Metro Exodus: How to Clean Weapons

How to Clean Weapons in Metro Exodus, and Why You Should

One of the most impressive new features in Metro Exodus is the immersive weapon repair mechanic and how it’s been worked into the game. Weapons were known to malfunction and degrade in previous Metro titles, but now they can even get dirty when exposed to specific environments.

Fortunately, you can do something about it! Here’s everything you need to know about how to clean weapons in Metro Exodus.

Why Clean Weapons?

In Metro Exodus, when your weapons accumulate grime from overuse or exposure to damaging environments they will become less effective. Specifically, the damage output and accuracy of weapons will decrease as they get increasingly dirty. Eventually, when not taken care of, dirty weapons can even become completely ruined.

What Can Make Weapons Dirty in Metro Exodus?

Many of the things you would expect to damage weapons in real-life do the same in-game. Sand, water, dust, and mud will all cause your weapons to degrade. We’ll avoid spoilers, but you can imagine that any areas containing a large amount of the aforementioned stuff will gunk up your guns pretty fast.

There are probably even more weapon-ruining things out there in the Russian wastes that we haven’t discovered yet. Let us know in the comments if you come across more weapon-degrading substances in the Metro Exodus world!

Where and How to Clean

To clean your weapons in Metro Exodus you’ll need to head to a crafting table. While your backpack can provide you with many useful functions, you will not be able to tend to your guns when out and about. Keep that in mind when preparing for your next excursion.

When you find a crafting bench, activate it, and then scroll to weapons by pressing R1 once. You will then see an icon pop up that looks like a brush, and a “cleanliness bar” next to it that can be filled up. Ideally, you want that bar to be fully orange. The more grey it is, the dirtier the weapon.

To get to cleaning, you’ll need to hold square (or whichever button you’ve assigned) and you’ll also need the required amount of metal and chemical materials. The specific button you need to press is indicated at the bottom of the screen, and the specific material amounts you need are on the bottom left (see image below). The wrench = metal, and the bubbling beaker = chemicals.

That’s everything you need to know about how to clean weapons in Metro Exodus. If you’re also wondering how to get more crafting materials, how to craft armor, or simply where those useful crafting tables are located, you can find all of those answers in our Metro Exodus guide wiki.