Fighting Through Endgame On Hard Mode - Best Gear

[Nifty]

Currently the hardest content available in Stalker 2 on hardcode is Pripyat story chapters.

The reason 4 this is because the sheer monolith enemy volume essentially makes it feel like the game is bugged and infinitely spawning enemies.

Strictly speaking it isn't bugged it's just an open gunfight between something like 50 monolith soldiers between the convenience store and the sniper apartments.

You're gonna need a few things to one man army this content.

1st is the diamond exosuit, this is really the only pure upgrade on the standard monolith armor.

Instead of 4.5 physical its 5.0 physical and a crap ton of carry weight boost and 5 artifact slots.

Essentially the best armor in the game.

Next up you need to grab the gauss gun from the double giant fight, you'll be needing all that ammo for what's coming next.

Then once you clear the 50 monolithians between the sniper apartments and the convenience store you'll have one last challenge.

A controller mind controlling an army of spark soliders.

Your reward for doing all this content is something like 40k credits after you sell all your guns but then you'll lose 20k off the top on repairs.

I can't over emphasize at this point that you'll need the best armor, a fully upgraded assault rifle, two fully upgraded pistols, the 30 rounds of gauss rifle ammo and lots of grenades.

Assuming you have this you can one man army road to foundation.

Which is the final quest before down below and the final chapter.

If anyone is struggling with playing Stalker 2 on higher difficulties and wants to know how the mechanics translate to the final chapters of the game?

It's mostly summed up by the Matrix, guns lots of gun...plus power armor.

[KuRtt]

I see that pointless blogs continue xD

[Nifty]

Not really pointless, it's illustrating that these build concepts are beating the hardest content on heightened difficulties.

Meanwhile most people are talking about build concepts for average difficulty.

[Nifty]

On medium I would say you are probably safe using just normal 3.5 physical armor.

Un-upgraded and 0 attachment armaments.

And whatever artifacts or gear you can find.

Just pick it up off the ground and use it, have a good time.

On hard mode if you don't plan your gear load out, our ammo economy, your coupon economy.

Youre dead, hard restart territory.

That is the point of showing why this approach to game is working for a full hardmode playthrough.

[GrenadeMagnet6]

Can I get by with an upgraded M701 sniper rifle instead of Gauss? I can get Gauss if necessary, just didn't want to spend money to upgrade another sniper rifle.

In the patched 1.3.1 playthrough the developers added a findable sniper-rifle suppressor that fits both the M701 and Mark 1 EMR. So far the sniper suppressor is pretty overpowered as you can one-tap Monoliths from a distance and the other Monoliths don't get alerted to your location.

I'm not in Pripyat just yet, so no idea if I can one-tap those Monoliths with more powerful armor.

[RaNgeR]

I see you haven't learned.

[KuRtt]

Originally posted by RaNgeR:

I see you haven't learned.

Take your passive agressive behaviour away from me learn from blind dogs either bite or flee to cover dont just bark at me.

@OP Thats a weak advice in my opinion get the "best" armor and weapon and too many spoilers if you are aiming at someone who didnt complete the game yet.

[Tritol]

Lotsa CQC in the end game, saiga is your friend, I didnt even bother with fancy ammo, just good ol buckshot.

You can also get gauss gun from the collar quest before you even reach pripyat.

And depending on your playstyle, either bring backup weapon or be ready to use one of the 100% "spares" you find in certain places.
I played with RPK and by the time I reached end of the "point of no return" part, I was practically shooting single action, getting jam after every shot, even with durability upgrades.

[Othobrithol]

Like Tritol said, there is a lot of cqc, so a saiga or ram is a smart choice, but you can also go the smg route. I usually carry a Zubr, with a rhino converted to buckshot.

Any endgame sniper will do, does not have to be the gauss.

Don't really understand the apparent need for two pistols. By endgame the only purpose of a pistol is to avoid wear and ammo wasted on your main weapons.

Diamond isn't the best armor, it's just the most convenient exo. All the non-monolith exos have flash-drives to collect. Personally I think all the monolith armors need a nerf. I think they were a late addition to the game hence no flashdrives.

Originally posted by KuRtt:

Originally posted by RaNgeR:

I see you haven't learned.

Take your passive agressive behaviour away from me learn from blind dogs either bite or flee to cover dont just bark at me.

Agreed. I have not seen a single friendly post from them.

Originally posted by GrenadeMagnet6:

In the patched 1.3.1 playthrough the developers added a findable sniper-rifle suppressor that fits both the M701 and Mark 1 EMR. So far the sniper suppressor is pretty overpowered as you can one-tap Monoliths from a distance and the other Monoliths don't get alerted to your location.

It existed in the game prior, but it was well hidden in Pripyat. Now it's in a much better spot, accessible earlier. The one that was never in the game until now was the SVDM/SVU supressor.