Secondary weapon against mutants Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Howdy stalkers!

I have a little problem with my secondary weapon, that I use. I am playing as a USS Sniper with my modified scoped AEK-971 as a primary weapon and right now I am using TOZ 66 as my secondary weapon.

The problem is that TOZ is a good weapon, but only against 1 mutant at a time. I know that i can use hit'n'run tactic to actually kill more mutants, but that is hard to do and it doesn't always work. Also it is quite heavy...

So I was thinking about some alternative and I've read, that .45 ACP Hydra-shok is a good ammo against mutants, and because of that I might use USP with those rounds. Will that be more effective against those mutated beasts from the zone? USP can be also silenced, which is even better for my sniper build with my Ghillie suit.

Thanks for any help guys :-)

Mutants can be avoided as often as not saving you ammo and hazard. I used to use a SPAS and then the Saiga 12k when I could get it, but now use an assault rifle as my ready weapon with my Sniper rifle for long distance. As a sniper there is very little effective difference between high and medium proficiency. An assault rifle like a G36, Sig-550, Nikonov will mount a grenade launcher (when ammo is available) has a nice large magazine, and I only ever use AP rounds. You can silence them and with a 4X scope do some decent mid-range sniping. You don't even need to attach the grenade launcher until you have a few rounds for it. You can easily just run around with one rifle until you find a worthy sniper rifle to keep and upgrade. AP 5.56 rounds work just fine on mutants. You can avoid the toughest ones, and something many don't realize, aiming actually improves the effect of your shots. An aimed (via a scope or iron sights) shot will one-shot-kill most lower level mutants unless you aim for their toughest parts. Dogs, Psuedodogs, snorks will all go down in on shot when you do not fire from the hip.

I've never used a pistol by choice, even though it would be a real life backup for a Sniper. The magazines are too small and I personally detest iron sights. Fired from the hip, pistols have too small an effect.

Shotguns have a devastating impact, as you say, on 1 or 2 mutants at close range but unless you reach cover in time to reload you are doomed. Even when I used the Saiga, I silenced it and used a 5X scope. It is amazing how deadly it can be at decent distance configured that way.

BTW you are going to REALLY love your Ghillie in 2.2 It has much greater capabilities when fully upgraded.

Edited by: jasper34

I see your point, but using an assault rifle as a secondary is bad for my inventory and carrying capacity. With my suit, weapons and few important things in my inventory my weight is more then 30kg (My total is somewhere about 42kg.) And it is really a pain when you run or even walk when over encumbered . Stamina in Misery is really a pain in the a**

Btw. I am trying to use my AEK-971 against mutants that run at me (Pseudodogs etc.) But I always end up wasting my valuable ammo. (Just like a loading screen tip says something about missing en enemy when being scared)

Use epinephrine. You can run with 100 kilos over your limit. I am almost always on some booster. Boosters are NOT cumulative, so only use one until it wears off. I carry 180 AP for AR, Sniper Rifle with 80 rounds, one food item, a medkit, a couple stimpaks, Akvatabs, 2 epinephrine, some tools (2.2) and as many Grids as I have slots for them. Once it is available 3-6 Grenade rounds. Use cover both to rest and hide from what you can't kill for the moment.

Having hiked many kilometers with a 25 Kilo pack and once for days in head to toe rain gear similar to NBC gear, I can tell you the stamina system in Misery isn't out of line with real life. Wearing NBC or Firefighting gear with closed breathing system alone is exhausting after any significant period. Adding a heavy pack and some weapons makes it more so. You get to live jacked up on drugs without consequences in the Zone

Ok, I will have to do drugs, even though my mum told me not to!

Btw. I must thank you and all you DEV guys for creating such a great (Mostly realistic) mod which is really freaking scary. I was playing Stalker with Arsenal Overhaul and after few days of gameplay I realised that it is totaly not realistic... Walking through a heat anomaly like it is nothing and killing mutants was also quite easy.

When i switched to Misery and just run into a group of dogs I've realised that it is not a good idea and i was killed instantly. The caves in Misery are also scary as hell. When the screen starts to turn blue I freak out and run away like a little girl . Controller was scary even in normal Stalker, so I'm freaked out of him in Misery (I haven't met him yet in Misery)

So keep up the good work guys, I'm looking forward for a new things!

As a Sniper I use a shotgun or an assault rifle as my secondary weapon. For shotguns, the SPAS-12 is decent for the mid-game, and as things get harder I can upgrade to an Armsel Protecta, a Saiga-12 or use Trapper's unique shotgun that you get as a mission reward. For assault rifles, I prefer anything that can mount a grenade launcher (to use against chimeras). I'll only be using the assault rifle at short ranges so the base accuracy doesn't matter and accuracy upgrades are unnecessary. I upgrade the weapon for lowered recoil and increased rate-of-fire.

As an Assaulter I'll often use a similar set-up to the above, but the Assaulter has a wider spread of proficiencies which gives more options. Assault rifle + sniper rifle as above is probably the strongest combo. Assault rifle (accurate rifle, also upgraded or accuracy) and shotgun is good too. Finally there's pairing a sniper rifle with an SMG or a carbine. I had a playthrough where I took the Dragunov SVD 'Lynx' sniper rifle with a UMP-45 submachine gun, and that was a really strong combo.

For Recon, I go one of three ways. 1) Just use a carbine, no secondary weapon. 2) Use a carbine and a pistol, the pistol being emergency back up. 3) Use a carbine and a shotgun, the shotgun being stronger at point-blank ranges and having much cheaper ammo.

He's probably at early stage of the game heading toward mid-stage. At this point anything with plenty of spare ammo and large mag capacity works the best.

If you accumulated a lot of 5.56x39 then Ak family assault rifle works the best, my personal favorite at early stage is Ak-74 cobra. Red dot is better than iron sight and works better than most of the scopes you can find at this time.

If you have NATO rounds then try Sig 550 Sniper rifle combined with any assault rifle which can mount grenade launcher. Sig 550 works great as sniper rifle with large mag, shares the same ammo with assault rifle which will reduce ammo weight.

If you happened saved bunch of pistol ammo, PPSH works the best for 9x18, it's got 71 mag capacity, highest in sub machine gun family. For 9x19 use MP5, the states looks weak but automatic sub machine gun beats pistol on any day. For .45 rounds, special order MP5 from Nimble, the special weapon fires .45 rounds and works wonders against both human and mutants.

For shotguns I will ditch TOZ as soon as possible, Mossberg shotgun and Spas both will serve you well. Saiga 12 won't appear for a while until you advanced near the tunnel to Pripyat, before that my personal favorite is Mossberg. It has very decent fire rate and smooth handling, can easily take down large/armored target with slug shots.

I consider myself being somewhere in the middle of the story... At least I hope i am. I've recently completed a mission with those 2 burrers inside the building with train.

Yesterday I bought a customised .45 ACP pistol (March) from Nimble and I will try to test it with my Hydra-shok bullets. If its not gonna work that well I will listen to you guys and keep my shotgun

Thanks a lot for all help guys.

After playing Misery for quite a while I've struggled a few times to choose a fine weapon against mutants, and ultimately it's not that simple. For the most part it's dependant on player's preference, but on the other hand there are quite a few very decent weapon choices, as well as a few noobtraps.

First of all, pistols (my personal favourites):
Now, I don't really like pistols from Nimble because using them makes game seriously easier due to their absurd amount of damage delivered, with any ammo really. Both Alpine and March are reliable sidearms with horrendously good stats, and Steppe Eagle is a solid hand cannon, especially for close quarters.

- Alpine and March - as far as I'm concerned Alpine's only advantage over March is better damage (like a single bar, something like that). Other than that, March wins in pretty every aspect. Solid choice, definitely worth it for both mutants and people alike, but as I've said; they both make game significantly easier once you acquire it and use regularly. Sick.

- Steppe Eagle - now, more balanced issue where you get really good hand cannon, which excels in close quarters combat, which is very frequent with lots of mutants, and when compared to Alpine and March it may seem inferior, but in the end it has much better feeling of a weapon. It has one weakness, though; you don't do damage without headshots, unless you're shooting boars. Other than that, definitely a solid choice.

- If one's looking for more balanced sidearm, M1911 is also very solid pistol, and while it's inferior to Alpine and March, it's still pretty (appearance and reliability) good weapon.

- Noobtraps - Unless you're really big fan of 9mms or you've just begun your journey, stay away from low caliber pistols.

Shotguns:

- Predator - I don't know whether it's overused or not, but in the end Predator is probably best shotgun in the game in terms of sheer power, rate of fire, damage per second, etc, rivaling only Saiga, really. Can be modded with acceptable rate of fire, long term reliability, okay handling and terrifying damage, which can easily put down chimera in few shots.

- Carabiner - That's an early alternative for Predator, as it can be acquired in Zaton. Kinda better SPAS (by the way, it's description says it's fully automatic but it's not, eh?), okay stats. Nothing much else to say; it has slightly better magazine than most pump actions and it's also advantegous when fighting with a group of mutants.

- Saiga - I love this one. Sick rate of fire, runs out of ammo pretty fast, empties whole magazine in practically one second. Efficient? Ammo-wise, not really, but when it comes to killing mutants at close distance, this is the king, along with Predator.

- Noobtraps - Double barrels aren't generally that great unless you're soloing certain mutants, such as Pseudogiant, but even then they've got horrible damage per second when compared to Predator or Saiga. Moreover, Armsel Protecta kinda struggles when compared to Saiga, which is sad, but at least it's got quite good magazine capacity.

Assault Rifles:
Right, so assault rifles have little use in combat against mutants when compared to shotguns or pistols, but still they've got few applications.

Most assault rifles have their advantages and disadvantages against mutants, but I mostly find assault rifles good because most of them have compatibility with grenade launchers. Chimera pack on a horizon? Boom, dead. Pseudogiant? Shouldn't be a problem once you load his face with grenade and few more rounds. So, yeah, most have their uses on larger mutants, but controllers, poltergeists and burers are significantly easier foes once you take them out from distance.

Few examples:

- I got to admit that I love versatility of LR-300, and it's definitely valid point for calling it a decent gun when it comes to both fighting (lesser and psy) mutants and hostile stalkers. Grenade launcher, variety of scopes, silencer, bah, even good-all-rounder stats. Definitely not the best AR in the game, but absoulutely my favourite one when playing Recon.

- AKM - large calibers help quite significantly when dealing with mutants, and most AKs have their point for that. AKM has something common with LR-300 when it comes to versatility, except varying accuracy stat, but other than that, yeah, bigger caliber alternative for my Recon's favourite.

- Generally large caliber rifles have good enough impact to put mutants down quickly, but their ammo is much more costly and rarer when compared to 5.45 or 5.56 calibers.

- Noobtraps - Try to avoid assault rifles without grenade launchers, unless you play for challenge and not baby-mode gameplay (lel), or if you prefer to just play without heavy launcher under your barrel. ARs without GL aren't bad, but they lack this spike of power against tougher mutants, and these often require a lot of ammo before they go down for good.

Aaand that's pretty much it, hope you'll have some use out of it.

Good hunting, Stalker!

The Saiga 12K can blast through a clip quickly when you need it, but if you keep your nerve and draw a bead w/ scope vs. firing from the hip, it will do devastating damage at medium distance even to well clad NPC's. It is easy to double tap 3-4 NPC's and put a whole squad down or disrupt the morale of a herd/pack sufficiently and at enough distance to allow you to achieve a more defensible position/cover. The Predator with it's extra damage is also very good. Again, aiming via iron sights/scope increases the impact of any weapon. It's easy to put the cursor on a target and get results, but if you really want to do more damage, just aim.

A good old M1911 (emphasize on old) is a good way to finish off some lesser muties, such as Fleshes, Cats, Dogs.
Decorated TOZ is a beast, if you're into that kind of weapons. A beast as in one-shoting a Bloodsucker at point blank.

Edited by: ElCaz4dor

Khadahnir wrote:

- Noobtraps - Try to avoid assault rifles without grenade launchers, unless you play for challenge and not baby-mode gameplay (lel), or if you prefer to just play without heavy launcher under your barrel. ARs without GL aren't bad, but they lack this spike of power against tougher mutants, and these often require a lot of ammo before they go down for good.

If you've got plenty of extra carrying capacity, say from wearing an Exoskeleton or using a couple of aluminium frames, then you can pair one of those rifles with the RG-6 'Bulldog' grenade launcher in the other weapon slot.

In a playthrough where I used random generated gear and was restricted to the 'heavy' type weapons, I used an RPK-74 and a RG-6 and it was pretty good. Not very weight efficient, but on the other hand that RG-6 does have a higher rate of fire than a VOG-25 or a M209.

Lomlom wrote:

Khadahnir wrote:

- Noobtraps - Try to avoid assault rifles without grenade launchers, unless you play for challenge and not baby-mode gameplay (lel), or if you prefer to just play without heavy launcher under your barrel. ARs without GL aren't bad, but they lack this spike of power against tougher mutants, and these often require a lot of ammo before they go down for good.

If you've got plenty of extra carrying capacity, say from wearing an Exoskeleton or using a couple of aluminium frames, then you can pair one of those rifles with the RG-6 'Bulldog' grenade launcher in the other weapon slot.

In a playthrough where I used random generated gear and was restricted to the 'heavy' type weapons, I used an RPK-74 and a RG-6 and it was pretty good. Not very weight efficient, but on the other hand that RG-6 does have a higher rate of fire than a VOG-25 or a M209.

Yeah, that can do if one's fan of heavy equipment, but I'd rather have something that gives me opportunity to run without taking drugs, low weight that is, and barrel-mounted grenade launcher eliminates problem of carrying heavier weapons.

Oh boy if there was an option for barrel mounted shotgun, too, I'd be in heaven.

Also, few SMGs such as UMP or Frasier do are quite well firearms versus mutants due to .45 rounds, but they're still better used against hostile human NPCs.

Ask TAZ for an under barrel shottie. There must be a few.

I find the Toz fine up until around Jupiter plant. Try aiming for the head, and fire your first shot a little early. This will allow you to save your second shot in the case of a one hit kill. Are you using the sawn off version? I find it tends to have a fair amount less stopping power due to the increased spread. Otherwise, you can buy yourself a SPAS12 for not a huge amount more than the Toz, or if you can finish trappers quests, his unique Mossberg is a great pump action (especially with magazine upgrade). Apart from that though it's all about the Saiga 12, but they don't show up till later in the game.

I find the Toz most handy against bloodsuckers, as a double blast can generally put them down as soon as they become visible. Also, aiming down the sights seems to increase the damage done, not sure of the mechanism whether it's just I am more accurate shooting that way or what (Just read Jasper's post above and he confirmed it does do more damage). Not only that but due to the raw power I find it highly effective against armoured NPCs at close range. Even if it doesn't kill them straight off, it will stagger them enough to give you a chance to take cover and reload. In addition to the fact your aim doesn't have to be quite as dead on as with bullet weapons.

Hydrashocks I have always found more effective against NPCs, even moderately armoured ones. Personally I pair up an assault rifle for the versatility (scope, silencer, grenade launcher) with a shotgun for mutants. I find when I have a scoped assault rifle, I have little need for a dedicated sniper rifle.

neilbreach240 wrote:

I find the Toz fine up until around Jupiter plant. Try aiming for the head, and fire your first shot a little early. This will allow you to save your second shot in the case of a one hit kill. Are you using the sawn off version? I find it tends to have a fair amount less stopping power due to the increased spread. Otherwise, you can buy yourself a SPAS12 for not a huge amount more than the Toz, or if you can finish trappers quests, his unique Mossberg is a great pump action (especially with magazine upgrade). Apart from that though it's all about the Saiga 12, but they don't show up till later in the game.

I find the Toz most handy against bloodsuckers, as a double blast can generally put them down as soon as they become visible. Also, aiming down the sights seems to increase the damage done, not sure of the mechanism whether it's just I am more accurate shooting that way or what (Just read Jasper's post above and he confirmed it does do more damage). Not only that but due to the raw power I find it highly effective against armoured NPCs at close range. Even if it doesn't kill them straight off, it will stagger them enough to give you a chance to take cover and reload. In addition to the fact your aim doesn't have to be quite as dead on as with bullet weapons.

Hydrashocks I have always found more effective against NPCs, even moderately armoured ones. Personally I pair up an assault rifle for the versatility (scope, silencer, grenade launcher) with a shotgun for mutants. I find when I have a scoped assault rifle, I have little need for a dedicated sniper rifle.

Toz 34 is the classic I love its design. Decorated TOZ 34 is a beast (although Trapper's Mossberg is a monster, but...). It can one-shot a Bloodsucker.

I prefer the side by side, I think the Toz 66. Slightly more damage, but more than anything reminds me of my grandfathers shotgun

As for one shotting mutants, well all shotguns by their nature vary a lot on range and whether you hit dead on or with only half the pellets, but I find a couple of extra bars of damage shown in the UI transfers to quite a bit more stopping power, annecdotally. They are all probably designed to be on the borderline to encourage better shot placement.

I have to say I had surprisingly good results with a modern 1911 and hydrashok rounds. But you really need to keep a steady aim which is not always managable in lots of situations.

jasper34 wrote:

Ask TAZ for an under barrel shottie. There must be a few.

.....That's actually a pretty good idea, wonder if TAZ has thought of that.

My secondary weapon for mutants, on my recon at least, is the FAR-15 from the armed zone modification. Integrally suppressed, 5.56 nato, comes with a permanent red dot sight. I've nicknamed it the hush puppy because it's so quiet. It'll rip through a boar with about five shots which is fantastic.

Alright, I have started the game again, this time as a recon, and have decided I need to keep my weight down. As I am stuck with an AKS-74U as primary for now which isn't great against mutants, I decided to get a pistol for backup against mutants and Nimble kindly provided me with the .45 USP that I wanted. I must say I have found well aimed .45 hydrashocks to be an effective mutant stopper, I'd assume even more so if I had a UMP or other .45 SMG. They don't seem far off the power of a shotgun, with better range, but also require a little more aiming and are more expensive than 12 gauge rounds. Maybe I shouldn't have written them off so eagerly. I still miss the spread of the shotgun against Snorks and Bloodsuckers though.

Regardless of class my personal choice is to buy "Alpine" or "March" as soon as possible. It costs only 20k from Nimble. Hydro might be expensive to buy at the start and relativly heavy but the ammo is very common in the zone and you will have plenty. with the normal .45 ammo hunting fleshs and boars can be a steady income, especially as sniper.

I think most things have been mentioned already, "Predator" from Hunter is propably the best, also it doesnt use up ammo as fast as the SAIKA. Nimble's weapons are all very good and actually relativly cheap, his SPAS is also a good early weapon. Personal I dont like the Armsa Protecta cause it takes sooo long to reload.

avoid "low" for weapons, "normal" and "high" is allright. I think shotguns are "low" for Recon, in this case use Pistol in the start then later a .45 SMG. Sniper and Assaulter's choice is usually a shotgun of sorts.

a scoped weapon like assault rifle can be very usefull against mutants from far, charging dogs and especially cats can be taken care of safely if you spot them early enough. If you sit on a rock and dogs dance around you, follow one in your sights and fire when he "jump" or turns, it will be still for second or so.

the 5.56 non piercing ammo has increased tissue damage, at least thats what it says in the description. I dont know how much of difference it really makes though.

Shotguns I think, because they are used at close range, aren't as class dependent as other weapons. But yeah, I Usually find buying a gun from Nimble is a good choice early on, its hard for CQB weapons though because like you said you could get a shotgun or SMG, which makes it hard for a recon. Personally I think recons should have higher proficiency for shotguns, considering they are described as "short range tactics".