The gear in Metro Exodus has more choices than it first appears to have too. You don't just collect every upgrade and have all of them working at once.

The gear in Metro Exodus has more choices than it first appears to have too. You don't just collect every upgrade and have all of them working at once. You choose one upgrade in each of four categories at a workbench: • Helmet/gas mask: Extended Filter, Reinforced Helmet, or Armored Glass. • Electrical equipment: Battery Charge Controller, Extra Bright Flashlight, or NVD Amplifier. • Vest: Ammo Pouches, Throwing Weapons Harness, or Consumables Carrier. • Bracer: Compass, Metal Detector, or Motion Scanner. Those are 12 selectable upgrades. The night-vision goggles themselves make up the 13 pickups normally counted in the full gear checklist. The goggles and the NVD Amplifier are not the same item. Location spoilers below. These are base-game locations, not Sam's Story, and this is one route to each item rather than a list of every duplicate pickup. In the Volga, look for these eight: 1. Compass Search the cockpit of the crashed plane north of the Aurora. Once equipped on the bracer, it points toward the current main objective. It does not simply point north. 2. Extended Filter In the central map area, find the enclosed container/safehouse full of fungus and webs, west of the bandit building holding captive villagers. The upgrade is inside. This makes filters last longer; it does not make the mask's glass harder to break. 3. Ammo Pouches Search the main building of the central bandit camp where those villagers are being held. Look on a crate near the entrance. These increase how much ammunition you can carry. Free the prisoners while you're there and collect the key one offers. That gives you an earlier way into the night-vision room in the Terminal. 4. Throwing Weapons Harness Go to the bandit-held gas station on the eastern side of the large central landmass. Break the lock on the interior gate and check the shelving beyond it. This increases your capacity for throwing knives, grenades and Molotovs. 5. Reinforced Helmet Search the bandit-held concrete ruins on the southeastern island, northwest of the teddy-bear location and connected to the Terminal area. The helmet is in the small surviving building. It improves ballistic protection, rather than filter life or mask-glass durability. 6. Battery Charge Controller This one has a little puzzle. Go to the small island in the southern water with the ruined wooden house and generator shed. Find the fuel can behind the shed and start the generator. Open the powered gate in the house, climb the boards and drop through the roof. Use the charger on the electrical panel, then go back through the red door and open the remaining powered room. Operate the switch beside the wired-up body and take the controller. It helps the battery last longer. It doesn't replace the hand charger or mean that you never need to recharge anything again. 7. Metal Detector Look for the little rusted, partly submerged shack west/southwest of the demon nest where you find the teddy bear, near the southern shore. Break the lock and check the desk among the clocks. This bracer attachment reacts to nearby crafting resources in the direction you're looking. 8. Night-Vision Goggles These are on a table in the Terminal's confiscated-technology room. With the prisoners' key, you can enter early: after arriving by boat, take the ground-floor route left to the locked door. There is also later access as you work through the Terminal. The key is a shortcut to getting them sooner, not the only possible way to obtain them. Then there are five more in the Caspian: 9. Motion Scanner Board the large slaver/bandit shipwreck along the western road and work up to the upper control area. Check the table. This uses the bracer slot and detects nearby enemies. Be careful not to hurt the captives while dealing with the people guarding them. 10. Extra Bright Flashlight Search the smaller shipwreck safehouse below/west of the lighthouse, near the northwestern coastal road. Check for tripwires before walking in. You get a stronger beam, but it drains the battery faster. This replaces the battery controller or NVD amplifier in the electronics slot; those benefits don't all stack. 11. Armored Glass Look for the bandit-occupied canyon west of the lighthouse, south of the northwestern water-source area. Clear the hostile occupants so the ladder lowers, then climb to the cave shelter and check the crate inside. This makes the gas mask harder to crack. 12. NVD Amplifier Go to the abandoned airfield/helicopter base on the eastern side of the map. Climb the control tower to its top safehouse/control room and check the chair. It improves the night-vision picture. It is not a replacement for finding the goggles. 13. Consumables Carrier Search the small cliffside cave/shelter north of the airfield, near the shoreline. Look beside the bed. This increases medkit and filter capacity, rather than ammunition or throwing-weapon capacity. For Dressed for Success, collect all the suit modifications as you move through one continuous campaign. Don't assume that hopping between unrelated chapter saves will combine their equipment into one inventory. The charging systems are worth separating too. The flashlight and night-vision goggles use electrical power. Bring out the Universal Charger and operate it to recharge that equipment. If the flashlight starts getting weak, check the charge. You are not supposed to keep finding disposable batteries. The charger also powers certain electrical panels when the game gives you the interaction. The Tikhar's usual pump is doing a different job. It restores air pressure in the weapon. Reloading bullets, pumping pressure and recharging your flashlight are separate actions. The late-game Railgun conversion changes the Tikhar's mechanism, not your suit's electronics upgrade. Then there is the lighter. It provides a small light, burns away webs and can light suitable objects. You don't craft fuel for it or recharge it. It can help against spiderbugs, but holding up a flame also makes you more visible. Night vision is the better option when you want to see without lighting yourself up. One thing not to bring over from earlier Metro guides: in Exodus, the lighter's smoke is not your objective pointer. Use the map or the compass upgrade for that. The gas mask is another separate system. Filters handle the breathing supply; they don't repair cracked glass. A field patch is temporary. Use a workbench for a proper repair, and don't mistake wiping dirt off the visor for fixing damage.