Decoy

"An improvised noise decoy attracts attention of humans and beasts alike with the loud rattling noise it produces."

- In-game description

The Decoy is a throwable item in Metro Exodus that is used to distract enemies, allowing the player to sneak past them unnoticed.

Overview
Decoys are first used in the level Moscow, when Artyom is sneaking through a Hanza base, with the help of Yermak, in order to rescue Anna. At one point, Artyom and Yermak need to go through a door, but a Hanza guard is looking right at it. Yermak tells Artyom to grab one of the empty cans, lying on the floor, and throw it, so the noise attracts the guard's attention and the two can sneak through said door.

Later, when crafting becomes available to the player, decoys can be crafted either using a backpack or at a workbench. The player can carry up to 5 decoys, but that amount can be doubled with the right carrier vest upgrade. They can also occasionally be found in the game world and they are more common than grenades or Molotovs. They function just as in the scripted event mentioned earlier - when thrown, they make a noise after they land, forcing nearby NPCs to look in that direction and/or leave their position to investigate the area where the decoy landed, allowing the player to sneak past them.

Using decoys is normally not necessary, as hostile NPCs in areas that require stealth are usually scripted the way that makes it possible to sneak around them unnoticed even without distracting them, but can be useful for impatient players who do not want to wait until an NPC walks past them or looks in a different direction, clearing the way for further movement.

Trivia

 * It technically makes no sense for decoys to be "crafted", as they are merely empty cans with no additional modification - unless they are actually filled with additional debris to maximise the amount of noise they generate upon hitting a surface.