Combat, balancing and quest bugs are the biggest issues addressed by patch 1.3. The complete patch notes include over 1,200 changes and fixes.
After the last big patch in February, players of Stalker 2 had to wait a long time – but now update 1.3 is finally here
The new patch for the first-person shooter brings a variety of improvements, including smoother and (hopefully) more exciting mutant fights, balance adjustments and numerous bug fixes.
Good news:Over 400 quest bugs have been fixed, so that, according to developer GSC Game World, many blocked missions can now finally be completed.
Are we reviewing Stalker 2 now?
In our original review of the release version of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, we encountered many problems with the game. As a result, we decided to devalue the game by 15 points due to technical defects. However, we plan to re-evaluate the game after the third major update. Since this is a large game, we need some time to thoroughly evaluate the many new features.
Stalker 2 Update 1.3 brings smoother combat and smarter mutants
The complete patch notes include over 1,200 entries, we have provided a condensed version with the most important changes on page 2 of the news.
Some of the highlights concern the zone shootouts. Mutants now act more dynamically in combat, their movements appear more natural and they react better to sounds such as players’ footsteps.
They will also attack other NPCs more consistently, even when the player is in a safe zone. Mutant ambush spots are now more dangerous, as they react better to the player’s cover use.
The balance of some artifacts has been revised. For example, “Weird Water” now reduces radiation protection, while “Weird Nut” stops bleeding faster but slows down healing.
Also, the protection values of armor have been adjusted: Combat armor is less resistant to anomalies, while science suits offer more protection against this threat. In addition, some anomalies have been slightly modified in their effect.
More stability and fewer annoying bugs
According to the developers, numerous memory leaks have been fixed. The problem with the transparent interface after inventory or menu calls has been solved. Crashes caused by NPC zombification and errors such as a disabled sprint button are a thing of the past. In total, almost 100 crashes and critical errors have been eliminated.
One of the biggest criticisms of Stalker 2 was flawed missions. In our test, these caused a big devaluation – update 1.3 does a massive clean-up here. Over 400 quest bugs have been fixed, including blocked mission objectives, missing NPCs or faulty scripts
In addition to fixes and balance changes, there is also new content:Several new death scenes, which differ depending on how you die, have been added. There are also improved lighting and shadow effects, revised flashlight shadows, and new music for certain areas. Players can also look forward to optimized controls – melee attacks can now be assigned individually.
The update 1.3 is now available on Steam Players of the Game Pass version of Stalker 2 will have to wait a little longer.
The abbreviated patch notes for Stalker 2 Update 1.3
Table of Contents
AI and Combat
- Mutant movement in combat has been made smoother.
- Improved the way NPCs react to the sound of footsteps.
- Mutants’ ambushing behavior has been revised when the player is hiding behind or on objects.
- Fixed a bug where mutants would not attack other NPCs once the player was in the safe zone.
Balance
New balancing of the Archi artifacts:
- Weird Water:; Reduced radiation protection.
- Weird Nut:; Increased bleeding degeneration, further slowing of healing with equipped artifact.
- Weird Flower: Increased odor masking.
- Weird Ball: Increased endurance gain, increased maximum artifact weight, but slower weight gain when fired upon.
- Weird Kettle:The debuff after eating food is no longer random, but corresponds to the type of food.
- Non-Stop Limited Edition– Energizer drinks now have an additional special effect when used with the Weird Kettle.
- A-life encounters have been made slightly less frequent on average.
- The base protection against anomaly damage for “combat” armor has been weakened.
- The anomaly protection for “science” armor has been strengthened.
- Anomaly damage for various anomalies has been slightly revised.
- Damage from destructible explosive objects has been increased.
- Fixed an issue where the Weird Flower artifact would initially be in a dried state instead of an active state when picked up.
- Increased the overall durability of unique weapons from missions.
Bug fixes, crashes and performance
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to permanently stack the effect of unequipped artifacts.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from sprinting after chaotic movement.
- Fixed an issue where some Psy Phantoms of Blind Dogs left misleading traces.
- Fixed the crash caused by zombifying NPCs.
- Fixed a bug where looting certain story NPCs would cause the mission to become blocked.
- Fixed an issue that could trap players inside the Ranger Station.
- Fixed a bug that could cause visual drowsiness effects to persist when saving the game during a main quest.
- Fixed an issue with flashlight lighting in cutscenes.
- Fixed a bug where high-level NPCs could appear in the Rookie Village
- Phantom Stalkers who appear under the influence of Psy can no longer injure other NPCs with grenade throws.
- Fixed a bug where the HUD would sometimes appear transparent after closing the inventory or exiting a cutscene.
- Fixed visual bugs on character costumes (e.g. texture distortion caused by unnatural animations).
- Fixed memory leaks when navigating the inventory or looting menus (e.g. when opening the player stash in Rostok).
- Fixed issues where NPCs would get stuck in place and block player movement.
- Fixed an issue where the audio output device was reset after restarting the game.
- Fixed a bug where a guide NPC was missing in Yaniv after unlocking the Prypjat region.
- UI-Update: Fixed localization issues, improved stability, fixed visual bugs in widgets, fixed text corruption and SFX issues.
In addition, almost 100 crashes and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors have been fixed.
Main and side quests, open-world encounters
- Fixed an issue where players could not complete the mission Escape from the cage via the secret route because NPCs had too high a perception.
- Fixed an issue where the player could destroy the Jammer before the start of the mission In the Name of Science
- Fixed an issue where the mission objective Escape from the Chemical Plant was not completed if the call from Strelok or Scar was interrupted by a loudspeaker during the mission Escape from the Cage was interrupted by a loudspeaker.
- Numerous mission and encounter bugs have been fixed that caused quests to be blocked or mission markers to malfunction.
Technical updates
- Added multiple new death scenes that vary depending on the cause of death.
- Improved facial animations in the main story.
- Improved sound attenuation for mutant sounds.
- Improved the positioning of various sounds.
- Added a new night music theme for the Slagheap
- Added elevator music to SIRCAA
- Added missing localizations for tutorials.
- Added descriptions explaining the difference between armor-piercing and expansive ammunition.
- Improved some bullet impact decorations.
- Improved enemy visibility at night by increasing the intensity of NPC flashlights.
- Improved the shadows cast by the player flashlight.
- Moved various attachments and upgrades from the “Point of No Return” endgame sequence to Prypjat stashes.
- Updates and fixes for NPC movement and shooting animations.
- Added an option to change melee keybindings in the control settings.
- Added additional idle animations for NPCs with drawn weapons.
- New VFX animals and a new type of visual anomaly have been added.
