STALKER GAMMA: Ammo Efficiency Analysis

Cheapest to buy, best to disassemble and all good craft conversion paths

Ammo crafting is around 90% efficient, meaning that for 10 bullets disassembled, you'll get, on average: 9 gunpowder, 9 casings and 9 bullet tips. The amount you get can vary widely though, so saying "by disassembling 2 boxes of this you can craft one box of that", while true on paper, might require more depending on your (bad) luck.

1. Ammo Prices by Trader

Ammo Box price per trader. Warsaw Pact (Loner, Bandits, Duty, Military, Monolith, Renegades), NATO (Clear Sky, Freedom, Mercenaries, UNISG), Butcher that you can find in Garbage, and the ruble equivalent of the vodka trades with Spirit in Yantar.

Caliber	Type	W.Pact	NATO	Butcher	Spirit
9x18	HP	1,320	1,320	840
9x18	FMJ	770	770		493
9x18	AP	1,650	1,650
9x19	HP	1,546	1,546	984
9x19	FMJ	886	886
9x19	AP	3,231	2,423
45ACP	FMJ	1,306	1,306
45ACP	HYDRA	1,959	1,959	1,620
7.62x25	LRNPC	1,203	1,203	765
7.62x25	PST	1,340	1,340
5.7x28	SS195	1,753	1,753
5.7x28	SS190		3,575
20x70	Buck	825	825	525
12x70	Buck	1,375	1,375	875	1,313
12x76	Slug	2,268	2,268	1,876
12x76	AP		6,875
9x21	SP10	2,956
7.62x39	FMJ	2,681			985
7.62x39	M43 (AP)	7,493
357	HP	3,575	3,575	2,275
5.45x39	HP	2,200		1,400

Caliber	Type	W.Pact	NATO	Butcher	Spirit
5.45x39	FMJ	1,856			985
5.45x39	AP	7,012
5.56x45	HP		2,200	1,400
5.56x45	FMJ		2,062		985
5.56x45	AP		5,637
9x39	SP-5	2,268			985
9x39	SP-6	7,356
7.92x57	FMJ	1,856	1,856
7.92x57	AP	6,187	6,187
7.62x54	7N1	3,093
7.62x54	7N14	5,500
7.62x54	AP	13,062
7.62x54R	PP	6,875
12.7x55	STs-130	4,125
12.7x55	VPS	9,487
23x75	Shrapnel	2,750		2,100
23x75	Barrikada	9,625
338	Federal		5,500
338	Lapua		17,531
7.62x51	Ball		4,125
7.62x51	AP		10,312

2. Best Disassemble → Craft Routes That Save Money

All the prices for these calculations are based on the REGULAR (white) price at traders you can see above. I was convinced there would be more, but that's it apparently.

Source (buy this)	Target (craft this)	Boxes Needed	Craft Cost	Buy Cost	Savings	% Saved
7.92x57 FMJ	12.7x55 STs-130	2×	3,712	4,125	+413	10%

3. Butcher & Spirit

Butcher (Garbage)

Butcher has great prices and should be used as much as you can if you have access to him. Unfortunately his prices are not so good that it makes sense to buy ammo from him for the only purpose of disassembling / crafting into something else. So buy it and shoot it, that's it.

Spirit (Yantar) Vodka trade → disassemble → craft target ammo

Source (Spirit price)	Target (craft this)	Boxes Needed	Craft Cost	Regular Buy	Savings vs Regular	% Saved
9x18 FMJ	45ACP FMJ	2×	986	1,306	+320	25%
9x18 FMJ	7.62x25 LRNPC	2×	986	1,203	+217	18%
5.45x39 FMJ	9x39 SP-5	2×	1,970	2,268	+298	13%
5.45x39 FMJ	5.45x39 HP	2×	1,970	2,200	+230	10%
5.45x39 FMJ	5.56x45 HP	2×	1,970	2,200	+230	10%

4. Good Crafts with Extra Loot

All the interesting ammo to craft when you have a ton of weaker rounds lying around.

📖

None of these crafts save money, every path below is a loss on paper. The point is turning ammo you looted and won't use into something more useful or powerful, at the smallest theoretical cost possible.

How to read the table

"3× 9x18 FMJ → 45ACP HYDRA · 18% overpay"

Means 3 boxes of 9x18 FMJ can craft 1 box of 45ACP HYDRA, at 18% above its regular purchase price.

2× 9x18 AP + 2× 9x18 FMJ → 5.7x28 SS190 · 35% overpay

Means 2 boxes of 9x18 AP AND 2 boxes of 9x18 FMJ can craft 1 box of 5.7x28 SS190, at 35% above its regular purchase price.

Only routes deemed "reasonable" are listed.

#	Source	+#	Additional Source	→	Target	Overpay
Pistol HP – FMJ
3×	9x18 or 9x19 FMJ	—		1×	45ACP HYDRA	+18%/+36%
3×	45ACP FMJ	—		1×	45ACP HYDRA	+100%
Pistol AP
2×	9x18 AP	2×	9x18 FMJ	1×	5.7x28 SS190	+35%
2×	9x18 AP	2×	9x18 FMJ	1×	9x21 SP10	+64%
4×	9x18 or 9x19 AP	—		1×	5.7x28 SS190	+85%/+171%
2×	9x18 AP	2×	9x18 FMJ	1×	9x19 AP	+100%
4×	9x18 or 9x19 AP	—		1×	9x21 SP10	+123%/+228%
Assault Rifle HP – FMJ
2×	5.45x39 FMJ	—		1×	5.45x39 HP	+69%
2×	5.56x45 FMJ	—		1×	5.56x45 HP	+87%
2×	7.62x39 FMJ	—		1×	5.45x39 HP	+144%
2×	7.62x39 FMJ	—		1×	5.56x45 HP	+144%
Rifle FMJ
2×	7.92x57 FMJ	—		1×	12.7x55 STs-130	−10%
4×	7.92x57 FMJ	—		1×	7.62x54 R PP	+8%
2×	7.92x57 FMJ	—		1×	7.62x54 7N1	+20%
4×	7.92x57 FMJ	—		1×	7.62x54 7N14	+35%
2×	7.62x54 7N1	—		1×	12.7x55 STs-130	+50%

Crafts requiring more than 5 source boxes have been omitted. Most of those are high-end rifle AP paths (nonsense like 7× to 14× boxes to reach VPS or .338 Lapua)

All Assault Rifle and Rifle AP ammo overpay percentages are prohibitive, you're burning good ammo to craft marginally different good ammo at a steep loss.