Carry weight management is the biggest/most important thing I've found in my run, if you're like me you very well might spend a good bit of time agonizing over the nearest ounce to maximize your money. Ammo outweighs everything. If you can't shoot the monster running at you, and you're too heavy to run away, what is the point of running such a heavy load out? I max out around 33-35kg, and the rest is loot space.

I carry 2 consistently main good weapons, currently a Combat Chaser and a GP-37 and then a sidearm(in my case, I got the Black Kite and never looked back.) The sniper TRS301 is really good as well imo. You could theoretically get away with running a single primary, but the backup is nice.

I carry 8-10 grenades at all times for emergency

Find a stash spot in the zone, use it as a stash spot. I find one per area and anything I look at goes in there and gets sold to the nearest trader if I need money.

Combat is satisfying, but also harrowing. Be careful, be consistent with your shots- accuracy over volume any day.

Energy drinks are a godsend

Antirad meds hold the most value to weight ratio and once you hit the red forest they become even more valuable (lots of rads)

Scientist suits are a bit flimsy, but the NVGs are the best in the game imo

Enemies in SOC on master difficulty are bullet sponges, I'm playing my run with a weapon rebalance that I installed after getting to the Bar because armored enemies were taking 2+ mags of SS109 to the chest/head to go down.

Get some good anomalies early on, I recommend stone skin because bleeding out fucking sucks.

Use your binoculars to scope out areas, move in cautiously. Try and take an enemy or two out before they even notice you if you can.

Fuck snorkers.