
Ended up beating Shadow with the starting makarov after hundreds of hours of playing the game, was the last run I did. Those were the 3 weapons you really needed in STALKER, a good handgun, a shotgun, and an assault or sniper rifle. I used the fast shooting AK on semi as a sniper rifle, it was accurate as hell. With iron sights, It was dead on to 20 yards or so. I cleared out the brain scorcher or whatever that underground lab is with just a few pistol mags. Also, even exo guys died in one headshot from it. I always carried the starting Makarov in Shadow Of Chernobyl because it never jammed, and ammo for it was everywhere.

In the first one, you only had a pistol and long gun slot anyways.

I played all 3 STALKER games on master, and I always carried a pistol.
