33 articlesThe Magnetic Cave is one of the earliest places you can visit in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl while also having frequent Artifact spawns you can get.
This cave is fairly close to Zalissya Bar, meaning you can get there really early into the game. Learn to deal with the anomalies within and you’ll be able to get an Artifact or two early, too!
In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to get an Artifact from the Magnetic Cave in Stalker 2.
Get The Magnetic Cave Artifact | Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
To get any Artifact from the Magnetic Cave in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, you of course first need to go to the Magnetic Cave. We’ve marked its location on the map above for you. It’s directly southwest of Zalissya Bar, which is your first hub area in the game. As such, you can get to this cave pretty early on!
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Once you get to the marked spot, look for a cave entrance with a white skull and some text near it. Doesn’t seem like the most pleasant place to enter, but ignore the skull and go right in.
When you enter the cave, look for a red gas tank on the wall opposite the entrance. Shoot it to break the wooden barricade behind the barrel, granting you access to the depths of the cave.
Then, continue straight ahead and you’ll end up in a larger room with a hole in the ceiling. There are also many fire geysers activating sporadically here, so make sure you have decent Thermal Protection and some healing items.
If you’re still early in the game, we recommend picking up the PSZ-5V Guardian of Freedom Suit before entering the cave.
Now, the Artifacts inside the Magnetic Cave usually spawn in this room with the geysers. The keyword here is “usually”, though. The spawns are completely random, so sometimes you will find nothing. Also, which Artifact you get to spawn seems to be random as well. Plasma and Fireball seem to be the most common spawns.
The one thing that seems to guarantee a spawn is to visit the Magnetic Cave after an Emission event. Emissions are randomly occurring events where the Zone releases a massive amount of energy, signaled by a red sky and thunder. They’re dangerous, but they seem to refresh Artifact spawns too!
Picking Up an Artifact in the Magnetic Cave
The process of grabbing the Artifact here is the same as the one for the Artifact in the anomalous field during the tutorial. Equip your Artifact Detector of choice (the basic Echo Detector works well enough) and walk around the room. The detector’s beeping will intensify as you get closer to an Artifact.
When you get close enough while holding an Artifact Detector, the Artifact will quickly materialize in front of you. You have a brief window of time to pick it up before it jumps away, so be fast!
The only real tricky part of getting an Artifact inside the Magnetic Cave is the fire geysers. They can deal a lot of damage and their behavior is a tad unpredictable. Watch out for areas that seem to be shifting due to anomalies, especially if you notice embers. Throw bolts at these anomalies to trigger the geysers before you get close.
This helps a deal with them a bit, though you’re still very likely going to take damage due to how sporadic and random the fire geyser anomalies are. It sucks, but the Zone doesn’t play fair!
If you’re having trouble with the Artifacts not spawning at all, you’ll simply have to visit the cave again later. As we mentioned before, coming here after an Emission should nearly guarantee an Artifact.
Alternatively, some players report success by closing and relaunching the game. Restarting their PC/console and even just changing the difficulty also seem to work. These all seem to effectively reset Artifact spawns, but they’re unreliable methods.
Nonetheless, that’s everything you need to know to get an Artifact within the Magnetic Cave in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. It can be unreliable due to its random nature, but visiting the cave often is a good way to get multiple Artifacts fairly early in the game!
