STALCRAFT – Tips for Seekers and Stalkers Alike

This will be a list of tips, some of which the game does not tell you, and some of which may be considered spoilers. If you like to learn things the hard way, go play the game instead.

Useful Tips and Tricks

Note: Credit goes to Calza

1. The tutorial teaches you some basics, but a bad lesson it teaches is that you get guns off of enemies. You don’t. It’s to let you try out some various guns. You can even mess with all available attachments too if you modify the gun before you take it off a body.
2. Every zone has sets of resources needed for progression. In the swamps, they are Green Mold, and Swamp Stones. There are “packed” variants too that you can unpack for 20 units of the respective resource. One is tied to mutants, one is tied to people.
3. If you die, you only lose what’s not bound to you. If it’s bound, it will say so in the item popup. Progression items, here forward referred to as “barter items,” will also drop, but in the form of a lost backpack. Mold, Stones, Seeds, Wire, Roots, and so on are barter items.
4. You cannot loot other people’s lost backpacks. You have to earn these resources through events, looting containers, or quests. You can also buy them from a merchant in the Cordon, if desired. However, you can sell the backpacks to the fence, or auction them off, or mail them back to the player.
5. Anything equipped to your person cannot be dropped on death. However, don’t forget to get ammo and meds before you head back out after a death. Pouches are heavier, but are bound items, and provide multiples of the above resources.
6. In the barter menu, where you see the paths of progression for gear, you can change what you want to see at the top left. You can check what attachments are compatible with weapons if you modify them within the barter menu. Armor, weapons, attachments, devices, backpacks, and so on.
7. You will come to hate black holes, otherwise known as whirligigs – I promise you.
8. Some armor sets come with plate bags that you can put an armor plate into. Steel lasts longer but protects you less. Ceramic protects you completely but breaks fast. Composite is a mix of the two but is expensive. Armor is the health of the plate and Damage Reduction is what it’ll take away from an incoming round.
9. If you’re moving through an unfamiliar space, don’t be afraid to spam your bolts to detect anomalies early. If you see moving air, heat waves, or some disturbance, check it with a bolt and avoid it.
10. Vortexes can be escaped if you sprint away in a single direction. Supposedly, if you type /suicide after being caught in a black hole, you will drop your backpack instead of getting your items scattered in a meaty shower.
11. Bandits control the north portions of the Swamps and Cordon, while Stalkers control the southern portions. Be cautious when traversing in enemy territory, and don’t be afraid to kill if the opportunity arises. If you see someone, but can’t kill them quickly, don’t take the shot.
12. Grenades are your friends. Use them to flush an enemy out of cover or to punish someone for camping.
13. Safe zones like Shaman’s camp (otherwise known as Machine Yard) are often camped by folks who abuse the safe zone radius. Be careful on approach and when leaving.
14. If you’ve played the stalker series of games, a lot of locations will be familiar to you. The people have changed, but the areas haven’t been messed with too much. A lot of mechanics are faithfully recreated too.
15. The number on the top left of your minimap tells you how many PDAs, IE players are within 50m of your position, regardless of affiliation. Your PDA will beep to notify you when players leave or enter this radius.
16. The green bar on the bottom left of your minimap tells you when you’re making noise.
17. Some sounds are ambient, and don’t really indicate anything, but gunfire ALWAYS originates from players or NPCs fighting. Be cautious of nearby gunfire. Also be cautious of starting a gunfight – if you can hear it, others can too.
18. Give the borders and walls a wide berth. If they’re not surrounded in landmines, they have NATO patrolmen guarding, and those bastards are accurate.
19. Quests will frequently provide you items that you would’ve otherwise bought, like AKs, armor, metal detectors, and so on.
20. Every 100 units of Protection: be it radiation, bioinfection, or thermal, will grant you immunity to progressing tiers of intensity. Tier 1 radiation is blocked by 100 Radiation Protection, but Tier 2 will still affect you, just not as quickly. Later areas require higher tiers of protection to survive more than a few minutes at a time.
21. You can find Shrek’s house in the Swamps, due east of the bandit Boathouse. You can get achievements for bouncing a bolt between two anomalies, or bouncing twice on a trampoline (springboard). There’s one for leaving the game during an emission.
22. Study your weapon’s stats carefully. Things that boost damage are always good. Spread, Recoil, Damage over Range, Magazine Size, Reload Speed – all of these dictate how well your gun will serve you in combat.
23. Use shotguns or pistols for mutants and weak enemies. Use automatic weapons or marksman rifles for strong enemies and other players. Aim for the head if possible.
24. Keep an alternative suit of armor, or weapon on you in case a situation changes. It’s a little extra weight, but that can be remedied by being careful of what you pick up.
25. To that point, don’t carry a bunch of ♥ on you. Carry as much as you need for a skirmish, and nothing more. Also, when looting enemies, don’t take all their medkits, ammunition, grenades, or armor plates if you don’t need them. Being able to sprint is what keeps you alive – if you can’t sprint, you’re as good as dead.
26. Emissions, or blowouts, are the red storm that comes every 3 hours across every server. If it’s incoming, you have a minute to get underground and shield yourself from the psy emissions that will turn your brain into mush. A house is not always sufficient.
27. Quests can sometimes be context sensitive. They will ask you to keep track of particular information that you relay later. Some quests are also puzzles, asking you to investigate an area, or apply critical thinking. It’s a good change of pace from nothing but fetch and kill quests. Don’t hesitate to take notes. The game is not afraid to say that you ♥ up a quest and give you a pitiful reward.
28. If you’re trying to group up with a friend, make sure you’re on the same mega-server (NA, EU, etc.) and that you have eachother added in the PDA. The names are case sensitive.
29. Armor and weapon paints are only applied once. Once applied, they are consumed. If you trade in the armor for barter, you get the paint back.
30. You can create collection tasks for barter items you want to create. It will help you track them, and tell you where to get the resources. You can delete them too if accidentally made.
31. Some areas are heavily anomalous, and are very risky to explore without proper gear. They are the best place to go after an emission, however, since emissions respawn artifacts.
32. Holding the quick item, reload, or quick grenade button will open up a wheel that lets you select whatever you’ve hotkeyed. You hotkey them by pressing your number keys while hovering over the item in your inventory. You can hotkey consumables and weapons.
33. The PDA has a lot of sections that can help an aspiring stalker. Don’t be afraid to explore the tabs and click on buttons to see what they do. There’s a guide too.
34. Food is needed for some quests, but is not actively used by the player for sustenance. You don’t need to carry it if you don’t want to. Keep mutant parts.
35. Quests you do early on can have knock on effects with quests in the future. A quest with Gnostic will check to see if you’ve completed certain quests in the Swamps, and reward you accordingly, for example.
36. Agroprom and Dark Valley (bandit and stalker respectively) are easier to farm Seeds in compared to the Cordon. There are less players of the opposing faction present.
37. The early game combat armors are a noob trap. If it doesn’t have 100 Radiation Protection, you won’t be able to go into areas beyond the Cordon and progress.
38. The Ghillie Suit gets an 8% movement speed bonus. Some armors come with integrated night vision.
39. The last quest involving Shaman will give you Shaman’s Boomstick. it’s basically a free full length Mosin. Because of its high damage and two times headshot multiplier expect to be killed by this fairly often. The only way to prevent a one tap is to wear ceramic armor plates.
40. Half the game, honestly, is teamwork. Cooperation. It would be rather difficult to get through this game solo, so don’t be afraid to use chat, squad up, and make friends.