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How to increase carry weight - Stalker 2

Upgrade your carry weight so you can haul more gear to sell or bring more ammo on adventures.

Sam Chandler

November 20, 2024 7:45 PM

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You’re going to find a lot of gear in Stalker 2, but you will be limited by Skif’s carry weight. The bloke is strong, but even he needs to weigh up what he can reasonably take with him back to base to sell. If you don’t want to be constantly shedding gear, you’re going to need to increase the carry weight.

How to increase carry weight

You can increase your carry weight by equipping certain armor and artifacts and using temporary buffs. Unfortunately, there is no way to permanently increase this stat through upgrades – it appears that Skif is as strong as he’s going to get. The good news is that, aside from the buffs, you can keep armor and artifacts on you as long as you want.

To begin with, Skif is able to carry 80kg before being completely over-encumbered and unable to move. Before that point, he will start to slow down and stamina will take longer to regenerate. By equipping certain artifacts, you can increase this carry weight by a decent amount, especially if you combine the following.

Firstly, it’s possible to find armor that will boost your carry weight by 8kg. Those who have access to the Journalist’s Stashes can find a piece of armor like this down in the Swamps in the southeast corner of the map. This piece of armor also has some impressive artifact slots.

Another way to up the carry weight is by equipping artifacts like Goldfish or Spring. These are found near gravitational anomalies, so as you’re exploring, keep your eye out for those. Start by searching Ribs, an area just south of Zalissya, the first town you reach in the Lesser Zone.

Beyond these two methods, the only other way to increase your weight limit is to use the Hercules buff. This provides 20kg of extra carry weight for 300 seconds (5 minutes). You will start finding this buff more commonly as you progress deeper into the campaign and are required to carry heavy, quest-specific items.

Carry gear around and working within the limits of your weight capacity is all part of the charm of Stalker 2. Though you can do some things to increase it, none of it is permanent and is linked entirely to your build at a given time. Take a look at our Stalker 2 page for more help navigating through the various areas in the Zone.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler