S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

• You have to actually be holding your artifact detector to know if anything is nearby, even though your unseen anomaly detector and Geiger counter obviously do not need to be held in your hand to work

• Different merchants will buy things for different prices. Honestly I have not even figured out fully what the optimal traders are, I just know that bartenders for some reason pay twice as much for artifacts as other vendors do

• Paying for things to be repaired will cost more than the price you can get when selling it, so only repair something you are actively using

• Related, nobody will buy equipment damaged beyond 50% or whatever the threshold for the broken red heart icon is so you might as well not even take that stuff unless it is a gun or a piece of armor you really want to try. (It turns out there is a vendor in
  Rostol
  that will buy anything as long as it's above 0%).

• The sum total of those two tips indicating that yes, particularly considering how tight money can be in the game, you are likely better off just dumping a gun that breaks and switching to a new one unless you find something unique (if the gun has a nickname, it is probably special)

• Take the game seriously when it tells you to find cover and go where it says--I assumed surely any sturdy-looking building counted as cover. This is untrue.

• Do not worry if you suddenly die in the tutorial and feel like you are doing something wrong. The developers just clearly wanted everyone to get the authentic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience right away.

• Towns/bases will have an item stash to drop off good stuff in.

• Stash or sell excess ammo or items after each trip, stuff like grenades and medkits quickly fill up your carry weight.

• Some quests are poorly explained or marked, I had to google several quests since their triggers are fiddly to activate or even find.

• There are a few storyline events that change things in the zone and invalidate side quests, you might want to finish up things before:
  • Once you go inside SIRCAA, major events happen and you're locked into 3-4 long quests before getting back to a base.
  • Somewhere around the Assault on Duga changes things.

• Doing quests will usually reward you with armor and weapons. Because of that I would seriously consider not buying that stuff. Stashes usually have armor and weapons around them too.

• Pay attention to bullet descriptions. Armor-piercing ammo does more damage but it wears down your gun faster.

• Scopes are game changers but pay attention to your guns accuracy and range. I've been in fights where I clearly have my sight on a dude but I'm doing no damage because of my gun's range.