Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Unleashes Major Update with 650+ Improvements

Shortly after a little over a week since Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl launched, developer GSC Game World has released the post-apocalyptic shooter’s first update, offering over 650 corrections for Xbox and PC.

Stalker 2 received a generally positive reception last week, although rare was the review that failed to mention its prominent technical issues. “There are numerous situations where this bugginess still influences quests, leads to death, or leaves you perplexed,” we highlighted in our three-star review, “and all of this severely hampers the game’s overall playability, even if it can be amusing at times.”

GSC Game World quickly acknowledged the issues, promising a first wave of corrections was in development. And now, that initial update is here, delivering “over 650 fixes, including quest blockers, memory leaks, crashes, and minor bugs.”

There have been enhancements to AI, “approximately 100” crash fixes, audio and sound adjustments, stability modifications, along with a comprehensive review of tweaks aimed at improving everything from combat and the open-world experience to character items and cutscenes. The release notes from GSC are quite extensive, but you can find the full breakdown below.

In concluding its Patch 1.0.1 announcement, the studio expressed gratitude to fans for their “feedback, enthusiasm, and support,” adding that “work on the game and future patches” is still ongoing. It also noted that it is already addressing A-Life bugs, with those fixes arriving at a later time.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has, of course, enjoyed a remarkable launch despite its technical shortcomings. Earlier this week, GSC Game World revealed that the shooter has already sold 1 million copies – and that figure does not include all those gamers exploring The Zone via Game Flow.

And as promised, here are the complete Patch 1.0.1 release notes:

AI Fixes:

• Resolved issues where groups of NPCs were getting stuck and dying near Shelter during explosive Emission.
• Corrected a situation where Burer could drop mission items from the player’s hands.
• Restored missing sound effects for Burer’s ‘Telekinesis’ ability.
• Fixed issues with NPCs occasionally getting stuck and not reaching the mission location. This may have caused an inability to interact with NPC or progress to the next mission stage due to the lethargy of mission NPCs.
• Fixed performance drops/potential out-of-memory crashes in hubs and areas crowded with NPCs during lengthy gameplay sessions.
• Corrected a scenario where NPCs would switch to A-pose or start flying after death.
• Fixed a situation where NPCs could not determine if a target in cover was protected from shots, causing them to shoot into cover.

And over 20 additional issues with AI were addressed.

Optimization Fixes:

• Fixed the situation with invisible NPC/Mutants appearing in FOV while the Player is aiming.
• Corrected fire visual effects that were not rendering at specific camera angles.

Additionally, we resolved approximately 100 various crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.

Audio & Sound Fixes:

• Corrected a situation where combat music continued to play even after combat had ended.

Along with 7 other minor audio & sound bugs.

Stability Changes:

• Weapon and armor repair costs are reduced.
• Adjusted value of artifacts (more profit from selling).
• Cash reward for certain missions increased from 2 to several times.
• Improvements to Rookie mode armor and weapons.
• Damage from mutants has been moderately reduced in Rookie mode (more health balance changes in Combat Stability share).
• Damage to player’s weapon decreased by 23 percent in Rookie mode.
• Armor durability increased by 12.5 percent.
• Added silencer attachment for PTM to a designated stash in the Lesser Zone.
• Adjusted selling prices for Exoskeletons, as they are now more expensive to sell.
• Corrected selling prices for upgraded weapons.
• Rebalanced Hercules consumable: player movement debuff removed; improved parameters (higher weight capacity for players after consumption).

Additional minor bug fixes were implemented.

Combat Stability:

• Reduced weight of certain mission items (including scanners).
• Moderately rebalanced Bloodsucker’s damage.
• Lowered Bloodsucker’s strike defense rank (more damage from firearms).
• Reduced Bloodsucker’s HP regeneration outside of combat.
• Lowered Controller HP overall.
• Lowered Burer HP overall.
• Lowered Boar HP overall.
• Lowered Flesh HP overall.
• Damage to Boar from headshots now equals 100% of body damage.
• Damage to Boar from limb shots is increased.
• Damage to Flesh from limb shots is increased.
• Increased melee distance for weapons.
• Somewhat increased knife melee distance.

Gamepad Input:

• Expanded gamepad dead zones.

Characters:

• Fixed eyes and teeth on NPC characters.
• Made some minor adjustments to NPC characters and animations.

Cutscenes:

• Restored missing footage to TV displays in the final cutscene.
• Corrected deer animation in the opening cutscene.
• And 20 other various bugs in cutscenes.

Game Settings & Menus:

• Adjusted unreadable text at the bottom of the Shader Compilation display.
• Fixed issue where the ‘Nvidia Reflex Low Latency’ option was not saved on subsequent game launches.

And 10 more minor items.

Interactable Objects:

• Fixed physics issues with destructible and movable objects, including those that were floating.
• Corrected interaction issues with glass doors in SIRCAA’s back yard, which caused a walkthrough blocker.
• Resolved missing interior doors in the X-11 laboratory elevator.

And additional minor bugs.

Main and Side Missions:

• Tackled various mission blockers and bugs encountered under specific conditions. Key fixes include:
• Fixed missing interaction with useless Blind dogs in the Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
• Resolved uncompletable goals in the Trust, and You Shall Receive mission.
• Fixed multiple issues in the There and Back Again mission, including one where the safe containing the artifact could not be found.
• Addressed a dialogue loop with Zotov during the A Needle in a Haystack mission.
• Corrected progression blockers in the Solutions Come at a Cost mission, including issues with bandits after an emission and missing the Heavy Key item.
• Adjusted mission markers for NPC locations in Hot on the