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If you want to get the best armor you can have inSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, you will need to know how to upgrade the armor you find. There area lot of different options you can findas you go along, and all of them can be upgraded in some way or another. Figuring out how as well as what to do with the armor you find is one of the main components of the game, and if you understand that, you will beable to make your journey through the game smoother.
STALKER 2is a huge gamewith a lot of different reasons to need the added protection. You will be facing a large number of hazards likeelectricity, storms, radiation, and fire, along with actual enemies. Combating that can be done a number of ways, but first and foremost is through your medicine, your food supply, and through your armor. The latter of which is the only one of those that issemi-permanent and can be consistently upgraded and repaired, making it the most important one to invest in.
How To Upgrade Armor & Make Your Stalker Less Vulnerable
Improving Your Protection Against The Zone
Making your Stalker a little less vulnerable to the elements is a difficult challenge. TheZone is full of danger wherever you go, and the potential hazards you can find yourself in are a large number. That is without factoring the enemies, both dangerous, warped creatures and other humans. Your armor is what will protect you, and by upgrading it,you make that protection stronger.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Retitled To Replace Russian Spelling With Ukrainian
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl has had its name changed to favor the Ukrainian language over Russian
To do so, you will want to cross to the part of themap inSTALKER 2where you find the first settlement. You will begiven a marker to go toward it by Richterafter the tutorial. Once you reach the bar, you will be able to start roaming the Zone at your leisure, but before you do, make sure to stop andtalk to the guy that stops you as soon as you exit the bar.
He will give you a quest to go to theTrader, Hamster, as well as the Tech, Lens. Go toward the trader first so you have more coupons to spend, before heading off to see Lens. Exhaust the dialogue options as much as you can or want to, and then press the prompt, Q on a PC, to get the upgrade options. There will beseveral on each piece of armor you have, including Helmets if you have one.
The upgrade trees on each piece areshown by a small white dot within a circle. Selecting one will let you read through the various options, and you can select an option again to confirm you want to upgrade it. These are usually quite expensive, so beprepared to have a fair number of couponsif you are expecting to upgrade it a lot.
You will have to have an item in decent condition to upgrade it. If you don’t,you will first have to pay to repair it. This may happen quite a lot with your armor specifically, as the more hits you take from enemies, the faster your armor will degrade.
If your gear is up to par, and you have the coupons,you may upgrade it as much as you want. You will see on the screen how much the upgrade will affect the stats. Notably, you can also see where the end of the upgrade tree goes, and what previous upgrades you need to get there. That will let you know whether or not it might be worth it, orif you want to wait to find a new piece of armor.
How To Upgrade Your Armor By Finding New Pieces
New & More Unique Armor Options
One of thenew features ofSTALKER 2is the large addition of new environments to explore. In these environments, you can find loads of new gear to help you level up. This takes the place of a leveling system in the game, asSTALKER 2expects you to get better with thegear that you acquire or upgrade.
Early game, and even into the meat of the game, you will start getting messagesfrom someone known as the Journalist. This person will give you the locations of loot caches that they have left hidden around the Zone. If you find them, you’re able to find new gear and supplies that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Notably, the gear I found first was a little mixed. The pistol wasn’t better than the starting pistol in stats, but thearmor was much better than the one I had equippedat the time.
You should alwayscheck the stats when you find something new. I checked this new armor and was quite excited about what I saw. The increase in radiation protection was massive, although Lens could not upgrade it himself. You should also be checking your inventory fairly often. I never noticed picking up new gear, but there was some new equipment in my inventory at one point that I was able to check andsee that part of it was much better than what I had. There are 6 main stats you want to check against old armor when you find it:
While all of these are important,prioritize armor with good radiation and electrical protection, as those will be the hazards you come across the most. You will also want to prioritize any upgrades that minimize wear and tear, as this will keep your armor effective for longer. This will allow you to do more for less, andsome armor upgrades will give you more artifact slots, which will give you more reason to collect more throughout the Zone.
Once you understand the system and what points to prioritize, you will be well on your way to having great armor to see you through a fair amount of the game. There will be better pieces later, but the more you have invested, themore a piece of armor is worthwhen you go to sell it. This means finding the right one and keeping that piece of armor upgraded is the most important thing you could do inSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
