While in most cases it depends on luck and your general game progress which grade (common, uncommon, rare, legendary) of artifact you useStalker 2finds, there is alsosix unique miracle stones that you can specifically locate.
We have searched the zone for over 100 hours and in this guide we will show you all six super artifacts (Arch Artifacts), as they are called according to the corresponding achievement. In the game itself they are referred to as “Weird Artifacts”.
Each is hidden behind a sometimes more, sometimes less tricky environmental puzzle and their unique effects could be damn useful - if you can live with the sometimes crazy side effects.
Because procurement often involves challenging parkour activities, we have summarized the entire process for all six artifacts in one video:
Stalker 2 Video Guide: This is how you track down the six unique super artifacts
Separately fromNatalie's in-depth review of Stalker 2She also estimated for you how much time this chunk of game will actually require of you. Depending on whether you just want to take the story with you or see everything:
Is there still time for a shower?
Location map
As you can see on the map, the six artifacts are spread across the entire game world. Some of them are in areas that are only supposed to be reached after certain events in the main plot, although there are often ways and means to get there beforehand. Our recommendation: Get it after the story has taken you close - also to avoid bugs.
Weird Ball
The strange ball hardens you against fire, but becomes increasingly heavier and you become more immobile.
Wo:Quiet Zone (East)
How:Approach the lake from the west and, during the anomaly's brief lulls, sprint from cover to cover until you reach the ambulance in the middle. Then carefully sneak to the eastern edge of the ambulance and grab the Strange Ball from as far away as possible.
Effect:The ball toughens you up against damage, but it gets heavier with every hit and can overload your inventory. After enough hits, you can no longer even turn the camera and have to throw the ball out of your armor to be able to move normally again.
Usefulness:small amount
Weird Flower
The Strange Flower helps you sneak by masking your scent.
Wo:Quiet zone (northwest)
How:Place a marker on the spot shown and run there as quickly as possible with a view of the sea of flowers. If you spend too much time between the red flowers, you will be teleported several times and then die. Pick up the only blue flower and quickly leave the meadow.
Effect:If you equip the Strange Flower before sleeping, it will be charged (indicated by the bright blue flower in your inventory). The effect wears off over time, but for the first few hours of in-game you are much more difficult for mutants to locate. (They rely on smell.)
Usefulness:medium
Weird Water
In addition to radiation protection, the Strange Water also lets you carry up to 40 kg more.
Wo:Zaton (Northeast)
How:You have to go to the anomaly and into a darkening field between green will-o'-the-wisps after 10 p.m. (there is a clock on the PDA at the top right) and before sunrise. The puzzle actually wants you to search the ground in complete darkness for the water bottle that glows faintly green. With a bit of luck, you can use a rifle scope (4x) to see the bottle from outside the blackout effect. Then all you have to do is run there, pick it up and escape. Psi-blockers help against the hallucinations.
Several players we interviewed told us that they couldn't find the bottle. This could possibly be a bug in the game or in common performance mods.
Effect:The Strange Water grants you extremely high radiation protection (it can counteract several strong radiant artifacts) and an increased carrying capacity of up to 40 points. The downside is that you constantly have to endure a more or less pronounced drunken effect. It's best to take it with you as a substitute artifact for areas with strong radiation and for carrying bags full of loot home.
Usefulness:hoch
Weird Pot
The Strange Pot works like a slimming pill: hunger and thirst are curbed.
Wo:Burnt Forest (Southwest)
How:In this “Groundhog Day” puzzle, the house changes every time you try to leave the fog. Kill the mutant when you first enter, then run towards the smoke screen again. The second time the house is tidier, but still locked. After the third mist teleport, the outer basement stairs are open. Grab the key at the bottom and continue through a hole in the floor into the house. Unlock two doors and run into the fog again. Now you can go through the left door into the attic and after a few destroyed planks to the artifact and out.
Effect:The Strange Pot curbs your appetite, but just like with weight loss pills, there can be one or two side effects. If hunger is already there, the artifact has no effect.
Usefulness:small amount
Weird Nut
Strange Mother reduces bleeding damage taken, but in return it takes longer for bleeding to stop on its own.
Wo:Cooling towers (north)
How:If you approach from the southeast, you'll spot two ladders. Don't take the ones on the outside, but the ones behind them. You have to watch out for the expanding damage interval in order to reach the top safely. Follow the scaffolding counterclockwise until you can cross over a long walkway to the opposite side. If you now continue your path clockwise, halfway you will discover a central footbridge that leads towards the flame pillar. Wait for a wave of damage and then jump from the bridge onto the glowing scaffolding below you to collect the artifact. Drop down one level onto the scaffolding and then jump onto the slabs below you to escape safely outside.
Effect:Reduced bleed damage in exchange for increased bleed duration. In longer fights, it can give you the breathing space you need to end the confrontation and then calmly apply bandages.
Usefulness:medium
Weird Bolt
The Strange Bolt acts as a kind of damage cushion, absorbing a certain amount of anomaly damage. However, it only recharges with emissions that occur every few days.
Wo:Not (Westen)
How:If you have left the Red Forest on the way to Janiw with enough (story) psi protection behind you, you will find a huge hurricane in the far west. Feel your way along the southern wall past him until you find a concrete garage, inside which a tornado has been drawn in chalk on the wall. Wait here until the center of the storm is over the garage and then follow the storm northwest without leaving the eye of the storm. On the way you have to follow a clearly marked parkour path over railings and containers. At the end of the hopping tour you climb a long crane arm. Follow the edge of the storm to the top and quickly turn to the right to grab the flying bolt out of the air. Jump onto the catching anomaly below and save yourself back to the initial warehouse.
Effect:If you wear the Strange Bolt on your belt, you will not suffer any damage from the next three anomalies, although in our test this also applied to regular damage from enemies. As soon as the artifact's protective buffer is used up (colorless icon), you should take it off, otherwise your stamina will be used up at least twice as fast as normal. The bolt will then recharge with the next emission as long as you carry it with you in your inventory.
Usefulness:medium
