1- If it's your first time playing, PLAY VANILLA ( unmodded ) experience the game like it's meant to be and then try mods, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have some great mods and a pretty active fanbase even today.

2- Play on MASTER difficulty, once you get used to it, it will be your default difficulty. (Beginners can skip this advice)

3- Food items can restore your health, they can save your life especially at earlier stages.

4- Crouching makes you more accurate, low crouching doubles the effect.

5- Bandages not only stop bleeding, but also heals you a little, think them as mini health packs.

6- Medkits can also cure radiation and bleeding.

7- To loot a stash you must find the relevant PDA entry for said stash, otherwise the stash will be empty. Also, each stash has set items, that means the contents will be the same every time.

8- You can get additional stash locations from the same corpse by travelling to a different map, returning and searching the body again.

9- You can open metal boxes by jumping on them or running at them instead of shooting or knifing.

10- Vodka reduces effects of radiation but drinking heavily will affect player's vision and aim.

11- Holding the "use" button (default "F") will show names of the items on the ground, useful for searching unseen items or weapons.

12- To replenish sprint you have to stand still or drink an energy drink, energy drinks instantly replenishes your stamina.

13- Fall damage is pretty unrealistic in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. , if you need to reach someplace below you, you can jump without fear, you'll most likely survive.

14- If you're seeing ghostly figures that means you are in a psy emission zone and slowly losing your mind, stay away from the said area or take some meds to calm yourself. Phantoms created by the psy dog enemy can be stopped, psy zone ones cannot.

15- You can destroy APCs and Helicopters with a well placed RPG shot or two.

16- Items that are above the ground tend to fall down after loading a save. Similarly, if you break a container (box, metal box etc.) their contents will instead spawn one floor below. You can easily witness this by breaking a box that is on a roof or an elevated platform. Always check the floor below as to not miss any items.

17- If you're over-encumbered you can simply put the items to the inventory of a corpse and then drag it (Default: Shift + F) to the trader.

18- If you want to store your items look for the blue personal boxes that are present in every significant location / base. For reference, there's one inside Sidorovich the Trader's bunker at the start of the game. You can safely put your items in these boxes, they will never despawn nor there is a storage limit. The same thing is true for stash containers, after finding a stash you can put your items there and use it as a personal container too.

1- Most of the side-quests are repeatable, they will re-appear after a whole in game day passes.

2- Normally, new side-quests appear in a quest giver's dialog box after you complete the one that is given to you. However if you accept a side-quest and then refuse to do it, another one will be available for you to accept in its place instead. Useful if you want to skip to a specific quest.

3- Most side quests are time based, if you fail to complete it in given time the quest is over.

4- There is a Dutier at the Bar, asking you to find his lost weapon, quest marker for this mission is usually inaccurate, said weapon is carried by a bandit named "Friar" who can be found anywhere in the Zone. Most probable locations being Agroprom Underground and Wild Territory.

5- Contract killing missions count as completed if the target dies to something else (mutants, anomalies etc.)

6- If you want to kill a stalker but don't want to attract attention or gain negative reputation with a faction you can try finding a red barrel, push it towards the stalker and make it explode. The game will not penalty you for killing him.

7- Don't sell or drop named (unique) weapons right away, they may be quest items, also finding the weapons first and then taking the fetch quests is a good way to finish this quests easily.

1- Knife is a surprisingly strong weapon, don't afraid to use it in close range.

2- Damaged weapons tend to jam and misfire, damaged armors protect you less.

3- Some armors and suits have night vision, some offer better vision quality than others.

4- You can't legitimately repair weapons and suits, if badly damaged, they must be changed.

5- If you wear artifacts that provides 100% protection against certain hazards, you can actually heal yourself and fix your armor by going into said hazards.

6- You can differentiate unique weapons by looking at their icon, if there is a small green arrow then it's a unique weapon.

7- Some suits can increase your carrying capacity.

8- Wearing different faction outfits will not act as disguise, enemy will always see through your outfit.

9- You can't run with an Exoskeleton.

1- All NPC's have different interests when it comes to the trading, scientists for example gladly purchase mutant parts and artifacts at a high price.

2-When trading if the items you're selling are worth more than 100,000 RU then you'll get a message saying the buyer doesn't have enough money, even if it's a trader with seemingly unlimited cash. It's coded this way, simply remove some items and sell them piece by piece.

3- Just like humans, mutants (with a few exceptions) also weak to headshots.

4- Mutants (again, with a few exceptions) have "panic" states. If you kill most of the members of a group, rest of them will scatter in fear. They even have unique sounds for fear and retreating.

5- Some mutants choose one single mutant for their leader. Fleshes for example can often be seen accompanied with a boar, acting as pack leader.

6- You can help fellow Stalkers by giving them a medkit when they are down.

7- Loading a save causes traders stock to change, useful if you can't find your desired item.

8- Loading a save also causes the AI to reset, making NPCs aware of you if they are close enough. If you want to sneak around you have to do it in a single, beautiful run, or be far away from the enemy to load a save.

9- If you drop a weapon near a populated area NPC's will take it, if you want to stash your items drop them somewhere with no NPC presence.

10- You probably noticed many ambient noises such as birds, hums, winds etc. but did you know some environmental sounding sounds actually has a source? One example is blind dogs, if you hear a far away barking sound that seems like a part of the ambient noise then be aware, that's actually emitted by real dog NPCs nearby.

11- NPCs will wander around just like you. You can spot Wolf making his way from Cordon to Army Warehouses. Other, non-scripted encounters will also occur, such as bounty targets moving around or non-important NPCs moving place to place. I once found a rookie I saved in Cordon in Agroprom and then at Army Warehouses.

1- Artifacts' negative (and positive) effects only affect you if you wearing it on your belt.

2- Artifacts can be found everywhere in the world, most commonly near anomalies. Also, they will never respawn.

3- Electro anomalies only spawn artifacts from 00:00 to 05:00. Wait for the right time to find them. Also, loading a save can make them disappear again, even if the time is right.

4- Some of the more common artifacts are unbelievably cheap, if you slowed down by them just drop them, you'll not lose much.

5- You can lure enemies into anomalies, more destructive anomalies like Vortex will rip them apart making them unable to loot.

6- Most anomalies have a cool-down period which can be utilized. To easily move past anomalies you can throw a bolt to activate them and run through them at the right moment, the easiest to trigger is Electro.

7- To infinitely run without tiring, all you need is a Moonlight or even a Flash artifact, definitely get such an endurance artifact further down the line to make travelling simpler. Just know that the higher your load is, the less effective the artifact can keep you energized.

1- In Wild Territory there is a tunnel where the Mercenaries dropped a chopper, take a look inside, you might see a familiar face.

2- In Cordon, if you go to the Army Checkpoint and climb inside the attic of the larger building with beds and a tv, you will find several boxes. Break them to reveal the "Soldier Uniform" a leftover armor from early builds of the game.

3- You can see wall trophies of some unknown mutants such as cats and two headed mutants, those are actually mutants cut from the game prior to the release, cats are not in the game anymore except for some mods but the two headed mutant "Chimera" brought back in Call of Pripyat along with another cut mutant, "Burer".

4- After their death, Poltergeists will become visible to the eye, this is actually a leftover from their unused ability to materialize and unmaterialize at will, they supposed to be visible at all times until seeing an enemy, after that they became invisible and acted just like the retail game.

5- Look closely at a Pseudogiant's face and you can make out his receding hairline, strengthening the fact that they are regular humans exposed to heavy radiation and experimentation.

6- In X-18 Lab, where you fight a Pseudogiant, there is a ladder leading a small room, in the room you will find a picture of the game's developers.

7- Shine a light to the laptop of Sidorovich and you'll notice he has an Asus brand laptop, more of a marketing move rather than an easter egg.

8- Some TVs show footage of an older build of the game, such as Sidorovich or Barkeep's TVs. You can see the old Cordon, viewmodels and more.

Honestly this guide could go on and on for pages but it is actually better to experience the game yourself, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a unique series and requires you to experience it first handedly to shine.

Thank you for reading and as always, Good Hunting Stalker!