There are no repair kits in Stalker 2, none at all. Only technicians fix weapons and armour, you can't strip guns for parts, and nearly every trader refuses a gun below 40% durability. So repair isn't a button in your inventory, it's a route: who to visit, when, and what it costs. Below: how wear works, every technician and what each can do, how not to go broke, and what to do with the red guns every bandit drops.
How wear works, and why you repair before red
Only weapons and armour have durability, and helmets count as armour. The shield icon in the inventory shows it: yellow means worn, red means badly damaged. A worn gun shoots worse and jams more often, the jam has to be cleared by hand, and it tends to happen at the worst moment. Worn armour protects less: since Update 1.7 the equipment tab shows protection with wear already factored in, so those numbers are honest.
- When to visit a technician. Windows Central reads the colours as yellow around 70%, red below 40%. Dexerto and Deltia's suggest repairing while you're still above half: deep repairs cost more.
- What wears guns faster. Long bursts more than single shots. Since patch 1.5 supersonic ammo wears guns much less, if your weapon takes it.
- What slows wear. Also since 1.5 there are artifacts that boost gear durability: Crust, Horn, Slime, Ciliate, Tourist's Breakfast, Devil's Mushroom and the legendary Liquid Rock (per the wiki, all from chemical anomalies, and most of them radiate). Plus suit upgrades for wear resistance at a technician.
- No field repairs. With no kits, carry a backup gun, Insider Gaming advises. I'd add: one in a different calibre.
The repair itself is simple: go to a technician (wrench icon on the map), open Upgrade, pick the item and press R on PC or X on a controller; the price is shown bottom right. Since 1.5 the technician menu has a "Fix all" button for everything you're wearing, but neither GSC's notes nor any guide explains how it unlocks.
Every technician: who repairs, and who upgrades everything
Every technician repairs, but each has a ceiling on upgrades. "Technician cannot install this upgrade" means exactly that: find a better one. Some upgrades also need a blueprint found in the world, and without it even the best technician can't fit them.
| Technician | Where | Faction | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lens | Zalissya, Lesser Zone | Loners | the first one, first upgrade tiers; can die |
| Multitool | Rookie Village, Cordon | Loners | same house as the guide |
| Diode | Slag Heap, Garbage | Diggers | the second one, wider range than Lens but not everything |
| Picker | Skadovsk, Zaton | Bandits | Prima says Loners, the wiki says Bandits |
| Sgt. Yeremeyev | Icarus, Zaton | Ward | |
| Sgt. Ivaylov | Chemical Plant | Ward | |
| Khors | Wild Island | Noontide | since 1.4 upgrades the Zircon suit |
| Screw | Rostok | Freedom | everything except exoskeletons and the Gauss gun |
| Powerplug | wiki: Ranger Station, Zaton; Prima and Sportskeeda: Rostok | Spark | sources disagree on where |
| Sgt. Khmaruk | Cement Factory | Duty | won't upgrade top-tier gear |
| Semyonych | STC Malachite | Scientists | |
| Harpy | Yaniv Station | Corps | upgrades everything, fits exoskeleton servos |
| Bolero | Enerhetyk Palace of Culture, Prypiat | Corps | upgrades everything, late game only |
| Chief | bunker in the Iron Forest, Cost of Hope | Loners | the first to both trade and repair |
A separate word on Lens, because he's easy to lose. After the Monolith attack on Zalissya in "On the Edge" he's wounded, and if you don't bring a surgical kit to the medic Mykolayich, Lens dies and is gone for good. Same if you ignore the quest. He's the first technician you'll keep going back to, so bring the kit.
The best are Harpy at Yaniv and Bolero in Prypiat: per the wiki, those two are the only ones who can upgrade everything. Before them, Screw in Rostok is the most useful. Keep in mind some hubs depend on your side: with the Ward, Rostok and Screw are closed; with Spark, the Chemical Plant and Malachite are. Those choices are covered in our choices guide.
What repairs cost, and how not to go broke
I couldn't find the exact vanilla formula, and here's why that matters: a rule that "repairing from zero costs 180% of the item's price, with 10% off for friends" gets passed around, and those numbers come from the Stalker Infinity mod, not the game. What's certain: prices dropped in the very first patch, 1.0.1; in 2.0.5 GSC "tweaked prices for some technicians" without details; and the price grows with the item's value and how much durability it lost. Windows Central puts it as a few hundred coupons for a basic pistol and several thousand for badly damaged armour. Per the game configs that modders dig into, the technician's faction attitude toward you matters too.
- Repair before half. The deeper the wear, the pricier the fix, and in the endgame repairs are "pretty expensive", says PC Gamer.
- Don't repair junk to resell. Fixing a picked-up gun almost always costs more than it sells for; Shacknews, Deltia's and Windows Central all agree.
- Stay on good terms with the faction of the technician you use most.
- Invest in wear resistance. Suit upgrades for wear cost 3,600 to 7,300 coupons (wiki prices for the OZK Explorer's Suit), and a durability artifact on your belt works all game.
If you hate the economy outright, 2.0 added a Custom Rules difficulty where fights can be harder and the economy softer, although I couldn't confirm exactly which sliders it has. Among mods updated for 2.0, Long Days, Carry Wght, Rep Cost, Upg Cost: MODULAR sets repair cost anywhere from free to 300%. The rest of what's worth installing is in our mods guide.
What to do with broken guns that bandits drop
Shacknews's rough count: nine out of ten guns off dead enemies are already in the red. Nearly every trader only buys guns at 40% or better, and the game has no dismantling. So:
- Unload and drop. Take the ammo out of the broken gun, keep or sell it, and dump the gun, which is just dead weight. That's Deltia's advice and the most practical one.
- Sell yellow guns right away. While they're above 40%, traders take them.
- Red guns go to one trader. Ragman in Rostok, in the building across from the Arena entrance, buys guns and armour in any condition according to the wiki, but pays 10% less than everyone else. Shacknews and Windows Central say broken gear can't be sold at all, but they didn't check Ragman.
One more reason not to haul junk: every spare gun is several kilos, and you hit overweight fast in this game. We'll cover how to raise the limit in a separate guide. And unique mission weapons have worn more slowly than regular ones since patch 1.3, so hunting unique guns pays off on repair bills too.
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyThe video predates Update 2.0: the technician menu and buttons haven't changed since, prices may have.
Sources
GSC patch notes: 1.0.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 2.0, 2.0.5. Series wiki: Lens, Harpy, Ragman, Blueprints, artifacts. PC Gamer, Dexerto, Windows Central, Shacknews, Prima Games, Sportskeeda, Insider Gaming. Video by Gamers Heroes. Screenshots from Steam and GSC news.
