Best/notable equipment to use and why + Tips for beginners.

A small guide to some of the best weapons, armor, and artifacts to use in the vanilla game, and why I prefer them over their alternatives, as well as some other notable equipment that may not be the best, but is still interesting for one reason or another. Also, some tips for beginners who want to get a strong start.

Introduction and important notes

Sup Stalkers. Name's Neonetik. Not literally of course. Woulda walked myself straight into an anomaly ages ago if that were the case. Who am I? I'm just some random dude on steam who really likes S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. You're probably wondering "Who is this c*ka and why should I care about what he thinks the best stuff is?". Well, after writing up a complete Far Cry 2 weapons guide and getting tons of good reception, and studying CoP for many hours as well as playing through the normal game multiple times, I think there are a few reasons why what I say is cool, and will probably help someone.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a game series which I really admire for many reasons. It's original, it's unique, it's atmospheric, it's challenging, it's Slavic, and its got a hell of a lot of variety when it comes to what sort of things you can use in the game. There's dozens of weapons, armors, and artifacts you can use to conquer the zone and all of it's challenges. However, not all equipment is created equal. Sure, all equipment has it's positives and negatives, and you can beat the game with pretty much anything, but some stuff stands above the rest in terms of usability, stats, and just being awesome, even if it's only by a small amount. Today, I'd like to introduce some of my favorite equipment that meets this criteria, in the hopes of helping some newcomers to the zone have an easier time. The main reason I'm not covering every weapon, armor, and artifact is because, unlike Far Cry 2, weapons are more similar to each other, and usually only have statistical differences. Don't get me wrong, the weapons of STALKER will make you play a different way depending on exactly what you chose, but that's something you pick up while playing. Plus, there's much more to cover, and I don't want to be here for the next 5 years.

As I mentioned in the guide summary, this applies to the vanilla game, the way the developers intended the game to be played, only. If you're installing anything that affects the gameplay and not just the visuals, then this information is worthless to you. For everyone else, this should make starting/progressing through the game easier/more enjoyable.

Some of the information on this guide was adapted from the ZSG network CoP guide, located here. http://cop.zsg.dk/index.php
As such, a special thanks to Thomas Rose (DawnRazor73) is in order for his work and effort into ensuring I can obsessively analyze equipment stats in games I enjoy.
The ZSG guide focuses mainly on statistical information, but this guide will cover part of that, alongside further explanation for why the equipment I write about is some of the best. I highly advise checking out the guide.
(Note: Seems like the years haven't been all too kind to this article, and now certain parts of it fail to load. Use webarchive/wayback machine and access an earlier version of it by a couple of years. I tried 2020 and that worked, though honestly I'd hope anything BEFORE 2023/2022 would be fine.)

To simplify things, every equipment piece here will assume you have fully upgraded the item in question and are using it at its full potential. Upgrade paths can differ between people, but the difference usually isn't that large between them, and most people will pick the similar paths either way. However, I will occasionally discuss a weapon/armors qualities when not fully upgraded, as getting to the final tier takes until far later in the game compared to the first 2 tiers.

If you are looking for information on where to find the stuff listed here, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wikia along with the ZSG will be your best bet. I cover some of the basic of this, but if you're looking for exact locations and the like, there's tons of info already available, and frankly, if I covered it here, I'd be going completely off topic for half of this guide.

And finally, thank you all so much for the various awards and stuff! I do like buying cosmetic items on Steam with the points I get from them, so just know that your support is much appreciated! I'm just glad you found my work helpful.

NeonStalker away!

Regarding Ammo

If you've started playing, and you're having a hard time understanding why some guns that seem to have a higher damage rating seem to do less damage than guns with a lower rating, you must remember that a weapon's damage rating is not the only thing to affect how fast you kill things. The bullet types in the game are also different from one another. All ammo can either be looted from corpses or stashes (with different degrees of rarity), or bought from a trader. There's not that much reliable information available on each bullet type and exactly how effective they are, but in general, the more expensive ammunition is, the better it is at killing things. The basic gist of it is...

• 9x18mm ammo types have low power and low penetration. +P+ rounds have higher damage than FMJ ones, but still aren't great. Trader fodder really.
  
  
• 9x19mm ammo types are only slightly better than 9x18mm ammo types. JHP rounds have higher power, but again, are still not great. Also trader fodder.
  
  
• 5.45x39mm rounds have decent power but don't have good penetration, though the AP versions of the rounds are good with that. This will likely be your primary ammo for the first part of the game, and possibly for all of it if you're using a weapon like the "Storm".
  
  
• 5.56x45mm rounds have good power and pierce ok, particularly the AP rounds again. This is also a good point where guns become serious, and you can comfortably beat the game with anything using this, or further onward, whereas using the stuff before this might be rather difficult at times, unless you are quite good and prepared with proper AP rounds and stuff. That's not to say you can't beat the game with just your Honorary PMm if you wanted, but good bloody luck to you if you wanna try.
  
  
• 9x39mm rounds have both good power and piercing, particularly the SP-6 rounds with piercing.
  
  
• 7.62x54mm 7H1/pp rounds have high damage and piercing and will blow your head off.
  
  
• .45 ACP rounds are strong and have decent penetration. The Hydroshock rounds are better at piercing armor, and are also more rare seeing as they are better.
  
  
• Shot rounds are powerful but don't pierce well, whilst having a fair amount of spread.
  
  
• Slug rounds have good damage and pierce (or rather, crush through) fairly well (In CoP anyway, not so much in previous games, they were buffed in CoP to be good at this due to the removal of other shotgun ammo types), being basically one large bullet.
  
  
• Batteries will strike anything you shoot like a lightning bolt. Homemade batteries preform exactly the same, but only hold 6 rounds instead of 10 for the same weight. Regular batteries are limited, but homemade ones can be bought whenever.

Stronger ammo costs more money, so be careful if you plan on buying something that uses 7.62x54mm ammo and you want to go around shooting rats with it.

Weapons

As previously mentioned, there are tons of weapons in CoP. The following is just a select few that I value above all others. I'm only going to give a brief rundown of the weapon. If you want stats, go to the ZSG link I posted at the start of this guide. Keep in mind, as I stated before, everything I say here will be be said under the assumption that the weapon is fully upgraded, so I don't wanna see any comments stating "omg ur an idiot the sawed-off shotgun weights 1.90kg not 1". When in doubt, assume I'm right. And if I'm not, well, then sure, call me an idiot. I can take it. Please don't though, I'll cry. Keep in mind that, in general, you shouldn't really need to carry more than 2 weapons at a time, except when gathering stuff to sell. Even an assault rifle is fine on its own, but you know, do what's fun. Oh, and some weapons can only equip certain types of scopes. Just FYI.

March

Qualities

• Good damage
  
• Super fast firing speed
  
• Great accuracy
  
• Can equip silencer
  
• Weight: 0.72kg
  
• Magazine size: 16 rounds
  
• Uses .45 ACP rounds

The March is, for my rubles, the best pistol in the game. It's got good damage thanks to using a powerful ammo type, a fully automatic firing mode, is almost perfectly accurate, has a good weight, and the ammo it uses isn't super expensive (but it is a bit pricey) or rare. Plus it's light, so if you only use pistols as a backup weapon, it's pretty damn good. Get it from Nimble.

Predator

Qualities

• Great damage
  
• Fast firing speed
  
• Weight: 2kg
  
• 9 rounds
  
• Uses both shot and slug rounds

The Predator stands above most other shotguns for one reason and one reason only. It's got the highest single shot damage out of any shotgun in the game, and by a pretty decent margin too. If you like one shot kills, you'll want this gun. Everything else is pretty standard for a shotgun, but I'll be damned if the damage isn't enough to elevate it above the rest. Takes some time to get. If you want a good shotgun ASAP, just get the Carabiner from Nimble.

Storm

Qualities

• Can mount scope and suppressor
  
• Has integrated grenade launcher
  
• Weight: 3kg
  
• Magazine size: 40 rounds
  
• Uses 5.45x39 mm rounds

The Storm is a great weapon, simply for the fact that it has good stats all across the board, and uses a very common ammo type, plus it has pretty much all the extra add-ons and can be used with and without a scope. If you like assault rifles and want a great one early, buy it from nimble. Just bring some AP ammo for armored targets, as the ammo this uses isn't quite as good at penetrating. Still, the fact that the ammo type is quite common means you can afford to shoot quite a bit without worry, not that ammo is hard to get in this game either way.

Streloks SGI-5K

Qualities

• Can mount scope, suppressor, and grenade launcher
  
• Freaking belonged to STRELOK
  
• Weight: 3.20kg
  
• Magazine size: 40 rounds
  
• Uses 5.56x45 mm rounds

Streloks SGI-5K is, for my rubles, one of the best all purpose weapons in the game. It fires fast, it's accurate, it's durable, it hits hard (the hardest out of any assault rifles that use the 5.56x45mm ammo type), it has a high clip size, it can mount and dismount everything, scope, suppressor, grenade launcher, and it's fairly light. It uses a stronger ammo type than the storm, though that ammo type is more expensive and harder to find, plus it's kinda hard to find this weapon. If you don't wanna go through the effort of getting this, the GP37 and FT-200M are fine, but Streloks SGI-5K has more advantages and versatility than either of them, due to it being able to use multiple different scopes, not being weighed down by integrated attachments (but still being able to use all of them), being a semi-light weapon by itself, and still lighter than the GP37 even if you take a scope, and just being that much more powerful. Fantastic bit of kit, this one.

Lynx

Qualities

• Damn high damage
  
• Super accurate
  
• Powerful Integrated scope
  
• Magazine size: 10 rounds
  
• Uses 7.62x54mm 7H1 ammo
  
• Weight: 4.90kg

The Lynx is one of the best PURE sniper rifles in the game. It's strong, it's long, it'll let you see a fly on the moon if you aim it right. Ammo is expensive, and it's heavy as hell, but if you aim for the head, or fight weak enemies, one shot is all you need, considering it's some of the most powerful ammo in the game, with a high penetration rate. Though a fair bit of advice, the scope is already quite strong (strongest in the game, actually), and some might prefer not to upgrade the zoom function at all, due to it making mid range combat just that much harder. I say, DO upgrade the zoom, as long range sniping is what this baby was made for, but DON'T upgrade that part of the tree any further, as you can't disable the effects the upgrades grant off, and they are not always a good thing. If you wanna be a long range sniper (emphasis on "long"), then this is the weapon for you. Keep in mind, you basically NEED a secondary close range weapon with this, considering it's a purely long range weapon, and is pretty awful at close range thanks to awful handling and slow firing speed. The March/Frasier works well as a supplement, maybe even a TRs-301. If you want something similar, but that fires much faster, you could try the SVU2-A, which is also a decent enough sniper rifle. Order the Lynx from nimble. It'll serve ya.

Tide

Qualities

• Integrated silencer
  
• Integrated scope
  
• Fires really fast for a sniper type weapon, could be used a little like an assault rifle.
  
• Magazine size: 10 rounds
  
• Uses 9x39 mm rounds
  
• Weight: 3.20kg

Ah yes, the Tide, the favored weapon of stealthy players. While the clip size is tiny, each bullet is strong, and the gun fires quickly, about 5 rounds a second or so, and you can just hold down the mouse button to shoot. It's a pretty good sneaky sniper rifle, and a good starter gun as it comes with an integrated scope + silencer (so no silencer stat penalties) and remains powerful throughout the game, without being too specialized towards one area. It might not have the raw potential firepower of a similar weapon like the SA Avalanche (also an interesting weapon you might consider using with a 40 round magazine size, but I'd rather use Streloks gun thanks to the easier to find ammo and the extra versatility, plus the tide is better in every other area apart from magazine size and fire-rate), but its single shot damage is better, it's accurate, and it's got a pretty good scope. Not a bad choice at all if you like silent headshots. It won't kill everything in a single headshot like the lynx tends to do, but for most human enemies, it'll do the job, especially with armor piercing ammo. Ammo is also more common compared to the Lynx. It's ok for most combat ranges, but it will suffer at close range a fair bit compared to longer ranges, mostly thanks to the low clip size. I'd carry around a secondary close range weapon. The March/Frasier/shotgun perhaps. Fair word of warning, I'd be very careful with upgrading the skills in relation to the scope, as they can lock you out of the normal non night-vision aiming, or lock you out of night vision aiming. I'd upgrade the scope to be stronger, but go no further. For a fast sniper rifle that can work ok in mid range, and even in short range in a pinch, look no further. Get it from Nimble.

Weapons: Honorable mentions

While these weapons may not actually be all that fantastic compared to some of the alternative options, they will often find use in normal gameplay at some point, and can be used in a loadout as a good supplement to the better weapons.

NOTE: For weapons with 2 potential ammo types (Pmm), these weapons require an upgrade/modification to shoot the alternate ammo type. This honestly doesn't particularly make much of a difference. 9x18mm ammo is a little lighter and a little weaker compared to 9x19mm ammo, and may be a little more common, but I wouldn't really bother. You could always carry 2 types of the same gun if you wanted, one upgraded with the second ammo type and one not, but it's not a big deal.

Knife

Qualities

• It's a knife
  
• The only melee weapon in the game
  
• Infinite durability
  
• Can't be dropped, no matter what
  
• Magazine size: IT'S. A. KNIFE.
  
• NO AMMO BECAUSE IT'S A KNIFE

At first glance, the knife not might seem all that useful, but it's actually pretty deceptively powerful, particularly the right click stab. Use it to kill Burers while avoiding getting your weapon yanked out of your hands. It makes you feel like a baller.

Honorary/regular Pmm

Qualities

• Cheap to repair
  
• Super durable (Honorary variant, not normal variant)
  
• It's the gun you were awarded for being a baller (Honorary)
  
• You start with the honorary version
  
• Weight: 0.15kg
  
• Magazine size: 12 rounds
  
• Uses 9x18mm/potentially 9x19mm rounds

In all honesty, the Pmm isn't good. Low damage, slow firerate, and isn't very effective against... well... anything. However, it only weighs 0.15kg, practically nothing. The 9x18mm/9x19mm ammo is light as well. You'll be picking up rounds for this gun from almost everything you kill, so it can be kept as a last-ditch backup weapon. I like to carry this gun with me for the entire game, even if I never use it. It's a comfort to any Stalker, almost like a teddy bear, except it kills people, like a real bear. Neat.

Hunting Shotgun

Qualities

• High accuracy
  
• Super fast firing speed
  
• Cheap to repair
  
• Weight: 2kg
  
• 2 rounds
  
• Uses shot and slug ammo

The hunting shotgun is one of the most underrated weapons in CoP. While the sawed-off shotgun quickly becomes outclassed, the hunting shotgun manages to be one of the best early game weapons, and even has some relevancy late game. While it can only be shot twice before reloading, those shots have no downtime between then, and can both be released near instantly, meaning the burst damage is off the charts. But the most vital part of the gun is that, compared to other shotguns, the accuracy of this thing is legendary. The hunting shotgun has the best accuracy in the game for a shotgun, and can be upgraded to have even more accuracy at the cost of shooting only slug rounds. It can be found at the very start of the game, and it's fairly light. While you'd want a more practical shotgun for later in the game, at that start, this is just an all around good weapon for something you find so early, and is a great choice for challenge runs of the game. One of my favorites, this.

Eliminator

Qualities

• Fast firing speed
  
• Can use a scope
  
• Weight: 3kg
  
• 12 rounds
  
• Uses shot and slug ammo

The eliminator can be found for free, and is the only shotgun that can use a scope. Not useful most of the time, but still neat. The Predator is better, but this is totally a fine shotgun as well. You can buy this from nimble, but there's a free one in the testing workshop (though you can't access it early on), and one hidden in the Jupiter factory, which actually cost less to repair, so, yeah, get one of those. NEVER buy it. The Carabiner is a better choice from nimble anyway. For a free shotgun, this is good.

Frasier

Qualities

• Really fast firing speed
  
• High DPS
  
• Can use silencer
  
• Weight: 2.5kg
  
• Magazine size: 40 rounds
  
• Uses .45 ACP rounds

The Frasier is a unique version of the Viper 5, and an extremely powerful sub-machine gun that you can buy from nimble. The .45 ACP ammo it uses is exceptionally strong (particularly the Hydroshock rounds against armor), and it fires it quickly, which gives it the highest DPS in the game. However, you can get a lighter pistol that fires that ammo type quickly enough anyway (see the March), and unlike most assault rifles, you can't put a scope on this thing. I wouldn't use this as a primary weapon for that reason, though it works great paired with a sniper rifle. It's good, if not too flexible and a bit expensive to use.

TRs-301

Qualities

• Can use a silencer, grenade launcher, and scope
  
• Fires fast
  
• Weight: 2kg
  
• Magazine size: 40 rounds
  
• Uses 5.56x45mm ammo

The TRs-301 belongs in the same sort of pool as the hunting shotgun. It's a decent rifle, but compared to other options (Streloks in particular, which does more important things better) it ends up being a bit less impressive, and it degrades faster than other assault rifles. However, it only weighs 2kg, which is the lightest of all rifles that use the 5.56x45mm ammo, it has good handling, and it actually fires faster than most assault rifles. For only a little extra weight, you can get a fairly better gun, but it can be good for the early game, considering you can't find Streloks gun until the second area. You could totally beat the game with this just fine, really. If you wanted to use a rifle that fires 5.56x45mm ammo, but could only spare a few KG of weight, it could prove a decent choice, even late game. It works well paired with a heavy sniper rifle like the Lynx (but again, only if you can't handle the weight of something heavier).

Gauss rifle

Qualities

• Super high damage
  
• Strong scope
  
• Super accurate
  
• Magazine size: 10 rounds
  
• Uses batteries as ammo
  
• Weight: 5.50kg

The most powerful sniper rifle in the game. You'll know when you get it. Not actually all that worth using most of the time thanks to the expensive ammo, and you can only get it at a certain point in the story, but it's strong either way. Heavier than hell though. I'd rather carry around the Lynx.

Thrown grenades

Qualities

• It's a grenade
  
• Magazine size: IT'S. A. GRENADE.
  
• USES ITSELF AS AMMO.
  
• Weight: 0.30kg

There are 2 types of thrown grenades in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the RGD-5 Grenade, and the F1 Grenade. The only difference between them statistically is that F1 grenades have a bit of a bigger area of effect and better damage and armor penetration when compared to RGD-5 grenades. However, RGD-5 grenades are much more commonly found compared to F1 grenades. While grenades have a very limited sort of use, they ARE quite useful in some situations, and you shouldn't be afraid to take advantage of them. Just be careful in small spaces so you don't blow yourself up. The grenade flies out a bit higher than the cross-hair, like the character is lobbing it overhead, so be careful when throwing them out of small windows. Grenades, at least the RGD-5 variety, are not as powerful as grenades usually are in other FPS games, but they can still cause enemies to panic and run away, which can be pretty useful. They're pretty fun, if not necessary most of the time.

Armor

Armor in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is damn important. Without it, you can kiss your backside goodbye in 100 different ways. That's why making the right armor choice is vital. While armor can protect from both anomalies and from physical harm (bullets, impact damage, ect), anomalies are generally not much of a threat and can be avoided, whilst bullets are the opposite, so the best armor is the sort that protects you from bullets. Once again, all armor is described as though it is fully upgraded.

Exoskeleton

Qualities

• Phenomenally high defense
  
• Adds additional 40kg to how much you can carry
  
• Second generation night vision
  
• Weight: 15kg
  
• 4 artifact containers

All right all right, lets get the big one out of the way. The exoskeleton is beast mode armor. It's some of the most expensive, heavy armor that you can get in the game. And hot damn, do the stats show it. Bullets and explosives will be far less threatening than before. Even anomalies don't hurt much. If you are a complete pack rat, this is the suit you want. Enough artifact containers to have some of the best artifacts in the game, and it just looks cool. However, you cannot sprint in it until the final tier of upgrades, and you cannot wear a separate helmet with this suit. Not that it matters that much.

Bulat Armored suit

Qualities

• Really high defense
  
• Adds additional 10kg to how much you can carry
  
• Lets you wear a helmet
  
• Weight: 7kg
  
• 2 artifact containers

The Bulat suit doesn't get talked about much, but it's one of the best suits in the game. It's got very high defense against bullets and explosions and physical stuff, a fair amount of anomaly protection, it's damn light, it lets you carry 2 of the best artifacts, you can get it for free (only a fair bit later in the game though), and you can wear a helmet with it, meaning you can choose between greater night vision or tactical red dot enemy display and stuff. Plus, it has more upgrades than most suits, and they are quite beneficial, like faster energy regeneration and extra armor. Combined with the right helmet, you can get higher defense than the exoskeleton in combat focused upgrade areas. My favorite set by far, this one.

PSZ-9d Duty Armor

Qualities

• Really high defense
  
• Tons of health and wound healing abilities
  
• Lets you wear a helmet.
  
• Adds additional 10kg to how much you can carry.
  
• Weight: 9kg

Some of the best survival armor in the game. Lots of defense, great regenerative abilities, and it lets you wear a helmet, though it's a bit lacking in terms of anomaly protection. Also, it doesn't let you use any artifacts, which sucks. It also requires you to side with the fun hating Duty, which sucks even more. If you side with Duty (you sicken me, stop reading my guides), this might be a good bit of kit for you.

Sphere M12 Helmet

Qualities

• Superb armor protection
  
• Third generation night vision
  
• Weight: 4kg

The Sphere M12 Helmet is one of two top tier helmets in the game. It has the highest armor protection among helmets, and offers third generation nightvision, making the darkness of night mean next to nothing. Any good stalker should choose between this, and the Tactical Helmet.

Tactical Helmet

Qualities

• Very high armor protection
  
• Second generation night vision
  
• Infrared scanner
  
• Weight: 4kg

The Tactical Helmet is one of the two top tier helmets in the game. It has very high armor, only slightly less than that of the Sphere M12 Helmet, and it offers second generation night vision, one level lower than that of the Sphere M12 Helmet, but it makes up for it by having an infrared scanner, and it is the only helmet to have this feature. What this means is that you will be able to see enemies as red dots on the map through walls and stuff. For my rubles, this is my favorite helmet, but it's a toss up for some stalkers between this and the Sphere M12 helmet. This can also be found for free in the second area of the game pretty quickly at the cement factory (search high), or if you buy the CS-3a from Nimble, this comes with it, so yeah, it's neat.

Armor: Honorable mentions

This armor isn't exactly top tier stuff, but once again, like the weapons, some Stalkers may find a good reason to use it while playing the game.

CS-3a Body Armor

Qualities

• Lets you wear a helmet
  
• Only suit to provide extra psy protection without an integrated helmet
  
• Weight: 6kg
  
• 4 artifact containers

The CS-3a is, to be honest, nothing all that special. It doesn't have the high defense of something like the Bulat suit or Exoskeleton, nor does it offer the astounding low weight of something like the Wind of Freedom Bodysuit. However, for a suit that's available from the very beginning of the game that can fairly easily be acquired with some basic artifact hunting, it's actually pretty darn good, and is one of the better early game choices when you dont have all upgrade kits yet. It offers about double the armor your starting Sunrise suit has (though it's still not that much), and it has a pretty good amount of impact resistance, making it a far better suit for combat. It is the only suit without an integrated helmet to offer extra psy protection, which is cool. That means if you INSIST on using the tactical helmet, but also NEED extra psy resistance, this is the best choice of suit. I can't imagine any situation to ever exist where that would be important, but at least it gives it a unique quality that isn't bested by another suit. It also offers a decent amount of anomaly resistance of all sorts, as well as having 4 artifact containers total, 2 of which are usable without getting to the third tier of upgrades. As such, if you're looking for a good suit to get at the start of the game, this is a one of the best options. I'd heavily recommend pairing it with a wretched and Snowflake artifact, which can both be gotten early. This is my favorite early game suit before I can get the Bulat upgraded. You can buy the suit from nimble, and hey, the suit comes with a tactical helmet, which is one of the 2 top tier helmets, so, yay!

Sunrise Suit

Qualities

• Lets you wear a helmet
  
• Free (cuz you start with it)
  
• Weight: 1.5kg
  
• 4 Artifact containers

Any seasoned Stalker reading this is probably wondering "Why? Why is this gopnik listing the Sunrise suit as a notable piece of equipment? It's the starting suit, it's garbage!" Well, my cheeki breeki friends, let me explain. It's true, the Sunrise suit is not impressive. It's a suit that you will be looking to replace with something better as soon as you can. There are other suits in the game that are objectively better than it in literally every way. However, the Sunrise suit has a few traits which make it quite useful as a suit of choice at the start of the game compared to other potential early game suits, and, if these traits appeal to you, you may want to stick with it for a while, at least until you reach Yanov. These traits include the following. The Sunrise suit, unlike the Berill-5M Armored Suit, allows you to use 2 artifact containers without the tier 3 upgrade. The Sunrise suit, unlike the Seva suit, lets you wear whatever helmet you bloody well want. The Sunrise suit, unlike the CS-3a Body Armor, with an easy to get second tier upgrade, allows you to carry an additional 10kg of equipment. Finally, to top it off, the Sunrise suit can have its weight reduced to a mere 1.5kg, making it one of the lightest suits in the game. Despite me saying that I personally prefer getting and using the CS-3a Body Armor over the Sunrise suit, if you are something of a pack-rat and tend to carry a lot of stuff, (and of course it still lets you sprint from the start, unlike the Exoskeleton), or if you just wanna save money, then sticking with this suit for a while is fine. You will find better suits moving on (wings of freedom suit is an objective upgrade, but by that point in the game, there's no reason to really use this sort of armor any more), but for the beginning? You could do a lot worse.

Steel Helmet

Qualities

• Fairly cheap
  
• First generation night vision
  
• Weight: 4kg

The main reason I'm listing this helmet is because, compared to higher tier helmets, this one is quite cheap, but it still provides a fair amount of armor for the price, as well as some decent psy protection. It's good value as it offers about half the bullet protection of the Sphere M12 Helmet/Tactical Helmet, and the same level of psy protection, whist only costing about one-fifth of the price, and the protection actually justifies the weight, but most Stalkers probably won't get a chance/see much of a reason to buy it later on. If you're early in the game and see it being sold, I'd consider getting it, or you can get one for free during the unreachable stash mission from Snag, but you can get the tactical helmet for free in the second area of the game, which you can reach pretty quickly honestly. Up to you.

Artifacts

Artifacts in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are a double edged sword. They usually provide small benefits, but at the expense of radiation, which practically makes them worthless except as trader fodder. However, there are 4 artifacts in the game which I believe every player must have.

Heart of the Oasis

Qualities

• Hunger Elimination +1
  
• Energy Recovery +2
  
• Wound Healing +2
  
• Radiation +4
  
• Weight: 0.5kg

The Heart of the Oasis grants you faster healing, faster energy recover, and it eliminates your hunger. This means that, once you have this artifact, food is not a concern. That's right. This baby will keep you full, which makes food practically useless except as a quick source of a small amount of healing. This might not sound like a big deal, and really, it's not, but it certainly makes playing the game more convenient as now you never have to carry around food anywhere, so you save on weight and hunger interruptions. You don't even need to have it equipped if you don't want to, you can just carry it in your inventory and switch out for it whenever you start to feel hungry! There's only one of these in the entire game, and it's in quite a secret location (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wiki is your friend). Now, you might be thinking "What's the point of using an artifact that emits that much radiation?". That's a good question, we'll get to that in a minute. For now, lets move on to our next artifact.

Goldfish

Qualities

• Maximum weight +12
  
• Radiation +3
  
• Weight: 0.5gk

The Goldfish is the best of the maximum carry weight increasing artifacts. For stalkers who like to carry lots of stuff, thing artifact is a godsend. Of course, as most seasoned Stalkers know, you don't need to carry much stuff at all in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and being light on your feet is more important than carrying 50KG of stuff, but if you are a pack rat who loves to pick stuff up and sell it, then this'll help ya. I dont care much for it, but yeah, some do. Again though, that radiation is a problem. What to do, what to do...

Snowflake

Qualities

• Energy Recovery +6
  
• Radiation +3
  
• Weight: 0.5kg

A simple artifact, but a powerful one. Increases energy regeneration speed. If you carry a lot of stuff and your armor doesn't give enough bonuses to this stat, this will fill in the gap and ensure you can sprint all day. Useful for basically everyone. I often like to wear this artifact and occasionally switch the to Heart of the Oasis to refill hunger. But once again, that blasted radiation! If only there was an artifact that could remove radiation instead of adding it! Oh... oh wait!

Bubble

Qualities

• Radiation -4
  
• Weight: 0.5kg

Here it is! The artifact you've all been waiting for! The bubble will take away radiation from you while it's equipped. This is the most powerful artifact with that quality, making it a very good artifact indeed. Now, depending on what armor you're using, you may only have 2 slots for artifacts, but that's still enough for any of the previous artifacts along with this one. You can even have more than one bubble! Keep in mind, if you use the Heart of the Oasis with this, that +4 radiation from the Heart of the Oasis and the -4 radiation from the bubble will mean you do not gain or lose radiation from artifacts, but you can still gain it from the environment. In that situation, simply un-equip the Heart of the Oasis while the bubble removes your radiation, and then put it back! Also make sure to equip the bubble first when equipping artifacts. Eazy peezy lemon squeezy.

If you want a good early game version of this, the wretched artifact is almost as strong and simpler to get.

Getting a (relatively) quick, strong start.

There's no real "right" way to go about things in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (except that you should start on Master difficulty like a non-casualnoobscrub, and never side with Duty because they are fun-haters), and you should play in a way that feels fun to you, and enjoy the surprise. That said, if you want to make life a little bit easier at the start, then there are a few things you can do to make starting your life in the zone run more smoothly. Keep in mind, pretty much nothing that I say here is necessary to beat or enjoy the game. This is just to help people who may be having some trouble, and assist people in getting stronger stuff.

• 1. Get to Skadovsk, the first hub area. Get your bearings. Talk to some people. Relax.
  
• 2. Ditch your helmet into your storage box, or sell it. It's heavy and doesn't do much.
  
• 3. Pick up the Hunting shotgun and the TRs-301 from the two stashes (and there's also a vintar bc at the burning farm). Use the ZSG to help you find them if you don't care about looking this stuff up, though considering you're reading a guide already, you probably don't care too much about this type of content being spoiled. It's not story related anyway, and is partially luck based otherwise. Honestly you could skip both and not have any real trouble anyway, since you'll easily come across a hunting shotgun from a corpse (make sure it's not a sawed off), and ammo for the TRs-301 (or vintar) is not common during the first part of the game.
  
• 3. As soon as you can, go off and find the two upgrade kits in the area (the one in the sawmill, and the one at the substation workshops, and don't feel bad for looking this up. They are well hidden and I honestly think it's pretty stupid considering how important they are).
  
• 4. Upgrade your suit, pistol, shotgun and assault rifle to have a lower weight, and your suit to have an extra 10kg carrying capacity. Don't worry so much about the other upgrades right now, but go ahead if you really want to. Remember that Cardan will need 2 shots of vodka to do this.
  
• 5. Collect artifacts/do missions around Skadovsk. Remember to pick up good equipment from dead enemies. Keep some Vodka for Cardan. Do the bloodsucker killing missions to work towards the mutant hunter achievement. Find the stingray sites to progress the game and get the maps for cheap travel. Completing the "Missing Stalkers" mission followed by the "Bloodsucker lair" mission with get you a Veles detector, which you can use to hunt for artifacts much more safely. If you wanna collect artifacts before doing missions, that's fine as well, but it's pretty dangerous. At least try and get a bear detector, which you can easily get by saving the two sweet idiots near the boiler anomaly. Though they aren't important in the slightest, these are 2 of the few unique named NPCs that walk around the game world doing stuff. If you want them to stay alive, drop them some medkits and stronger weapons, if you have em. It's a little sad getting later into the game and seeing one without the other, still saying how happy he is that you saved his now dead friend.
  
• 6. If you wanna find more artifacts quickly, sleep a few times until emissions occur and then go out hunting again. Each emission adds around a 15% chance of an artifact to spawn in an anomaly, so sleeping a few times and then going around in a circle to each anomaly is an easy way to get cash, made easier if you have a Veles detector.
  
• 7. Sell the artifacts you've found to Beard (after a certain mission he occasionally buys certain artifacts for more money, but this isn't a big deal, since artifacts are fairly easily farmed. That said, if you complete his first mission, he will offer artifact hunting missions, which means he'll purchase rarer artifacts at a far higher price, provided he's asking for them.
  
• 8. Make your decision as to what sort of weapons you want to buy from Nimble. I'd suggest Either the Storm assault rifle or Tide sniper rifle for starting out. The Storm is more general use and has lots of ammo laying around, but the Tide is silenced without penalty and has a great scope and high single shot damage. It's up to you. You may also wish to get the CS-3a suit if you plan on sticking around Yanov for a while, or want some extra protection even faster. Remember to save the game before buying from Nimble, then sleeping, and then seeing if you got what you wanted. Reload if not.
  
• 9. If you go for the storm, you'll have to also get a scope (Owl sells these). If you go for the Tide, consider carrying around another weapon for short range combat. Frasier, March, TRS, Shotgun, pretty much anything is a good choice. Upgrade all your stuff before moving on.

Then, once you get to the second area of the game (Yanov)...

• 10. Get the Tactical helmet ASAP from the cement factory (if you didn't order the CS-3a suit). It's pretty easy to get, but hidden high. May as well find the upgrade kits in Yanov as well, which are located in the Yanov train and the Jupiter workshop.
  
• 11. Get Streloks Gun and the Predator shotgun by fully completing the UAV mission and finding the 3 hidden stashes (though they can be found even without the mission if you know/look up where they are) and doing mutant hunting missions for trapper, which you would have started in Zaton with the Chimera hunt.
  
• 12. Acquire the "One of ours" and "a wealthy client" achievements by doing a few certain missions for characters in both Zaton and Yanov (this should be started in Zaton and continued here). I'd advise looking up how to get these achievements on the STALKER Wiki page. Complete the missing Stalkers questline. Remember, achievements have effects in this game, like giving traders higher level inventory.
  
• 13. Acquire the Bulat suit and scopes you need from Owl (this involves traveling back to Zaton). If he doesn't have what you need, save and reload at that spot to change his inventory. Collect more artifacts if needed.
  
• 14. Upgrade your stuff (for the Bulat suit, I'd go for armor and more weight capacity for when you have to choose between 2 options, and for weapons, I find that Accuracy > Flatness > Handling = Fire Rate > Recoil > Reliability, but this is up to you. For a weapon like the Frasier, you might want to focus more on fire rate upgrades instead of accuracy as an example).
  
• 15. Go after the Heart of the Oasis artifact (or the slowflake/goldfish if you'd prefer), and also the bubble if you haven't gotten it yet. Keep in mind it may not always be in the anomaly, and you may need to sleep a few times for emissions to pass before it will appear. It's partially based on chance, but it will eventually show up.
  
• 16. Go finish the mission for Owl that will get you the Svarog detector (or just stick with the Veles for a while if you want, it's pretty good).

At this point, you'll have:

• One of the strongest bullet protecting suits in the game.
  
• A helmet with good bullet protection, decent night-vision and an infrared sensor (though some of this is only unlocked in the final tier of upgrades).
  
• 60kg of carrying capacity (depending on which artifact you went for, goldfish could increase this by 12 extra kg).
  
• A strong long range weapon (if you chose the Tide or SVU2-A at the start).
  
• A strong Assault Rifle or two for good general purpose use that can be adapted to many situations (though you'll need to buy/find a scope/silencer/grenade launcher attachment).
  
• An exceptionally strong shotgun.
  
• The strongest detector in the game (or second strongest if you didn't bother doing the missions for Owl).
  
• A radiation removal artifact.
  
• No hunger ever again (if you went for the Heart of the Oasis artifact).

You won't get all this stuff super quickly, but further missions will be far easier than what they would normally be if you follow this sort of process when starting.

Some tips regarding the use of this equipment

I just thought I'd leave some small bits of extra advice for anyone who wants to take the advice I've given here.

• You can find a spotless Hunting Shotgun in a stash extremely close to the Skadovsk ship, hidden in the swamp. Use the wiki or ZSG to find it.
  
• Ideally, you should try and keep your weight below 25kg, unless carrying lots of stuff back to Skadovsk, which you should be doing a lot, or if you have a suit/artifact that can handle a lot more while still keeping stamina drain low. The Hercules drug is a life saver here. You can sprint for a while when under 25kg and still carry 2 good weapons and some ammo and stuff, as long as you upgrade your stuff to reduce the weight.
  
• When upgrading armor, lowering weight and increasing general armor are key. I personally like to upgrade carry capacity as well. Anomaly defense isn't nearly as important as armor against weapons. When it comes to weapons, I find that Accuracy > Flatness > Fire Rate = Handling > Recoil > Reliability, at least for most weapons but this is up to you, and does depend a bit on the weapon. For example, for the Frasier, I'd advise going for more of the fire rate upgrades, as it only accentuates the high damage per second the weapon already has, and the weapon isn't going to be used for sharpshooting either, and for a weapon like the Hunting Shotgun, I'd go for all upgrades that improve accuracy, even if it means only using slug ammo.
  
• To get rich quick, gather artifacts from the surrounding anomalies at the start of the game and sell em to owl (unless you find a bubble or one of the other mentioned artifacts).
  
• When buying from Nimble, save the game before buying and go to sleep to pass the time so you can check to see if you got what you wanted, and not another gun.
  
• The Tide is a pretty good starter gun, as it already comes with a scope and silencer, it's light and fires fast, it's strong, and the ammo isn't super expensive, but I would advise carrying a backup March/Frasier with it, or at least some form of assault rifle/machine gun, or a shotgun.
  
• When using slower sniper rifles, a March/Frasier pairs well as a backup/medium range combat weapon. They are both pretty powerful and can be used at close/medium range fairly well. A shotgun can also work, but make sure you have enough ammo. Faster sniper rifles benefit more from carrying shotguns.
  
• A TRs-301 can be found at a stash in Zaton (the starting area). If you want a lighter assault rifle that uses decently strong ammo, then it's a good choice.
  
• Assault rifles and Shotguns pair quite well together. The assault rifle works for pretty much any range, but shotguns can really get you out of a pinch and supply fast death with minimal danger if used right. Plus shotguns are pretty efficient with their ammo.
  
• You can go to the second area of the game any time you want, and you can get some pretty neat stuff there for free (tactical helmet, Streloks gun), but it costs 3000 rubles (Ruskie money) a trip at the start of the game. However, you can find some maps on one of the stingray sites which reduces this to 1000 rubles.
  
• Selling items from enemies is a good way of making some cash, but keep in mind, if a weapon is missing any more than 2 bars of quality from its status, no one will buy it.
  
• Carrying a long range and short range weapon is good, but most of the time, you'll be fine just carrying an assault rifle if you have a good scope as well, and enough ammo.
  
• The Honorary Pmm is so light, and the ammo is so common that you could carry it the entire game as a kind of ultimate backup tool with no real issue. Don't even bring ammo for it, just salvage ammo you need along the trip from bodies.
  
• Unlike most games, achievements actually do something in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Get them.
  
• If you're new to ST.A.L.K.E.R., keep in mind that ammo is not as important as it is in other games. That is to say, you're not going to be pumping thousands of rounds into non stop enemies every 5 minutes like in most FPS games. You don't need to carry more than a few hundred bullets and a few dozens shells at most at any one time. You can stash stuff in your storage boxes for later use.
  
• Always carry around a suppressor/scope attachment if your weapons allow it. They will often come in handy. The grenade launcher attachment is heavy, grenades are heavy, and you probably won't use them very much, but you can still take that too if you want.
  
• If you don't wanna side with Duty OR Freedom, you can stay neutral.
  
• Seriously, the Bulat armor with the Tactical Helmet is a great combo. Artifact slots, great defense, infrared vision, it's a combo more people should take advantage of.
  
• To save space at the start of the game, ditch your Sunrise Helmet, and upgrade the suit to reduce the weight to 1.5kg. You'll need tools for basic work to do this, and you can find them in the sawmill in the starting area, in the attic of a building. Go for them ASAP, as you can also reduce the weight of many weapons after you give these tools to Cardan, making gathering stuff much easier, and also offer a pretty big boost to all stuff. The next tool set can be found at the substation workshops on a box after getting past the mercs (still in the starting area, you gotta bring em some food), but you need the first tool set to be able to actually use the second tool set.
  
• Powerful ammo is expensive. Be careful if you plan on buying an already expensive weapon from Nimble.
  
• Not really equipment related, but please remember that you use bolts to navigate through anomalies. Press 6 on your keyboard (I believe it's 6 anyway). Check the controls before playing the game. You'll need em all.
  
• Also, remember to unload weapons before selling them, or when looting. That tasty ammo shouldn't go to waste!
  
• Always play on Master difficult, just because you're a casual if you do otherwise. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't actually as hard as a lot of people seem to give it credit for. I'd figure half of that claim is from action FPS players who try to run and gun, and half from people who play mods like Misery and forget what the base game is actually like. If you're just starting to play the series, you might get the impression that the game is about scavenging and limited resources, but supplies are actually really plentiful, so it's hardly a concern. That said, quick saving and quick loading will still come in handy a fair bit, at least on master difficulty, since stuff tends to kill you pretty fast if you mess up. This advice is invalid if playing on the console releases. Controllers suck for STALKER.
  
• Long live Freedom. Down with Duty. Being a Loner is still by far the best option though.

Full disclaimer.

Duty is not actually that bad. Some of them are pretty chill and reasonable. Don't spread the same mindless hatred I do, and make your own choice as to what your values are, and if you believe their cause is a fair and worthy one. They have good reasons for what they do, even if they could relax a bit and not employ such hard punishments on everyone.

♥♥♥♥ Duty though.

Closing

I hope my (relatively) short guide on some of my favorite pieces of equipment in the game was useful to someone, and I certainly hope I didn't make anyone mad by ignoring their favorite weapons or armor or something.

Though I hate to sound like a desperate youtuber, giving this guide a good rating helps keep it easy to see for other people who wanna enjoy the game, so if you think I did a good job, consider taking a second out of your day to click on that like button if you think I deserve it for this couple of days of work. Also, if you'll allow me just a little self-promoting, feel free to join my own personal group/curator page.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Neonetik
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Neonetik/curation

If you don't care about the group stuff, or just want some more proof of my quality, check out some of my other guides! I update this list whenever I make a new guide (or just started doing so from the 14th of January, 2021), so yeah, it's all here.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2360297302
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1367643283
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534865078

Please keep in mind, though I have listed many objective reasons as to why the equipment listed here was some of my favorite stuff, each weapon and armor has it's own pros and ♥♥♥♥ compared to others. If you like one, that's completely fine, and you should use what you enjoy. If you feel there's a weapon I should cover for a specific reason, go ahead and leave a comment, but keep in mind that I will probably debate you, and I have already done a lot of research on the available options. Still, feel free. This guide is mainly intended for people who are just getting into the game, and looking for some advice on what some good stuff would be to get.

Finally, if you are interested, here's a challenge run I designed for the game myself. I'm not usually one for challenge runs, but I felt something like this fit very well, considering what it involves.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1533809553

The world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be an intimidating one where only the strongest and smartest survive, but I'm sure if you keep your wits about you, you'll conquer the zone.

Now...

[Budyń ⛟]

Deadly anomalies, dangerous mutants, anarchists and bandits... None will stop Duty on its triumphant march towards saving the planet!

The World fears The Zones expansion. Join Duty and save the innocent.

Stalker, protect the world from The Zone. Join Duty.

[CatsAreCool]

here is another tip You should add: Try to stay away from shooting down people for their loot and sell if for EXTREMELY low amounts, if you do have to fight only collect stuff you need (Medkits, bandages, food, etc) and dont fill your inv with useless loot, its better going to anomaly regions and collecting any anomalies you find around there, they sell for HIGH amounts and if you want to get rich you should really start going for artifacts and refrain from any looting of people, the only time you should loot from others if its for your personal gain or your close to a trader.

I swear I dont want any beginner going killing everyone and constantly being the verge of death for only a 100 rubles for how I was..

[orestesmkb]

Usually I also upgrade to the CS-3a quickly, but since I also try to do all quests, and they are close to anomalies with artifacts I get them on my way hehe.

I like that the CS-3a adds a bit of dialog with the scientist technician too.

[Neonetik]

Good tip! I never bothered with that stuff myself just due to being able to get tons of money pretty quickly with artifact farming and immediately upgrading myself straight to CS-3a armor, but that's totally a cool tip for newbies. Cheers for the comment, and the kind words.

[orestesmkb]

I'll just add a simple tip. Instead of upgrading your own sunrise suit, get one from Cardan's dead friend!

Barge's body can be found in the tunnels beneath the Burnt Farmstead Anomaly. This way you save a bit of money.

You could do the same for the helmet. Joker's body can be found to the south of the Oakpine Anomaly. It is actually not a body but a skeleton, so it won't show up on the minimap. Next to the skeleton lies a gas mask with an extra psi protection modification installed.

Great guide!

[Neonetik]

Hey, can't argue with facts.

[REBECCAFANCLUB]

the USES ITSELF AS AMMO its transcendental

[Neonetik]

Added a quick mention to the Vintar BC location in the "Getting a (relatively) quick, strong start" section of the guide. Hope that helps.

[Neonetik]

Sure, that's something you could do if you like. I generally just grab the hunting shotgun myself and go hunt artifacts. Never really encounter much at the start that needs more than that, haha. I don't even bother with the TRS or whatever.

[That Casul Guy]

And for a quick strong start, you are best served getting the vintar, utilising it to establish how the rifle plays while you grind for the Tide. I play Master too, and it is the first stop for any run, grab the free vintar, then upgrade when have the money for Tide.