Reply With QuoteI never use more than one type of artifact at the same time, I prefer weaker, however more general protection.
After X16, when good suits became available, I decided to give up using of bullet proof artifacts with radiation effects (Night Star f.e.) and found that permanently equipped Soul became quite useful in the later stages as a good armor suit makes its negative effects insignificant in comparison, and accelerated healing really helps.
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So, now after X16 my choice is:
2 x Mama's Beads, 2 x Moonshine, Soul (life regeneration, possibility to run for quite some time when overloaded, 2 beads compensate Soul's bulletproof penalty).
or
2 x Crystals, 2 x Moonshine, Soul (life regeneration, possibility to run for quite some time when overloaded, quick rad. inactivation (-60) )
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Before X16 it was:
2 x Mama's Beads, 2 x Night Star, Crystal (+20% bulletproof).
I never use more than one type of artifact at the same time, I prefer weaker, however more general protection.
And your combo then?Originally Posted by BR796164
I prefer to defend myself from more prevalent dangers - bullets and radiation as well as give myself a possibility to run for a long time when overloaded. I don't see a reason for constant wearing of anti-anomalies artifacts f.e.
I usually use the most efficient variations I find, of course. My most favourite are Soul, Urchin, Crystal, Slime, Battery and Spring. I only very rarely find Kolobok, Goldfish, Urchin and Mama's Beads and Slime.
Artifacts are more like a decoration for me, useful, yes, but I don't bother myself with inventing special combos and changing them according to specific situation.
For extended stamina I rely on energy drinks, I carry one or two with me all the time for cases of emergency.
I use several combinations, actually. Normally I carry around several artifacts all the time, which I swap accordingly to the situation. My most usual combination is three +5 bulletproof cap artifacts (Mama's Beads or Nightstars), one Moonlight, and one Crystal or Fireball. When I get into a heavy fight I swap the Moonlight for another bulletproof cap artifact. When the fight is over I equip two Souls to heal myself. If I know that I'll be walking/running a lot instead of fighting I swap the third bulletproof cap artifact for another Moonlight.
It's a nice strategy but one has to be a thorough person to bother to change sets often. If devs implemented hot keys for user defined sets of artifacts it would be a whole different story.
Mmm, changing jewellery in the middle of firefight. Trendy!
Well, I am a thorough personFor instance, I also don't leave anything behind. I pick up every single item I find, stash them in places near the transition points, just to be able to take them to traders and sell them. That's why I normally finish my games with around 2M Ru.
But you must get rid of the money if you want any other Monolith ending than I WANT TO BE RICH, right?
I have an idea for a challenge for some quite time now: to finish Stalker without searching bodies, stashes, and picking up weapons and ammo of others. Only artifacts allowed to be picked up and main quest items of course.Well, I am a thorough person
I.e. all suits, ammo and weapon have to be actually purchased from traders. Now, that would be THE challenge I think. Prices are pretty high and you'll need to do a lot of side quests and searching for artifacts to get money and equip yourself. Also, strong shortcoming of ammo will add as a major factor for strategy planning.
I never end the game at the Wish Granter. That only happened once, on my first playthrough, and yes, obviously I got that ending.
In one game I managed to get hold of four moonlights and one... of the midrange endurance booster, I forget what it's called. With that, you can sprint an awful lot on 59.9KG. My usual mix would be three mamas beads, soul and moonlight. four or five crystals/urchins can be useful for getting around radiation if you don't have a well maintained rad suit.
What about the other wishgranter endings, you saw the cinematics? I didn't, that's why I'm curious, are they different? This time I want to choose the Zone to disappear.
To a degree. All wishgranter cinematics are cute but they're short and share one common idea. 'I want the Zone to disappear' is especially funny... in a gloomy way.
You mean you've seen them all? I wish I could rip the videos out somehow, I don't know if I'll play the game 5-6 times to see them all.
Yes saw them all, after I finished the game of course.
You may watch them all on YouTube, there is plenty of Stalker videos.
In the endgame I generally equip Mama's Beads, Soul, Crystal and TWO Moonlights. The Moonlights allow me to sprint indefinitely when under 50kg; I would equip more if I have found more.
The Moonlight's electric damage penalty is only a problem if you blunder into electric anomalities, and those things can generally be seen from a mile off, figuratively speaking. If the game packs something like a lightning gun, then it would be a different matter.
I probably stash an extra Soul and Crystal in the pack for emergency use.
Two +sprint regen moonlights(moonshine?) and three +rad regen fireballs... everything else gets trashed. Just not worth the extra effort and weight
I usually carry - the green haz-mat suit and a monolith body armor and the Vintar BC / G-36 rifles and sometimes a pistol for the sheer fun of it.
Crystals are better - -30, while Fireballs give only -20. But they are very rare things.
I agree 242. I just haven't found the crystals during this play through -->SANEX v1.004 mod. In fact I haven't found the moonlights yet.. I'm currently using the lower quality +sprint artifacts.
I've gotten pretty lazy about searching stash sites and need to clear the marked locations.
If you want to find Moonlights (or other endurance-enhancing artifacts) you should go looking for them between 0:00 - 5:00. That's when they spawn. In my current game, I just waited until midnight before going into the Agroprom undergrounds, and I found one Moonlight and four Flashes. Which will come very handy in these earlier stages of the game.
Yes, I found a few Moonlights in the Agroprom underground too, also, at least 2 Moonlights are on the Wild Territory at the railway tracks with lots of Electras.
I think the most useful artifact in the game actually. One is enough to quickly cover huge distances - very useful for quick execution of quests of Barkeeper, Gen. Voronin etc. Mama's Beads goes after it in terms of usefulness, and only then Soul and Crystal.
PS: Is it just me or artifact regeneration rate cardinally slackened after 1.0004? I just don't see new artifacts appear, at least on surface, after I previously picked up all I could see. A GOOD thing as for me.
Last edited by 242; 2nd Nov 2007 at 04:49.
My favorite combo is 2 - 3 endurance increasing artifacts and radiation decrease ones, like Urchin or Fireball. Works great in Red Forest.
Bjossi - I like that setup too.
242 - I think so. Its hard to tell when mods and patches keep changing. Would be nice to have the final official patch before Clear Skies is released.
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