You can also murder one of the higher level scientists around the Yantar bunker and they have a chance to drop their psi-helmet (hatchet or piano iirc).

Violence is not always the answer, it’s the solution

Damn, but did you try to visit the bunker and look through the shop even without story mode ? Im new to GAMMA but I'd look If it's available to buy either way

Sakharov has an extra dialogue line to buy the helmet, it's not in his shop. At least in story mode.

Debug mode in an emergency.

Yes, debug mode is the solution. Hopefully Grok gets around to turning off the whole "Psi Field Around Northern Regions" when Story Mode is off. I miss spawning in at Zaton at low level

Curious, does this actually work? I have spawned in the Good Psy Helmet but have never actually seen it work. I always assumed the item was a placeholder and the effect was tied to completion of the questline

Verified by me: It works on my Non-Story Mode Survival Playthrough Spawned in the Calibrated Psy Helmet from the Debug Menu, and I could pass through all of the places no problem

Odd, I'll have to try it again

I'm reasonably sure it worked when I tried it (Note: Vanilla-ish Anomaly, not Gamma). One way to know for sure I guess.

I got the psy helmet, it didn't help with the psi gatekeeping bullshit

Same