Life is all about giving and taking. The originalSTALKERgames were chaotic to mod, but that did not stop determined fans from eventually cracking the code and porting it to an upgraded version of the engine.
The mods that came afterSTALKER: Call of Pripyat, especially those based on theSTALKER Anomalystandalone set, kept the franchise relevant for over a decade while GSC Game World worked onSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Now, instead of locking up the game,the developers have madeSTALKER 2one of the easiest titles to modin recent memory.
These mods add some depth and dynamism that the vanilla version of the game is missing, and all of them are drag-and-drop affairs that do not overwrite any game files.
10Less Silly AI Headshots
The End of Shotgun Snipers
No Aimbot 4 NPC
One of the biggest grievances with the combat inSTALKER 2is how NPCs are ridiculously accurate at range regardless of their experience level orweapons.
Getting vaporized by a Makarov or a saw-off shotgun from 150m is not rewarding gameplay.
Rant’s No Aimbot 4 NPC rebalances things by increasing dispersion for enemies and differentiating between burst and single shots.
Long-range engagements will now be more about suppressive fire than pinpoint shots unless you are up against a sniper.
9Realistic RPM-74 Chambering
Back to 7.62x54mmR
PKM Can Use 7.62x54 Ammo
Most players might look straight past it, but if you graduated from theSTALKER Anomalyschool, this probably hurts you more than any flaw in the game.
For reasons unknown even to the Zone’s finest scientists, the RPM-74 machine gun uses the 7.62x39mm round associated with the AK-47 and its derivatives. That is despite the ammunition belt on the 3D model having the correct 7.62x54mmR.
STALKER 2: 5 Best Early-Game Unique Weapons
Standard PTMS and AK’s are fine, but let’s face it, you want something special to blow bandit’s faces off.
With the proper ammunition type,the RPM-74 becomes the monster it was in previous games and begins justifying its weight. On the flip side, running it gets a lot more expensive as 7.62x54mmR is heavy on the wallet.
8Longer Days & Nights
Bravo Six, Going Dark
Even Longer Days
Don’t you hate it when you go out to buy bread in the morning, and it’s the middle of the night by the time youreach the trader?
STALKER’s day-night cycle is goofy, with a full day lasting only an hour in real-time. This mod adds a flexible approach to it, allowing you topick anywhere between 2 and 24-hour days.
From experience, 3 or 4 hours is the sweet spot.
7Mutant Health Overhaul
Begone, Bullet Sponges
Modular Mutants Health
Fighting mutantsin vanillaSTALKER 2is an exercise in frustration. They give you no loot whatsoever and take so many shots to go down that you often have to abort a mission to resupply.
This mod by Grok ofSTALKER GAMMAfame addsa pick-and-mix mutant health system, allowing you to adjust based on who you feel is too overpowered.
The main target here isthe bloodsuckerwith a 60% nerf, as these bastards are seemingly everywhere and require unholy amounts of ammunition to go down, especially if you are firing intermediate or pistol rounds.
6Lower Repair Prices
Great Services For Great Prices
Reduced Repair Cost
It starts with “hey stalker, I need you to go here and get me this thing, it’ll be quick”, and it always ends with you limping back to base witha suitthat has more holes than a bloodsucker on the receiving end of a Saiga D-12 mag dump.
Similarly, your assault rifle is now functionally a bolt action, considering how you need to cycle it after every shot.
The degradation mechanics in STALKER 2 are great, but they are hampered by the astronomical equipment repair costs relative to how much money you can realistically make.
The mod page lets youpick how much of a discount you want relative to the original price, going anywhere from 20% to fully free repairs. Starting from version 1.2, you can also choose to get discounts only in friendly factions.
5Less Abundant Consumables
Fight to Survive
Less Consumables in Stashes, Crates, and NPCs
STALKER 2often feels more like an adventure shooter than a survival horror, primarily due to the abundance of loot.
No matter how badyour planningis, you can always get by as food and medicine are lying around everywhere, and even the lousiest bandit carries a full IFAK up his pocket.
Grok’s Less Consumables fixes this with a soft pass,reducing the amount of medkits, bandages, and food that come from dead NPCs and knifeable crates.
You will now have to make money by actually completing jobs for traders instead of selling them infinite medkits. Get to work, stalker.
4Bringing A-Life Back
The Zone Is Alive
A-Life Extended
Heidenreich7
TheSTALKERfranchise thrives on its lived-in world where you are just another guy, and everyone else’s life plays out without you. Unfortunately,STALKER 2hasyet to live up to that.
In the meantime, you can use hawkidoki’s A-Life Extended to bring back that loving feeling.
STALKER 2: Best Artifact Detectors, Ranked
Finding spicy rocks means free money, so long as you have the right detector.
This mod increases the ‘alive’ radius for NPCs and mutants.If you use the main version, it also improves stealth and long-range combat.
This mod can be heavy on performance, especially near busy areas like bases.
3Slash Loading Times
Stop Redundant Shader Compilations
No Shader Warmup
When you sit down to playSTALKER 2, you want to actually playSTALKER 2, rather than sit around staring at the painting of a farmstead, wondering while the game compiles shaders for the nth time.
This mod lets you get straight into the action, skipping those tedious (and woefully unnecessary) minutes of loading.
Keep in mind that if you make a major change like upgrading your GPU drivers or a full change of settings, it is wise to disable the mod to run the shader compilation once, then turn it back on.
2More Realistic Weapons
A Ballistic Picnic
Realistic Weapons Stats
For all of the marketing materials showcasing the realism of guns inSTALKER 2, the game took abizarre approach to balancingweapons.
For example, a 5.45x39mm round from the Dnipro has almost three times the penetrative power compared to the AKM-74S.
With this mod,weapon stats rely on caliber and barrel length rather than arbitrary progression values.
NPC guns get the same treatment too, so you get harder fights against lower-tier enemies.
1Smoother NPC Progression
Stalkers of All Flavors, All Game Long
Better NPC Progressive Loadouts
The best mod on this list does nothing to Skif, but it is a capital change for those around him.
Better NPC Progressive Loadouts fixes a glaring design problem with the game where, after a while, every stalker in the Zone isrocking an exoskeleton, even in Zalissiya, which is beyond ridiculous.
Besides making the game more immersive, it also rebalances missions later in the game,as you will not need to land two assault rifle headshots to kill every enemy.
STALKER 2: Every Journalist Stash Location Revealed
From rare armors to coveted weapons, here’s how you can find every Journalist Stash location in STALKER 2
