Chernobylite is a first-person horror sci-fi adventure for the PC but will also see a release on consoles in the future. After a few days of play, it took around 16 hours to finish the game with one ending and achievements.
Having experienced it the first time around, it’s well worth replaying to unlock new paths, but what about the bits in between – y’know, the gameplay? Read the Chernobylite review for that.
Here are some Chernobylite tips and tricks to reel it in a bit if you don’t have a plan. This isn’t a trainer or that thorough, to be fair, but some tips nevertheless.
Got any you want to share? Let me know.
Explore
Even after you’ve finished the main objectives, scout the area for materials and clues. Pressing tab will bring up your inventory, but also a map. Anything of note will show up as a question mark, so set a waypoint and be sure to visit it.
Clues
These are important to the story’s development and will trigger a VR sequence from Igor’s room, should you find enough of them. Use your map (by pressing tab) to search all areas. Sometimes these locations may be locked so take plenty of lockpicks (created at your base with the correct station), or trade with one of the vendors.
Saving
The autosave in Chernobylite is more than adequate, and you can test this for yourself by making a manual save. It’s pretty likely that a save took place within seconds of you saving. That said, there is a section where you can alter your decisions, changing the timeline. In short, don’t worry about it, but think about your choices if you want to save some time in the future.
Supplying Gear To Your Team
For every member you recruit, give them a weapon and armour. Don’t pay any attention to upgrades as these don’t impact the stats, but the gear selection will. For example, a pistol may seem inadequate compared to a railgun, but it may raise specific stats like perception, making the likelihood of succeeding in a mission high.
Consider Your Actions
It’s impossible to keep everyone happy in Chernobylite. One action may be favourable with one party member, but not another. Most of the time, you can read a character – Mikhail, for example, is like a pop-up book. However, Sashko can be a little erratic in what he likes and dislikes.
Be Generous With Your Rations
Igor can go without food as crafting gear or picking up something in the field is frequent. However, if you can afford to do so, give your team full rations or even double. Not only does this improve their health but also their psyche, impacting the success of missions.
Don’t Be Too Attached To Your Gear
While the difficulty settings in Chernobylite can be pretty forgiving, there is a chance you can die and lose all your gear. Materials are typically in abundance, and you can improve your success rate of scavenging new materials by levelling up skills with Mikhail, and building the station that allows you to recycle gear in exchange for resources.
Take at least two weapons with you as ammo can be scarce, and depending on your skill settings, the pistol might be more effective than a rifle. Again, depending on whether you unlock the skills with Oliver and Olga respectively. Better still, focus on your stealth skills, and you can take out most human resistance with a choke.
Don’t Bring A Knife To A Shadow Fight
Shadows tend to appear out of nowhere, and regardless of how much you upgrade your scanner, it won’t pick them up.
As it’s often a requirement to look down the sights to shoot them, don’t faff about with a pistol, instead, upgrade the shotgun or, pending how far you are, the railgun is a safe bet. Even better, learn how to craft a molecular plasma thrower. As long as you have enough time to charge it, you can one-hit-kill them.
Note that it’s encouraged to learn how to craft this by the time you attempt the heist mission.
Upgrade Your Scanner
Likely a preference sort of thing, but upgrading your scanner is incredibly helpful for survival. Tarakan can train you (twice) to improve the scanner. Not only can this search for NAR soldiers, but the final upgrade allows for an almost non-existent cooldown.
Keep Your Crew Happy
Besides decision making, ensuring your base is up-to-speed is essential. Your team need a place to sleep, but more importantly, air-conditioned, radiation-free and comfortable too. If you can afford it, build the Game of Throne-like chernobylite table and chairs. They’re pretty cumbersome but improve the facilities quite significantly.
Stash Effectively
Another note on your base: build sufficient storage. Even as you unlock your carrying capacity (via Mikhail and later Olga), inevitably, there aren’t enough slots. Rather than dispose of any gear, build plenty of containers for ‘a rainy day’. If you’re the compulsive type, make one for weapons, another for ammo, and so on.
Pay Attention
Chernobylite is an intelligent story that neither dumbs down or overcomplicates its narrative as long as you pay attention. As there are multiple endings, thee paths – notably the outcome of Igor and his companions – will change quite a bit.
Don’t storm through with your decisions. Aside from it affecting the story, your actions can make a difference based on your playing style. Perhaps you like to go in heavy-handed or would rather keep everything on the down-low. Some characters will play to those strengths, some obvious, other times not so much unless you pay attention.
Chernobylite Tips And Tricks?
That’s all I can think of for now, but hope at least one of them helps. I was going to list all the skill trees for each party member, but you can do that from the menu, so seems a bit fruitless. However, if there’s anything I’ve missed of tips you think should be up here, let me know. I’m not planning on updating this as finished prior to this guide, but will most definitely be coming back to in a couple of months for another playthrough.
