Your health packs and ammo may seem to be disappearing in Atomic Heart. While playing, I wondered why it seemed like I was picking up so many items but never seemed to have enough, even when playing conservatively. However, I soon discovered there’s a reason that you’re missing items in Atomic Heart that the game doesn’t tell you.
Why are my health and ammo items missing in Atomic Heart?
Your ammo and health packs go missing in Atomic Heart because of a gameplay element it neglects to mention. You have a limited inventory in the game, and it’s pretty small. You start the game with twenty slots, which you’ll quickly fill up, given how many items the game throws at you.
The big issue with inventory management is that smaller weapons, health packs, and ammo all take up one slot. However, your large weapons can take up 2-3 spaces. So, if you carry the assault rifle, shotgun, pistol, and a melee weapon, that’s 8-9/20 already filled. Add at least one stack of ammo for each gun, and that puts you at 11-12 slots full. So, with a typical loadout, you’ll only have around eight spaces max to store health packs, energy refills, and buffs.
Fortunately, Atomic Heart doesn’t just throw away your overflow items. Instead, it sends them to your storage locker. When this happens, it’s indicated by an orange icon next to the item’s name in the pickup notification. If you see this, you can head to the nearest save room and pick them up from the NORA.
