My loadout greatly varies with my progress and even more with the mods I install. Mostly I play with Greedy Trader Repair installed so I stick with unique weapons. Tactics? Just trying to have fun
My usual style at the beginning: don't rescue Nimble until I get enough rubles to buy the Groza 5.45x39 from Sid. This involves working for Wolf and either raiding the army blockpost to get the two jackets from the attic or a quick trip to Garbage for a few artifacts... hunting for mutant parts also helps with the budget.
I hate fighting with lousy stamina so depending on time of day I either wait in Cordon until midnight so that I can collect the two Sparklers and a Flash to improve endurance or I go to Dark Valley to get some sparklers at night.
Before Agroprom I sometimes clear the bandit base in Dark Valley to get equipped a bit - especially Fireballs are worth collecting at this stage.
At Agroprom I do the mandatory Mole thing and then talk to the deserter, and snatch the documents from the institute in a hurry. This normally involves killing 1-3 soldiers, a pseudodog and 4 boars - as a bonus I try to get a Night Star or two at the "shining" gate.
Then I return to Garbage to kill some bandits and get the "Duty word". There I usually establish my 1st stash - dragging the body of the "ambush" bandit to the blue chest location and using the corpse for ammo and other supplies.
Entering the Bar level I drag the permanent corpse along the fence on the right side and up along the wall out of the way of the kitties. Sometimes I get noticed and need to take out one pseudodog. I drag the corpse right next to the chest near the entrence to the Bar.
At the Bar I normally take the jobs from Snitch, Baldy and Hunter and go to Army Warehouses.
In AW I do the following missions:
- the missions I got at the Bar
- destroy the duty company
- deal with the snitch
- kill Scarecrow
- destroy the herd of boars and flashes
- get crazy's flash drive
- destroy the merc camp
- kill the bloodsucers for Murk
- kill the bloodsuckers for Skinflint (yes, I get twice the reward)
- help Cap / eliminate Monos' strike force
From AW I take a quick trip to Red Forest to collect the Goldfish, Spring, Battery and Shell. It costs a few bandages and a medkit or two, but it's worth it
About weapons: if I go "vanilla" I prefer the LR300+SUSAT since it is lightweight, accurate, fairly powerful and most of all: easy to get a replacement. I save the VSS for special occasions like the mission to destroy the military camp at Agroprom or the first trip to Wild Territory.
At the beginning I use the groza_m1 a lot because it's rather durable and very powerful, which makes up for the fact that it only holds 20 rounds.
If I use my repair mod I stick with the groza_m1 and the VSS since both are "repairable" as per the repair mod rules. I sometimes go with the LR300+SUSAT instead if I need to go light.
My favorite suit at the beginning is the Stalker suit (at night) and Wind of Freedom during the day (2kg lighter but no NV).
My favorite suit for late part of the game is the SSP-99M
To get weapons that are in perfect condition I try to wound the enemy. Strangely, when they collapse in pain they don't have the time to wreck the weapon and unload it like when they die!?
Favorite "repair kits":
- for SEVA and General Protection outfit: 5 Shells
- for SSP-99M: 5 springs
- petty much anything else: batteries or any of the above