This guide is tailored for those who've embarked on their journey into Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, captivated by its atmospheric setting but struggling with various obstacles hindering their progress—be it the unfamiliar interface, subpar weaponry, financial constraints, or the omnipresent threats of mutants, radiation, and anomalies. Additional info, that concerns Girly_SoC mod is added to every section.

INTRO
Thanks to STALKER 2 long-awaited release by GSC, a wave of new players has flooded into the Stalkers’ community. Due to the war, many experienced players went away, as they were mostly Moskovites though. As a supporter of Ukraine, I stand for their victory and feel both shame and sorrow for hailing from an aggressive nation. Slava Ukraine!
Original guide at Steam site

• aim to head or pelvis,
• use lower position (crouch+walk) for better accuracy,
• aim and wait 1 second before the first shot (if possible),
• use cover and "Q" and "E" keys to peek.
• enemies will try to flank you silently, so watch your 3,9 and 6
• if you occasionally hit your mate, he may become hostile, as well as all his allies
  

• The only valuable things to collect for selling are artifacts and suits, but the only traders at the start are Sidorovitch and Barkeep.
• Other NPCs never really looting in vanilla, sometimes they pick up the weapons - so you can find the same stuff you left in the body until it is trashed away.
• You can even pick up the weapons of wounded - or he could grab his gun after you cure him/her. That is bad, but it is possible and will not be punished.
• You will randonly receive the info about hidden stashes while looting.
• And don't eat from corpses (don't try to use anything while looting)! This does not concern Girly SoC, as that is just impossible
  

• Holster weapons with the same button you equip it
• Don't be bothered with start weapons and enemy "spongiousness". The first appropriate gun you gain is Viper SMG (MP5). You can get lot of good cartridges for it, just if you rise your eyes up to heavens at Vehicle Graveyard at Garbage. Pray and destroy two crates.
• Pay your definite attention to the weapon's condition bar! The shorter is the bar, the more frequently the gun will jam. Using the weapon, when the "broken gun" icon is visible - is a real mess.
• The weapon's parameters are shown in the description and will not be changed with its deterioration. But the precision is really goes worth when condition bar shortens.
• Pistols are mostly useless in the game, but. Fort is much better than PM due to bigger magazine capacity, and Volker (Walter) is even better them both, with AP bullets in particular. Further you will find or buy .45 handguns, that may be even more useful - you may prefer lightweght, damage or accuracy. Several pistols were added in Girly SoC mod, that may have sense to use, due to their automatic or high RPM, or armor-piercing bullets (APS, FN57, Glock's)
• Feel happy, that NPCs can not use any grenades (except RPG) in vanilla game . You can. Remember about safe distance (7 m for RGD, 15 m for F1) or use cover. Use zoom button to throw grenade further and more accurate. Don't shoot grenade from launcher if there are any obstacles in front or aside (1-1.5 m).
• Pump-action shotguns' reload is realistic - so you can't just change ammo type ("Y" key), but add some cartriges to the magazin, if it is not full. And you can only change shells in specific order (>buck>zhekan>dart>). There is a solution: unload the gun inside inventory and than press "Y" (or twice).
• To attach add-ons - drag-n-drop it to the weapon in the active slot. It will "stick" if compatible. RMB to dismount.
• There are several unique weapons, marked with green arrow icon, that have some specific features (like caliber modification, integrated silencer etc.). They are usually the quest items, but you can keep it, if you find it suitable for you - the reward usually not worth it. Anyway, don't sell them immediately. The rewards were changed in Girly SoC and some tasks added to Barkeep.
  

• Some higher tier outfits have night-vision implemented, but only 2nd generation NV (scientific suits, for instance) is really usable. 1st generation NV (green) is "blind" and may be used in some very specific cases instead of flashlight. The "bad" NV was fixed in Girly SoC and is not so bad. Some unique suits have got "psy" NV, that is even better than 2nd gen.
• The armor's parameters could not be read if not dressed on (but you may read basic it in description). The "weared-off" armor will provide less protection, that could be seen in parameters below your prototype picture.
  Exoskeleton and one of unique stalker suits will provide you with so desired carry-weight increase, but exoskeleton will prevent running.
• There are several unique suits, marked with green arrow icon, that have some specific features added or advanced protection. They are usually the quest items, so don't sell them immidiately. But some of them are really usefull and not task target. All unique suits in Girly SoC will give you slight carry-weight improvement, that is about it's inventory half  weight (so you will want to use it when carrying lots of stuff)
  

• The small brown box
  

• The big green chest
  

• The Grey-green pouch (sack), hardly seen on the ground
  

• The Rusty metal tubes and junctions
  

• The crack in the log or stump
  

• The safe cabinet
  

• The grave cross
  

• The hatch
  

• Zaporozhets car trunk*
  

• The electric panel (box)
  

• Big blue chest
  

• The stash is empty until you discover it while looting, after that it will be marked on the map and be filled. Nevertheless, you may find the discovered stash empty - by many reasons, reloading the game included. That is bug or Zone rule - just empty it as sooner as possible, after it has appeared on your minimap. Stash will be marked until you empty it (put smt to an empty stash and "Take all" to remove the marker).
• Dont ever be afraid of taking probably someone's stuff. What you can pick up - is yours. Nobody claims it.
• The permanent bodies have a bug, that allows you to get the stash locations from them repeatedly.
• There are many unmarked stashes (without any containerl) everywhere - your luck and patience will help you to discover them. For example, you will find 1 or 2 armored suites at every location (level), just laying on floor.
  

• You need to meet the "Journeyman", following Sidorovich's instructions, he is marked on the map - looting him will reveal the most dangerous way to the other side (both meet and use this way are not obligatory).
  

• There is a complex of two buildings nearby that place:
  

• Quicksave! Quicksave before the battle, Quicksave after you've won it, Quicksave after any progress you gain. Once you will forget this rule and you will have to replay all the level (you have autosave at location start always). So, Quicksave!
• Have at least one full save at every location (I mean exiting to the main menu by hitting ESC and making a new named save);
• Always monitor your mini-map - that may save your life or remind about stash or task target nearby. Besides, it is your only map underground ;
• Explore the location thoroughly, but carefully - you are Stalker, not soldier;
• Sell artifacts and monster parts to NPCs, they will pay the same price as traders (except scientist and Tannis), but remember that some item may occur to be a task target soon;
• The reward for task item you deliver is may not worth it (not so for suits) - so, if you find it useful for yourself - just keep it - reputation is nothing compared to your life surely ;
• Play with crosshair to distinguish neutrals and enemies (yellow / red) in order not to become hostile to your alies occasionly;
• Canisters, red barrels and gas cylinders are explosive. Shoot it from distance to terminate enemies in its range and don't ever use it as cover;
• NPC will give you important information (or you'll have a better immersion, at least). Chat with the the quest NPC even more often (they always have one name, like Wolf, Seriy, Mole, Max etc.), just every time you can, after any progress made - that can trigger some events or map spots or whatever;
• PDA contains a lot of information, that you've probably missed. You can use night time for reading it, resting near camp-fire, because mutants are more active and spawn mostly at night;
• Don't be burdened with useless loot - there are no traders between Cordon and Bar. Save artifacts and suites in blue chests and move further. Trader at Garbage appears after you help Seriy to kill bandits and speak to him about Strelok (if not - speak to Bobbie after X16). You can find trader at Radar (Red Forest), after speaking to Bobbie and Tannis, or Wolf at Military Warehouses (after X16, too);
• It would be a good idea to cover your task-giver during the fight in order to get your reward and info, but that usually has weak influence on story line;
• Poverty is not the thing to be afraid of in the Zone - if you take and make easy tasks and sell everything you don't need to traders. No need to gather all weapons you see or even use corpses as a carry-bag (But good stalkers use to place all that useless iron into the corpses - that makes the world tidy and the game smoother);
• Do not ever kill anyone/anything at Bar location (except for Arena, certainly), even if you meet an overt enemy! Almost shooting in-between the checkpoints may result you to become "excommunicado";
• Colonel Petrenko in Girly_SoC has a bad habit to leave his room and wander - so he is not a good merchant in my mod, but others have a wider assortment, and richer stashes compensate that;
• "Loners" is the only suitable faction. Joining Duty or Freedom will give you no huge benefits, but make your life harder that or another way. To avoid Duty to become enemy if you choose to help Freedom - just take more tasks from Duty (good if they become green) before going to Freedom base at Army Warehouses. Balance between Duty and Freedom may be tricky. Due to weapon and script changes, Skull would hardly be shot by sniper (I'd advise to shoot sniper, get reward for that, refuse to kill other snipers, and procced to Freedom, and they will not be hostile, wait for Duty attack, that will fail for sure - that way you activate Freedom's loudspeaker with music and save good relations with both factions);
• There are 5 endings in SoC game, that considered to be "false". If you have not met Doctor - you may not find 2 "real" endings; 
• Never hurry, if you are not one of that speedrunners, who can reach C-Conscious in ten minutes after first chat with Sidor ))). Come there and back, and A-Life will provide you with more challenges;
• NumPad "-" and NumPad "+" toggle HUD for nicer screenshots, but you'll have to run Steam as admin to use its overlay.
  

Tips and Interesting Facts 

• CONTROLLER: Controller is just one of the most horrible monsters in the Zone.
• WINDOWS 10: No problems reported - game is fully compatible. It would be better to start game with administrative rights
• Using non-latin characters in Windows user name will usually lead to crash.
• Head bobbing: change cam_inert parameter to lower (even to zero) in _appdata_\user.ltx (*) or use console command 'cam_inert 0.1' (0.0 - 1.0) Fixed in Girly SoC, but you can adjust it this way.
• In order to get rid of side shadows, change setting to "1"  for 'r2_sun_near_border'  и 'r2_sun_focus' at file \_appdata_\user.ltx.
• CARRY WEIGHT LIMIT: This is the part of gameplay, which is to temper your greed. You can find what and where to change by yourself, but be ready for crashes.
• MODs for beginners: No. The best way is to have the first playthrough using vanilla only. Even graphic mods or ZRP ruins the real STALKER's magic. I would never recommend my mod for initial playthrough, too.
• BUGs and crushes: The current Steam version is rather stable. Grafics is very good for such an ancient game. 
  Some bugs are annoying, but never critical. Use ZRP (basic) to get rid of them or Girly SoC, as most (not all) bugs are fixed.