As you embark on your lonely adventure across the hostile Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Stalkers who make good use of their scanners will quickly come across strange items known as artifacts. These items, molded by the Zone and its array of bizarre anomalies, can offer various perks (and often, cons) when equipped.
This makes them rather important to your time as a stalker, especially as you upgrade your armor and gain the capacity to equip more artifacts. Here’s everything you need to know about artifacts, what they do, and where to find them in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
All Stalker 2 artifacts explained
Artifacts in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl are items that have been forged by the Zone and the strange occurrences within it. As a result, these objects — once plain, old, ordinary items — now have special abilities that you, a Stalker, can use to aid with your exploration.
First things first, it’s worth noting that Artifact spawns are randomised, to an extent. Specific Artifacts have a tendency to spawn near specific anomalies, so it’s easy enough to hunt down Artifacts if you know where their associated anomalies are located, but the rarity of the Artifact you receive near these anomalies can be completely random.
The stats impacted remain the same regardless of the rarity of the Artifact you find, but the rarity will determine just how potent its effects are. For example, Steak’s below stat changes will remain the same whether you find a common or legendary version of the Artifact, but how effective these changes are can vary.
Below, we’ve listed all known Artifacts and where known, the anomalies we found them near too.
Steak
The Steak Artifact provides the following:
- Bleeding resistance +
- Radiation –
Goldfish
The Goldfish Artifact is found near gravitational anomalies and provides the following:
Jellyfish
The Jellyfish Artifact provides the following:
- Physical reduction +
- Radiation –
Flytrap
The Flytrap Artifact is found near gravitational anomalies and provides the following:
Spinner
The Spinner Artifact is found near thermal anomalies and provides the following:
- Bleeding resistance +
- Radiation –
Chocolate Bar
The Chocolate Bar Artifact is found near electric anomalies and provides the following:
- Electrical protection +
- Radiation –
Weird Ball
The Weird Ball is a legendary Artifact that is found near Boba in the Lesser Zone and provides the following:
- Reduced bullet damage in combat
Dead Sponge
The Dead Sponge Artifact is found near thermal anomalies and provides the following:
- Bleeding resistance + +
- Radiation – –
Rat King
The Rat King Artifact is found near gravitational anomalies and provides the following:
- Electrical protection +
- Bleeding protection +
- Radiation – –
Crystal Thorn
The Crystal Thorn Artifact is found near radiation anomalies and provides the following:
Droplets
The Droplets Artifact is found near thermal anomalies and provides the following:
- Thermal protection +
- Radiation –
Ciliate
The Ciliate Artifact is found near chemical anomalies and provides the following:
- Chemical protection + +
- Radiation – –
Moonlight
The Moonlight Artifact is found near electrical anomalies and provides the following:
- Electrical protection + +
- Radiation – –
Soul
The Soul Artifact is found near chemical anomalies and provides the following:
- Endurance + +
- Radiation – –
Flash
The Flash Artifact is found near electrical anomalies and provides the following:
- Electrical protection +
- Radiation –
Metal Chunk
The Metal Chunk Artifact is found near chemical anomalies and provides the following:
- Chemical protection +
- Radiation –
Mica
The Mica Artifact is found near radiation anomalies and provides the following:
Shell
The Shell Artifact is found near electric anomalies and provides the following:
Lyre
The Lyra Artifact is found near glass shard anomalies and provides the following:
- Bleed resistance +
- Weight +
- Rad –
Spring
The Spring Artifact is found near gravity anomalies and provides the following:
Battery
The Battery Artifact is found near radiation pool / bubble anomalies and provides the following:
Kolobok
The Kolobok Artifact is found near bubble anomalies and provides the following:
- Chemical protection + +
- Radiation – –
Crystal
The Spring Artifact is found near fire anomalies and provides the following:
- Fire resistance +
- Radiation –
Stone Blood
The Stone Blood Artifact is found near chemical anomalies and provides the following:
Snowflake
The Snowflake Artifact is found near radiation / bubble anomalies and provides the following:
Flaw
The Flaw Artifact is found near fire anomalies and provides the following:
- Bleed resistance +
- Weight +
- Radiation – –
Hypercube
The Hypercube is a legendary Artifact that is found in Circus, Zaton fire and provides the following:
- Bleed resistance + + +
- Fire protection + + +
- Radiation – – –
Slug
The Slug Artifact is found near radiation anomalies and provides the following:
Eye
The eye Artifact is found near fire anomalies and provides the following:
- Fire resistance +
- Radiation –
Cavity
The Cavity Artifact is found near glass shard anomalies and provides the following:
- Bleed resistance +
- Weight +
- Radiation –
Crown
The Crown Artifact is found near gravity anomalies and provides the following:
- Physical resistance +
- Endurance +
- Radiation – –
Magma
The Magma Artifact is found near thermal anomalies and provides the following:
- Thermal protection +
- Weight +
- Radiation – –
Tourist’s Breakfast
The Tourist’s Breakfast Artifact is found near chemical anomalies and provides the following:
- Chemical protection + +
- Radiation – –
For more on Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, take a look at how to increase your carry capacity, as well as all anomalies in the Zone.