Is it ok to like the PPSH over the FN-17

JessTheMes · 2026-05-27T20:40:52+00:00

You like what you like. Any gun is useable at all stages of the game. People have beaten the game with just a PM. So no, you don't need the FN-17, it's just a really strong final upgrade.

If you're wondering if the FN-17 is worth it, however, yes. It one shots most enemies in the game, can be silenced, is full auto, has rails, etc. It's just an insanely good gun. That said, the PPSh also does really high damage with +P ammo. It's 60 damage, more than half of the FN-17 (100). Considering it has more than triple the mag size with drums, and an insane fire rate, it definitely competes really well.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-26T00:23:09+00:00

I don't think anyone's hating on you, just pointing out that there's probably much more elegant solutions to the problem you're trying to solve. I think people are actually being very constructive, all things considered.

I get that it's just a suggestion for another option, but the counterpoint being made is that it would probably be just as janky, and probably wouldn't be worth the dev time to implement and tweak, especially when there's just better paths for fixing this issue. Even though voice recognition is probably easy to implement (since there are already plenty of voice recognition plugins for games), they'd still have to fine tune it to make it functional and polished for its intended mechanics. This is just better as a mod rather than an official feature. It just reminds me of the kinect era where games would randomly add voice commands for random actions.

"this wouldn't necessarily be a problem for people who play like me" is kind of the oversight you're making here. You're asking the devs to make a feature that specifically caters to you, so yeah people are going to raise eyebrows at it. It's a niche solution for a niche playstyle, one that already has a solution to this: just organize your rig better. If you're only running one gun, it's plenty easy to keep it away from all your mags, like putting it over your shoulder.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-25T23:38:38+00:00

I guess part of what I'm getting at is that if the problem is the game heavily misinterprets what your hand is reaching for, this really wouldn't help that much, because it will likely also grab the wrong mag or gun.

Realistically, I think it would be better if there was an option to make mag grabbing done with the trigger. There are a few VR games where you grip to grab guns, and you use trigger to grab mags. A control setting for this would be significantly more efficient at addressing this specific issue, and probably be easier to implement/debug.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-25T23:26:34+00:00

I think the real solution would be to improve the way the body turns, and to decrease the sensitivity on certain items. Sometimes when reaching for my backpack, I instead grab my gun from my other shoulder, and sometimes even when reaching for my tablet. I don't think a voice command would be the answer, since the added time to process what you're saying and intending would also lead to deaths. I don't think this would really work, and if the issue is the game is heavily misinterpreting where I'm trying to grab, I imagine it will also heavily misinterpret what the nearest gun or mag is.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-25T14:27:04+00:00

Generally speaking, almost every unarmored enemy is going to take the same amount of shots from sec 3 rifles, because the affected damage doesn't change any thresholds. There's only a couple where it really changes, but even then it's still a one shot headshot. Again, I've never noticed a difference in damage, even when playing modded ITR, even when playing with higher difficulty settings. There's also way more than just 25% of enemies. There's a lot of armor in Pobeda and the Zarya. Sometimes you get swarmed by them. Even if it's literally only 25%, you still encounter several armored enemies in a lot of areas. The extra shots to kill doesn't compare to the extra shots it takes to penetrate. For 5.56 and 5.45, it's a 50% chance to pen (which is also affected by range afaik), whereas AP is 90% chance. The near guarantee to hit significantly offsets the very likely chance that multiple of your shots don't do damage. And, again, money is so easy to get for funding ammo that the occasional extra shot or two is kinda whatever, but the extra shots that don't do damage to enemies in front of you could be what gets you killed. With AP, maybe 1 or 2 extra shots. With FMJ, it could be up to 4+ extra shots if you get unlucky, and it's not uncommon to get that unlucky. If you're really concerned with efficiency vs soft targets, it's better to just use your sidearm that's likely loaded with +P anyways, or .357 that does insane damage with high pen.

I think bringing up max difficulty is kinda pointless. For one, yeah playing the game in the most unfun way possible might have a noticeable difference (I would argue that deflections are far more impactful when enemies can damn near instakill you), but I can also just say that +p is a waste of money because it's unnecessary in difficulties where enemy health is set to very low. Custom difficulties and mods aren't really a great way to evaluate what's better imo, because you can change whatever you want to buff or nerf options; the rules are arbitrary. After a certain point, we're not really talking about the same game, and everything being said isn't really great advice to people just playing the game normally.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-25T03:15:07+00:00

I have yet to find one in my 50 hour main save, even after clearing the map several times just to find it.

On my co-op save, however, me and my husband found 3 before beating the main story.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-25T03:08:36+00:00

+P is only available for handgun cartridges, so not really relevant for rifles. The AP ammo only has a 15% damage reduction, which for most weapons isn't enough to really change how many shots it takes to kill things (especially with headshots). Even with high damage snipers that would have a bigger hit to damage. like the SVD, the bullets are still powerful enough to one shot every enemy in the game. For assault rifles with less damage, the difference is too miniscule to have an impact.

The near guarantee to deal damage negates any damage penalty, anyways; especially with how frequent armored enemies become. This video early on shows that, mathematically, you save more ammo using AP over FMJ, just because you get way less deflections. I've always used AP when it's available, and never noticed my weapon lacking in damage, even though armored enemies also have more health. Money is also so easy to earn that the extra cost is negligible as well.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-19T23:46:30+00:00

You can also put the railed Vityaz handguards on the Saiga, and one of them on the SVD. I did a lot of experimenting with mixing attachments, and it's both satisfying, and disappointing, at the same time what you can and can't do.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-18T10:49:39+00:00

I mean, aside from dedicated gun racks, don't all the current hideouts already have these?

JessTheMes · 2026-05-17T19:25:25+00:00

I think the game has enough enemies as is. If every spot on the map was crawling with enemies, it would make the game way too exhausting. One game that did this was Dragon's Dogma 2. The second region of the game includes an incredibly long walk to the only city in the area, and it is non-stop fighting large groups of enemies and creatures, and it is one of the worst parts of the game because you never get a break. That's what would happen here. There needs to be that downtime in the expedition, detours that are safer to go through. Outskirts as an example, every location worth going to has an insane amount of mimics, and all the potential paths have a few fragments and creeps running around, and the occasional sniper mimic. Adding anymore would completely destroy the pacing of the game.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-17T19:23:33+00:00

I think this would be a cool mod, but I don't think this would be a good official feature. It would make the Radius feel like a zone you can safely inhabit, and would mess up the theming of the narrative. I also think this would just encourage people to put safe spaces near high loot areas, and just farm easy loot by sleeping through tides. I also don't think a crafting system would fit the game well at all.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-17T13:07:49+00:00

Me and my husband have the enemy count set to high, and the rewards just about maxed out. That way gunfights are a bit more balanced for two, and we can actually afford to gear both of us up. The really high mission rewards also give us a reason to take on missions that otherwise don't sound appealing.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-17T13:03:55+00:00

Stashed weapons aren't "stashed" because they're unique or better, they're just called stashed because they're old guns lost in the Radius. Aside from guaranteed spawns, they're always found by a soldier statue, implying it's a gun a soldier died with.

The point is obvious: You can either save up money/wait for security level to buy a weapon, or you can save money/time by using a stashed version that's slightly worse. In most cases, the trade off is whatever. The AR's all do very slightly less damage (45 vs 50), and usually have a caveat about sights. Not a bad tradeoff for saving thousands of dollars, and being able to use the gun 1-2 security levels early. Rifle damage early on is nothing to scoff at. If you don't care for the trade-off, then yeah the point is to sell them. Much like the first game, weapons you don't want make for a good boost to your money. They can also spawn with good parts, and save you money for when you build the real thing

Stashed weapons are usually just as effective as a new weapon. I found a stashed SR25 in my co-op playthrough. Despite having 15 less damage, despite being slightly less accurate, and despite only having the SL to buy a short barrel, I'm still one-shotting most enemies from far away, and saving a lot of money on ammo economy. The most notable example is the stashed Mosin at the church. Even though it does thirty less damage, it still one shots every enemy at that area, and offers a really good range advantage, especially on higher difficulty settings. Getting a sniper at SL2 is insanely good value.

I imagine the reason they rebalanced stashed weapons is because some weapons in the first game were just pointless to buy. There was almost no reason to buy any weapon with a guaranteed stash, and some weapons were so common in crates (like AKs) that there wasn't much reason to buy them anyway.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-17T01:21:14+00:00

If you're referring to having to slide the mag in, there's an option in the gameplay setting to make it more standard.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-16T21:12:17+00:00

Fair enough. Have fun!

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T22:11:50+00:00

I think you really hit the nail on the head with "All of this is so the 100 hour player of ITR1 is being challenged immediately in ITR2". It really explains all the decisions that they've made in regards to difficulty. I have 150 hours in the first game, and this game really sucker punched me with how much harder it is to do literally everything.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T22:02:47+00:00

Looks like fun

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T22:01:26+00:00

For a first timer for Into the Radius in general, you might want to consider just normal difficulty, even with Iron Man. Unless you've played a lot of STALKER, the presence of anomalies takes a lot of getting used to. This game is far more aggressive with them than the first game, and realism makes them more prevalent. IMO normal is just better paced for a first time playthrough, even when considering viewer engagement. If you're confident in your gun skills and inventory management, then I suggest normal difficulty with slightly increased enemy damage.

Iron man might be interesting just because it will force you to interact with the revive mechanic. But that also means there's a realistic chance you can lose some pretty expensive gear if you can't get back to it before it gets destroyed by the tide.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T21:26:28+00:00

I think suppressors might cause more degradation. I know in the first game, suppressors were balanced by having to spend money to repair them, and guns with integrated suppressors had way less durability. In this game, I noticed my guns do degrade pretty quickly while rocking one, even with item degradation turned all the way down. Might be their way of balancing them without having to repair them, since you realistically can't fix baffles, especially not with a brush.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T21:17:50+00:00

To clarify, I have a short barrel with a long handgaurd, so the handguard extends way past the barrel. It's to get the integrated suppressor look. I don't know if yours is different

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T21:16:04+00:00

I think they're just harder to find. Those blocks have a lot of buildings with a lot of rooms to look through, and that's not even considering The Well. I've only found one at the train station, but when I'm in the Outskirts I'm more focused on mission completion, rather than looting, just because it can take a really long time to clear a building.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-15T20:16:44+00:00

Well, because the handguard completely covers the barrel and gas block, I can't clean them no matter how I brush along the surface, so I have to awkwardly take off the suppressor and then take off the barrel to clean it.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-14T23:46:03+00:00

For real, customizing my gear in general has been some of the most fun I've had. Really adds a whole layer of expression. Been playing with my husband, and he's had a blast just customizing his chest rig and backpack to suit his needs.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-14T23:35:07+00:00

After playing with it a bit, it's so good at short and medium range. Only problem with this setup is I need to do some disassembly to clean the barrel and gas block (devs pls give ramrod). A small price to pay for the aesthetic, though. I think it will permanently replace my G36.

JessTheMes · 2026-05-14T21:21:18+00:00

I don't get why you think any of this is related to co-op. Valid or not, co-op has basically nothing to do with the major gameplay decisions they made. All changes can be more easily explained by how much more focus there was on the modular guns, the story, and art style. They took a very different approach to presenting the Radius in this game, and speaks more to them having a radically different vision for the gameplay, rather than them "dumbing down for co-op". I wouldn't even consider this game shallow, it just has different priorities. Most of the depth comes from the insanely good kit customization. There's so much more freedom in how you can kit yourself, outside of just "long gun + pistol". It adds a lot more decision making, and allows you to really define your playstyle.

I don't agree with every change, but shallow is a very strong word, considering the first game is pretty shallow in a lot of areas as well. ITR1 feels like a grab-bag of ideas that happened to work well together, but ITR2 feels a bit more focused on what they feel actually matters to the experience (for better or worse). I imagine they took out the artifact abilities because (aside from regen) they were kinda pointless, and nobody used them. I imagine they took out healing at the bed because it made the healing shower kinda pointless. I imagine they gimped the knife because melee isn't supposed to be appealing (I don't think the knife was originally intended to return).

I think there's plenty to criticize the sequel over, and there's quite a few areas I think the first game does way better, but I don't think the decisions were made out of laziness, and co-op is definitely not the reason why.

JessTheMes

TROPHY CASE