No money no funny

[Actimel]

Playing over 21hours, just completed some main quests on second zone, more like exploring the zone and collecting stashes so far, but my main concern is where is money? I collect all the shet, yellow weapons, food, anomalie artifatcs, sell them in towns, but no money just for repairs.. so if body armor is damaged, repair is 22k cash.. I dont have that money for 21 hours of gameplay.. to just repair armor :( so, to just keep looking for another armor/weapons? or there is something that I can be rich somehow?

[Ammikaameri]

I have only played on Veteran, so these comments are from that difficulty. Haven't had any issues with money since leaving the lesser zone.

You can do the repeatable quests at innkeepers for a lot of money. Keep artifacts in your stash and return them to the innkeepers for the artifact quests. If you need money fast then you can sell them to the traders too for less profit. If you get a quest for an artifact you don't yet have just abandon the quest and come get a new one after a few days.

Sell the ammo you don't need and use your pistol. At the start I'd suggest using one weapon slot for weapons you find and are going to sell anyways, so you don't need to ruin the durability of your main weapon using it for trivial encounters.

Anomalies cause a lot of durability damage so do your best to avoid those. Also you should repair often and not let the durability drop too low.

If you haven't upgraded your armor then just change it to another one once it gets low. Once you have the money upgrade your armor and then keep repairing that.

But the best money is just running around collecting artifacts. They respawn during emissions or after a few days (not sure which) so you can loot the same locations again and again.

[Coolverine]

If you have a lot of ammo that you never use, sell it. Same with old weapons, sell excess consumables, old/weak artifacts you don't use, and old armors too.

Some traders give more for stuff than others, so may want to look around. I know the trader in Prypiat gives more for stuff, maybe Birch in Rostok as well. Can't remember his name but the trader to the left when you enter Yaniv station (from the front entrance) also seemed to give more compared to that Hawaii guy in the main hall.

Also seems like doctors give a lot more for artifacts than regular traders.

[Luppie]

Stay with same gear long as posible, upgrade and fix it wen it's +-80% im building up much money 60.000k now.

[alka]

I've got about 200k now, in Zaton, about 10 main quest missions in. Tons of ammo and armour suits in my personal stash, I never buy ammo.

I repair my weapons and armour after every excursion, and usually it's from about low to mid 90s back to 100%. Worst case repairs on the armour are around 3k. As mentioned above, try to keep out of anomalies, they do a good job of messing up your armour and weapons.

Not sure if it actually works, but when you have improved your local reputation, the trader and technician markers turn green, and you are supposed to get better prices.

Some armour suits have 'Reduced wear' upgrades - these help out a lot I find.

[HeadsWillRoll]

I have 850k and 0 solded artifacts, don't know what's your problem, finished zaton

[wolf]

If you want to grind cash go to cement factory and then cross over to the cooling towers, then you go to the right building and the building to the north of it enemy spawns there always and the loot is good. Go back to cement factory sell and repeat.
I get between 10k and 21k per run.

[Tritol]

Theres tons of new gear everywhere, check for more stashes, almost every main mission gives you chance to get 1-2 new armour suits.

Dont take damage .. duh .. ofc you need to repair more often if you take damage, so dont dive into anomalies and take cover more.

What exactly do you need money for? People like to sit on trillions of koupons and run around with starting pistol.
You should have enough supplies and use money only to repair gun/armour and then once you find something cool upgrade that.

If you come back from hunt, sell your stuff for 20k and spend 20k on repair, than it was good run.
Once you find your dream gear, you will quickly realize how worthles money is in all stalker games.

[Mack]

The best way to make money is go on an artifact hunting route like one of these:
https://i.redd.it/xtq070a2vm6e1.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/8qk1dMx.jpeg

Item value for weight:
#1 - Artifacts
#2 - Detectors
#3 - Special medicine (Hercules, Vinca, Psi-Block)
#4 - Ammo (.308, 7.62 and 5.56 Nato are the best)
#5 - Armor/Helmets at high durability.
#6 - Notes/PDAs
#7 - Bandages, Medkits
#8 - High durability, high end weapons.

Anything else (eg food, vodka/beer/water, poor condition and low end weapons) isn't worth holding onto unless you're very close to selling it at a trader and you don't care about how long it will be to walk to the trader.

Most of the time 10 cans of meat or condensed milk, 10 energy drinks, 10 bandages and 10 medpacks is more than enough, so all you need then ammo you want for your rifle, and AP slugs & expansive ammo for your shotgun (get the AP barrel mod, and you can still use expansive shotgun ammo). And some pistol ammo.

[Ammikaameri]

Originally posted by Mack:

The best way to make money is go on an artifact hunting route like one of these:
https://i.redd.it/xtq070a2vm6e1.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/8qk1dMx.jpeg

Suggestion to any new players; don't check these routes. A lot of the game is looking for and finding the artifacts - these premade maps ruin that experience. Make your own routes based on your findings.

[Actimel]

Thank you all for your thoughts and answers.
So I guess its the difficulty here, that acts how much money you end up with. I play on hardest difficulty, 1 undamaged pistol nets me like 100 koupons, smg or rifle - 300. the prices on gear/artifacts are pretty nice, they show 12000,20000, but on trader you get like 2000 max if so... Yeah im selling bullets, bottles, vodka, food, but the money is just not there.. and you cant just go on mission or ambush with pistol, there are like 10-15 enemies + spawning many others non stop, so weapons and armor degrade naturaly.. imposible to not get hit :(

[SVK_u4yree]

IDK what are you doing but i have 230K after 13hours in :D im not even searching artefacts just looting stashes and many times im coming to merchant with backpack full of yellow weapons and ammo from enemies to sell. Thats pretty much it. I never buy weapons/gear i allways pick something better as i progress in storyline

[Luap26]

My only real complain with money, is why when i kill someone they have none on them. Is it a lore thing like its a digital currency on your PDA or something? Why isnt koupon a lootable thing from humans?

[alka]

Originally posted by Luap26:

My only real complain with money, is why when i kill someone they have none on them. Is it a lore thing like its a digital currency on your PDA or something? Why isnt koupon a lootable thing from humans?

Yes, koupons are digital which us why we can't loot them.

I view ammo as the physical, lootable in-game currency.

[Dalia]

Go find artefact and sell them, this is the way for make money like a stalker, after each emission you can make money easily

[mike]

Originally posted by Actimel:

where is money? I collect all the shet, yellow weapons, food, anomalie artifatcs, sell them in towns, but no money just for repairs..

Because of the imbalance, but given the current trend of patches and fixes, it’s unlikely to get any better moving forward.
All the money is already in the developers' hands, lol.