Best weapon for the ammo type

[redcoatguner]

Because of ammunition constraints restricting myself to 3 different weapons each using their particular ammo hasn't been working out too well for me 'cause I've been running out due to very spongy enemies particularly mutants and I wanted to know what the most efficient weapon is per ammo type so I can have multiple choices to choose from if I ever ran out of ammo for that particular weapon

also I'm starting over apparently 38 hours in and a crash wiped out my save so yeah I'm starting over kinda bummed on that

[Kaszak]

Most efficient are probably 5.45x39 weapons, from the humble AK74 to a powerhouse that is Dnipro. Most bandit groups and other mooks carry those, so you'll likely end up with more ammo than you started with after the firefight if your aim is good. Add a good shotgun to the mix for mutants, the 12 gauge ammo is just as common, and you'll be able to tackle any threat in the zone on the cheap.

[Nite69]

any ak rifle or shotgun you want ammo is easy to get for both, don't bother with sniper cause I never needed it anywhere in game

[Bastila Shan]

You 100% need to switch fire rate to single shot by pressing b.

This way you will have plenty of ammo and you will need to go for headshots. For mutants get auto shotgun it will make quick work of them.

[Nite69]

Originally posted by Bastila Shan:

You 100% need to switch fire rate to single shot by pressing b.

This way you will have plenty of ammo and you will need to go for headshots. For mutants get auto shotgun it will make quick work of them.

yes this too single shot for sure, less jams, less wear on the guns, better recoil

[Bastila Shan]

For the really tough mutants later in game you probably want the end game weapons idk I’m not there yet

[Mordegar]

9x18 ammo has the most bang for the buck and that's turning the Buket-S2 into one of the economically best mid game guns. Most enemies carry a PM pistol around so you usually will get spare rounds every second enemy.
Next best cheap gun that can tackle endgame would be the Integral-A smg. The 9mm variant is already cheap to maintain and later on most enemies carry .45 cal pistols so you can turn it into a even stronger smg.

Assault rifles are versatile but smg's are way cheaper to maintain and have statistically the same penetration as AR's.

[Baron01]

Any late-game weapon will be better than early game variants. This is driven by the weapon stats that are separated from ammo you are using. This means Dnipro will be the best gun in 5.45x39mm category, Fora-221 will be 2nd and AK-74 will be the last. There can be minor differences due to unique weapons where Fora-221 has unique variant from a quest called Decider that is very good and can serve you wall into mid-game.

The situation is slightly different for shotguns where damage per shot is pretty much the same and the only differentiation is armor penetration. Again, this stat does not make much sense in reality but the game pushes you to use high-end weapons because they have higher amounts of penetration. Shotguns are also impacted by their ammo feeding mechanism, you either have to manually load each shell or a gun can have magazine feed. Shotguns with magazine feeds are much better options for sustain damage output and reloading in the heat of battle. This makes Saiga-12D undisputed king of shotguns for me and upgraded M860 with magazine feed upgrade dominates mid-game.


Rant time: Stalker series, including Stalker 2, without weapon overhaul mods have surprisingly simplistic weapon progression system that is also completely incorrect. In order to create progression system within constraints of the game systems in place, they gamified weapon stats to be better by letting them do more damage or more penetration. This is weird and largely wrong as same caliber would do approximately same amount of damage no matter what gun fires it. There will be minor differences in bullet velocity and other parameters but the overall impact on damage would be limited. Stalker 2 makes you believe Dnipro shooting same 5.45x39mm caliber just does a lot more damage than your AK-74 with same ammo.