STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylis 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 whatSTALKER 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 putsSTALKER 2at just about the same breadth of content as its predecessors.

An in-game render of STALKER 2’s ‘Veteran’ version of the As VSS carbine.

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 aSTALKERveteran, 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 originalSTALKERtrilogy 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 justone(!) 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 inSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, however. Here’s the full list of all confirmed weapons in the game, separated by their respective categories:

DMRs/Sniper Rifles

Heavy Weapons

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 unofficialEscape From Tarkovmods. 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.

A STALKER 2 screenshot showing an in-game patrol sequence.

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