Metro Exodus: 10 Tips To Help You Survive Nuclear Winter

It’s survival of the fittest in the nightmarish post-apocalyptic world of Metro Exodus. Literally everything wants to kill you, and you’ll die many, many times trying to fully understand the complexities of this game. Unlike previous entries in the FPS series, you’ll have free reign to explore vast maps filled with deadly enemies and strange anomalies. You’ll have to sneak through enemy bases, and conserve your resources carefully. It’s slow-paced, and if you’re not prepared for a particular situation, you’ll die very quickly.

To help you navigate this dangerous world, I’ve put together 10 handy tips you might want to know before trekking out yourself. Some of these tips are basic, while others took me multiple hours of playing to fully understand. There are tons of systems in this game, and many aren’t clear until very much later in the story. Here’s a few things I wish I knew right from the start.

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Stealth Is Your Friend – Silencers, Lights & More

Stealth is your best weapon against all types of enemies. For humans, you can knock them out from behind; for mutants, you’ll be able to avoid them completely. It’s all about controlling two factors — visibility and noise. Some weapons, like the Revolver, have a silenced barrel you can equip any time. You’ll also want to crouch, and blow out any light sources you find. If there is a light source, you can take it out.

Remember, if it’s an electrical light source, you can shoot it out. If it’s a lantern, it’ll explode like a Molotov cocktail.

Utilizing stealth, moving slowly and deliberately, and taking out enemies from the darkness is the best way to survive and conserve your resources. You don’t want to ever go in guns blazing. Throwing Knives are a one-hit kill no matter where you hit your target, and the Pneumatic Rifle is incredibly useful for taking out Watchmen in the environment — yes, the Tikar Rifle counts as a silenced weapon.

The Environment Changes Depending On The Time Of Day

The map will change when it’s day and night. During the day, there are fewer monsters, but visibility is much higher. Human enemies will be able to spot you easily. At night, more monsters will appear alongside deadly anomalies. You can’t fight anomalies — just avoid them!

Events change too! In Chapter 3, you’ll meet Fanatic Paladins preparing a ritual. At night, you’ll be able to watch them battle a electricity anomaly.

You can sleep at any safehouse, moving the time of day to noon or midnight. You’ll want to swap to midnight for enemy base infiltrations, and then back to daylight while exploring. The more monsters you can avoid, the better.

Don’t Waste Precious Healing Kits! Drink From Your Canteen To Heal At Safe Houses

Finding and unlocking safehouses is incredibly important. Not only do they provide you with workbenches where you can swap upgrades and build advanced ammo types, they also give you access to beds. Beds, as stated above, let you sleep and advance time. They also give you another handy ability — a water canteen.

When you use a bed, you’ll get four options. You can leave, sleep until noon, sleep until midnight, or drink from your canteen. The canteen isn’t useless! Drinking from the canteen will fully heal you. No need to waste those precious healing kits. If you’re hurt and in the vicinity of a safehouse, just visit and drink. It’s much faster than sleeping too.

Constantly Swap Your Upgrades – Weapon Parts And You

You’ll find a constant supply of weapon upgrades as you explore the ruins of the old world. In nooks and crannies, or from the bodies of your enemies, you’ll receive endless weapon parts that you can attach to your arsenal. It’s a good idea to swap them often — it’s crazy how many parts you’ll find for the Kalash alone.

After certain story events, return to the Aurora and check the workbench. The mechanic will provide you will new, free Tikar Rifle upgrades. They’ll just appear in your inventory sometimes!

You can swap weapon parts from your backpack menu. Any weapon you collect will be added to your permanent stash at the workbench, and you can swap weapons any time. Scroll down to the bottom weapon selection to check out your class of weapons — then you can swap the frame and start adding parts. Some parts will dramatically change how a weapon functions, or give it different ammo type.

Hold [B / Circle] To Collect Weapon Upgrade Parts

Sometimes, you’ll run into a weapon with bright orange highlighted sections. That means the weapon you’re looking at has an upgrade part you don’t have yet. You don’t have to grab the gun to get the parts — just hold [B / Circle] to collect the upgrades and leave the gun behind. You can immediately apply the new upgrade parts you just found to your weapons from the backpack menu.

You can also do this to weapons you do already have. Instead of giving you the upgrade parts, you’ll break down the identical upgrade parts into resources. Look everywhere — sometimes hard-to-reach spots will have powerful weapon upgrades.

Morality Is Back, And You Might Not Even Know It

Like in the previous Metro games, morality is back. You can accomplish good or evil actions — in previous games, your morality changed the ending of the game. It’s always better to be good than evil, and there are a few evil actions you might not even realize you’re doing.

At the end of a battle, the last enemy will often surrender. Killing a surrendering enemy is an evil action, but knocking them out is neutral. You’ll also encounter “friendly” NPCs sometimes — don’t just shoot everyone you see! Sometimes NPCs from enemy factions will help you. Lower your weapon when approaching them, unless their weapons are also drawn.

Spartan Suit Upgrades Are Incredibly Useful

You can upgrade your Spartan Suit, but only from the workbench, and only if you find rare upgrade parts. In my experience, every unique area in the world will usually feature at least one special Spartan Suit upgrade part. Look carefully in large Bandit Camps, in unique spooky structures, or anywhere of note — you can find upgrades to your gas mask, upgrades to your battery, and enhancements to your armor. These suit upgrades are invaluable, so search for them whenever you enter someplace new.

Pneumatic Weapons Are Best For Hunting, You Just Need To Be Prepared

Don’t want to waste your previous ammo? Use the Tikar Rifle. This Pneumatic Weapon is very powerful, but only if you crank it until it is overcharged. Hold [X / Square] to crank the Tikar until the pressure meter is in the red before shooting — you can kill most mutants with a single headshot like that.

You’ll eventually find a Tikar Rifle upgrade that retains pressure when overcharged. The meter won’t go down when you’re in the red zone. Extremely handy.

The Pneumatic Rifle is also naturally silenced. That’s useful, but what makes it really great is that you can create ammo for it on-the-fly, whenever and wherever you are. Open the backpack and you can instantly craft more ammo. That’s why I tend to use the Tikar the most while exploring. No chance of running out of valuable ammo.

Keep Your Weapons Clean & Mask Repaired At The Workbench

At the workbench, you’ll see a meter next to every gun. This is their “condition” — the lower a weapon’s condition, the weaker it becomes, and the more likely to jam. You’ll have to reload a jammed weapon to clear it and continue firing.

You can partially repair a broken gasmask with a temporary solution — tape! Tap [L1 / LB] to wipe your mask and place tape over a broken section.

You can also repair your gasmask, which takes damage if you’re wearing it in combat. If you don’t need to wear it, put the mask away to keep it from getting scratched up. You can repair the gas mask and your guns at any workbench — it’s worth the resources.

Save The Prisoners In Chapter 3 To Earn A Set Of Night Vision Goggles

For the final tip, I’ll talk about something very specific. After meeting your scout ally in Chapter 3, you’ll spot a few bandit camps in the area. One of the bandit camps is keeping Fanatic prisoners for ransom. If you sneak into that bandit prison and save the Fanatics, you’ll get a special key. This key unlocks a wooden door in the terminal area (where you encounter the giant Tsar-Fish) — behind the door, you’ll find an incredibly useful set of Night Vision Goggles.

Night Vision Goggles let you see in the dark, but don’t light up your position like the flashlight or lighter. They need to be charged more often, but they make night infiltrations / explorations much easier. Don’t miss those goggles!

That’s all the tips and tricks we’ve got so far. Check back soon for collectibles guides, secrets, and more!