GSC Game World’s newly released STALKER 2 may be an intense survival-horror shooter, but the Xbox and Windows PC exclusive does a pretty good job of easing you into its open-world with helpful tutorials and simple early game quests. With that said, there’s quite a few finer details and mechanics that the game leaves out of its lessons, leaving them for resourceful, attentive, and eagle-eyed players to notice and utilize.
I’ve put well over 55 hours into my playthrough of the game now, and have come across five things STALKER 2 doesn’t tell you, but that new players should absolutely know before getting deep into their adventure in The Zone. Without further ado, here’s what they are.
Mutants can’t climb, so take advantage of that
Mutants in STALKER 2 are often very difficult to deal with, as many of them are extremely tanky and do tons of damage quickly while others move very quickly and erratically, making them hard to shoot accurately (especially if you’re on Xbox and have to deal with the lack of controller deadzones at the time of writing). However, they all have a significant weakness you can exploit to make fighting them much safer: they can’t climb.
That’s right: whether you’re being chased by a pack of dogs, a stampede of boar, or a hungry bloodsucker looking to make you its next meal, hopping up onto one of the many rusted out cars, shipping containers, or other large objects found in The Zone will stop them from being able to get at you. From your perch, you can then safely reload, line up shots to pick them off, and take care of wounds. This works against pretty much every mutant other than poltergeists, burers, and controllers, as these all have ways to attack a stalker they’re not within melee distance of.
One downside of this tactic is that the mutants you’re fighting will do their best to hide from you once they realize they can’t reach you, only coming back out once you come down. This behavior is still exploitable, however, as you can leave your high ground, shoot them when they beeline towards you, and then jump back up before they get close.
You can slow walk to move quietly
STALKER 2’s tutorial segment covers sprinting, jumping, and crouching, but it leaves out one of the most valuable types of movement in the game: slow walking. You’ll find the customizable keybind for this in the controls section of the game’s settings, and can choose to either toggle it (my personal preference) or hold the key down to slow walk.
Slow walking is useful any time you get into a firefight with hostile stalkers, as unlike sprinting or your regular walk, slow walking makes little-to-no sound. STALKER 2’s enemy AI is pretty perceptive and will easily track your location if you’re noisy, but by slow walking, you can stay quiet and either flank them or move around cover to shoot them without giving them an advance warning you’re about to do so. You can do this by crouch walking too, but keep in mind you’ll be trading faster movement for a lower profile.
Another benefit of slow walking is that it helps keep your aim steady, especially if you’re scoped in. Headshots are important in this game since stalkers can survive a surprising number of bodyshots, and anything that makes landing them easier is worth doing.
Sell loot to weapon traders for more money
Many bases in STALKER 2 have two traders — a bartender who sells food and drink, and an arms dealer you can get weapons, armor, and ammo from. You can sell loot you find in The Zone to both, but the arms dealers will always pay you more than the bartenders will (including for food items, curiously). Therefore, make sure you always sell everything (iyou want to get rid of to them specifically.
Since trading is the main way you’ll be regularly making money during your playthrough, it’s crucial to get every last coupon you can for the loot you’ve bled and killed for. Not only is it used to repair broken weapons and gear, but you’ll also need it for fast travel, upgrading equipment, and buying ammo or other supplies.
Your stash works across The Zone’s regions
Speaking of your loot, don’t think you’ll have to lug all of it around each time you journey to a new region in The Zone. STALKER 2 directs you towards your personal stash — a yellow box found in each base in the game — early on, but something it doesn’t tell you that’s important to understand is that anything you put into it in one place can be taken out anywhere else.
Taking advantage of this feature is the only realistic way you can stay light and maneuverable during expeditions while also maintaining a collection of different guns and suits. Being overencumbered slows you down, reduces your stamina regeneration, increases the stamina cost of sprinting, and even stops you from being able to sprint entirely in extreme cases, so keeping your equip load in the green is something you should strive to do as much as possible.
Certain food items actually heal you
Finally, a good thing to know is that certain food items actually restore your health like bandages and first-aid kits do when eaten. Specifically, there are two that do this: bread and sausages. The others — canned food and condensed milk — don’t heal you at all, though they do combat hunger more effectively.
The amount of healing you get from bread and sausage is pretty small, which makes it seem fairly useless at first. However, it’s actually saved me medical supplies in cases where I find a stash with lots of these food items in it while badly wounded, or at times when I’m only missing a sliver of health and need to be “topped off.” In situations like these, eating one or several pieces of bread or sausages is ideal.
The Zone calls, stalkers … good hunting
STALKER 2’s early game tutorials cover the basics of surviving in The Zone, but these advanced tips and systems they leave out will give you some big advantages as long as you keep them in mind and put them to good use. Make no mistake, the journey ahead will still be a difficult one — this is a hardcore survival shooter, after all — but knowing things like how to combat mutants with less risk, make more money, and eke out extra healing from your supplies will consistently come in handy.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has arrived on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and is one of this year’s best Xbox games and best PC games. It has a $59.99 MSRP, but notably, you can get it for a discount at CDKeys right now. You can also play it through Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
