STALKER 2: all weapons spotted so far

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is very nearly upon us, as hard as that might be to believe. No, really, it actually is happening. And, of course, now’s the best time to discuss what kind of guns we’ll be carrying in our new trudge through the Exclusion Zone.

Thanks to a non-insignificant amount of screenshot scouring and pixel-peeping, we already have a pretty solid idea of what STALKER 2‘s full arsenal is going to look like. For one, the developer GSC Game World has already confirmed the game will have just over 35 weapons in total (which may or may not include grenades and the combat knife), which puts STALKER 2 at just about the same breadth of content as its predecessors.

This is good news, of course, but I am sorry to report that we are losing some franchise favorites, including my very own favorite SG-550. I’ve got all the details listed below, but if you’re a STALKER veteran, I suggest sitting down and taking a deep breath before you go on.

All weapons in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl

As many of you will recall, the original STALKER trilogy featured a rather eclectic and unique selection of weapons. There was no “M4”, for one, and its place was taken instead by the wildly exotic ZM LR300-A. Similarly, there was just one (!) sub-machine gun to speak of. And hey, did you know there was no 7.62×39 in the games at all? Yeah, a few weird choices, as I said. Plenty of weirdness awaits still in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, however. Here’s the full list of all confirmed weapons in the game, separated by their respective categories:

Pistols

• Heckler & Koch USP .45
• Makarov PM
• APS Stetchkin
• Unnamed revolver (possibly a Chiappa Rhino derivative)

Shotguns

• Franchi SPAS-12
• Double-Barrel (Over-Under)
• Double-Barrel (Side-by-Side)
• Standard Manufacturing DP-12
• Saiga 12K

Sub-Machine Guns

• Heckler & Koch MP5A3
• MAC-10
• KRISS Vector .45
• OTs-02 Kiparis
• PP-19 Bizon

Assault Rifles/Carbines

• AK-74
• AKS-74
• AKS-74U
• AS Val
• Heckler & Koch G36
• Heckler & Koch 416
• IWI Carmel
• IWI Tavor
• Malyuk (Vulkan-M)
• OTs-14 Groza
• M14

DMRs/Sniper Rifles

• Remington 700
• SVD Dragunov
• SVU
• VSS Vintorez
• Gauss Rifle

Heavy Weapons

• PKP Pecheneg
• RPD
• RPG-7

Talk about eclectic! Notice that we’re still missing some of the most mainstream weapons you’d expect to see in other modern titles. There aren’t any AR-15s here, for one, and the HK 416 doesn’t count as it uses an entirely different action (short piston vs direct gas impingement), though I’d be remiss to say I won’t miss the wacky LR-300 in its stead.

As far as weird, unexpected guns go, we’re getting the Carmel and the Malyuk, which to my knowledge haven’t been featured anywhere outside of some unofficial Escape From Tarkov mods. The fact that we’ve got plenty more SMGs than we had in the prior entries is great, though the severe lack of pistols is bound to be felt in the game. The original games had a bunch of good choices as far as sidearms go, honestly.

So, while this is a fairly interesting and exciting arsenal (to say nothing of potential weapon upgrade paths), I do think veteran Stalkers will miss some of the old classics. Thankfully, if everything goes well, modders will be able to reimplement old gear into the game at some point in the future. The sheer quantity of guns on show matters little if the gameplay isn’t up to par, and I’m hoping GSC simply subscribed to this same line of thought as well.