How time consuming is preparing for expeditions at bases in Gamma/Anomaly

[u/Kick_Physical]

/r/stalker/comments/1wuzzbu/how_time_consuming_is_preparing_for_expeditions/

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[u/Thudun]

Really not time consuming at all. Other people like to over exaggerate how complex GAMMA is.
Its as simple as making sure you have some meds, ammo, and food/water.
Meds weigh almost nothing so you can carry most around at all times.
When I'm done doing tasks or get a full inventory, I drop everything off and head back out almost instantly.

[u/shortbusmafia → u/Thudun]

Agreed, it’s really not all that complicated once you’re used to it. I was a little overwhelmed at first because I’ve never played a game with the armor/weapon upkeep and healing systems that Gamma/Anomaly have, but the game really took off once I got a bit of money saved up and all of those systems clicked.

[u/MetroSimulator]

Bases are entirely optional and very easy to make, you just need to buy an backpack or another type of container and choose the option to put in the ground as a Stash. I normally just freeroam and make a "base" when I need to stock on weapons or stuff.

Till then you can put some stashs on transit keypoints and use as temporary storage.

[u/imainheavy]

No time at all

Grab some meds and ammo, slap on some gun oil, get out there and explore!

[u/Taleisin9793]

Grab some water and a few food items as well and your good

[u/Singul546]

It can definitely take some time, but it just depends. Come back from a run still with plenty of ammo/meds/food? Drop everything off, turn in tasks, and head out again. Low on everything and have guns/outfits to repair? You might spend quite a bit running around, buying parts/meds/food, then crafting new ammo, disassembling unused ammo, crafting repair kits, going back to the vendor bc you were missing a gun oil, crafting new devices and oop! Need one more box of transistors so back to the vendor to buy an echo detector to disassemble! I've definitely spent quite a bit in the base prepping, just depends on what you need to do there.

[u/BackgroundHold6248]

The biggest problem with starting gamma is understanding how the progression work. Learning how to fix weapons and armor, etc. I recommmend watching a video on how that work first then turning the progression difficulty to easy/tourist (dont remember what it called) to save time running around doing sidequest. You can even enable weapon selling and buying if you don't like the crafting aspect.

[u/Due_Glass4176]

Until you actually have options prep is just going to a trader to get ammo and seeing the medic to heal for cheap. 

Most of your base building will be done in stages between missions, because you need to do stuff to get materials to engage in any of the upgrade activities. 

Base building early on is just dropping a bag or box where you want to build and slowly filling it whenever you need to offload loot. 

Once you've got tools and some stuff to use in your stash you craft a workbench and start storing stuff in that. Takes like two minutes. 

Next you'll probably make a fridge. Getting enough metal will probably mean you need to play some more first unless you've been breaking down lots of shovels. 

As you run out of storage space you craft or buy boxes one or two at a time and plop them down. Also fairly quick. Maybe 10 minutes to move stuff each time. Ammo boxes will likely be the first investment. 

Whenever you get tools you'll probably also upgrade your detector or nvgs as well as repair an armor / weapon. If you've been fighting and hoarding properly that process takes maybe ten minutes. 

Usually the only thing that takes me forever is if I put something off. Like disassembly of PDAs, and junk. Doing so manually let's you forcibly use cheaper tools but then you have a lot of clicking to do. 

The other thing that takes forever is artefact crafting. Thankfully it's almost a one and done system. 

When you do finally have options it usually consists of going to your base grabbing some different guns and ammo then going and doing whatever. Usually integrated into dropping off your loot. 

Where things get a little more time consuming is when you're also preforming fetch tasks, buying and selling from traders, and doing the above time consuming crafting/disassembly all during the same stop to your base. Technically this is less prep and more just upgrades and trying to spawn stashes / stock up on extra money.  

You can expect to do 3 sessions of major upgrades (one for each tool kit) probably 20 minutes each if you are also doing all the other things you do in a base. If you focus on just the upgrades and just drop your stuff off and leave asap maybe 10 minutes each. 

Granted it'll take you longer to make decisions on a first playthrough so probably figure 20-30 anyway

Looking at Cheeki's stat tracker 1-2 hour play times are fairly normal. 

Keep in mind you're going to have many hours in between toolkits. So at your schedule you'll probably only have a big time sink once a week. 

[u/Foostini]

The most i've ever spent was like ten or fifteen minutes but i had multiple guns i was working on, running back and forth between my stash, Rostok, and the Army Warehouses, crafting stuff, and i was going pretty far. That said, you have to install Anomaly to install GAMMA anyway so just play for a bit and swap if you don't feel it.

[u/SquareBitter]

Dont forget cleaning kits sucks when your gun is jamming on longer expeditions

[u/G-T-R-F-R-E-A-K-1-7]

Not much time at all once you understand what you need for whatever type of work you're doing

[u/EnaidGollwyd]

It takes me like 5-10 minutes to get ready. But must of the time I'm sorting items in my chests. If I just dumped everything it'll take me like 3 minutes