Upgraded Grom S-15 Best AR in Game?

[Meako]

Has anyone noticed that an upgraded Grom S-15 (the special version chambered in 5.45x39) outperforms every other AR platform in the game, including Kharod and Dnipro?

In terms of Penetration, nothing beats it, so long as you select the appropriate upgrades (armor piercing etc.)

I upgraded a Kharod as well, choosing the penetration options available. Grom S-15 wins hands down.

No one talks about it - everyone raves about the Kharod and Dnipro. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something

[All Day I Dream About🪓]

Цитата допису 𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋:

Fun fact, in older games the Grom used to be called Tunder S-14.[stalker.fandom.com] It was chambered with the monster PAB 9x39mm sub-sonic rounds. It was coveted by Duty Stalkers, who liked it for the way it decimated Mutants and of course its under-barrel launcher for the VOG 25 grenades.

Additionally, in Clear Sky, you could attach a silencer and the Dove-tail-mounted PSO-1 scope onto it, but it was better as a close-quarters assault rifle, ideal in urban combat.

In Call of Pripyat, it was refered to as 'Groza'. In Yaniv Station, the Duty commander had one mounted on the wall in his office :)

The Clusterf**k also may be paying homage to the 'Sniper TRs 301'[stalker.fandom.com] NATO assault rifle, with a fixed susat scope and silencer. It was acquired in a quest, given by Duty's Voronin, again, in the old Stalker games.

I have noticed a slight favouritism in Stalker 2, for the 5.45 Soviet weapons. It surprised me to see how under-performing the GP-37 is, for example. But I'm not really too hurt about it. I really like the Dnipro. It is very accurate and has scored the most headshots for me so far.

I'm actually not very keen on high fire rate for assault rifles. At medium-long range, accuracy becomes more difficult to attain and high fire rates come with a trade off of higher recoil tracking. I use regular rounds and go for the critical head shots. The Dnipro delivers this at medium to long range nicely for me.

Lots of factors to consider.. sometimes it's not all about highest values...

Grom, Groza - all mean the same thing and can be translated to Thunder.

[Vi'ir Jul K'hane]

They're all the same to me. I shoot for the head.

[Joikax]

Base Dnipro is good enough to 3tap exos in the head (while base Kharod is a laser beam) and that's all you really need out of an assault rifle in this game, particularly given that upgrades increase the value of the guns and thus repair prices for usually marginal gains. Plus it's chambered in the most plentiful ammo type in the game at least until the very very very late game.

Worth also noting that (barring render range issues aside) Grom's damage dropoff starts at just 80 meters in a game that has terminator-like and grenade-happy AI you don't want to be anywhere near if at all possible.

Stalker has always been a game about headshots if you don't want to chew through both ammo and gun condition (and thus money aswell) so really, in light of all I've said, people aren't gleaming over the Dnipro and Kharod for nothing.


If you like the Grom this much you'll probably love the VS Vintar just the same, it's a little monster posessing 35 base damage: 1damage over the clusterfk with the same pen.
For some reason they made it stupidly good in this game (also compared to the AS Val from previous entries that was usually better) despite how early you can find one.

[Meako]

Цитата допису HiggsLP:

OP did u switch the barrel for Kharod also?
I dont know about Grom much, just started to play with it on my 2nd run.
At 1st glance seems really powerful but Im at mid game so lets see how it fares against Exos.
Thing is the high cap mag on Grom is only 30 bullets.
I beliece Kharod/Dnipro have 40 bullets, so 2 kills per mag against exos in Stalker mode.

I didn't change the barrel, no. Same for Dnipro.

I also only factored in penetration and damage. Someone else made a really good comment about ergonomics and accuracy, which was a valid point. Grom S-15 has larger sway and the recoil is sizeable.

[Meako]

Цитата допису Joikax:

Base Dnipro is good enough to 3tap exos in the head (while base Kharod is a laser beam) and that's all you really need out of an assault rifle in this game, particularly given that upgrades increase the value of the guns and thus repair prices for usually marginal gains. Plus it's chambered in the most plentiful ammo type in the game at least until the very very very late game.

Worth also noting that (barring render range issues aside) Grom's damage dropoff starts at just 80 meters in a game that has terminator-like and grenade-happy AI you don't want to be anywhere near if at all possible.

Stalker has always been a game about headshots if you don't want to chew through both ammo and gun condition (and thus money aswell) so really, in light of all I've said, people aren't gleaming over the Dnipro and Kharod for nothing.


If you like the Grom this much you'll probably love the VS Vintar just the same, it's a little monster posessing 35 base damage: 1damage over the clusterfk with the same pen.
For some reason they made it stupidly good in this game (also compared to the AS Val from previous entries that was usually better) despite how early you can find one.

I actually love the AS Val. I usually upgrade it and equip with a 2x optic. Only downside is the ammunition, which is rarer than momma's beads.

[lockwoodx]

Цитата допису Joikax:

If you like the Grom this much you'll probably love the VS Vintar just the same, it's a little monster posessing 35 base damage: 1damage over the clusterfk with the same pen. For some reason they made it stupidly good in this game (also compared to the AS Val from previous entries that was usually better) despite how early you can find one.

Unique AS VAL vs Unique VS VAL
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405656434

[gRim_Reaper II]

Цитата допису lockwoodx:

Grom will never be good because the caliber sucks.

Yes, the caliber that is used by the Dnipro, the highest valued AR of the game, sucks. Really dude? Is this a "All Assault rifles in this game suck and only battle rifle/sniper/shotgun/whatever are good" post?
Or didn't you read properly and are talking about the 9x39 subsonic round of the Grom S-fourteen, because that I would agree for an AR with its relative rarity and massive bullet drop. Only really good for Vintorez/Val for sneaky close-range kills.

[)]

On maximum difficulty you only need a Saiga or Rhino+Skif's pistol, why whould you even bother with S-15, you really want to waste 600+ ammo for one loot run? Have you been to Pripyat on max difficulty? Wander from DK Energetyk for like 10 minutes, slaughter 5 Bloodsuckers in one pack, two Bayuns, 2 psi-dogs at once, clear a building of like 30 monolith and get slaughtered by 30 more when leaving the building. This ♥♥♥♥ is broken, dude.

[Joikax]

Цитата допису lockwoodx:

Цитата допису Joikax:

If you like the Grom this much you'll probably love the VS Vintar just the same, it's a little monster posessing 35 base damage: 1damage over the clusterfk with the same pen. For some reason they made it stupidly good in this game (also compared to the AS Val from previous entries that was usually better) despite how early you can find one.

Unique AS VAL vs Unique VS VAL
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405656434

You can compensate for the slightly lower penetration (12% difference) through AP ammo if you really feel the need to and due to the higher base damage on the Vintar it scales much better with AP ammo than the Val does.

But even using regular ammo the Vintar still comes out ahead against armored targets through bruteforcing its 35damage, which is huge for an AR, over Val's 20. The upgrades for both are the same so they scale about the same from the base version comparison.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L6jBHJtw8AZrJZmOiFekiS2YVudHS3rQVGQN-oOaNMk/edit?gid=2000689774#gid=2000689774
Note the bloodsucker bullets-to-kill column in that link, the Val still loses both through regular and AP ammo versus its counterpart despite the higher penetration.

Forget the ingame UI, it doesn't tell the whole picture.

[Joikax]

Цитата допису It's easier for me:

On maximum difficulty you only need a Saiga or Rhino+Skif's pistol, why whould you even bother with S-15, you really want to waste 600+ ammo for one loot run? Have you been to Pripyat on max difficulty? Wander from DK Energetyk for like 10 minutes, slaughter 5 Bloodsuckers in one pack, two Bayuns, 2 psi-dogs at once, clear a building of like 30 monolith and get slaughtered by 30 more when leaving the building. This ♥♥♥♥ is broken, dude.

Yes but that's not what's being discussed.

[lockwoodx]

Цитата допису gRim_Reaper II:

Цитата допису lockwoodx:

Grom will never be good because the caliber sucks.

Yes, the caliber that is used by the Dnipro, the highest valued AR of the game, sucks.

If you don't know why the Dnipro is OP I can't help you. You're not even worth the clown.

[Dumar]

Цитата допису Meako:

Has anyone noticed that an upgraded Grom S-15 (the special version chambered in 5.45x39) outperforms every other AR platform in the game, including Kharod and Dnipro?

In terms of Penetration, nothing beats it, so long as you select the appropriate upgrades (armor piercing etc.)

I upgraded a Kharod as well, choosing the penetration options available. Grom S-15 wins hands down.

No one talks about it - everyone raves about the Kharod and Dnipro. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something

Are you talking about the Grom S-15 found in the Cooling Towers area? A bit north of Cement Settlement?

I'm on my 2nd play through, discovered the fire anomaly there too.

I found a broken Dnipro and a this Grom S-15 in the area before exiting.

I upgraded the Grom S-15 at the Cement Village.

Dmg and Armor pen stats are slightly lower than both DMG and Armor pen stats on a broken Dnipro.

Mind you, I didn't upgrade the Armor Pen on Dnipro, nor did I repair it yet since I recall most recipes being late game-ish for it.

Now, I will say, Grom feels REALLLY good to shoot - It's recoil upgrades really keep the gun stable during shooting.

Dnipro from my memory has rough recoil, even if you do perform all or most recoil reduction stats.

All this to say, you're wrong about both stats.

Dnipro is superior even as a broken/unrepaired gun against the Upgraded/repaired Grom S-15 for both base dmg and armor pen.

Or I'm drunk off of weird water?

[lockwoodx]

Цитата допису Dumar:

Dnipro is superior even as a broken/unrepaired gun against the Upgraded/repaired Grom S-15 for both base dmg and armor pen.

Or I'm drunk off of weird water?

Its the pride of ukraine so naturally it's top class OP stats. Too expensive to repair and greedy with ammo. The caliber sucks and you're better off using a RAM that has the same range, more stopping power, and less upkeep. Then add your choice of long range. I prefer Lynx.

[Dumar]

Цитата допису lockwoodx:

Цитата допису Dumar:

Dnipro is superior even as a broken/unrepaired gun against the Upgraded/repaired Grom S-15 for both base dmg and armor pen.

Or I'm drunk off of weird water?

Its the pride of ukraine so naturally it's top class OP stats. Too expensive to repair and greedy with ammo. The caliber sucks and you're better off using a RAM that has the same range, more stopping power, and less upkeep. Then add your choice of long range. I prefer Lynx.

Dnipro calibur sucks?

The default 5.94? (I may have the number wrong, either 5.94 or 5.95)

The ammo is omega available since the start of the game with every AK making use of this ammo.

I'm confused here.

Also, using a RAM shot-gun with terrible reload over an automatic? Strange choice.

Well, I guess your RAM is your main weapon and you have a sniper as your other as you mentioned the Lynx? (The gun from Stider if memory serves.)

Sniping in this game is awful because AI hit-scanning BS, but sure, to each their own I guess.

If I'm going to snipe at all, I'd use a Gauss Rifle since its a one-shot whether head or body, but as I mentioned, sniping in this game is awful choice until they ADJUST enemy A.I. accuracy and combat overall.

[lockwoodx]

Цитата допису Dumar:

Also, using a RAM shot-gun with terrible reload over an automatic? Strange choice.

Same Range as AKM 74U - 1 shots monolith non-exo in center of mass. 2 shots exos. 7 shots before reload = 7 confirmed kills. Reload time the same it takes to eat a tin of meat.