to kill increasingly harder mutants.
Online exclusion radius can be set via the game options menu. It creates a no-spawn area around the player preventing mutants and other stalkers spawning unfairly and dangerously close.
Cold, Spore, and the rest of Clear Sky's major characters can be asked about their story. Doing so can help shed light on their faction's overall survival.
Freedom completely occupies Yanov Station in Jupiter after Shulga left to fight the resurgent Monolith. Many stalkers who had previously left Freedom had since rejoined to help bolster its position.
The 'Completionist' achievement is received for unlocking all other available achievements. How many achievements are available to you depends on your faction and whether story mode is enabled.
Shotguns make for a great close range weapon but typically suffer from low ammo capacity or high reload times. Assault rifles do not have this disadvantage.
Mutants that reside in the north of the Zone are restless and fiersome. Even the typically nocturnal mutants roam freely during day.
Backpacks let you carry more items without being encumbered. They can be equipped to your advantage when using light and medium-type outfits.
If things are getting a little too tough for you, you could try reducing the difficulty through the progression menu. You can find it in the settings.
Faction bases usually have a medic who can heal you and remove your radiation for a low fee. You can also purchase medicine for prices lower than elsewhere.
Especially well-connected traders will let you bribe factions for a temporary cease-fire. Whether the cease-fire is worthwhile or not...well, that's up to you.
Bringing mutant samples to a character to complete a task will reward you with more money than simply selling it.
Always carry a flashlight and consider investing in night vision goggles, you never know when you'll find yourself at night far from somewhere safe.
Outfits, especially light ones, can commonly be found in stashes. You can wear, sell, or even disassemble them for upgrade parts.
If your weapon struggles to hit enemies at a high distance, it may need to be upgraded for accuracy. In addition, sniper rifles have the highest potential for long-range combat out of any weapon.
The Controller is a powerful mutant that attacks your psychic health directly. Psy-block medicine is designed to protect you from indirect psi-emissions and won't do much good against its attacks.
Projectiles fired by the Gauss Rifle can reach the target instantaneously at any distance. This fantastic, but expensive weapon can be further upgraded to be even more powerful.
Pistols are lightweight and easy to maintain. They are also a powerful close combat weapon, especially those that utilize the premier .45ACP caliber.
Traders will give you more difficult tasks as you earn more reputation with their factions. Despite being well-paid, they are more dangerous than the rest and will test your skills.
Consider keeping some of the artifacts you find, it would be unwise to underestimate their usefulness in combat or exploration.
If you end up heavily outnumbered and outgeared, consider escaping. Not only will you save your life, you will also save your money and medicine.
Utilizing cover is important during combat. Even if you are near-invincible, letting your guard down might cost you your life.
Always carry something that can stop bleeding. A medic can patch your wounds for free later but only if you don't bleed out on your way there.
Consider using a suppressor and being stealthy when going against multiple enemies: it will not make you invisible, but it will certainly buy some time until you're spotted.
Most stalkers prefer to hunt for artifacts in the southern parts of the Zone, but experienced stalkers know that the best spots are all north of the Red Forest. Few survive long in such parts unprepared, however.
Going artifact hunting without the proper gear can be difficult. High grade outfits, scientific suits, artifacts and drugs can help a lot.
Don't underestimate pistols, they are the most weight-efficient weapon you can get. A powerful pistol can make life a lot less difficult in close range combat.
If you confront a controller, try to get an object to block its line of sight (tree, rock, wall). If it doesn't see you, it can't control you.
A great way to handle mutants is to run very fast, very far. Most mutants cannot get you if you keep your distance.
Military medkits have the fastest healing rate, but they are more expensive.
Your sprinting capabilities differ between outfit classes. You can run very far in a light outfit, but might find yourself quickly exhausted when using a bulky exoskeleton.
Keep a secondary gun you rely on if you were to run out of ammo for your primary. Pistols are a stalker's close friend, but a sawn-off shotgun can also make the difference.
Mind your encumbrance when exploring the Zone. You could even drop some of your stuff in a backpack before going on an expedition and pick it up later.
The RF Radio will help you find things far and hidden from you. You can change the radio's frequency through LMB, RMB and Shift LMB/RMB while having your other hand free.
Despite their aggressive stance toward stalkers, the military can be bribed into looking the other way for a while.
Maintain your equipment so that it can maintain you.
To move full stacks of items to/from your inventory, hold CTRL and double-click.
Weapons become considerably less accurate at low condition. Maintaining your weapon can save you your life, as well as plenty of ammo.
Remember to check on the PDAs of deceased stalkers, you can get useful information out of them. If you can't access them you could try asking someone tech-savvy to crack them open for you.
You can access an item's details menu by right clicking it. This details window will display a description of the item, its durability, and in the case of weapons and outfits, their possible upgrades with the items they require.
When repairing heavily damaged weapons, technicians can set you back monetarily. Getting functional, spare parts from worn out weapons can save you some money if you decide to repair them yourself.
Listen to the sounds of anomalies: your sense of hearing can sometimes better indicate the position of an anomaly than your sight.
There exist powerful attachable scopes with unique abilities, such as long adjustable zoom or computerized target acquisition. Weapons with integrated scopes can be upgraded to acquire similar abilities.
Always carry drugs such as medkits, psy-block or anabiotics, lest an emission starts and there's no shelter nearby. They may not protect you completely but maybe, just maybe will let you reach a safe spot before you're roasted.
Ammo is plentiful and cheap within the Zone, but usually not for the gun you like to use. Stock up on as much of it as you can at every opportunity.
Carry as little as possible when going out, so you can pick up more goodies and sell them to traders when you return.
Have your artifact detector out as often as possible. Sometimes artifacts appear after blowouts and psi-storms.
Delayed repairs option in the Game options menu requires you to leave your equipment in the hands of the technician for a certain amount of time until it's fixed. That's another good reason to repair them yourself.
Reputation is easier to lose than it is to gain. Though that might matter a lot less when a friendly stalker has something you want.
"Mechanized Warfare" achievement is obtained through giving all three toolkits to a technician. After completion, items used while repairing your equipment will be more effective.
Disassembling weapons is a great way to avoid becoming overencumbered. You can turn these weapon parts into upgrade or repair kits later on.
Each device uses its own set of batteries. Whenever these run out of power, you'll have to take them out and put in new ones. This can be done through right clicking each device in the inventory.
Remember the sounds given off by mutants. Knowing what's creeping up on you makes it easier to deal with the situation in the best possible way.
Armor piercing ammo can help immensely against armored opponents. Enemies in exoskeletons and other powerful outfits will absorb a lot of damage without it.
Vodka is a cheap alternative to the anti-radiation drug. A rad absorption artifact is an expensive, but permanent one.
Don't forget to eat to keep your strength up. The less hungry you are, the farther you can sprint.
Disguise is an optional feature that's enabled by default. You can use the outfits you find in stashes to avoid conflict with factions hostile to you and get access to traders you would otherwise have to kill.
Companions can carry a lot of items for you, but you have to protect them in return.
Weapon and outfit upgrade kits can be crafted from disassembled weapon and outfit parts respectively.
Light and medium outfits shouldn't be underestimated, as they allow the highest number of artifact slots out of all armor classes.
When alone, and faced with a single aware opponent, take cover. The best time to start shooting is when they have finished shooting.
Keep an eye on the power state of your devices, and always keep few decent batteries in your pocket. Don't let your PDA run out of power at an inopportune moment.
When exploring the north, remember that a bloodsucker is rarely alone, and a snork almost never is.
The Geiger counter has three different modes: active, that shows values when holding it; continuous, that shows the values as long as its in your inventory; toggle, that shows values upon pressing a keybind while in your inventory.
Helping faction medics with certain tasks may expand their inventory and allow you to purchase better medicine.
Disassembling and crafting can help you turn old weapons into repair (or upgrade) kits for your new ones.
Some traders are willing to buy PDAs you get from other stalkers. The more PDAs you deliver, the higher the pay you will receive after you unlock the "Infopreneur" achievement.
You'll gain access to the best gear a trader's faction might offer after you've proven your worth to them. These special offers are also for those who have completed the "Heavy Pockets" achievement.
You can play musical instruments by using them in your inventory.
Pressing "U" while in your inventory will unload all non-equipped weapons.
Guides can usually be found in bars, or in a faction's base. These guides can get you anywhere safely for a price.
Aslan, the mercenary bartender in Dead City, has a "lottery" you can participate in. All you need is to collect and hand in other stalkers' patches.
Spare weapon parts are plentiful and aren't worth much, you will be better off stashing (or carrying) them for later.
For a thousand roubles, you can pay a technician to use his workbench and vice to fix or upgrade your own guns.
If you're respected enough among the members of a faction, you can convince some to join you in your expeditions. From there onwards you'll be responsible for them, so if something bad were to happen to them you'll be frowned upon.
By default, Middle Mouse Button is a quick access hotkey to give orders to your companions.
To disassemble outfits and guns, you will need a special tool you can acquire from traders.
Contrary to popular belief, wearing a gas mask will not prevent you from eating or drinking.
Save often. Even if enemies cannot stop you, an unexpected game crash will.
You're easier to kill when you stop moving. Use your high mobility to your advantage as enemies can be run around quite quicky, too.
Throwing a grenade at close range is a bad idea. Enemies can sprint away from them and overwhelm you.
Usually, the more powerful the outfit, the less artifact slots it can support. It is worth trying out light outfits to see how powerful artifacts can stack up against the best outfits in the Zone.
Don't hesitate to check the guide in your PDA if you feel confused or unsure about any particular game mechanics.
Artifacts are by far the most valuable type of item you can get your hands on in the Zone. They are also the most weight efficient for the amount of money they can bring in.