The small piece of metal traveled through the air and landed on the ground with a silent thud. Immediately the area was filled with a bright, blue light, as small lighting bolts shot up into the air. A figure calmly watched the light show, and took a small device from his belt. After pressing some buttons the device started to beep loudly. A grin formed on the mans face – an Artifact was near. The person took some more iron bits from a small bag on his belt as he took a few steps back. He prepared quietly as failure would result a painful death. A few seconds passed, and the Stalker threw another piece of metal, while starting to run. Swoosh – the lighting went off as the man sailed through the air, right over the glowing bolt. After landing the man let out a small laugh and took out the beeping device. He started to slowly turn around, all the while listening for louder beeps. At one moment he hit jackpot – the device became louder. Every step forward and the device went louder and louder, faster and faster, up to the moment when it turned into a nonstopping sound. At the moment the man calmly extended his arm and grabbed for something. At first there was nothing, but then a large, rock like thing appeared, that seemed to glow from the inside. Our Stalker turned around, made the jump over the Anomaly again and began his way back to the Bar, all the while thinking about the uses of the money he'll get from the Barkeep.
Stalker lore
Artifacts are items that have been changed by the conditions in the Zone.
Overview
Artifacts are formed from anomalies, exposed to certain objects or conditions: The combination of an ordinary object(s) and an anomaly, the degeneration and death of an anomaly or if the anomaly is exposed to certain conditions. An example is the Crystal where it is a combination of metallic substances and the Burner anomaly. Emissions are known to be the catalyst in the actual creation of an artifact, although scientists in the zone are still unable to explain how this happens.
Benefits
Most artifacts have strange and useful characteristics. For example, when kept close to the body, some artifacts create a protective field that increases its user's resilience to damage. Others may increase the user's stamina or protect against fire, etc.
Hazards
Most artifacts generate radiation, their radiation appears to be powerful as it could penetrate the radiation protection from any armor, and artifacts that absorb and destroy radiation (like the Crystal or Bubble, which vary from game to game though) are needed to be worn in tandem to safely wear these radiation generating artifacts for extended periods, unless one is willing to waste loads of Vodka and Anti-rad. The radiation though appears to only irradiate when placed very close to the body, placing them inside their back-packs or being near them does not seem to irradiate the carrier. (Perhaps emitting alpha radiation, but it would be unable to penetrate the skin and cause damage.) Most artifacts also might have some side effects (e.g. Moonlight will increase one's endurance at the cost of one's resistance to electric anomalies). However there are a handful of artifacts with no negative effects which are both rare and expensive (dummy artifacts in Shadow of Chernobyl). In the later two games of the original trilogy, radiation is the only downside, meaning anti-rad drugs, radiation-absorbing artifacts, or even vodkas are sufficient to outweigh this shortcoming.
Acquisition
Veles detector
Artifacts may be acquired by several different ways:
- Retrieving them directly from or near the anomaly;
- As a reward for completing various missions;
- As a loot from stashes or dead bodies or hidden in the open.
Usage
In all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, the player can either use the artifacts by attaching them to armor or as trade goods. In Shadow of Chernobyl, a fair number of quests revolve around finding different kinds of artifacts.
Beneficial side effects
When equipped, some artifacts may offer beneficial side effects to the player's character. In order to achieve the best possible effect, the artifacts have to be carefully selected. The artifacts have to be placed on the belt; having them in the inventory is not enough.
Financial use
Artifacts are very valuable, and stalkers commonly sell them to traders, who in turn sell them to high profile buyers ranging from the military, scientists, and large business companies, down to collectors, who would pay a hefty price to obtain one of these artifacts from the Zone.
Scientists, notably professor Sakharov, greatly value artifacts, as they are great research materials. The scientists claim artifacts could be the key to answering the world's problems, and that they could aid in the development of technological advancements.
Appearances
- Main article: List of artifacts
Certain artifacts also had their characteristics changed between the games, such as Moonlight which went from being stamina-improving to instead providing extra protection against psionic effects; or Gravi, instead of lessening rupture damage it increases overall weight carried. It's possible that the changes between the two games is a result of a type of "(de)evolution" in the artifacts or change in the composition in the artifacts after a period of time, or the anomalies themselves changed over time and they now create different results. Some artifacts have gone extinct entirely — or simply collected to the point no more appear in the Zone, such as the Slime, Mica or Crystal Thorn.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Trilogy
- Shadow of Chernobyl
- Main article: Artifacts in Shadow of Chernobyl
In Shadow of Chernobyl, artifacts are relatively plentiful and can be found lying on the ground or in stashes.
- Clear Sky
- Main article: Artifacts in Clear Sky
In Clear Sky, artifacts are very rare and almost exclusively found in the middle of anomaly clusters. A special detector is required to track and spot artifacts. This would imply how that before the second great emission, the artifacts were few and far between due to the majority of them already being found from the first emission. After the second great emission that wiped out most of the stalkers in the zone and started the events of Shadow of Chernobyl, a slew of new artifacts were created across the Zone.
- Call of Pripyat
- Main article: Artifacts in Call of Pripyat
In Call of Pripyat, artifacts are still uncommon, but are much more commonly found than they were in Clear Sky; also most likely due to the time that has elapsed since the last great emission that created the majority of the artifacts, Stalkers have already found most of the artifacts.
Stalker rumors about artifacts moving through empty fields aren't myths — they're a deliberate game mechanic. Across Zaton (9 routes), Jupiter (8 routes), and Pripyat (6 routes), these artifacts propelling themselves far from anomalies across vast distances. Up to 3 artifacts can spawn per map, patrolling continuously. When detected, they stop momentarily — allowing retrieval — but resume their journey if you look away or retreat. As stalkers say: "The Zone decides who to reward."[1][2]
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
- Main article: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl artifacts
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, artifacts require a detector to locate and are, as usual, a delicate balancing art and finding out the desired properties. Managing radiation is, of course, essential, and the amount of artifacts you can carry are dependent on the armor you have equipped.
Artifact respawn
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Trilogy
With each new game in the original trilogy, the developers improved the respawn of artifacts:
- Artifact respawn does not work at all in Shadow of Chernobyl.
- Artifact respawn often fails to work in Clear Sky. It is entirely dependent on a (fragile) 4-hour timer that counts down from the moment the artifact is collected from the anomaly. It has nothing to do with the emissions.
- Artifact respawn finally works as intended in Call of Pripyat. It is tied to the emissions. The chance of artifact spawn is 17 % (each anomaly zone tries to create artifact 2–3 times; typically an anomaly field can store up to 2–3 artifacts at the same time).
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Artifacts do not respawn in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl at all. Artifact respawning is intended in the game, but it does not work as intended. Due to an error, the game engine fulfills all artifact quotas at the start of a new game. This means that artifacts that should appear gradually are immediately present in the Zone world. This results in artifacts being scattered everywhere.
It may seem like respawn is working, but this is because round artifacts sometimes sink through surfaces and become available for pickup only when you re-enter the level. In some cases, gravitational anomalies can also launch artifacts outside the playable area, which again makes them collectible only after re-entering. There are also electrical artifacts (Sparkler, Flash and Moonlight) in the game that are disabled (go offline) from 00:00 to 4:59, and such artifacts can also drop from breakable wooden boxes, which is why sometimes a player may discover an unexpected find when revisiting some places.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky there is a timer-based artifact respawn system (implemented via bind_anomaly_zone.script), but it's notoriously unreliable.
- By design, once you loot an anomaly, a 4-hour real-time countdown begins for that specific anomaly zone in that specific level, after which new artifacts from the available pool of this anomaly zone should appear. In the unmodified game, however, the timer can get stuck forever due to its fragile code.
- Moreover, due to flaws in the script code, the timer only counts the time spent on a certain level. This means that one can spend three hours in the Swamps, then an hour in the Cordon, return to the Swamps, and still have to wait an additional hour in the Swamps for the artifact to reappear (assuming the timer has not collapsed under its own weight).
- The stock timer also does not check the spawned artifacts for parent anomaly zones, which can result in one of the zones "stealing" slots for artifacts from other zones, thereby disrupting the normal flow of things.
- The big issue lies in the idle time save and load functions. The formula there is very complicated, and it seems that this is what breaks the timer's functionality permanently sooner or later.
Note that respawn is tied strictly to real-world hours (4 h), not its equivalent in the in-game hours (40 h), so sleep items or time-skip mods won't speed it up—if the timer is not patched, as in SRP (Sky Reclamation Project). Note that the artifact respawn in Clear Sky is independent of the emissions.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat there is a randomized emission-based artifact respawn system (implemented via modified & enhanced bind_anomaly_zone.script).
- After an emission, artifacts may respawn in anomaly zones, though this is never guaranteed. Each zone performs N attempts to generate an artifact (where N is defined by the zone's configuration, typically 2–3 attempts). For every attempt, the game rolls a virtual 100-sided die: if the result is 18 or higher (83 % probability), nothing spawns; only results of 17 or lower (17 % probability) trigger artifact creation.
- Upon successful roll, a specific artifact is chosen from the zone's predefined pool using weighted randomness — artifacts with higher coefficients appear more frequently.
- Most gravitational, chemical, and electrical anomaly zones share a common pool of six artifacts, where cheaper artifacts have significantly higher spawn weights. Thermal zones utilize a reduced pool of five artifacts.
- Three specific chemical anomaly zones on Jupiter ("Plavni", Quarry, Anomalous grove) feature an even smaller pool of four artifacts, excluding Meat Chunk and Kolobok.
- Additionally, unique zones exist: the "Bitumen" near Jupiter plant mixes thermal and gravitational artifacts in an 11-item pool with complex weighting, while rare "wandering artifacts" (maximum 3 at a time) can spawn in open areas across all major levels (Zaton, Jupiter, Pripyat) through expansive pools encompassing nearly all available artifacts.
Each anomaly zone has a pre-determined first artifact. After collecting it, the zone switches to normal mode with random artifact respawning. Anomaly zones can contain from 1 to 3 artifacts maximum.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Artifacts respawn in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Saving the game at a certain distance from the anomaly (about 150 meters on PC, perhaps a little less on weaker devices) and loading it if the random artifact does not suit you allows re-rolls.
List of artifacts
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Trilogy
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
There are 27 artifacts.
| Artifact | Rad
|
Chem
|
Elec
|
Burn
|
Endu
|
Health
|
Bleed
|
Imp
|
Rupt
|
Bullet
|
Price | Location
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Slime |
-10 % | -10 % | -133 % | 1000 |
Fruit Punch anomalies | |||||||
 Slug |
-10 % | -10 % | -267 % | 2500 | ||||||||
 Mica |
-10 % | -10 % | -400 % | 5000
| ||||||||
 Droplets |
-10 | -18 | 1000 |
Burner anomalies | ||||||||
 Fireball |
-20 | -18 | 2500 | |||||||||
 Crystal |
-30 | -18 | 5000
| |||||||||
 Sparkler |
-10 % | +36 | 1000 |
Electro anomalies | ||||||||
 Flash |
-10 % | +73 | 2500 | |||||||||
 Moonlight |
-10 % | +109 | 5000
| |||||||||
 Stone Blood |
+200 % | -10 % | -10 % | -10 % | 1000 |
Whirligig anomalies | ||||||
 Meat Chunk |
+400 % | -10 % | -10 % | -10 % | 2500 | |||||||
 Soul |
+600 % | -10 % | -10 % | -10 % | 5000
| |||||||
 Jellyfish |
+5 | +2 % | 1000 |
Springboard anomalies | ||||||||
 Stone Flower |
+5 | +3 % | 2500 | |||||||||
 Night Star |
+5 | +5 % | 5000
| |||||||||
 Mama's Beads |
+5 % | 5000 | Unknown
| |||||||||
 Wrenched |
+5 | +2 % | 1000 |
Vortex anomalies | ||||||||
 Gravi |
+5 | +3 % | 2500 | |||||||||
 Goldfish |
+5 | +5 % | 5000
| |||||||||
 Kolobok |
+5 % | 5000 | Burnt Fuzz anomalies
| |||||||||
 Thorn |
-10 | +100 % | 1000 |
Burnt Fuzz anomalies | ||||||||
 Crystal Thorn |
-20 | +100 % | 2500 | |||||||||
 Urchin |
-30 | +100 % | 5000
| |||||||||
 Shell |
+30 % | 5000 | Unknown | |||||||||
 Pellicle |
+30 % | 5000 | ||||||||||
 Spring |
+30 % | 5000 | ||||||||||
 Battery |
+30 % | 5000 |
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
There are 23 common artifacts of different rarity.
| Artifact | Rad
|
Chem
|
Elec
|
Burn
|
Tele
|
Endu
|
Health
|
Bleed
|
Weight
|
Price | Location
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Stone Blood |
+1 | +1 | 2000 |
Gas anomalies: | |||||||
 Meat Chunk |
+1 | +3 | 4000 | ||||||||
 Soul |
+2 | +2 | 6000 | ||||||||
 Kolobok |
+2 | +4 | 12000 | ||||||||
 Firefly |
+3 | +6 | 18000 | ||||||||
 Bubble |
-6 | 12000
| |||||||||
 Stone Flower |
+1 | +1 | 3000 |
Springboard anomalies: | |||||||
Jellyfish |
-2 | 4000 | |||||||||
 Wrenched |
-4 | 8000 | |||||||||
 Night Star |
+2 | +10 kg | 6000 | ||||||||
 Gravi |
+3 | +20 kg | 12000 | ||||||||
 Goldfish |
+3 | +30 kg | 18000
| ||||||||
 Crystal |
+1 | +1 | 2000 |
Burner anomalies: | |||||||
 Fireball |
+1 | +3 | 4000 | ||||||||
 Mama's Beads |
+2 | +20 | 6000 | ||||||||
 Eye |
+2 | +40 | 12000 | ||||||||
 Flame |
+3 | +60 | 18000
| ||||||||
 Sparkler |
+1 | +1 | 2000 |
Electro anomalies: | |||||||
 Flash |
+1 | +3 | 4000 | ||||||||
 Moonlight |
+2 | +3 | 6000 | ||||||||
 Battery |
+2 | +2 | 6000 | ||||||||
 Shell |
+3 | +4 | 12000 | ||||||||
 Snowflake |
+3 | +6 | 18000 |
There are 2 unique artifacts in the game.
| Artifact | Rad
|
Chem
|
Elec
|
Burn
|
Tele
|
Endu
|
Health
|
Bleed
|
Weight
|
Price | Location
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scarlet Flower |
5000 (not tradable) | Yantar (a loner)
| |||||||||
 Compass |
+6 | 50000 (not tradable) | Red Forest (Forester) |
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
There are 23 common artifacts of different rarity.
| Artifact | Rad
|
Chem
|
Elec
|
Therm
|
Psy
|
Energy
|
Health
|
Wound
|
Weight
|
Price | Max price | Location
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stone Blood |
+1 | +3 | 2000 | 3600? |
Zaton: Jupiter: | |||||||
Meat Chunk |
+2 | +6 | 4000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Soul |
+2 | +2 | 6000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Kolobok |
+2 | +4 | 12000 | 10800? | ||||||||
Firefly |
+3 | +6 | 18000 | 14400? (24000) | ||||||||
Bubble |
-4 | 12000 | 14400? (18000)
| |||||||||
Stone Flower |
+1 | +3 | 3000 | 3600? |
Zaton: | |||||||
Jellyfish |
-2 | 4000 | 7200? | |||||||||
Wrenched |
-3 | 8000 | 10800? | |||||||||
Night Star |
+1 | +4 kg | 6000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Gravi |
+3 | +8 kg | 12000 | 14400? (18000) | ||||||||
Goldfish |
+3 | +12 kg | 18000 | 14400? (24000)
| ||||||||
Crystal |
+1 | +3 | 2000 | 3600? |
Zaton: | |||||||
Fireball |
+2 | +6 | 4000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Mama's Beads |
+1 | +2 | 6000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Eye |
+2 | +4 | 12000 | 10800? (18000) | ||||||||
Flame |
+3 | +6 | 18000 | 14400? (24000)
| ||||||||
Sparkler |
+1 | +3 | 2000 | 3600? |
Zaton: | |||||||
Flash |
+2 | +6 | 4000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Moonlight |
+2 | +6 | 6000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Battery |
+1 | +2 | 6000 | 7200? | ||||||||
Shell |
+2 | +4 | 12000 | 10800? (18000) | ||||||||
Snowflake |
+3 | +6 | 18000 | 14400? (24000) |
There are 5 unique artifacts in the game, including 2 altered items and a strange plant.
| Artifact | Rad
|
Chem
|
Elec
|
Therm
|
Psy
|
Energy
|
Health
|
Wound
|
Hunger
|
Price | Max price | Location
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Altered Insulator |
+6 | 1000 (not tradable) | 6000 | Jupiter: Northwestern tunnel | ||||||||
 Altered Wheel |
+6 | 1000 (not tradable) | 3000 | Zaton: Dredge station | ||||||||
 Anomalous plant |
0 (not tradable) | 0 | Jupiter: Anomalous grove | |||||||||
Compass |
+4 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +2 | 50000 (not tradable) | 10000 | Zaton: Old barge (Noah) | |||
 Heart of the Oasis |
+4 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +1 | 50000 (not tradable) | 7000 | Jupiter: Oasis |
See also
- List of artifacts
- Artifacts in Shadow of Chernobyl
- Artifacts in Clear Sky
- Artifacts in Call of Pripyat
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl artifacts
References
- ↑
Sometimes you don't have to jump into anomalies to scare up an artifact. I've been told of an artifact found out in the open field. This one stalker had a detector that started acting up, so he decided to change the batteries. As soon as he did, the detector shows a reading and bam, an artifact basically drops in his hands. Lucky bastard, eh? That's the Zone for you: sometimes it punishes you and sometimes it rewards you.
- ↑
I've heard from seasoned stalkers that sometimes artifacts move outside of anomalies. Your detector starts going "peep," you take it out, but there's nothing there. That means a 'nomadic' artifact walked past you but it's no use chasing it, because only the Zone decides who to reward it with.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pool of 6 available artifacts:
Coeff: [3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1] → 25% / 25% / 16% / 16% / 8% / 8%. - ↑ Pool of 4 available artifacts:
Coeff: [3, 2, 1, 1] → 42% / 28% / 14% / 14%. - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pool of 11 available artifacts:
Coeff: [3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1] → 13% / 13% / 8% / 8% / 4% (thermal artifacts) / 13% / 13% / 8% / 8% / 4% (gravitational artifacts). - ↑ Pool of 5 available artifacts:
Coeff: [3, 3, 2, 2, 1] → 27% / 27% / 18% / 18% / 9%.