How to repair weapons and gear in Stalker 2
Here's how to repair your guns and equipment in Stalker 2
Want to learn how to repair weapons and items in Stalker 2? Durability is a harsh mistress in Stalker 2. With each shot, guns will increase their likelihood of jamming at a pivotal moment. With each hit you take, your armour will become less resistant to dangers of all types. If you spend a few hours playing and forget to think of repairing items once, then you'll find your chances of survival in the Zone dwindle rather quickly.
Thankfully, there are places you can go to repair your weapons and gear, and keep them in tip-top condition. Unfortunately, it's rather expensive to do so, and the people who can do it for you aren't enormously easy to come by. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to repair items in Stalker 2, and why it is important to do so.
In this guide:
- How to repair items in Stalker 2
- How to repair and sell for a profit (Exploit)
- What happens if you don't repair items in Stalker 2?
- How to sell broken items in Stalker 2
How to repair items in Stalker 2
To repair items in Stalker 2, you need to visit a Tech, and pay them to restore the item's durability back to 100%. A Tech is a certain type of NPC who you'll generally find in the major settlements inside the Zone, such as Zalissya in the Lesser Zone. The Tech in Zalissya is called Lens, and he is the first you'll encounter in Stalker 2.
To repair an item, you need to interact with the Tech to start a conversation, and then hit Q (or Y on controller) to open the "Upgrade" screen.
The Upgrade screen is used both for applying upgrades to your gear and for repairing it. On the left-hand side you'll see a list of your currently equipped (and held) items. Select the item you wish to repair, and in the bottom-right corner you'll see a prompt to "Repair" the item. Next to this, the red text indicates exactly how much the repair will cost you in coupons. If you can afford it, then hit R (or X on controller) to repair the item.
The downside is that paying a Tech to repair items can get exceptionally expensive for the rarer and more complex items like high-quality sniper rifles. Some Techs will be cheaper than others, so it's worth going to multiple Techs to find the best deal on repairing a certain item.
But unless you're really swimming in coupons, it's generally not the best idea to repair every item you see. Sometimes, you may even be forced to bite the bullet and leave behind one of your favourite guns because it's getting too worn out to stay reliable in a firefight. But if you can't bear to part with it, just know that visiting a major settlement's Tech is your answer, provided you have the coupons to spare.
How to repair and sell for a profit (Exploit)
There is currently an exploit in Stalker 2 which allows you to sell weapons for their full value rather than the small fraction which traders will offer. Generally, repairs are too expensive for you to get a profit when repairing and then selling an item - but you can use this exploit to bypass the game's currently rather broken economy.
To use this exploit, first repair your item. Then go into the trade screen with your chosen vendor, and drag the item into the "Sell" grid as usual. But before you sell it, right-click the item to bring up its drop-down context menu, and then simply click elsewhere to close the menu again. This bizarre bug will automatically reset the value of the trade to the full value of the item you're selling.
Credit to Reddit user IronChumbo for discovering this quirk. It is of course an exploit, so you may not wish to use it. I'm just calling attention to it here because the economy around repairs and trades is a big issue at the moment for many Stalker 2 players, so it's something worth bearing in mind - at least until the devs patch out this bug and fix the economy.
What happens if you don't repair items in Stalker 2?
The durability system in Stalker 2 is fairly straightforward. Only equippable items have durability - that means weapons and armour. You can see your gear's durability at a glance by checking to see if there's a shield icon to the top-right of the item, and if there is, what colour it is. Yellow means slightly worn, and red means very worn.
If armour's durability depletes, then its stats will drop over time. This goes for masks and suits both. When a weapon's durability drops, it too will receive slightly reduced stats - but more importantly than that, it will gain an increased chance of the bullet jamming in your gun. If a bullet jams, you cannot fire or reload the gun again until you manually remove the jam - an animation which costs you a few crucial seconds in what could be a very dangerous situation. The lower the gun's durability, the higher the chance of jamming.
How to sell broken items in Stalker 2
Most NPCs won't accept trades involving equipment that is below 40% durability. So if you find a very valuable gun and plan to sell it eventually, you may wish to avoid using it so much that it drops below that 40% durability threshold - otherwise you'll need to repair it before selling it, which can significantly cut down on the value you'll get out of that gun.
The only exception to this rule is if you visit Ragman, the trader in Rostok. He is unique in Stalker 2 in that he will accept trades of items that are below 40% durability. So he's the man to see if you want to get some money from broken items but don't want to spend a fortune repairing it.
That concludes this quick guide on how to repair items such as weapons and armour in Stalker 2. For other handy primers like this one, consult our guides on how to fast travel, how to get more ammo, and how to use Bolts.