You can farm Chimera Ears by looping between STC Malachite and the Chimera spawn at VPC Mirror, then turning in Viktoria Dorozhnyuk’s Chimera mutant order whenever it appears for about 51,800 Coupons per two ears.
Money in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl comes slowly if you rely on stashes and story rewards, but there is a tight repeatable loop that turns one mutant into a small fortune. The route pairs the base at STC Malachite with a lone Chimera that respawns just to the west, and every pair of ears you deliver to the right order is worth tens of thousands of Coupons. Get the pathing down and it becomes one of the fastest income methods in the western Zone.
What the Chimera Ear farm is and where it runs
| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Base | STC Malachite, western region |
| Chimera spawn | VPC Mirror, directly west near X17 Lab |
| Order NPC | Viktoria Dorozhnyuk |
| Order payout | 51,800 Coupons per two Chimera Ears |
| Reset timer | Sleep two in-game days |
| Main item | Chimera Ear |
The loop is short: kill the Chimera that spawns at VPC Mirror, loot its Chimera Ear, run back to STC Malachite, sleep two in-game days, and hand two ears to Viktoria Dorozhnyuk when her Chimera mutant order is up. Each order pays 51,800 Coupons for the pair, which is why a couple of minutes of running comfortably out-earns most side content.
The catch is that the payout rides on order RNG. Viktoria’s mutant orders rotate, so the Chimera order is not always available — you keep farming ears while you wait for it to cycle back in. The roughly 200,000 Coupons an hour people quote comes from a single stopwatched showcase run and assumes about eight ears an hour, clean routing, and no wasted fights, so treat it as a best-case ceiling rather than a fixed rate.
What to bring before each Chimera run
| Requirement | Use |
|---|---|
| Canned food | Clears hunger so you can sleep and advance time |
| Energy drinks | Refill stamina to sprint the whole route |
| M701 Super sniper | Drops the Chimera from the platform in 8–10 rounds |
| Rifle ammo | Around 10 rounds per kill, about 2,000 Coupons |
| Bed at STC Malachite | Sleep two days to reset the spawn and orders |
| Map markers | Mark VPC Mirror going out, STC Malachite coming back |
Key Prep is light, but skipping any of it breaks the cycle. You need access to STC Malachite and its bed, Viktoria for the orders, and Pythagoras at the bar for consumables. Bring canned food — the game blocks sleep while you are hungry, and sleep is how you reset everything — plus energy drinks, because you sprint the entire route and stamina drains fast.
For the kill itself, a high-damage sniper like the M701 Super is ideal. You fight from an elevated platform the Chimera can’t climb, so you take no hits and repairs stay near zero if you play it clean. Ammo is your one real cost, at roughly ten rounds per Chimera.
How to farm Chimera Ears in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
One full cycle takes only a few minutes once the route clicks, and each pass banks another Chimera Ear toward the next order turn-in.
STEP 1/8
Turn in Chimera Ears at Viktoria
Talk to Viktoria Dorozhnyuk and hand over two Chimera Ears while her Chimera order is active for 51,800 Coupons.
STEP 2/8
Clear the rest of her order queue
Decline every other mutant order so a fresh set generates after you sleep, keeping them on the same timer as the Chimera.
STEP 3/8
Restock food and energy drinks
Buy canned food and energy drinks from Pythagoras at the bar — food lets you sleep, drinks keep you sprinting.
STEP 4/8
Equip the M701 Super sniper
Load a high-damage sniper such as the M701 Super with around ten rounds, enough to drop the Chimera from range.
STEP 5/8
Mark VPC Mirror and run west
Place a marker on the VPC Mirror spawn, then sprint west, taking the back exit past the train to save roughly 100 meters.
STEP 6/8
Snipe the Chimera from the platform
Climb the elevated metal platform, scope in, and put 8–10 rounds into the Chimera where it can’t reach you.
STEP 7/8
Loot the Chimera Ear and head back
Grab the Chimera Ear from the carcass, re-mark STC Malachite, and retrace the route through the wall gap.
STEP 8/8
Eat, then sleep two days
Eat canned food to clear hunger, then sleep two in-game days to reset both the Chimera and Viktoria’s orders.
Buy energy drinks and canned food in bulk from Pythagoras so you can chain several cycles without restocking — you spend food only to sleep and drinks only while sprinting, so a full stack lasts multiple runs.
Video help
Coupons per hour, costs, and real net profit
| Amount | Coupons |
|---|---|
| Two Chimera Ears (one order) | 51,800 |
| Eight ears per hour (gross) | ~200,000 |
| Optional Snork Vertebra order | ~37,000 |
| Estimated hourly costs | ~40,000 |
| Estimated net per hour | ~200,000 |
The math starts from one number: two Chimera Ears is 51,800 Coupons. At roughly eight ears an hour that stacks to about 200,000 Coupons gross. A very lucky hour can also serve up a second mutant order — a Snork Vertebra turn-in worth around 37,000 Coupons — which pushes a peak run toward the widely quoted 237,000, though that top figure depends entirely on the order RNG lining up.
None of that is net. Each run costs roughly 2,000 Coupons in ammo, a little for the occasional repair, and about 1,000 for food and drinks — call it 5,000 a run, or near 40,000 across a full hour. That still leaves around 200,000 Coupons of profit per real-life hour, so a focused five-hour session lands close to a million.
Mistakes that slow the Chimera Ear loop
The biggest time sink is leaving Viktoria’s order queue full. If you wait until you’ve hoarded a stack of ears and only then clear her other orders, the fresh set can take an extra hour or two to appear — reset the whole queue while you farm so the orders and the Chimera come back on the same two-day sleep. Forgetting canned food is the other cycle-killer, since you simply cannot sleep while hungry and the reset never happens.
On the route itself, don’t chase the Chimera when it backs off the platform — it always circles back into your sights, and running after it only burns stamina and time. Leave nearby mutants and stalkers alone too; if another creature is already tangling with the Chimera, let it play out and just loot the corpse afterward. And take the back exit past the train rather than the front, which adds around 100 meters and a couple of extra minutes to every lap.
Other Coupon methods worth keeping in mind
When the Chimera order refuses to show, safer general income still works. Artifact hunting in anomaly fields — sweeping with a detector and reselling to traders — pays steadily and respawns over time, and regions like the Iron Forest are well suited to it. Repeatable side missions from base NPCs are the other reliable trickle, with the harder of each set paying the most.
There is also a horn-based mutant farm near Kazkovyi Camp and the Helicopter Base that may out-earn this one per turn-in, but it sits much farther out — several times the travel distance — so it only makes sense once that camp is unlocked as a nearby hub. Until then, the Chimera loop wins on speed.
Related S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Chimera Ear farm still work on the current patch?
The game is on Update 2.0 “Back to the Zone” with the 2.0.1 hotfix live on August 21, 2026. An older money trick — stealth-killing guards at Malachite for repeat loot — was patched out, but this farm doesn’t rely on that; it uses Viktoria’s normal mutant orders, so the loop itself remains a legitimate income route.
Should you sell Chimera Ears directly or wait for Viktoria’s order?
Hold the ears and wait for the order. A straight vendor sale is a fraction of what the mutant order pays, and the 51,800 Coupons for a pair is the entire reason this farm is worth running. Bank your ears and only cash them in when the Chimera order is active.
Is artifact farming better if the Chimera order doesn’t appear?
When the RNG is dry, yes. Artifact hunting in anomaly fields and repeatable base missions give you something to do that doesn’t depend on a specific order rotating in, so you keep earning while the Chimera order cycles back around instead of standing idle at STC Malachite.
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