Do artifacts stack or not?

[yura0392]

If you equip two Compass artifacts with maximum physical defense, will the second artifact have any effect, or will the first one already hit the cap, making the second one useless? How can this be tested?

[Baron01]

Originally posted by SHOKKERZ91:

...
So running a diamond exo with a compass is pointless.

I can confirm this statement is true. I have run several grenade tests in patch 1.1 using fully upgraded Diamond exo-suit. I received same damage from grenade, used both RDG and F1 with same effect, whether I used Compass with my suit or not. This makes me very sad as it makes artifact hunting a lot more pointless.

[SHOKKERZ91]

Radiation protection is weierd af. I know how artifact radiation is calculated but i have no idea how this translates to armor radiation protection.

An example: my armor has 2 bars of radiation protection and i slot 1 max radiation protection artifact (+4) and 2 artifacts with strong radiation (so i get hit by +6 radiation).

I am still protected. So the 5/5 bar limit does not count for radiation. No lead pockets used here. i wonder how much radiation i can protect against with a decent suit. I just don't have enough maximum radiation damage artifacts at hand.

If someone wants to know the numbers behind radiation protection.
Weak=+0.10
Medium=+0.15
Strong=+0.25
Funny bit of trivia, if the game would show these numbers ingame, the ui would round those numbers in a weierd way. Medium and strong both would show up as +0.2 and weak would show up as +0.0 lol.

[yura0392]

Originally posted by Baron01:

Originally posted by SHOKKERZ91:

...
So running a diamond exo with a compass is pointless.

I can confirm this statement is true. I have run several grenade tests in patch 1.1 using fully upgraded Diamond exo-suit. I received same damage from grenade, used both RDG and F1 with same effect, whether I used Compass with my suit or not. This makes me very sad as it makes artifact hunting a lot more pointless.

So if i have almaz exoskeleton to 100% physical protection Compass do absolute nothing? It's 100% useless? What artifacts make sense to use with this exoskeleton then?
Is it better to upgrade everything that isn’t 100% maxed out? If a stat already has 4 out of 5 bars, does it make sense to upgrade it further?

[SHOKKERZ91]

Originally posted by yura0392:

Originally posted by Baron01:

I can confirm this statement is true. I have run several grenade tests in patch 1.1 using fully upgraded Diamond exo-suit. I received same damage from grenade, used both RDG and F1 with same effect, whether I used Compass with my suit or not. This makes me very sad as it makes artifact hunting a lot more pointless.

So if i have almaz exoskeleton to 100% physical protection Compass do absolute nothing? It's 100% useless? What artifacts make sense to use with this exoskeleton then?
Is it better to upgrade everything that isn’t 100% maxed out? If a stat already has 4 out of 5 bars, does it make sense to upgrade it further?

If your armor has 5 full bars of physical protection then yes, compass is useless on it. I personally run 2 thunderberries, 1 carryweight artifact, 1 rad absorber and weierd nut.

[seven_stars]

It's too bad it's capped. But I can see the point. Imagine a fully upgraded diamond exo with 4 compass and a Anti-Radiation artifact. Without a cap you would be almost invincible. Or. Even 3 compass with a max bleeding resistance artifact(forget which one) again almost invincible.

[Baron01]

Originally posted by seven_stars:

It's too bad it's capped. But I can see the point. Imagine a fully upgraded diamond exo with 4 compass and a Anti-Radiation artifact. Without a cap you would be almost invincible. Or. Even 3 compass with a max bleeding resistance artifact(forget which one) again almost invincible.

There should be caps for stats in the game but not at the level that is possible to reach by fully upgraded exoskeleton. This completely undermines certain artifacts and make them redundant in the end-game.
If currently 5 is cap for physical resistance, it should be instead 7 so you have a choice to make--equip artifact giving you the rest of physical resistance such as Compass but waste 3 points, use something like Flower Bud that only gives 2 but also gives 2 endurance or you can ignore the extra 2 points of resistance and use different artifact for different resistance bonus. Current system simply disqualifies any physical protection artifacts as long as you have end-game exo-suit.

My current setup is as follows:
1. Traveling - Thunderberry x2, Weird Water, Liquid Rock, Hypercube.
2. Combat - Hypercube x 2, Weird Ball, Weird Water, Liquid Rock

[Vald0vas]

Hi, tested on Xbox Series X:
- 2 strong radiation artifacts can be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 3 medium radiation artifacts can be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 2 strong + 1 medium radiation artifacts CANNOT be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 2 medium + 1 strong radiation artifacts CANNOT be compensated by 1 Liquid rock. However, two Liquid rocks can compensate for this - meaning Liquid rocks CAN BE stacked.

Tested on upgraded PSZ9I-Falcon that had 3.2 bars of radiation protection.

For simplicity you may assign following relative values:
Liquid rock maximum protection = 20
Strong radiation = 9
Medium radiation = 6

Happy stalking!

[opt33]

as of the most recent stalker 2 update, physical artifacts now do roughly 4% damage reduction per tier. they stack but only up to cap of 70% max damage reduction.
weak = 0.1 bar (from config file effectprototypes)
medium = 0.25 bars
strong (cube) = 0.5 bars (8.3%)
max (compass) = 1 bar = roughly 16.6% damage reduction

each bar on armor suits represent 14.5% damage reduction
1 bar 13%
2 bars 29%
3 bars 45.5%
4 bars 62%
4.5 bars = cap 70%
5 bars still = 70%
Once you have 4.5+ bars on armor suit, artifacts that do physical damage reduction may as well sell, as they are useless at that point. max artifacts for physical now comparable to 1.0 bars of damage reduction on suit

[nabbed]

Originally posted by opt33:

as of the most recent stalker 2 update, physical artifacts now do roughly 4% damage reduction per tier. they stack but only up to cap of 72.5% max damage reduction.
weak = 4% damage reduction
medium = 8%
strong (cube) = 12%
max (compass) = 16%

each bar on armor suits represent 14.5% damage reduction
1 bar 14.5%
2 bars 29%
3 bars 43.5%
4 bars 58%
5 bars 72.5% (cap is 72.5%).
Once you have 5 bars on armor suit, artifacts that do physical damage reduction may as well sell, as they are useless at that point. max artifacts for physical now comparable to 1.1 bars of damage reduction on suit

Where did you get these numbers?

I have tested the damage reduction math, and the maximum is 70% exactly, not 72.5 - take damage with and without damage reduction, measure how many pixels are gone in the health bar graphic, then calculate the ratio of damage incurred with and without physical protection.

[nabbed]

Originally posted by Vald0vas:

Hi, tested on Xbox Series X:
- 2 strong radiation artifacts can be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 3 medium radiation artifacts can be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 2 strong + 1 medium radiation artifacts CANNOT be compensated by 1 Liquid rock.
- 2 medium + 1 strong radiation artifacts CANNOT be compensated by 1 Liquid rock. However, two Liquid rocks can compensate for this - meaning Liquid rocks CAN BE stacked.

Tested on upgraded PSZ9I-Falcon that had 3.2 bars of radiation protection.

For simplicity you may assign following relative values:
Liquid rock maximum protection = 20
Strong radiation = 9
Medium radiation = 6

Happy stalking!

It's easier to think about it this way:
weak - 1 arbitrary unit
medium - 2 au
strong - 3 au
maximum - 6 au.

2 strong = 3 med = 1 max.

[opt33]

Where did you get these numbers?

I have tested the damage reduction math, and the maximum is 70% exactly, not 72.5 - take damage with and without damage reduction, measure how many pixels are gone in the health bar graphic, then calculate the ratio of damage incurred with and without physical protection.

measuring same as you, though error of my measurements easily 1-2%, so could well be 70%. makes more sense to be 14% per bar, total 70%, ie round numbers.

edited above post with more measurements and found cfg file.

[Sparhawk122]

Originally posted by SHOKKERZ91:

Each level of a artifact equals one full bar in your armor stat.
weak 1, medium 2, strong 3, maximum 4
So running a diamond exo with a compass is pointless.

Incorrect.

Weak = 1/4 of a bar
Medium = half of a bar
Strong = 3/4 of a bar
Maximum = One full bar

[seven_stars]

Originally posted by Sparhawk122:

Originally posted by SHOKKERZ91:

Each level of a artifact equals one full bar in your armor stat.
weak 1, medium 2, strong 3, maximum 4
So running a diamond exo with a compass is pointless.

Incorrect.

Weak = 1/4 of a bar
Medium = half of a bar
Strong = 3/4 of a bar
Maximum = One full bar

That is the corrected values for physical resistance artifacts after 1.1 patch. But before they were 1 to 4 bars. So people were getting way more resistance than was intended. Like going around in an ecologist suit with 1 compass and getting max damage resist. Thats why a lot of people really feel the increase in difficulty after that fix. But still with healing items at ridiculous levels in the game, you can outheal almost any damage.

[Sparhawk122]

Originally posted by seven_stars:

Originally posted by Sparhawk122:

Incorrect.

Weak = 1/4 of a bar
Medium = half of a bar
Strong = 3/4 of a bar
Maximum = One full bar

That is the corrected values for physical resistance artifacts after 1.1 patch. But before they were 1 to 4 bars. So people were getting way more resistance than was intended. Like going around in an ecologist suit with 1 compass and getting max damage resist. Thats why a lot of people really feel the increase in difficulty after that fix. But still with healing items at ridiculous levels in the game, you can outheal almost any damage.

Wow. With those past values it would not have mattered what suit you were wearing lol.

[Milchschniteln]

yes its stacks