Combat tactics

## Ranged NPC combat

### Movement

NPC AI can't hit fast moving targets. This is also true for any mutant ranged attacks - controllers, turrets, etc. You can sprint 90° to the line of their fire and get out unscathed. This is useful when either relocating to confuse the NPCs, or escaping from being pinned in a corner.

Obviously this doesn't work when too close to the enemy, or when the enemy uses gauss guns (almost instant bullet flight, so they can aim at you directly and still hit).

### Grazing hits

You have to hit the center of the enemy model to deal the full damage; hitting the edge deals less damage. This is true for the player as well. Since NPCs can't hit fast moving targets, strafing sideways makes NPCs miss the center of your model just enough to do less damage.

This doesn't work when you're too close to the enemy, or when enemy uses weapons with huge muzzle velocities (e.g. gauss guns).

### Leaning

When leaning out of cover, NPCs still think that you are behind it. That lets you peek just enough to pick NPCs one by one. This peeking has to be precise; peek too much and you'll expose your entire body.

Leaning has less reach while crouching, you have to be standing for it to work well.

### Grenade panic

Throwing a grenade makes NPCs panic, even if it's a flash or smoke one. Panic also makes them lose your tracks. This is super useful when escaping from being encircled by enemies or blocked by friendly NPCs (use a smoke grenade in that case as it doesn't deal damage), saving a friendly NPC from enemy fire, etc.

Several missions are much easier with this trick, see Meet Kruglov and Disc for Panther.

### Flanking

Despite appearing superhuman to some, NPCs actually follow the typical "Game AI" pattern with attacking and moving to the last seen enemy position. You can easily confuse them by flanking them.

They still can see you doing this through various gaps and slits in level geometry (gaps between concrete fence sections, your legs under the train, etc).

### Eye area

Every human NPC has an extremely small eye area with huge damage multiplier. This is true for both player and NPCs, and you can both kill armored NPCs in one shot with a precise sniper rifle, and they could kill you accidentally that way even if you have one of the late game artifacts (for example when a random shotgun pellet hits the eyes).

The eye area is *really* small, you have to be pixel-precise, and most non-sniper weapons don't even have the accuracy to reliably hit it from 10m. Hitting it is usually more of an accident.

### Armored NPCs

Early in the game, you will sometimes encounter particularly tanky NPCs that seemingly survive anything you hit them with. This is only the perception, and no hostile NPC in the game is able to survive more than 3 headshots with a 5.45 rifle, so aim for the head. If you don't want to, you can use various other means:

* Close range shotgun hits reliably put them down, even basic sawn-offs are good. Don't bother with bullets, use birdshot/buckshot.
* Desert Eagle Mark XIX you can buy from Barkeep one-shots them to the body at up to 70-80m. Ammo is expensive and scarce though, can be bought from Suslov at Swamps.
* Good machineguns like M60 or PKP "Pecheneg" will need 3 or 5 body hits to kill them. The ammo is dirt cheap at Akim after Walking dead, the box capacity is 200 rounds, so in practice that means mowing them down without lots of precise aiming.

Many other ways will be available later.

## Mutants

Certain mutants are less vulnerable to bullets, and shotgun ammo is better to be conserved; you can use melee weapons to kill them and save plenty of ammo. At Akim, you can buy Fight gloves for 7700RU. They can be used to one-punch most ordinary mutants like bloodsuckers or boars. Always carry a pair of Fight gloves with you, and a spare one or two, because they eventually wear down and fixing melee weapons in OP-2 is a pain, it's easier to buy a new pair.

Tougher mutants that require multiple hits with gloves, like pseudogiants, are easier killed with the Crowbar that has much better reach. It can be bought from Suslov at Swamps for 60000RU, and is totally worth it. When in good condition, it kills most tough mutants like librarians in one hit.

Certain mutants like zombies are particularly susceptible to explosive damage, so using grenades is preferable. Zombie gopniks are weaker than ordinary ones, and can be easily killed with bullets.

"Typhoon" Turret can be indispensable at killing certain hard to hit mutants, like sentient Comet anomalies in X-10 and other places.

Armored vehicles like BTRs and junk creatures at the Construction Site landfill are *only* vulnerable to explosive damage. You can't kill them with bullets unless they deal explosive damage (Fenrir's Cheytac M200 and PTRD).

For turrets, aim for the tripod and the swivel, not for the main part of the turret. It takes about 40-60 hits with a 5.45 gun, depending on range. (or 1 hit with a PTRD).