How To Find the First Artifact in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

The newest FPS from GSC Game World, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, wastes no time throwing players into the deep end. That means there are a decent amount of challenging quests early on, such as finding various artifacts. Here’s how to find the first artifact in Stalker 2.

How To Find the First Artifact in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

After heading into the wasteland, you must find your way to a bunker where a group of scientists are doing research. They’re supposed to help you on your mission, but when you arrive, you see that they’re all dead, meaning it’s up to you to get the job done. One of the things you have to do is locate the first artifact, which is sitting in the anomalous field and not easy to find.

The first part of this mission is to acquire the Echo Detector, which is on a dead body near the door you have to leave out of. Once you do a little graverobbing, you must walk outside toward the field that’s full of gross-looking goo. Your Detector will start to go off, but you have to wait until it stops flashing to find the artifact. However, if you’d rather not wander around and lose health, head directly for the pool of goo behind the rusty container. The artifact will pop up for you to grab.

Related: How To Fix Xbox Stick Drift in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

What To Do If the First Artifact Doesn’t Show Up in Stalker 2

While this part of the story is pretty straightforward, there’s a bug going around that makes it so the first artifact doesn’t show up. That’s obviously a problem, especially with it being so early in the game, but there is a solution. For those playing on PC, gamers on Reddit discovered that changing the graphics settings to another default will make the artifact appear.

There are also plenty of people who claim that restarting the game does the trick as well. That seems like the easier solution, as it doesn’t mess with any of the game’s settings, which, by all accounts, are very sensitive at the moment.

And that’s how to find the first artifact in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.  If you get past that portion of the game, here’s what you should do with broken weapons.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is available now on Xbox and PC.