STALKER 2 Rolls out biggest Update to Date

Just when we thought it couldn’t get more crazier, well it gets more crazier for STALKER 2. GSC Games brought Christmas early for all the fans of their latest entry STALKER 2 Heart of Chornobyl with the latest Patch 1.1, introducing over 1800 major bugfixes for the game and the first issue of A-life fixes. The update is huge with a total of 110 GB which includes changes to the AI, Textures, Bugs, Performance, and a multitude of other issues. Read further for STALKER 2 Update 1.1 Patch Notes & all fixes.

Update 1.1 Improvements & Fixes

Patch 1.1 for STALKER 2 brought about much-needed fixes to the game after its launch and is the biggest update for the game to date with the download size being a whopping 110 GB. The updates fixes issues with the broken A-life system with the distance between the player and the NPCs, also adding roaming NPCs to the zone with much more variety to the encounters. The update also fixed performance issues for the crowded areas on the map, allowing STALKER 2 Heart of Chornobyl to run more smoothly in heavily crowded areas across the map.

Patch 1.1 includes many fixes and tweaks to all AI and the many main quests and side quests for the game. STALKER 2 just got a helluva lot better and players can now enjoy the game without the multiple bugs hindering their story progression and any other halt to progress through the game.

Below is the complete list of all changes in STALKER 2 Patch 1.1.

Update 1.1 Patch Notes

A-Life fixes:

Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player’s back.
Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player’s visualization range).
In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they’ve previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state.
Enhanced A-Life NPCs’ motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
Fixed the issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn’t satisfy their communication needs and talks.
And some other development-related improvements.

AI improvements:

Reduced the number of summons and increased time between spawns of Pseudodog phantoms.
Fixed an issue when zombies would have their arms and legs twisted while knocked down.
Fixed an issue when large mutants would hide behind small cover, such as trees.
Fixed an issue when mutant limbs stretch sometimes when firing automatic weapons.
Fixed an issue when bloody visual effects played a few times after Rat’s death from grenade.
Fixed an issue where NPCs quickly detected the player when he was crouching.
Fixed an issue where NPCs would enter doors without opening them.
Fixed the issue when the controller could take the main story NPCs under control.
Fixed an issue when Chimera would try to enter a narrow passage that it couldn’t enter instead of hiding in ambush.
Fixed an issue when NPC was teleporting to the restricted areas such as safe zones and hubs.
Fixed an issue where mutants that were in cover did not change their cover when receiving damage.
Fixed visual effects of Burer’s telepathic ability.
Minor combat behavior fixes for NPCs shooting from covers.
Fixed Burer’s throwing objects animation.
Fixed some issues with NPC staying idle and refusing to start mission-related dialogs.
Fixed an issue when mutants kept attacking zombies in knockdown.
Fixed an issue when NPCs are stuck in aiming animation.
Fixed an issue when death animation was replayed for an NPC who was resurrected as a zombie.
Fixed an issue when a neutral NPC stays neutral after a player hits them by melee attack.
Fixed an issue with some NPCs’ broken arms while shooting.
Generic improvement of combat experience and NPC pathfinding in big fights with lots of corpses.
Fixed an issue when Player was able to kill the chimera with the help of carousel anomaly.
Fixed an issue where NPCs would clip through objects and walls when shooting from covers.
Minor improvements for peaceful behavior of NPCs.
Fixed issue where NPCs wouldn’t stop combat on emission start.
Fixed an issue when some mutants couldn’t jump off an obstacle.
Fixed issue when NPCs were stuck after the end of emission.
Fixed bandits’ behaviour after emission ends during the mission Bullseye.
Fixed an issue where NPCs could teleport if the NPC couldn’t build a route.
Fixed an issue where NPCs could stop talking to each other after loading a save.
Fixed an issue when mutant dead bodies fly to a long distance from the places where they were killed by the shotgun.
And over 50 more minor “anomalies” were fixed.

Balance adjustments

Increasing rewards for several missions.
Fixed issue when artifacts with Physical Protection effect give maximum possible effect.
Changed “Goldfish” artifact value to 14000 coupons.
Fixed issue when player is able to have infinite coupons via selling and returning back any stackable consumable.
Fixed infinite money exploit with splitting a stack of weapons from selling windows.
Fixed issue when A-Life NPC’s can be spawned dead with full clips of ammo.
Increased Snork’s abilities cooldown time by 30%.
Gauss rifle damage was increased.
Increased difficulty for the fight with Korshunov.
Recalculated rewards for the Harpy’s missions.
Fixed instant player death after getting almost full radiation bar.
Fixed that Poltergeist and Burer do not deal damage with thrown objects in some cases.
Removed the POS 8x scope from the assortment of several merchants.
Tweaked damage from PSY fields.
With over 10 more minor fixes delivered.

Crash fixes, Performance, and Optimization:

Investigated, and applied further improvements to dead zones and curves for gamepad movement, aiming and camera controls for a more smooth and controllable experience using sticks on controller.
Fixed performance drops on NVIDIA RTX 3000 series video cards with enabled FSR frame generation.
Fixed issue with game freezing on exiting a tunnel during A Light in the End of the Tunnel mission.
Fixed issue with not working Razer Kishi Ultra controller, which connected via Bluetooth or cable connection.
Fixed issue where MSI Force Pro Wireless Controller didn’t work via Bluetooth or dongle connection.
Fixed issue when Xbox X/S controller didn’t work via Bluetooth connection.
Controller input improvements.
Fixed issue with visual artifacts in In-Game UI with DLSS enabled.
Fixed issue when building disappears in player’s camera at Factory location.
Fixed issue with a building near Yantar popping into Player’s view while approaching it.
Fixed fps drops that could be created by large amounts of water particles.
Performance improvements in largely populated areas of the map
Fixed fps drops during interaction with corpses in shallow water.
Fixed multiple EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crashes
Fixed multiple Fatal Errors, Low Level Fatal Errors, and Assertion Failures.
Overall, over 200 crashes were investigated, and further fixes were implemented.

Cutscenes Fixes:

Multiple improvements to facial animations and voiceover for both languages in several cutscenes.
Fixed an issue with missing frames in several cutscenes.
Fixed an issue with missing NPCs in several cutscenes.
Fixed issue when main characters and NPCs can have idle behavior or detached parts of the body/equipment in several cutscenes.
Fixed an issue with missing subtitles in several cutscenes.
Fixed an issue with missing Haptic feedback in several cutscenes.
Fixed an issue with the final cutscene not playing in The Eternal Shining mission.
Fixed the issue where the cutscene at the end of the Back to the Slag Heap mission did not start.
Fixed an issue with invisible Nimble during the cutscene of In Search of a Guide mission.
Fixed an issue where Player could die during the cutscene during the The Last Step mission.
Overall, over 80 cutscenes issues were addressed.

Interactable Objects:

Fixed an issue when the elevator in X11 laboratory was closed after loading save during Wishful Thinking mission.
Fixed physics for ammo boxes and broken lamps.
Fixed some issues where NPCs could get stuck in a doorway at different locations.
Fixed issue where ladder descends, sound could loop and Players would clip through the ladder after climbing from it.
Fixed sound on interacting with the dead body.
Fixed issue where NPC touching the door during movement or combat caused the door to shake.
Fixed that interaction hints for loot and pick-up bodies appeared at different distances from the body.
Fixed the interaction prompt for healing being active when the player did not have medkit.
Fixed the issue when some consumables could have been non-interactable.
And up to 20 other related issues were fixed.

Achievements

Fixed the issue when “The four Winds” achievement cannot be received.
Fixed issue when “Bingo” achievement cannot be received.
Fixed issue when players were unable to unlock achievements in the EGS store.

Saves:

Fixed the issue when the player was unable to load existing saves after the title and steam process was terminated unexpectedly.
Fixed issue with missing save files after PC\Xbox hard reboot.

Other improvements: