The Dnipro is a Ukrainian bullpup assault rifle in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, modeled on the real-world Malyuk and built to replace the Soviet AKM-74 in special forces hands. You can grab one for free deep inside the Lishchyna Facility in the Red Forest, pull a beaten-up copy off the top of a Cooling Tower, or simply buy one from a trader once you reach the northern hubs.
Quick answer: Take the facility key from the bunker outside the Lishchyna Facility, unlock the entrance, fight through the zombies, climb the ladder and press the red terminal button to open the fence gate, then find the Dnipro in a locker in the room at the end of the tunnel.
Where the Dnipro can be found
There are two free pickups and two reliable purchase points. The free copies sit in dangerous, enemy-filled areas, so the trader route is the calmer option if you would rather not fight your way in.
| Source | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Locker pickup | Lishchyna Facility (Red Forest, east side) | Full-durability copy; heavy psi radiation and a Controller inside |
| Stash pickup | Top of the Cooling Tower, above the Fire Whirl anomaly | Very low durability; needs repair before it is usable |
| Trader Wreck | Yaniv Station (Yaniv region) | Purchasable once you reach the base |
| Trader Bison | Enerhetyk Palace of Culture (Prypiat) | Prypiat opens near the end of the main mission The Boundary |
Yaniv sits north of the Red Forest, well past Rostok to the northwest, while Prypiat lies north of Jupiter. A weapon bought from either trader runs 34,000 coupons.
Getting the free Dnipro in the Lishchyna Facility
The Lishchyna Facility is drenched in psi radiation, so expect frequent hallucinations, and a Controller guards the tunnel near the rifle. The upside is that most of the resistance inside is slow-moving zombies, so a basic loadout is enough if you can land headshots.
Note: The Cooling Tower copy is reached by climbing ladders on the tower’s southern scaffolding into a spatial anomaly that teleports you to the top walkway, where the rifle sits near a hidden stash in a tire. You do not need to enter the Fire Whirl itself, and the ladder there is rigged with a grenade trap. That version comes with very low durability and needs a repair before it is worth carrying.
Dnipro stats and caliber
The Dnipro is a lightweight single and full-auto assault rifle with a high rate of fire. Its raw damage number sits around the middle of the pack, but it makes up for that with strong penetration and a fast, controllable fire rate that stays useful from close to medium range.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Assault Rifle |
| Caliber | 5.45x39mm |
| Fire modes | Single, Full Auto |
| Magazine | 30 rounds |
| Weight | 3.4 kg |
| Cost | 34,000 coupons |
The big practical advantage is the ammo. The Dnipro fires the same 5.45x39mm rounds as the AK74 family, which is cheap and easy to find compared with other assault rifle calibers. That keeps it fed through most of a playthrough without draining your coupons.
Upgrades, attachments, and the caliber swap
Technicians in earlier regions cannot touch the Dnipro. To mod it, you need to reach Yaniv or Prypiat. In Yaniv Station, the technician Harpy works on it, and Harpy’s room sits right beside your bed and stash, near the trader Wreck.
One notable upgrade converts the Dnipro to fire 7.62mm rounds. This raises its damage output at the cost of heavier recoil. It is a fair trade if you offset the extra kick with other upgrades, but the rifle performs well on its default caliber, so the conversion is optional rather than necessary.
Compatible attachments give it flexibility across ranges and situations:
- Assault Rifle Suppressor
- Open Collimator Sight and Holographic Sight
- PAO 2X Scope and ACOG 4X Scope
- High-Capacity AKM-74 Magazine and Coupled Dnipro Magazines
Is the Dnipro good?
Yes. It ranks among the strongest assault rifles in the game thanks to its damage relative to the cheap, plentiful ammo it burns. High penetration, a fast rate of fire, and useful accuracy make it dependable at close and medium range, and with a red dot or laser plus a few technician upgrades it can carry you through the rest of a run.
If you pull the low-durability copy from the Cooling Tower early, the repair bill is worth paying, because it effectively hands you an endgame weapon well ahead of schedule. There is also a unique variant, the Sotnyk, that builds on the same base but only becomes available deep into the story past a point of no return, so it cannot feature in a normal run. For everyday use, the standard Dnipro is the one you will actually keep.
