Back in its heyday, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise boasted an active and vibrant modding community, thanks to which each game in the original trilogy ended up enjoying far longer shelf lives than they otherwise would have. Unsurprisingly, GSC Game World made it a point to put full and extensive modding support front and center with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Being only a little over a week old, the game is obviously going to continue seeing a steady stream of impressive mods of all shapes and sizes over the months and years to come, but even its early days, the game already has a fair few player-made mods for the game’s PC version that tweak and refine the experience in small but noticeable ways. Here, we’re going to talk about fifteen such mods you can find for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 on NexusMods.
OPTIMIZED TWEAKS
NexusMods user VynnGfx’s Optimized Tweaks mods is one that’s Daily Lotto Resultseasily recommended to all PC players. It’s no secret that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has launched with more than its fair share of technical rough edges, but this mod addresses a number of them. Give it a look for improvements to performance, latency, load and boot times, and more.
STEALTH
Stealth in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 can often oscillate between feeling too punishing or too broken, though this stealth mod by Axii59 brings a number of improvements. That includes enemies having a harder time spotting you based on weather, foliage and trees doing a better job of hiding you, enemies’ perception being further reduced when you’re crouched, and more.
MUTANT HEALTH
Taking on mutants can be a bit of a nuisance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, in large part thanks to just how tanky and bullet spongy some in particular tend to be. The Modular Mutants Health mod by Grokitach0, however, adds presets for players to choose between, each lowering the health pools for all Mutants by varying degrees, so you can make it as much easier for yourself to take them on in combat as you want to.
ITEM WEIGHT
Stringent inventory capacity limits are one of several ways S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 attempts to make life in the Zone difficult, but if inventory management in particular is an area you want the game to be a bit more lax, this reduced weight mod by truditu is worth looking into. As its name suggests, this mod lowers the weight for all bullets, grenades, and medicine and food items down to either 0 percent, 10 percent, or 50 percent of their original weight, based on what you choose.
LONGER SPRINTING
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is also fairly strict with its stamina restrictions, which means you don’t get to spend too long sprinting before you need to stop and catch your breath. The Longer Sprinting mod by NickMillion lets you remedy that though, and lets you improve your sprinting distances by 25 percent, 50 percent, or 75 percent.
REDUCED REPAIR COSTS
Weapon and armour repair can be pretty costly in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, depending on how damaged the item in question is. The Reduced Repair Cost mod by hawkidoki is a good way to keep costs on check where repairs are concerned, so you can spend your hard-earned coupons elsewhere (which, knowing this game, you’ll absolutely need to). The mod adds six presets for repair costs, including an option that makes repairs completely free.
WEAPON DURABILITY
If weapon durability is the one area of the game (or one of several) where you want a less demanding experience, the Reasonable Weapon Durability mod by VAXIS does exactly what it says on the tin. More specifically, weapon degradation is halved after this mod is applied, so it’s not completely eliminated, but it is less aggressive.
AIM SENSITIVITY
Many players have found S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s aiming to be a little clunky and sluggish, and that’s at least partly down to the asymmetrical sensitivity across the x and y axes. With this mod, made by NexusMods user Strangorth, aim sensitivity remains consistent across both axes, which makes aiming feel more precise on both a controller and a mouse and keyboard.
WEAPON REBALANCING
Many of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s critics so far have spoken about the game’s need for a rebalancing sweep, and though this isn’t quite as thorough as that, the Weapons Rebalance mod by Zhukoniy does make some notable changes. Specifically, this mod changes the damage and armour penetration values of several wepons to make them feel more lifelike and more effective at what they’re supposed to do- so an AK, for instance, is now going to be better at penetrating armour, while a shotgun will do more HP damage up close.
REALISTIC DAMAGE
Bullets do a lot of damage to both you and your enemies (especially human enemies) in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as it is, which is partly why it’s far from a run-and-gun type of game. However, if you’re looking for enemies to go down even faster to your shots, the Realistic Damage mod by JohnCena1306 will let you do that. Shots to the chest area will do more damage, while shots to limbs will also hit a little bit harder.
READABLE AMMO
Switching between different ammo types to counter different threats is something that you’ll pick up sooner or later in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but the game makes it hard to know in real-time which ammo type you’re using, thanks to readability issues with the UI. JCaleb’s Readable Ammo mod fixes that by introducing two much more readable modes- one that colour codes different ammo types, and one that adds descriptive abbreviations instead.
LONGER DAYS
Days can zoom by quicker than you expect in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but the Even Longer Days mod, also by JCaleb, lets you stretch things out as much as you want. The mod includes a preset to make each day twice as long as usual (so an in-game day is two hours in real-time), a 24x preset (with which an in-game day is as long as a full real day), and multiple other options between the two.
LEDGE GRABBING
Very annoyingly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 doesn’t let you climb, vault over, or grab onto ledges, which means even platforms that are slightly taller than yourself can prove to be insurmountable obstacles. With the Ledge Grabbing mod by Kennybylenny, however, you can finally vault over or climb onto things that you should be able to vault over or climb onto.
A-LIFE FIX
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 boasts an overhauled version of the series’ much-touted A-Life system, though much like some other aspects of the experience, it’s currently being dragged down by numerous bugs. ConnerRia’s Roadside Panic mod not only fixes many of those issues (which means you can expect better and more believable NPC interactions and reactivity, among other things), it also addresses some other annoying bugs, like enemies spawning right behind you. Performance does take a hit with this mod, however, so keep that in mind.
BETTER REWARDS
Some of the most valuable quests in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, in terms of the rewards you get for completing them, are entirely optional ones, though the game isn’t always consistent in this department, which means rewards are at times too meager. Halasas’ Better Rewards mod lets you increase rewards to varying degrees, however, ranging between 1.2x better rewards to as high as 8x.
