In this Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl walthrough guide, we take you through the Zaton and Swamps regions with many timestamps and explanations. We hit up a lot of loot stashes during these main missions as there's a lot of important items we can grab to make our character stronger and save us time later in the walkthrough. The main missions include Dead Frequency, In Search of a Guide, Ad Astra Per Aspera, and Extreme Simplicity.
00:01 - Intro
Dead Frequency
00:03 - Weird Water Artifact location in Zaton (worth going out of your way to get this, gives you a lot of extra carrying capacity)
01:57 - You want to be at this general area between 21:00 and 22:00 and make a quicksave as it's a little tricky finding the artifact once the darkness sets in, and there's no perfect way to find it every time, so you might need to reload a save. We'll show us grabbing the artifact 3 different times.)
03:17 - This rock is a good landmark to start from
03:40 - Finding the Weird Water artifact the first time
04:35 - Finding the Weird Water artifact a second time
07:33 - Finding the Weird Water artifact a third time
16:20 - Near Claw, Grab Adik Pedal's Key and coupled magazine attachment for AKM-74
21:50 - Pebble artifact near Izumrudne
23:20 - Speaking with Star
27:00 - Grab the custom Predator shotgun
30:00 - Locating Alpha Team for Star's side mission -- this gets you extra coupons at end of mission
34:00 - Eliminating Alpha Team
43:00 - Locating Bravo Team, we're killing everyone because Star wants it that way
43:50 - Get information from Batejko before killing him
53:30 - Activate backup power
54:15 - Loot Kozymkov's body for the PDA to complete Star's mission
54:20 - Loot the armory before heading up the ladder
56:40 - Worth heading to Shevchenko to unlock another base before progressing to Echo Station
1:00:00 - Grab the stash with the Return Mechanism Sleeve Tightener Blueprint at Port Cranes
1:04:25 - After killing Faust's agent, loot the body
In Search of a Guide
1:09:54 - Inconspicuous Stash at Repair Quay, Sunrise Suit will be the reward
1:13:44 - Heading to Skadovsk for In Search of a Guide main mission (we recommend going here since this ship has more amenities)
1:14:33 - Speaking with our old pal Richter
1:21:15 - Helping Trapper fend off the mutants
1:30:00 - How to find Nimble
1:33:00 - We think sparing Nimble is the better choice
Ad Astra Per Aspera
1:42:30 - Head into the Swamps region to acquire a suit with high degree of psi-protection
1:43:48 - Location on the map for the psi-protection suit in the Swamps
1:44:30 - The three psi-beacon locations are the next part of this walkthrough
1:45:10 - Crown artifact location
1:49:00 - Spinner artifact location
2:05:00 - Rosin artifact location
2:08:50 - It's not worth fighting the Chimera mutant, just haul ass to pass through the Warren Shack
2:09:40 - Cutscene with Faust, ends Ad Astra Per Aspera main mission
Extreme Simplicity
2:16:30 - Thorn artifact location, near the Abandoned Hamlet
2:19:00 - Heading north is the easiest way to escape the Swamps for the Extreme Simplicity main mission, plus we'll get a lot of loot on the way
2:22:30 - Droplets artifact location near the Fishing Hamlet
2:22:56 - Heading for the Snug Stash at the Old Church
2:24:20 - Bounce a grenade into this room to unlock the door for a good stash that includes a 100% GP37 and High-Capacity GP37 magazine
2:31:45 - Circus location has an artifact, also when you escape the Swamps
2:35:05 - Speaking with Scar and Strider at the Ranger Station
2:37:55 - We'll be siding with Spark once again, so we'll kill the Ward soldiers. You can also just leave but won't get any Coupons or help from either faction
2:50:10 - Kolobok artifact location at the Hydrodynamics Lab, this Lab is a very good place to explore and loot
2:50:40 - Next check out the factory, as this will save time on a much later main mission if we get a mutant collar now on our way to SIRCAA
2:52:30 - Kill the Controller and loot it for its beeping collar
2:56:00 - 4824 is the code to unlock the door, you can get a GP-25 underbarrel grenade launcher here for the AKM-74S
2:59:36 - Two more Stashes to grab here at the Lab
3:06:14 - The PSZ-5V Guardian of Freedom Suit is at this stash
3:07:10 - MAKE A SAFETY SAVE BEFORE ENTERING SIRCAA, the end of the mission after Extreme Simplicity does sometimes softlock and you need to redo the entire thing to make it work, the only "safe" way to make sure you don't lose even more progress is making a save before entering the area.
For more on Stalker 2, head to our IGN wiki @ https://www.ign.com/wikis/stalker-2/
