I don't share complaints about repair costs

[Bullett00th]

Granted that yes they've been nerfed, but my money has been climbing steadily since launch, and no I haven't been doing crawling speed overburdened loot runs.

Currently in the swamps, and I feel like people are expecting to be running every mission with pristine condition equipment and hence spending money on repairs every time they visit a hub.
Doesn't look like it was the intended way of playing the game, so sharing a few of my approaches that might help you save up:

• Found good armor? Keep it, don't sell. Wear the armor you find starting from the lowest acceptable one to you, sell it at ~50% durability, switch to the next one. I promise you will always have fresh armor in your stash and always an upgrade from your current one.
  
• Do the same with weapons you like and plan on using, and EXPERIMENT. Old gun getting low durability? Keep it, but switch to a fresh one. I tell you those SMGs are better than the descriptions would have you believe.
  
• Don't shy away from using a mid durability gun. Spice up your firefights. Have a jam give you an 'oh shi...' moment. Enjoy the detailed unjam animations. Recall 2008 when Far Cry 2 came out and you weren't as old and tired.
  
• Don't upgrade regular guns and armor. MAYBE durability and weight upgrades if you want. Leave it to very good equipment you'll get later on.
  
• Scavenge smart. Take the bare minimum on a mission, make do with what you have, and don't loot everything you see. Those vodka bottles and salami are no good in terms of price-to-weight ratio, same goes for many weapons. Selling spare bandages and ammo will get you quite some fortune.

Hope this helps. Now get out of here, Stalkers! Get out of here, Stalkers!

[Nite69]

all ya need to do is go to spark anomalies and try to get a thunderberry artifact, they are 70,000 and a trader will give you almost 25,000 for it, no money issues then

its the most valuable artifact I found so far and easiest to get

[CadaveR]

I admit i still have to use a smg, are they good?

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by CadaveR:

I admit i still have to use a smg, are they good?

Buket S-2 is neat for close range with a silencer on, you can get headshots with it or magdump into the body - at least against humans.

The M10 really surprised me after I panic killed a bloodsucker with hipfire. I imagine it loses durability FAST but it's a great panic weapon and people said it can be used in the pistol slot. Haven't checked that but you can def onehand it with the detector.

Viper-5 is the only one that feels meh to me

[sunflower]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

- Don't upgrade regular guns and armor. MAYBE durability and weight upgrades if you want. Leave it to very good equipment you'll get later on.

People want to upgrade top armor/weapon to the max, and then jump into the center of anomaly, or try to absorb tons of damage from mutants or human enemies, and than complain: why single fight cost me 30k coupons.
Every upgrade you add to weapon/armor increase repair cost.

You can check my guide how repair cost is calculated
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3382254101

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

• Found good armor? Keep it, don't sell. Wear the armor you find starting from the lowest acceptable one to you, sell it at ~50% durability, switch to the next one. I promise you will always have fresh armor in your stash and always an upgrade from your current one.
  
• Do the same with weapons you like and plan on using, and EXPERIMENT. Old gun getting low durability? Keep it, but switch to a fresh one. I tell you those SMGs are better than the descriptions would have you believe.
  
• Don't shy away from using a mid durability gun. Spice up your firefights. Have a jam give you an 'oh shi...' moment. Enjoy the detailed unjam animations. Recall 2008 when Far Cry 2 came out and you weren't as old and tired.
  
• Don't upgrade regular guns and armor. MAYBE durability and weight upgrades if you want. Leave it to very good equipment you'll get later on.

Hope this helps. Now get out of here, Stalkers! Get out of here, Stalkers!

Maybe someday, any fanbase will realize that openly admitting the system is so terrible they avoid using it until they have godtier gear, just proves the system is bad.

People are complaining that repairs and upgrades are overtuned and make using those systems slow and awkward instead of challenging, NOT 'hard'. Yet your comeback is "Well guess what, just don't repair anything or upgrade anything until you are already rich!" You are taking the bus then talking ♥♥♥♥ about people running a marathon.

I might as well brag about the fact I still pack a Viper SMG because it is the cheapest automatic (Uzi running on 45 gets spicy) in the game for swatting dogs that never arrive in packs smaller than 6 but can still put down multiple boar better than an extended mag pistol. That piece of ♥♥♥♥ has saved me thousands if not tens of thousands of coupons for a few pounds of extra luggage.

But that is me using a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ viper because repair costs for good SMG is bonkers for wanting to enjoy them full time. Not me being more skilled than people going broke trying to engage with the systems.

Still slightly more thought than "Look at these idiots mad that ambient damage costs more than not savescumming for a legendary artifact will sell for. Shoulda gone into the anomaly naked and with your weapons unequiped, idiots!" because hey! you use list formatting, wow.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Maybe someday, any fanbase will realize that openly admitting the system is so terrible they avoid using it until they have godtier gear, just proves the system is bad.

People are complaining that repairs and upgrades are overtuned and make using those systems slow and awkward instead of challenging, NOT 'hard'. Yet your comeback is "Well guess what, just don't repair anything or upgrade anything until you are already rich!" You are taking the bus then talking ♥♥♥♥ about people running a marathon.

I might as well brag about the fact I still pack a Viper SMG because it is the cheapest automatic (Uzi running on 45 gets spicy) in the game for swatting dogs that never arrive in packs smaller than 6 but can still put down multiple boar better than an extended mag pistol. That piece of ♥♥♥♥ has saved me thousands if not tens of thousands of coupons for a few pounds of extra luggage.

But that is me using a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ viper because repair costs for good SMG is bonkers for wanting to enjoy them full time. Not me being more skilled than people going broke trying to engage with the systems.

Still slightly more thought than "Look at these idiots mad that ambient damage costs more than not savescumming for a legendary artifact will sell for. Shoulda gone into the anomaly naked and with your weapons unequiped, idiots!" because hey! you use list formatting, wow.

Trust me when I say I have a ton of problems with this game that I will openly state any day.

All I did was notice the vast amount of complaints about the repair costs and compared them to my personal experience where I'm swimming in money while also not at all limiting myself to starting weapons and armor. So I decided to share some of my playstyle approaches so that maybe people would have a better time with their ingame economy.

Take it or leave it, I don't mean to say I'm better at the game than anyone - god knows my death count is well over a hundred.

But since that you're giving me s**t for formatting I'll just assume someone took a smelly dump in your breakfast, to which all I can say is sorry for whoever ruined your meal but it wasn't me!

[jamesc70]

Found good armor? Keep it, don't sell. Wear the armor you find starting from the lowest acceptable one to you, sell it at ~50% durability, switch to the next one. I promise you will always have fresh armor in your stash and always an upgrade from your current one.

You must not be very far into the game. This works in the beginning, but there is no way you are going to switch out a good SEVA suit for something lesser (and probably without psi protection).

I did the Swamps in a SEVA with it fully repaired. It was in the red when I finished everything there and cost 96,000 coupons to repair (plus all my guns were another 50,000+ easily).

Farming artifacts can work, but I bet all the running around to all the spots takes more time than slogging back to a base with nearly red weight. I do however stop at all spots IF i'm passing by.

How about an artifact that slowly repairs guns and armor? How about allowing guys you meet in the field to buy guns? How about hiring a guy at a base to come carry all your loot back? Something, anything to mitigate repair costs would be great.

[goblin]

The latest patch made the repairs a non issue. I do leave the hub with fully repaired gear and usually just pick up good weapons for reselling, ignoring the lower tier stuff. You can make a fortune on selling bandages too.

[Dr.doom]

ah yes use my diamond exosuit and look for the next after an hour of combat good idea

[PureRok]

The problem is how repair costs work, imo. It should be less to repair it more often. It seems like it's a linear cost, so even taking small amounts of durability damage starts to increase in cost too quickly.

More damaged equipment should definitely cost more to fix, but something that's just a bit scuffed or needs some oil and a cleaning shouldn't cost 8K. Think of it like if you take your car in to get the oil changed, but they charge you the cost of replacing the alternator. Doesn't make sense, does it?

[Mörkö]

Even the npcs complain about the repair prices though

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1ha4kcx/even_the_npcs_are_complaining_about_the_same_thing/

Lack of durability is more annoying than repair imo.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by jamesc70:

You must not be very far into the game. This works in the beginning, but there is no way you are going to switch out a good SEVA suit for something lesser (and probably without psi protection).

Just moved into swamps and sharing my current observations. I may be proven dangerously wrong in the following hours)

Originally posted by PureRok:

The problem is how repair costs work, imo. It should be less to repair it more often. It seems like it's a linear cost, so even taking small amounts of durability damage starts to increase in cost too quickly.

More damaged equipment should definitely cost more to fix, but something that's just a bit scuffed or needs some oil and a cleaning shouldn't cost 8K. Think of it like if you take your car in to get the oil changed, but they charge you the cost of replacing the alternator. Doesn't make sense, does it?

Realism-wise - no it doesn't. Gameplay-wise I think it makes perfect sense.
I like how repairs are managed in the RE4 remake. The more damaged your knife/armor is, the less it costs per durability % to repair it. This is done exactly to prevent the player from obsessive repairing.
However once you BREAK the item - repairing it becomes much more expensive.

[Baron01]

Originally posted by sunflower:

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

- Don't upgrade regular guns and armor. MAYBE durability and weight upgrades if you want. Leave it to very good equipment you'll get later on.

People want to upgrade top armor/weapon to the max, and then jump into the center of anomaly, or try to absorb tons of damage from mutants or human enemies, and than complain: why single fight cost me 30k coupons.
Every upgrade you add to weapon/armor increase repair cost.

You can check my guide how repair cost is calculated
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3382254101

The fact that gear upgrades affect repair prices is stupid. Especially considering gear upgrades are one of the very few way to progress your character. This is made much worse due to fact that end-game weapons and armors have crazily inflated prices. Diamond Exoskeleton final two lead-painted containers upgrades cost 30k each. I absolutely want those upgrades because they are improving my ability to utilize various artifacts. They are not useless.

I have over 1.3m coupons, my gear is upgraded to the max possible bar few missing blueprints but I still do not like how much ammo and repair costs. I can absolutely get by now because in end-game, few looted weapons will cover my operating costs. This was no the case earlier when I had to carry full weight limit of loot to get some profit from each expedition. It felt like you were punished for exploring and finding rare loot. You could easily find Seva-D suite few hours into the game but covering its repair costs in early game was absolute murder.

Upgrading gear is key progression mechanic in Stalker 2 and yet we are actively discouraged from doing it because it would mean paying more for repairs. This approach is beyond stupid.

[sunflower]

Originally posted by Baron01:

The fact that gear upgrades affect repair prices is stupid. Especially considering gear upgrades are one of the very few way to progress your character. This is made much worse due to fact that end-game weapons and armors have crazily inflated prices. Diamond Exoskeleton final two lead-painted containers upgrades cost 30k each. I absolutely want those upgrades because they are improving my ability to utilize various artifacts. They are not useless.

These 2 lead container upgrade will increase repair cost from 0% to 100% just by 6k. This doesn't seem like a lot. The problem I see most armors have fire/electro/acid protections which are completely useless.
First: you can avoid damage from almost all anomalies with Veles detector. Except fire, these are crazy. But you can survive in fire anomaly without any suit on Veteran (this is what I do most of the times).
Second: I don't understand how wear mechanics work on armors. I mean, does protections decrease damage done to armor? Sometimes it looks like any damage instance, no matter how small it is, decreases durability. I can go through fire anomaly and get -5% in few seconds. I can fight smartly against humans with covers and so on, and get -2% in few minutes.
Third: you can carry corresponding artifacts before going into corresponding anomaly to decrease damage.
I don't know what the ideas developers had when implementing these system. I have half-upgraded Diamond Exoskeleton and with some care in fights my money still go up on Veteran. I definitely will not add any anomaly protection upgrades to this suit.

[Likkuku]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

• Found good armor? Keep it, don't sell. Wear the armor you find starting from the lowest acceptable one to you, sell it at ~50% durability, switch to the next one. I promise you will always have fresh armor in your stash and always an upgrade from your current one.
  
• Do the same with weapons you like and plan on using, and EXPERIMENT. Old gun getting low durability? Keep it, but switch to a fresh one. I tell you those SMGs are better than the descriptions would have you believe.
  
• Don't shy away from using a mid durability gun. Spice up your firefights. Have a jam give you an 'oh shi...' moment. Enjoy the detailed unjam animations. Recall 2008 when Far Cry 2 came out and you weren't as old and tired.
  
• Don't upgrade regular guns and armor. MAYBE durability and weight upgrades if you want. Leave it to very good equipment you'll get later on.

Hope this helps. Now get out of here, Stalkers! Get out of here, Stalkers!

Maybe someday, any fanbase will realize that openly admitting the system is so terrible they avoid using it until they have godtier gear, just proves the system is bad.

People are complaining that repairs and upgrades are overtuned and make using those systems slow and awkward instead of challenging, NOT 'hard'. Yet your comeback is "Well guess what, just don't repair anything or upgrade anything until you are already rich!" You are taking the bus then talking ♥♥♥♥ about people running a marathon.

I might as well brag about the fact I still pack a Viper SMG because it is the cheapest automatic (Uzi running on 45 gets spicy) in the game for swatting dogs that never arrive in packs smaller than 6 but can still put down multiple boar better than an extended mag pistol. That piece of ♥♥♥♥ has saved me thousands if not tens of thousands of coupons for a few pounds of extra luggage.

But that is me using a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ viper because repair costs for good SMG is bonkers for wanting to enjoy them full time. Not me being more skilled than people going broke trying to engage with the systems.

Still slightly more thought than "Look at these idiots mad that ambient damage costs more than not savescumming for a legendary artifact will sell for. Shoulda gone into the anomaly naked and with your weapons unequiped, idiots!" because hey! you use list formatting, wow.

So... you're mad you have to pay to repair a weapon because you use the wrong weapons horribly? Gotcha.