I don't get the point of radiation artifacts

[Unseen]

Why would I wanna wear this? So I can burn through even more anti rads? The artifacts in stalker 1 for radiation and endurance were the only ones I used. Stuff for electric, or bleeding prevention or whatever... I just don't see how that's useful if its gonna cause radiation damage. So trade one for the other? They could of made some of these artifacts more useful if they didn't have so many negative effects especially radiation. I mean can still sell theme for a good amount of rus so they are always worth looking for.

[Cujo]

There are some artifacts that remove rads. You can use them in conjunction to safely buff your character. If you're talking about artifacts that PURELY cause radiation, those are story items for quests and stuff.

[Unseen]

Ok so like for example the thermal resistant stuff, if it says for example 2plus red radiation all I gotta do is equip something that grants 2 green radiation and it'll counterbalance it?
Some of them might be good for hunting artifacts in heat areas, or poison/electrical. But for the most part I really prefer radiation defense as it seems to be the most common hazard.

[Cujo]

Yep. Try grav anomalies like the gas station. There's usually a jellyfish (-2 rads) there to start you off. Since it's removing -2 per second, radiation very very quickly becomes a non issue. Radiation is actually one of the least important damage sources- it drains health very slowly and you can cure it in so many ways (vodka, medpacks, artifacts). Most anomalies do instant damage which is much harder to mitigate than a DOT effect.

Even just a -1 net rad removal will make you effectively immune to all radiation.

You can also juggle equipped artifacts. So for example, if you have a -2 and a +2, keep on your resistance artifacts for going through an anomaly, then just take off the ones adding radiation and cleanse yourself, before putting them back on.

Two max "resist" artifacts for a damage type will make you nearly immune to that damage type as well, and they are so light you could carry around a full set of resistances for each anomaly you enter.

Personally I like running two bubbles for -8 rads, then a anti bleed artifact to seal wounds with no bandages, then energy recovery and weight increasing artifacts to run forever with a massive storage capacity.

[ImHelping]

While not DIRECTLY related to artifact rads. The best stuff like the above mentioned bubbles can't spawn normally (outside of some guarateed pity examples) without a high grade scanner.

Better scanners allow better artifacts to show up. Your default one means ♥♥♥♥ all shows up. The 2nd one opens up the basic pool of artifacts. Etc. Still reliant on what is allowed to show up at any given anomaly in the first place. But you can't get their best stuff at all without the best scanners.

They are not simply "Oh, it has a better visual indicator of what direction the artifact is".

[Harris]

The point of radiation artifacts is to wear two -4 radiation to offset the two +3 radiation from the other top-tier artifacts.

This gives you the benefit of whatever two artifacts you choose and the added benefit of not having to carry antirads/vodka and furthermore being able to sell them for a bit of profit.

Now, when it comes to artifacts, I don't see the point in those that give you a certain elemental resistance, as that sounds awfully niche to me. The problem of those artifacts is the same as wearing SEVA for raids - you're wearing a highly specialized piece of gear which will be useless when you inevitably run into bandits or mutants on the way. So realistically, and this is especially true for late game where money is irrelevant, I'd just go into anomaly in my main suit and tank the damage by eating medkits and their repair the armor. Artifacts are hella expensive, so that's still profitable.

So when I run exoskeleton, I normally have two endurance artifacts to be able to sprint for longer. Although even with those artifacts and not carrying a lot of stuff around (which is kinda against the entire point of exoskeleton) supplementing with energy drinks is still needed.

My favorite artifacts are those for healing and stopping bleeding - you stop needing bandages at all and are eating through medkits much slower. Since the total benefit of two of those artifacts is actually lower than what Duty's Psz-9D armor gives you, my most commonly run build is actually the armor itself with no artifacts whatsoever.

A niche but fun pick is the Heart of the Oasis, just for cases when you're stick and tired of carrying food around.

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Better scanners allow better artifacts to show up.

I wonder how achievements play into this. Like the one for seeing all the anomalies says it increases your chances of finding artifacts, though I'm not sure if by much.