Greetings fellow Stalkers! How are you all doing today? What's that? You're doing good? Well, no wonder you are, what with your high tech sniper rifles, powerful fully automatic shotguns, and military grade armor. Of course you're doing good. But tell me, have you ever stopped to think about how lucky you are to have all the things you do? Do you ever think about all the others in the Zone who are not at fortunate as you, and don't have all the same gifts? Oh sure, we all fear the exoskeleton clad expert super soldier wielding an RPG, but what about the lowly rookie, just trying to survive with naught but a halfway broken pistol and an old, stale sausage? Where's the admiration for the man whose every battle could be his last? He is ignored, much like proper radiation medicine when there is Vodka available. I'd say it's time for this to change.



So, allow me to make a suggestion. I want you to try walking a mile in the shoes of a rookie. I want you to lose all that high tech gadgetry that you've come to rely on so heavily, and go back to the basics of being a newbie in the Zone, where every enemy that spots you could end up being your death, where every mutant you see could tear out your throat in but a moment should it lay its eyes upon you. This is the Low Level Loadout challenge run. It should be fun, but also difficult. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Important note for pedantic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: The whole idea of me writing this guide as though it is directed towards a "rookie" is purely for the sake of fun and to make this a bit of a more enjoyable read. I'm rather tired of getting comments like "BUT A ROOKIE WOULD BE TRYING TO GET BETTER EQUIPMENT LOL #♥♥♥♥-GUIDE #REKT #STUPIDMORON". This is called the Low Level Loadout challenge run. The main point of this run is to be restricted to low level equipment in a carefully considered way that allows for its own form of highly challenging, but still possible balance, within the confines of the original game. I heavily dislike deleting comments, and actually appreciate critique, but if your comment exists purely to insult me and this guide with highly offensive language over something so utterly unimportant as the usage of the word "rookie", then I'll be deleting those comments, as well as meaningless ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like "this is easy not a challenge" or "y not use mods in dis vanila chalange run??????". Just a heads up.

The life of a beginner Stalker is not an easy one, and so, you will experience the same struggle as they do. To even survive in the Zone, you must be a complete and utter badass, which means you'll have to play on Master difficulty. What's that? You're scared? PAH! You might at well turn back now if you can't even handle such a minor challenge. If you want everything in the game to be just as deadly as you are, then there's no alternative. Well, besides installing mods, but that's not what we're about here.

Here, we stay as vanilla as we can, though purely graphical mods are fine, if you care so much. Any gameplay mods will likely completely screw the balance I've established here, so try to be happy with the base product, yeah? Seriously, CoP is a great game by itself. It does not need mods.

Now, you'll need to remember, you're not a superhuman. Only a god is able to quick save and quick load every 3 seconds. However, know that I am not without mercy. I am not out to destroy you completely by forcing you to beat the game on one life. As such, saving the game is completely acceptable, but only at hub areas (Skadovsk, Yanov station, Scientist's Bunker, Laundromat), or if the gods are gracious and grant you an autosave. As such, you'll need to employ a certain level of care in the run, lest you wish to run across the Zone over and over again every time you make a reckless decision.

Regarding all other items, such as medkits or anti radiation drugs, I don't believe a limit is necessary. If you wish, you may want an added challenge by restriction yourself to something like carrying 5 medkits + 10 bandages at any one time (or just take that amount with you but also use what you find in the field), but in my opinion and experience, if you've managed to put yourself into a really bad situation with this gear, then medkit spam doesn't work as well as you'd want it to, as you'll likely die extremely quickly. As such, I personally don't place any restriction on items. Because of the other restrictions involved in this challenge, items like medicine and food and stuff become more useful, and restricting all of this stuff just adds a lot of small things to keep track of. This should still be a fun experience you know! So yeah, for this run, no limits on this sort of stuff.

Your AK and Sunrise suit must be ditched/sold ASAP. You are permitted to use the Honorary PMm as your starting gun (though honestly, you don't even need to). You need a SEVA suit to get into the Jupiter underground, but once you're there, you no longer need to wear it, so just ditch it once you're down there. You just need to have one for the purposes of being able to start the mission.

Upgrading is totally allowed (and HEAVILY encouraged), provided you've found the upgrade kits. Picking up stuff to sell is also totally allowed, so long as you don't use those weapons.

Only the equipment listed in the following sections of this guide is permitted. I feel like this would be obvious if you actually read this page, but experience has taught me never to underestimate how much a human being can miss the point of something.

Exoskeletons? HA! CS-3a body armor? Please! Sunrise suits? Pfff, like a real rookie could even afford to buy a bodysuit made from twin-layered rubberized cloth with plexiglass lining and built-in body armor, so get ride of that thing as soon as you start the game. No my friend. I'll grant you the use of but 2 items of clothing.



What's that? This suit offers almost no protection? And it's relatively heavy for something that does so little? Tough. Like any good rookie, you'll need to learn to deal with what you have, and what you have is a coat that barely does anything, except offer a bit of impact and thermal resistance, a small amount of armor, and some extra carry weight. On the bright side, you don't need to worry about finding or using artifacts, since you can't even equip them with this suit. At least it looks cool and keeps you warm. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Where to get it
The Leather Trench Coat can be bought from Owl for 800 rubles.



As I said before, don't let it be said that I am without mercy. You have a head, and as such, you have a head slot, so you may as well use it. The Steel Helmet is a desperately outdated item that provides almost no protection against anomalies, nor was it ever particularly popular, so it goes for quite cheap. However, for you, it is going to be a lifesaver. It offers some armor, as well as first generation night vision (you should be thankful you're even getting first gen). It's not the best, but hey, neither are you.

Where to get it
The Steel Helmet can be bought from Owl for 1920 rubles. You can also get it for free during the "Unreachable stash" mission from Snag. If you get it from the mission, make sure sure to let Snag keep everything except the helmet. Or, alternatively, you could just take it to Cardan, who will open it for 500RU, and you get to keep literally everything inside, and then sell it all afterwards (except the helmet of course). ♥♥♥♥ Snag, he's a scammer and a thief. Do this.

Sure must be easy living life when you have stuff like a Lynx or a Tide to pick off enemies at a distance. That Eliminator shotgun probably does wonders in-doors as well, huh? And that scope on that GP37? My word, it doesn't even matter what range you're at! Yeah, yeah, it's a good life, it's just a shame that all these tools are those of an expert, and we both know that, at this point, that's not you. What you get is a little more modest in comparison, but have no doubt. A gun is a gun, and if you're aim is true, it will kill. For this challenge, you are permitted to use the Honorary PMm you start with (ditch the AK immediately), and you'll have 2 main guns, each of which is useful in different ways, and a few other little tools.



One thing a lot of Stalkers stop using once they become experts is 9x18/9x19 ammo. Of course, why would they use it? After all, it's weak, and doesn't penetrate anything. Rookies, however, don't generally have much of a choice. The stronger stuff is far too expensive, you see? And most of the time, rookies don't generally need to fight armor clad super soldiers, or bullet resistant pseudogiants. So, they use the Viper-5. A sub-machine gun that shoots quite quickly, but only uses weak ammo. As such, this is what you're gonna be stuck with. And no, you cannot substitute the Viper-5 with the Frasier. That's an expert's weapon, you need to make do with the V5.

At least this gun is effective enough at dealing with lower level bandits, as well as most mutants, though the lack of a scope means that taking easy potshots from a distance is out of the question, though you can equip a silencer, which is nice for the occasional situation where you can sneak up behind enemies and take them down without alerting the others. I generally prefer to go for fire rate upgrades over the accuracy upgrades with this gun, but it's your call. Let me give you some advice. You're going to be selling a lot of stuff during your experience, so don't "upgrade" it to use the weaker 9x18 ammo. Just stick with the 9x19 stuff, and buy more ammo with the riches you'll have selling everything else. All in all, it's not an ideal weapon for for most, but you'll be happy to have it when being chased by bloodsuckers. That said, it's almost completely useless against any sort of heavy armor. This is going to be your main weapon against mutants and low level enemies, specifically in close range combat. Thankfully, this is not your only tool. There's one other gun you get that will save your life.

Where to get it
The Viper-5 can often be found on the bodies of enemies, or it can be bought from Owl for 6000 rubles.



If you're just a casual Stalker (is there really such a thing?), then you may not realize it, but the Hunting Shotgun is actually a pretty good shotgun, though it has some heavy drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that it can only fire 2 shots before needing a reload. This means if you're not accurate, then you can likely kiss your irradiated butt goodbye. However, it does have many upsides. It's pretty cheap, and can be found in a stash really close to Skadovsk, it's fairly light, only weighing 2kg when upgraded, it can fire both those shots as fast as you can pull the trigger, meaning it has a high burst damage, and last, but certainly not least, it is by far the most accurate shotgun in the entire game. As such, this is your main long range weapon and anti-armor gun.

When we consider all shotguns when limited to the first 2 upgrade tiers, the hunting shotgun is the most accurate with both shell, and slug ammunition, and by a pretty decent margin. The effective range on this thing is quite a fair distance. However, when this baby truly shines is in the third and final tier of upgrades. In the last tier of upgrades, there's one more large accuracy upgrade, which makes this shotgun behave a bit more like a rifle, but it comes at a cost, which is that you can now no longer use shell ammunition, and are limited to using only slug rounds, which are more expensive, and don't have any spread, considering they are really just one large bullet.

However, that's the beauty of this thing. The primary reason you have this shotgun is BECAUSE of the slug rounds. See, piercing armor with long thin bullets is all well and good, but a real man prefers to CRUSH through armor through sheer force. In CoP, Slug rounds were buffed due to the removal of Dart rounds, so these things actually do a good job against armor, unlike in SoC and CS. THIS is the gun you will use when fighting armored targets. A well aimed shot or two (or three at max) will take down most anything, minus the most armored targets like mutant Pseudogiants (natural strong-as-steel-armor-skeleton bastards). Try to aim for the head for a quick take-down. And heck, even if you miss being able to use shot rounds, you can always carry around 2 of these things, aint nothing in the rules that said you can't carry more than one version of these guns. Just make sure you upgrade that accuracy and flatness like a good S.T.A.L.K.E.R. if you do!

Where to get it
The Hunting Shotgun can be found from dead bodies, found in a stash close to Skadovsk, or you can buy it from Owl for 1958 rubles.



You didn't think I was done, did you? No, even a rookie knows that you should always have a last ditch backup weapon for when your ammo runs dry. The knife is a simple weapon, but my word is it powerful. As you are likely well aware, they are certain mutants who can use telekinetic powers to pull the weapons from your hand, but I guarantee you, if your grip is strong, nothing will pull this thing away from you. You don't want to be using this thing a lot, but it'll always be there for you, no matter what.

Where to get it
You start with it you dummy. Check your pockets.



When all else fails, when no gun or sword can accomplish a task, then the only thing left is to try and blow it up.

Grenades, both the RGD-5 and F1 variety, are fully permitted within this challenge. Remember to use them smartly though, as one wrong move could spell a reload for you.

Where to get it
You can collect RGD-5 and F1 grenades from dead bodies, or buy them from Owl for 480 or 800 rubles respectively.

As a rookie, there's a fair amount of weapons available for you to use, but one has to question why you would bother with any of the following.

All pistols that use 9x18/9x19 ammunition are acceptable, which includes the...

• Fora-12
  
• PMm
  
• HPSS-1m
  
• Martha
  
• PB-1s
  
• Walker P9m

...but really, considering you've got the Viper-5, I see fairly little reason to use any of them, since the only real benefit they have is that they are lighter than the Viper-5 (though the Walker does have some improvements, like a pretty good accuracy), but weight is not really as big of a concern as being armed with something capable of doing damage in this case. Use the Honorary PMm at the start just to GET the Hunting Shotgun/Viper-5 (if you don't know where the swamp shotgun stash is anyway), but after that, stash it.

Besides those, the only other acceptable weapon is the Sawed-off Shotgun, which is far less accurate than the Hunting Shotgun, and it can't even use slug ammunition. However, it only weighs 1kg when upgraded, so maybe you wanna carry around one of these things instead of a second Hunting Shotgun once you reach the last tier of upgrades, if you care about using shell ammo that much. I find it to be totally unnecessary, and would rather just take a second Hunting Shotgun.

Everything that was selected for this challenge run has its purpose for being part of the run.

• The Leather Trench Coat was selected because it does not permit the use of artifacts, and it does not provide enough armor to protect against much of anything. As such, artifacts that do things like remove radiation or add stamina or carry weight are no longer necessary to bother with, while in game anomalies are still extremely dangerous. This also makes certain drugs actually worth using as well. All while still utilizing the full potential of the suit. Let's be honest, the only reason this suit exists is for challenge run/role play purposes, so we may as well use it for this one!
  
  
• The Steel Helmet was selected to offer some selective armor from gunfire. While you will still struggle with anomalies (much like Awl and Petruha), you will not suffer as much from randomly turning a corner and dying in a second from gunfire, so it should make the experience a little more enjoyable. The Psy protection also helps against certain mutants. Additionally, the helmet provides level 1 night-vision, which, while fairly poor, and does not completely invalidate the regular flashlight, offers some versatility to the gameplay experience, and helps a bit with long range combat at night, though getting closer is still a good idea.
  
  
• The Viper-5 was chosen as a main weapon since it does not offer a scope that would make things far too easy, nor does it use ammo that would be applicable to every situation. Even a similar fairly low tier weapon like the starting AK permits the use of a much stronger ammo type, as well as AP ammo, taking a way a lot of the challenge, and using it would invalidate the use of other potential tools. In this run, we are a using semi-poor weapon to its full potential, rather than cripple a good weapon by ignoring its upsides, so we stick to the Viper-5 here, as its full potential isn't particularly high, and the ammo it uses hardly does anything to armor. It's fairly good against weaker enemies and mutants, but struggles against anything with even decent protection. It can also use a silencer, which adds some versatility and fun to the run.
  
  
• The Hunting Shotgun was selected as a main weapon because it offers a solid ranged option without taking away the skill of carefully aiming down sights, and also offers a way to deal good damage to armored targets at most ranges, at least when upgraded. Plus, it offers high burst damage, which is good for quickly taking down targets, so long as your aim is true.
  
  
• Grenades are permitted because they are super fun, add versatility, and help with groups of enemies, as well as monstrously beefy ones, but are not overpowered by any means.
  
  
• All the extra stuff that was deemed acceptable was deemed so as it is largely inferior to the main 2 weapons of the run.

Thankfully, all this stuff works pretty well together in regards to sticking to the idea of a rookie entering the Zone, so that's neat.

The run is fairly straightforward, but you you want that little extra edge, then have some free tips!

• The Viper-5 isn't built for long range combat, due to the lack of a scope, and not-great accuracy. For this reason, I suggest working towards its strengths and upgrading the fire-rate, rather than the accuracy, and getting closer to enemies before unloading. The recoil is also quite awful, so honestly, trying to sharp shoot with the thing isn't the best idea. Keep in mind, though I talk a bit of ♥♥♥♥ on the weapon in this guide, it's still pretty powerful gun under the right circumstances, it's just that anything with a scope basically immediately overshadows it in terms of effective STALKER playing. Oh, and as I mentioned previously, don't upgrade to the 9x18 ammo type. Ammo is light, so taking hundreds of bullets isn't gonna do much to slow you down. You can afford to spray and pray just a bit with this thing. You COULD carry 2 around if you wanted, one build for fire-rate, and one built for accuracy, but honestly, the Hunting Shotgun is the main damage dealer for anything past close-medium range, so it's kind of unnecessary to carry 2 V5's. Fire-rate, recoil reduction, and handling are the upgrades of choice.
  
  
• Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the Hunting Shotgun really is a solid weapon at range, and you should be using it for longer range fights. Make sure you switch to the slug rounds for armored enemies, since shot rounds is next to useless against them. For the upgrades, go for accuracy and flatness above all else. Recoil isn't a huge deal with this thing, but being able to use it at range is. Do keep in mind though, the ammo for this thing weights a metric ♥♥♥♥-ton, so you want to avoid taking too many slugs/shells if you can. Around 20-30 slugs is usually enough.
  
  
• As mentioned before, there is a stash in the Skadovsk swamp area, a little north of the ship, which contains a Hunting Shotgun, as well as some ammo. I recommend looking up the location of it, and getting the Shotgun ASAP.
  
  
• For the Leather Trench Coat, when deciding between the Canvas bodysuit upgrade and the Fabric treated with a fire-resistant substance upgrade, I recommend the latter for a few reasons. Firstly, fire is generally a bigger threat in the game, due to fire based anomalies doing constant damage to you whilst you are wihin them. Secondly, there is an enemy type that deals fire damage, (though it's extremely rare and this is a tiny benefit). Thirdly, your coat already has a bit of fire protection, so it makes more sense to work towards the strengths of the suit, and build that up a bit further to a degree where it may actually make a meaningful difference. Electric anomalies will not hurt you at all if you are careful, and chemical anomalies do quite minor and slow damage, and you have drugs that can protect you against their effects. Fire damage is immediate, fast, and very harmful, so go with the thermal protection.
  
  
• For the Steel Helmet, you don't really have much choice in terms of how you upgrade it, but just make sure you pick the Psy resistance.
  
  
• Before doing damn near anything, your focus at the very start of the game is getting everything from this guide as soon as possible. If you are experienced in the game, it will only take about an hour to do so. You get the Hunting Shotgun from the Stash, you buy the Viper-5 (+silencer if you want) from Owl, or you can get one for free from one of the zombies at the sawmill, which you need to go to to get one of the upgrade kits, as well as the one from the substation workshop (remember to take the lighter stuff that you can sell to Owl from the zombies, there's a fair profit to be made if you tackle them all), you get the steel helmet from the Snag mission (and pay Cardan to open the box to keep all that loot for yourself), and then you sell all the stuff you possible can that is unnecessary (weapons, ammo, grenades, most of your Vodka, artifacts, drugs, ect) to Owl and Beard, and give Cardon the 2 weapon kits and 2 shots of Vodka, and upgrade all your stuff in the way you see fit (though you can upgrade this stuff step by step whilst doing the previous steps if you want to, just make sure Cardan is drunk so you get that sweet discount). From there, you've basically got your entire arsenal and don't need to worry about anything else.
  
  
• Remember to repair your stuff between missions, particularly your Viper-5, since it tends to degrade fairly quickly (there are upgrades to improve their durability, but they come at the cost of neglecting handling, which I prefer, seeing as its a benefit that's always in effect, and keeping weapons repaired is easy). So long as you repair every time you're at a hub area, this shouldn't be an issue.
  
  
• For the Sawmill, fighting all the zombies is super risky, but there's another risky way of tackling them which works well for me. Basically, you can circle around from behind them, and run straight into the house that contains the upgrade kit. You can sprint inside and climb the ladder before the zombies manage to kill you, or even damage you that much. However, they will all notice this, and stagger inside the house, just under the floorboards. If you wait for just a few minutes, you will have all the zombies in the area (around 20 of them) just below you near the ladder you originally climbed (I wouldn't recommend looking for very long unless you want some new air-holes in your chest). From up here, you can throw a couple of grenades down (I've managed to survive with 2 grenades, but I had to take out several surviving zombies afterwards and it got scary, so I'd suggest to bring 4) and kill all the zombies from the safety of the roof. Alternatively, you could just do a suicide run and get in and out as fast as possible without fighting anything, which is totally a valid way of doing this.

See here: The aftermath of the Sawmill rooftop bombardment technique I described above. There's a few extra bodies to my sides. Hell of a lot of loot from these dudes.

This challenge run is not meant to make the game absurdly hard, nor make you want to pull your hair out or chew on a grenade. This is not Misery, or anything like that. Rather, this run is largely meant as a way to have fun with the game using equipment that is not often used, at least not for long, and to gain a sense of how hard life can be for many of the NPC's roaming the Zone.

Though I hate to sound like a desperate youtuber, giving this guide a good rating helps keep it easy to see for other people who wanna enjoy the game in a new and unique way, so if you like the idea of this run, consider taking a second out of your day to click on that like button. Also, if you'll allow me just a little self-promoting, feel free to check out some of my other guides, which are weapon guides, including one guide to the best/notable equipment you can find in the Zone, and feel free to join my own personal group/curator page.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/groups/Neonetik
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/groups/Neonetik/curation

If you can beat this Low Level Loadout challenge and win the game, you've earned the right to call yourself the best rookie in the Zone.

Good luck Stalker.