Chernobylite, by The Farm 51, is a mission-based post-nuclear apocalypse scrounging/base-building story game centered around space-time magic using a fantastical chemical made from Nuclear energy called Chernobylite.
So, it should be immediately clear that this game is “out there” in terms of its concept, similar to the STALKER series. It’s a truly unique game with a lot of little things that are easy to miss, and here are some of the biggest examples.
10 Place Environmental Modifiers To Reduce Hazards
The Environmental Modifiers are probably one of the more innovative things Chernobylite does. These are buildable structures players can place on a map that lower a variety of dangerous factors one might face returning to this level time and time again. There are three of them in total:
- Space-Time Distributor: This lowers the radiation generation of a map, making it safer to explore.
- Wormhole Blocker: Limits the number of “wormholes” that the creatures in this game use to spawn on maps, lowering their overall appearance.
- Chernobylite Neutralizer: Sort of a spoiler, but helps to delay the appearance of a constant enemy called the “Black Stalker”, giving Igor time to craft a few things in preparation for his appearance.
Odd how Igor knows how to build all these fantastical machines, but he is a pretty mysterious guy. And, funnily enough, players can actually also use these Environmental Modifiers as step stools in order to get over certain fences or walls, though doing so feels similar to using a block of gold as a paperweight, considering the high-tech nature of these machines.
9 Use A Variety Of Traps On Enemies
Sure, players knew all about the Base-Building aspects of Chernobylite, but what about Traps they can use out in the field? Sure, it’s easy in the beginning to sneak up on the three to four NAR soldiers early on and take them out, but as the missions and levels progress, enemy spawns become more plentiful and complicated.
In those situations, Traps are Igor’s best bet as there is a variety of them, each with different uses:
- Fireworks Trap: Purely a sound-based trap, usually used to trick enemies into moving a certain way. Careful, they always go off ten seconds after being planted. Forgetting that is a common mistake a lot of players seem to be making.
- Laser Explosive Trap: Basically a laser trip-wire that triggers an explosion, good for single enemies.
- Landmine Trap: Just a basic landmine, deals damage in an area when stepped on, good for groups.
- Electroshocking Trap: Deals electric damage in an area for a few seconds.
- Assimilating Trap: Drains the energy from enemies that get in range of it, only useful against monsters.
- Directional Trap: Essentially a landmine with a laser tripwire, fires a rocket that deals massive damage in an area around where it impacts.
8 Self-Annihilate & Respawn To Reset Igor's Condition
The Radiation Chamber and its benefits are something that players will likely figure out on their own during their time with Chernobylite, but it would be much more helpful to know about it sooner rather than later.
By building and using this thing, Igor “self-annihilates”, completely destroying his body. Usually, when dying, Igor is punished by losing some of the materials in his inventory at random. But, when death is self-inflicted via this Chamber, Igor loses nothing, goes to the Memory Timeline, and respawns with full Health and Psyche.
So, with this in mind, players can literally just starve Igor after every mission and use all their food to keep their Companions (of which there are quite a few) happy, as Igor is just going to annihilate himself and reset his stats anyway.
7 Level Up Just By Gathering
Chernobylite is not some game where the main character Igor Khymynuk is running around killing dozens and dozens of enemies per mission to level up, he’s a physicist after all, not a mercenary.
And along that same theme, players actually gain quite a bit of EXP from all the scrounging around they do. So, don’t worry about needing to hunt down the NAR Soldiers or Monsters every mission (though they are absolutely worth the effort), Igor can easily level up just by picking a bunch of mushrooms and herbs.
6 Use "Free Play" To Experiment With The Gameplay Without Any Story
There’s quite a bit of story in Chernobylite, and some aspects of it are very interesting, while others feel a bit overdone. There are a lot of waypoints on the map that force Igor into some flashback that has nothing to do with the main storyline, yet players are forced to sit through it. Thankfully, for those people who really hate narrative-centric games, Chernobylite has a “Free Play” Mode.
Now, in the Free Play Mode, players can’t build their base or really progress the story, but they can get a feel for the gameplay, learn the maps, and enjoy scrounging around to their heart’s content.
5 Make The Monsters & NAR Soldiers Fight
This next mechanic is likely something only a small percentage of Chernobylite players have seen, and it’s the interaction between the Monsters and the NAR soldiers. The developers seemingly always place their spawns relatively far from each other so that the two enemy types don’t come into contact often, but there’s a very interesting interaction if they do happen to cross paths.
Basically, if Igor manages to bait a monster toward a NAR Soldier with the Fireworks Trap or something similar, the Monster instantly traps and seemingly suffocates the soldier in the Chernobylite Crystals that players have likely seen stuck to buildings or blocking certain paths.
4 Leave Story Missions Alone To Grind Side Missions
Next up is a very helpful little tip for players worried about the countdown for each mission. As beginner players likely notice, there are a lot of missions that have countdown timers for the number of days left until they “expire”. Because of this, a lot of newer players assume that the red Story Missions have some sort of hidden countdown as well and that they could potentially ruin their “run” if they ignore the main mission.
But, thankfully, that isn’t the case, as any story mission will stay on the objective screen no matter how many days pass, which means Igor can grind side missions as much as he so chooses.
3 Send Allies On Story Missions Without Completing Them
How many Chernobylite players know about the fact that they can actually send Companions on main missions too? Usually, no player would do this voluntarily, as they wouldn’t want to miss any of the story themselves.
But, it turns out that doing this doesn’t actually “complete” the story mission, but basically sends the companion to “scout”, gathering supplies and taking out NAR Soldiers. So, it’s actually a decent idea to do this while Igor himself goes on side missions, as it’s an easy way to make main missions easier while also grinding materials.
2 Get Rid Of NAR Soldiers Without Losing Psyche
One of the neat little narrative mechanics that The Farm 51 put into Chernobylite is the concept of Igor losing more of his sanity every time he chooses to kill another human. Again, the guy is just a nerdy physicist looking for his missing fiance, so he’s not all too keen on killing.
But, if that’s the case, how are players supposed to safely clear out areas of each map without hurting their Psyche? Get the “Stunning” Skill and/or Perk from Olivier as quickly as possible, as this grants Igor with this ability to take out soldiers quieter and without killing them, therefore not hurting his Psyche.
1 Soldiers & Monsters Can Destroy Environmental Modifiers
It turns out that players might want to be careful with where they put the Environmental Modifiers that were talked about earlier, Why? Well, if they’re placed in a particularly obvious area, both the NAR Soldiers and the roaming monsters can destroy these objects in-between missions, wasting the materials Igor used to craft them.
On average, placing the Modifiers right near where Igor spawns in each map is a safe bet, as enemies never spawn there, but if that doesn’t work just place them in an area that’s very much out of view.
Chernobylite is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X/S.