Huge patch for Stalker 2 fixes 1,800 issues and finally delivers the much-vaunted lifelike AI

Finally with A-Life

The repair of A-Life is certainly the most important part of this patch, which also tackles all other areas. So expect fewer graphic glitches or broken quest lines. But A-Life could become the centerpiece of Stalker 2 if it works really well now. These are the content areas where A-Life should work:

• NPCs should no longer spawn secretly behind the player’s back.
• Players should now encounter NPCs wandering around the zone more often.
• The distance has been increased to which players are visible to NPCs.
• NPCs now also have a life when they are not visible and pursue their goals so that we can meet them again later in other places. Their pathfinding has also been improved for this.
• NPCs are more motivated to expand their territories and to pick fights with other NPCs or mutants.
• The groups exploring the zone are now more varied. They can be larger or smaller and belong to different factions.
• Human NPCs now feel a greater need to talk to others instead of stoically going about their daily business.

Overall, the AI of enemies and NPCs should have been greatly improved, regardless of A-Life. For example, if they didn’t want to start dialogues in a mission or huge mutants hiding behind tiny trees.

1,800 fixes is a lot and that requires huge patch notes. We put the English patch notes on the second page of this post, where you can browse them a bit yourself.

With the first major patch, Stalker 2 should take a big step towards a well-rounded gaming experience. So hopefully your journey through the zone will run a little smoother in time for Christmas. Of course, we will continue to take a close look at Stalker 2 and will update our review when the opportunity arises. Most likely, however, patch 1.1 was not the last to completely rid Stalker 2 of bugs.

A-Life fixes

• The issue of NPCs appearing behind the player’s back has been fixed.
• Players can now encounter NPCs wandering around the zone more often.
• The distance from which A-Life NPCs can be seen by the player has been significantly increased.
• Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs from existing in offline mode (out of player view).

  • In offline mode, A-Life NPCs will continue to pursue their targets over time.
  • Players can now encounter A-Life NPCs they have encountered before by walking in the same direction as the NPCs.

• Improved navigation of A-Life NPCs in offline mode using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):

  • Fixed several issues where NPCs could not follow or find a path to their designated destinations.
  • Fixed several issues where NPCs could get stuck in the online-to-offline transition state,

• Improved the motivation of A-Life NPCs to expand their territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
• Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-Life NPCs being encountered than intended.
• Further improved contextual actions to ensure seamless transition between offline and online states for NPCs involved in those actions.
• The groups exploring the zone are now more diverse in terms of possible factions and group sizes.
• Fixed an issue where human NPCs would not fulfill their communication needs and conversations while roaming the zone.

And some other development-related improvements.

AI improvements

• Reduced the number of summons and increased the time between the appearance of phantom pseudohounds.
• Fixed an issue where zombie arms and legs would twist when knocked down.
• Fixed a problem where large mutants hid behind small cover such as trees.
• Fixed a problem where mutant limbs would sometimes extend when firing automatic weapons.
• Fixed an issue where bloody visual effects would play a few times after Rat died from a grenade.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would quickly spot the player if they were crouching.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would enter doors without opening them.
• Fixed an issue where the controller could take control of the main story NPCs.
• Fixed an issue where Chimera would attempt to enter a narrow passageway that it could not enter, instead of hiding in ambush.
• Fixed an issue where an NPC would teleport to restricted areas such as safe zones and hubs.
• Fixed a bug where mutants hiding behind cover would not change their cover behavior when taking damage.
• Fixed the visual effects of Burer’s telepathic ability.
• Minor fixes to the combat behavior of NPCs firing from cover.
• Burger’s animation when throwing objects has been corrected.
• Fixed some issues where NPCs would remain idle and refuse to start mission-related dialog.
• Fixed an issue where mutants would continue to attack zombies while downed.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would get stuck in the aiming animation.
• Fixed an issue where the death animation would replay for an NPC that was resurrected as a zombie.
• Fixed an issue where a neutral NPC would remain neutral even if a player hit them with a melee attack.
• Fixed an issue where some NPCs had broken arms when shooting.
• General improvements to combat performance and NPC pathing in large fights with lots of corpses.
• Fixed an issue where players could kill the chimera using the carousel anomaly.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would shoot through objects and walls when firing from cover.
• Minor improvements to the peaceful behavior of NPCs.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would not finish combat when emissions started.
• Fixed an issue where some mutants could not jump from an obstacle.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would get stuck after the end of the emission.
• Corrected the behavior of bandits after the mission ends when the emission ends during the Bullseye mission.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could teleport if the NPC could not create a route.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would stop talking to each other after loading a save game.
• Fixed an issue where mutant corpses would fly far from where they were killed with the shotgun.

And over 50 other minor “anomalies” have been fixed.

Balance adjustments

• Increase in rewards for several missions.
• Fixed an issue where artifacts with the “Physical Protection” effect had the maximum possible effect.
• The value of the “Goldfish” artifact has been changed to 14,000 coupons.
• Fixed an issue where selling and returning stackable consumables could cause players to receive an infinite number of coupons.
• Fixed an exploit where splitting a stack of weapons from sale windows could generate infinite money.
• Addressed an issue where A-Life NPCs could appear dead with full ammo magazines.
• Increased the cooldown of Snork’s abilities by 30%.
• Increased the damage of the Gauss Rifle.
• Increased difficulty of the fight with Korshunov.
• Rewards for the Harpy missions recalculated.
• Fixed instant death of the player after the radiation bar is almost full.
• Fixed Poltergeist and Burer not dealing damage with thrown objects in some cases.
• Removed the POS 8x scope from the assortment of several dealers.
• Adjusted the damage of PSY fields.

With over 10 other minor fixes.

Crash fixes, performance and optimization

• Investigated and applied further improvements to dead zones and curves for gamepad movement, aim, and camera controls for a smoother and more controllable experience with sticks on the controller.
• Performance improvements in high population areas of the map.
• Fixed performance drops on NVIDIA RTX 3000 graphics cards with FSR frame generation enabled.
• Fixed an issue where exiting a tunnel during the “A Light at the End of the Tunnel” mission would cause the game to freeze.
• Fixed an issue where the Razer Kishi Ultra controller would not work when connected via Bluetooth or a wired connection.
• Fixed an issue where the MSI Force Pro Wireless controller would not work via Bluetooth or a dongle connection.
• Fixed an issue where the Xbox X/S controller would not work over a Bluetooth connection.
• Controller input improvements.
• Fixed an issue with visual artifacts in the in-game UI when DLSS is enabled.
• Fixed issue where buildings would disappear from the player’s camera at the factory location.
• Fixed issue where a building near Yantar would appear in the player’s view as they approached him.
• Fixed FPS drops caused by large amounts of water particles.
• Fixed FPS drops when interacting with corpses in shallow water.
• Fixed multiple EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crashes.
• Fixed several fatal errors, low-level fatal errors, and assertion failures.

A total of over 200 crashes were investigated and further fixes were made.

Cutscenes

• Several cutscene facial animations and voiceovers for both languages have been improved in several cutscenes.
• Fixed a missing frame issue in several cutscenes.
• Fixed a missing NPC issue in several cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue where main characters and NPCs could be idle or detach body parts/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 where the last cutscene in the “The Eternal Shining” mission was not playing.
• Fixed an issue where the cutscene at the end of the “Back to the Slag Heap” mission did not start.
• Fixed an issue where Nimble could not be seen during the cutscene of the “In Search of a Guide” mission.
• Fixed an issue where the player could die during the cutscene of the “The Last Step” mission.

A total of over 80 issues with cutscenes have been fixed.

Interactive objects

• Fixed an issue where the elevator in the X11 lab would close after loading a save game during the “Wishful Thinking” mission.
• Fixed physics for ammo crates and broken lamps.
• Fixed some issues where NPCs could get stuck in various places in a doorway.
• Fixed an issue where the ladder would fall, the sound would loop, and players would climb through the ladder after leveling up.
• Corrected the audio when interacting with the corpse.
• Fixed an issue where an NPC touching the door while moving or fighting would cause the door to shake.
• Fixed loot and corpse interaction prompts appearing at different distances from the corpse.
• Fixed the heal interaction prompt being active when the player had no medkit.
• Fixed an issue where some consumables may not be interactable.

And up to 20 other related issues have been fixed.

Main Missions and Story Progress

• Over 15 issues related to the “On the Brink” mission have been addressed, including issues where Hamster and Ricochet died after entering the Zalissya Club, issues that prevented the Slavko pharmacist from healing, issues that allowed Monolithians and mutants into the Hamster hideout, and others.
• Fixed several issues in the mission “A Minor Incident”, including an issue where the diary stage “Ask Richter about the scientists” would be cancelled instead of completed after talking to Richter if the player already had the mutant’s collar, and an issue with a misleading marker in the objective “Acquire the collar from the mutant”.
• Fixed several issues in the “Visions of Truth” mission where Scar may not appear when loading a previous old save, an “anomaly” where Scar may be hostile to the Skif, an error where the player cannot start the dialog with the representative, and others.
• Fixed an issue where the player could not start the dialog with Richter after defeating the Monolith squad during the mission “The Last Wish”.
• Fixed an issue where the player could receive a softlock if they wounded Richter and made him hostile during the mission “The Last Wish”.
• Addressed an issue where the Faust Clone would leave its place on the balcony while the player was fighting Monolithians during the “The Assault on the Duga” mission.
• Addressed an issue where Faust would get stuck during a boss fight in the mission “The Assault on the Duga”.
• Addressed an issue where the player could not help the soldier surrounded by Monolithians during the mission “Just Like the Good Old Days”.
• Fixed an issue where Lodochka was dead in Quiet’s camp during the “Just Like the Good Old Days” mission.
• Fixed an issue where a player could not complete the “Subtle Matter” mission if they looted mission items before the mission started.
• Fixed an issue with an absent Regenerator during the “An Act of Mercy” mission.
• Fixed an issue with the elevator in X-11 Labs remaining closed during the “Wishful Thinking” mission.
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the vent under the ARL building during the Wishful Thinking mission if they went there before talking to Kryvenko.
• Fixed an issue where Nightingale would not offer the mission dialog after killing the Seeing Eye dogs in the Dogfight mission.
• Fixed an issue where it was impossible to start the dialog with Strider after turning off the scanner during the Hot on the Trail mission.
• Fixed an issue where the side mission “A Sign of Hope” was not available after completing the mission “Hot on the Trail”.
• Addressed an issue where Prof. Lodochka would be missing from his deployment location during or after deployment if the “A Sign of Hope” mission was completed.
• Addressed an issue where an infinite number of station guards would appear in the chemical plant during the “Escape from the Cage” mission.
• Fixed an issue where players could not complete the Journal step “Explore Echo Station” for the “Dead Frequency” mission if they found Shterev before receiving information from Team Bravo.
• Corrected the sneak route to Roosevelt during the “King of the Hill” mission.
• Fixed an issue where after the Faust boss fight, the controls and horizontal camera movements were disabled after loading a save game.
• The issue with the unskippable black screen after the ending sequence in the “There and Back Again” mission has been fixed.
• The issue with the missing intro cutscene in the “There and Back Again” mission has been fixed.
• Addressed an issue where the objective “Talk to Warlock about hamsters” could not be completed if the player killed the hamster before talking to Gaffer during the “On the Fire” mission.
• Fixed an issue with the Bandit Mayhem mission active after the player returns the cargo to Huron.
• Fixed an issue where Bayun’s body disappears into his collar when killed during a summoning action.
• Fixed an issue where Jumper and Bluish became hostile after attacking Hog’s squad during the “Shift Change” mission.
• Fixed an issue where users could access unintended areas at the Red Stronghold location.
• Added armor with psi-def for the “Obtain psi armor” objective during the “Ad astra per aspera” mission.
• Fixed an issue where zombies were standing idle at the pumping stations in the Swampland region during the “Ad astra per aspera” mission.
• Fixed an issue where Monolithians were present in the Infirmary during the “Happiness for Everyone” mission.
• Fixed softlock issue where the mission “Answers Come at a Price” did not continue after killing bandits in the depot after the emission.
• Fixed bug where Scar PDA was missing after the boss fight.
• Fixed an issue where the mission “Dark Times” could not be completed after talking to Arkhyp Lichen during the emission.
• Fixed an issue where the Monolith NPC could appear in the closed garage during the mission “The Boundary”.
• Fixed an issue where Korshunov could disappear during a boss fight.
• Fixed an issue where Scar would not die after the last monitor was destroyed during a boss fight.
• Addressed an issue where Korshunov would be missing from the marker position when Emission Begins while approaching the mission location of “Answers Come at a Price.”

Fixed over 250 bugs and blockers in the main missions section.

Side Missions and Open World Encounters

• Addressed an issue where players could kill onlookers during Arena battles on Rostok.
• Addressed an issue where enemies could leave the arena during the middle of the mission “The Freedom Coliseum” during the mission.
• Improved balance for Arena Battles on Rostok.
• Fixed an issue where the guide in the Enerhetyk Palace of Culture hub could be used after the point of no return during the “Down Below” mission.
• Fixed warlocks being unable to complete missions after the signal
• Adjusted when Pseudogiant appears after Vadyk Firecracker plays the melody.
• Fixed situations where A-Life NPCs Seryoga Root, Senya Noose and Haryk Jacket killed.
• Fixed NPC blocking the passage in some areas of 100 Rads Bar.
• Ward Technician’s reputation fixed.
• Fixed an issue where encounters with Monolithians in Agroprom Underground would not start after completing “In Search of Lost Glory” by Spark.
• Addressed an issue where the Mytryk Genius weapon remained as a mission item after killing the NPC who gave the mission to find the weapon.
• Addressed an issue where NPCs from Rookie Village were missing after the “Legends of the Zone” mission.
• Addressed an issue where users could get stuck in Lodochka’s laboratory if they shot a Noontide NPC before the door closed.
• Disabled the appearance of Monolithians in front of SIRCAA before activating Wish Granter.
• Fixed an issue where the encounter with the begging stalker did not start after the return of the monoliths
• Fixed some issues in the dialogue with NPCs in the chemical plant.
• Addressed an issue where NPC Kirya would teleport away from the player after receiving a reward from him in the 100-wheeler bar.
• Addressed an issue that could cause the game to freeze during dialogue in the “A Matter of Honor” mission.
• Addressed an issue where the player could not find an encounter with Prof. Zaretskyi after completing the “All That’s Left” mission.
• Addressed an issue where the NPC Crest was missing from the “The Sound of Music” mission location after talking to him during the issuance.
• Addressed an issue where the player could not continue the warlock missions after the end of the “On the Edge” mission.

With over 100 other bugs fixed.

Open World Controls, Exploration, and Zone Experience

• Fixed Blitzball sometimes getting stuck in Opachychi Village while moving.
• Fixed artifacts sometimes not spawning in arc anomalies.
• Improved the physics of corpses.
• Fixed a bug that caused player equipment to be damaged while the player was crouching in Razor.
• Fixed a bug that caused corpses to disappear.
• Fixed a stretched texture on some trees in the open world.
• Fixed an issue with the idle poison cloud anomaly VFX.
• Fixed an issue with rats spawning above the cave in the mist anomaly.
• Fixed an issue where characters could get wet in dry rooms after reloading the last save.
• Fixed an issue with sudden weather changes at 4:30 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.
• Fixed an issue where the “Wandering Lights” anomaly would not always generate its artifact.
• Fixed a problem where the Bulba Bow anomaly sometimes did not spawn.
• Fixed a problem where non-lootable corpses would spawn on the border between the Cordon and Lesser Zone regions.
• Fixed an issue where players could not reach the artifact near the “Abandoned Hamlet” in the swamps.
• Increased the distance for battle barks.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could get stuck in a door during the emission in the Zalissya hub.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could spawn on isolated surfaces (cars, crates, etc.) and get stuck.
• Improved the visual effects of bullet penetration.
• Improved cloth simulation for NPC corpses.
• Fixed an issue with bloodstains.
• Fixed an issue where far away areas of the environment would appear too bright at night.
• Fixed an issue where the zombie wake-up animation would restart every time the player looked away.
• Fixed an issue where an emission that started during a cutscene sometimes did not end.
• Fixed an issue where excavators near the Slag Heap did not stop being aggressive towards the player after the fight.

And some other improvements.

Player Equipment and Conditions Adjustments

• Fixed an issue where helmets had no PSI and Wheel Protection.
• Addressed an issue where the “SSP-100 Discovery” and “SSP-99 Ecologist” armor had no PSI protection.
• Addressed an issue where players could not install the “Lead Container” upgrade on the PSZ-5V Guardian of Freedom suit.
• Reduced the amount of smoke generated when firing a weapon with a silencer.
• Fixed an issue with the arm breaking when attaching the magazine to the machine gun.
• Corrected the visibility of the bullet in the magazine when reloading.
• Added the sound of splashing water when a bolt hits the surface.
• Fixed an issue where empty casings were ejected instead of bullets when unloading after changing the type of ammunition.
• Improved animation pauses when reloading weapons and using consumables.
• Addressed an issue where the bolt impact sound was missing when throwing over long distances.
• Minor fixes to the appearance of scopes.
• Fixed an issue where items were not consumed when used via quick access hotkeys.
• Fixed an issue where main weapon upgrades were applied to installed modules under the barrel.
• Minor fixes to blocked weapon animations.
• Fixed an issue where the player could equip the detector at the same time as the primary weapon.
• The cause of death is now displayed correctly on the death screen.
• Fixed an issue where the player would crash into the wall or another object while near a stealthy melee death.
• Fixed an issue where VFX particles for Psy Phantoms were missing when shooting near their models.
• Fixed an issue that could cause control to be lost after playing the guitar.
• Fixed an issue where players could gain unlimited load capacity by equipping unequipped armor.
• Fixed an issue where players could gain unlimited Stamina by starting a dialog while in a crouching stance.

And over 50 other issues have been addressed.

Player Guidance, Settings, and Menus

• Updated in-game tutorials to improve the user experience for first-time users.
• Fixed an issue where the player approached a mission location and new weapons randomly appeared and were equipped in the hand.
• Addressed an issue where the player could not swap the positions of compared weapons during the exchange.
• Activated upgrades for X7 suit.
• Added the ability to cancel the detachment of pre-installed modules in the upgrade menu.
• Added unique markers for mutants with electric collars.
• Reworked the system notifications interface for items received.
• Updated the descriptions of several armor upgrades.
• Addressed an issue where mission markers on NPCs could permanently disappear after the NPC became hostile towards the player.
• Removed the ability to trade with NPCs at the Noontide base.
• Some UI elements in the PDA’s upgrades menu have been revised.
• The design of some icons in the PDA menu has been revised.
• Fixed an issue where the upgrade tree UI would inconsistently change direction after switching between different weapons.
• Fixed missing animation for changing ammo type from the gamepad.
• Fixed appearance of threat indicator after closing the main menu.
• Fixed missing mouse wheel sound in the PDA.
• Option for output device is no longer reset after client restart.
• Fixed problem where a black screen was displayed after loading a specific memory file.
• Redundant pop-up window when resetting settings to default values removed.
• Moved upscaling quality settings to the Options menu.
• Changed the color of hiding places to purple.
• Fixed a bug that prevented techs from installing certain armor upgrades.
• Fixed an issue where the SSP-100 Discovery armor could not be upgraded by any technician.
• Fixed an issue where consumables could not be applied via quick slots.
• Fixed an issue where the reticle would not appear after reloading when the R key was pressed again.
• Fixed an issue with scrolling within a note in PDA.
• Fixed an issue where the user would move slowly and be unable to sprint after loading a saved file created while the user was leaning.
• Fixed an issue with the “HDR White Point” option.

And almost 100 other “anomalies” in this section have been fixed.

Achievements

• The problem that the achievement “The Four Winds” could not be obtained has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where the achievement “Bingo” could not be obtained.
• Fixed an issue where players could not unlock achievements in the EGS store.

Save games

• Fixed an issue where players could not load existing save games after the title and Steam process exited unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue with missing save files after a hard PC/Xbox restart.

Other improvements

• Over 15 localization and voiceover updates.
• Over 40 audio adjustments and volume tweaks of various kinds.
• Over 20 visual appearance improvements to some characters and NPCs.

And over 500 fixes for

• Foliage.
• Texture flicker.
• Errors in navigation networks.
• Collisions.
• Object positioning and contextual action bugs.
• VFX-related fixes.
• Non-destructible objects.
• And more.