STALKER 2 Releases New Update for March 2025

GSC Game World has released the massive 1.3 update for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, bringing “over 1200 changes and improvements to all aspects of the game.” This new STALKER 2 update continues to smooth out the experience for players of the successful survival game.

A game 15 years in the making, STALKER 2 was a big hit for GSC Game World, releasing at the tail-end of 2024 to critical and commercial success. It only took two days for it to sell one million copies, achieving profitability for the studio in less than a month. In early March 2025, STALKER 2 hit six million players in total, checking off another major milestone. Despite the success, GSC Game World has continued to update and improve the game, showing that the developer isn’t resting on its laurels.

Related

What to Expect From Stalker 2 in 2025

Stalker 2 has a bright future ahead of it, and among several improvements expected to arrive in 2025, there are multiple planned DLCs.

The patch notes for STALKER 2‘s latest 1.3 update were published on Steam, with GSC Game World confirming over 1200 changes and fixes have been applied in this latest update. Some key changes have been made to AI and combat, with mutants’ movement now much smoother. Many balance changes have been made, with STALKER 2‘s A-Life encounters now being “a bit more rare on average.” Almost 100 crashes have been fixed, which should go a long way to fixing the general stability of STALKER 2.

That’s not all, either. A bunch of fixes have been deployed across STALKER 2‘s side and main quests, mainly to stop players from becoming stuck during their playthroughs. To top it all off, there are plenty of generic technical fixes, including improved facial animations across the board. Not to mention the addition of “multiple new death screens that vary based on the cause of the death.”

Alongside general patches, there should be plenty more to come from STALKER 2 this year. GSC Game World has recently promised more accessible mod support for STALKER 2 in the future, which should come as great news to PC players of the game. A multiplayer mode is also planned down the road, which, according to the game’s Steam page, “will be added after release as a free update.” A release date for STALKER 2‘s multiplayer has not yet been given, but it’s still something for fans to look forward to.

STALKER 2 Update 1.3 Patch Notes

AI and Combat

• Made mutants movements during combat smoother.
• Improved the reaction of NPCs to the sound of footsteps.
• Polished ambush behavior for mutants, when Player is hiding behind or on top of props.
• Fixed an issue where mutants didn’t attack other NPCs once Player was in the safe zone.

Balance

• Archiartifacts rebalance:
  • Weird Water: decreased radiation protection.
  • Weird Nut: increased bleeding degeneration speed, further slowed down healing with equipped artifact.
  • Weird Flower: Increased smell masking effect.
  • Weird Ball: increased stamina gain, increased maximum weight of the artifact, but slowed down weight gain when being shot.
  • Weird Kettle: Debuff received from consuming food is now not random, and corresponds to specific type of food.
  • Non-Stop Limited Edition energy drinks now have an additional special effect when used with Weird Kettle.
• Made A-life encounters a bit more rare on average.
• Nerfed base anomaly damage protections for “combat” armors
• Buffed anomaly damage protection for “science” suites
• Slightly reworked anomaly damage for different anomalies
• Increased damage from destructible explosive props.
• Fixed an issue where the Weird Flower artifact was initially in a dried state instead of an active one after being picked up.
• Increased overall durability for unique weapons found during missions.

Bug Fixes, Crashes, and Performance

• Fixed a bug that could let players permanently stack the effect of unequipped artifacts.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent players from being able to use sprint after chaotic movement.
• Fixed an issue that caused some psy-phantoms of blind dogs to have misleading trails.
• Fixed the crash caused by zombification of NPCs.
• Fixed an issue when looting some story NPCs could block the mission.
• Fixed an issue when players could be locked inside the Ranger Station.
• Fixed an issue that could permanently keep visual effects of sleepiness if the save was made during a Main Quest line.
• Fixed issue with light from the flashlights in cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue where high ranked NPCs were able to spawn at Rookie Village location.
• Phantom stalkers that appear under the influence of Psy-effect no longer can damage other NPCs by throwing grenades.
• Fixed an issue where the HUD would sometimes appear transparent after closing the inventory or finishing a cutscene.
• Fixed visual bugs on character costumes (texture stretching caused by awkward animation poses).
• Fixed memory leaks issues when navigating inventory/looting menus (e.g. opening Player stash at Rostok).
• Resolved issues where NPCs got stuck in one place and obstructed player movement.
• Fixed the issue when the output device was resetted after restart of the title.
• Fixed an issue where a guide NPC was missing at Yaniv hub after unlocking Prypiat region.
• UI Update: Fixed localization issues, improved stability, resolved visual bugs in widgets, corrected text corruption, and SFX for a smoother experience.

Also, almost 100 crashes and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors were fixed.

Main and Side Quests, Open World Encounters

• Fixed an issue where player could not complete Escape from the Cage mission via the stealth path due to NPCs with high perception level.
• Fixed an issue where the player could destroy the Jammer before the start of the In the Name of Science mission.
• Fixed an issue where the Escape from the Chemical Plant objective did not complete if the call from the Strelok or Scar was interrupted by a loudspeaker during the Escape from the Cage mission.
• Fixed an issue where no new journal objective appeared and Dark Times mission was stuck after killing Jarl NPC.
• Fixed an issue with Eye of the Storm mission not progressing after reaching the Generators.
• Fixed an issue where side mission A Big Score was not progressing if emission happened while Player was at the Car Park.
• Fixed an issue when Player is not able to loot Faust’s body after receiving a call from Scar during Visions of Truth mission.
• Fixed an issue where Foma NPC could become invincible during the Chasing Ghosts mission.
• Fixed an issue where an encounter mission with Headlight NPC near Bulba Arch anomaly was not starting after completion of Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
• Fixed an issue where Yaryk Mongoose was hostile to the player during the For Science! mission.
• Fixed an issue when the Snork collar was not counted as collected if snork was killed not by a player character during the “In the Name of Science” mission.
• Fixed an issue where Korshunov could disappear at the start of 2nd phase of bossfight during the “Down Below” mission.
• Fixed an issue where All That Is Left mission didn’t cancel after Mateus death, resulting in redundant markers on artifact location.
• Fixed an issue where Akopyan was non interactable at the car park during A Big Score mission.
• Fixed an issue where plank bridges leading to Faust cell were collapsed for Players first arriving at Noontide base during Hot On The Trail mission.
• Fixed an issue where a Chemical Plant encounter mission with wardens shooting fleshes was stuck after luring mutants out.
• Fixed an issue when Jumper and Bluish sometimes was dead during Hot on the Trail mission.
• Fixed an issue when the door to forestry was locked during Extreme Simplicity mission if Player was encountering the emission while leaving the swamps.
• Fixed an issue when a quest NPC was able to be distracted by A-life enemies during the Three Captains mission.
• Fixed an issue where the bayun in collar was at the Detention Center instead of the Boathouse location during the A Minor Incident mission.
• Fixed an issue where the player could not progress through the mission if Heart of Chornobyl artifact was looted directly to the artifact slot from the Strelok’s body.
• Fixed an issue where Richter could be non-interactable at the Slag Heap location during the Back to the Slag Heap mission.
• Fixed an issue where Doctorant Shcherba could be dead for some players during the In Search of Past Glory mission.
• Fixed errors with some mission markers being not displayed correctly.
• Fixed an issue that could stop the progression of Escape the Chemical Plant mission.
• Fixed an issue that made players able to sell the key from the Northern Checkpoint which makes it unavailable to pass through.
• Fixed issues with Help Solder and Talk to Solder mission objectives.
• Fixed an issue where interaction prompt for dialogue with Richter could be missing after defending Yaniv during the The Boundary mission.
• Fixed an issue when Richter stops at the beginning of the path through the river during the Through the valley of the shadow of death mission.
• Fixed an issue where the doors to underground tunnel and Location D could be closed during the Once More unto the Breach mission.
• Fixed an issue where the player could stay in a closed location after a cutscene in the Dangerous Liaisons mission.
• Fixed an issue where the dialogue with prof. Ozersky was unavailable if the player killed Spark NPCs during the A Minor Incident mission.
• Fixed an issue where Dalin could be missing at the infirmary at the Chemical Plant location during the Escape from the Cage mission.

Technical Updates

• Added multiple new death screens that vary based on the cause of the death.
• Improved facial animations in the mainline.
• Improved audio obstruction for mutants’ sounds.
• Improved the positioning of various sounds.
• Added a new night music theme for Slag Heap.
• Added music for the elevator in SIRCAA.
• Added missing localizations for tutorials.
• Added descriptions that explain what is the difference between armor-piercing and expansive ammo.
• Improved some bullet-caused decals.
• Improved the visibility of enemies at nighttime by increasing the intensity of the NPC flashlights.
• Improved the shadows cast by the player’s flashlight.
• Several attachments and upgrades have been moved from “point of no returns” end game sequence to Prypiat stashes.
• Updates and fixes of NPC movement and shooting animations.
• Added option to change Melee weapon attack button in control settings.
• Added additional idle animations for NPCs with weapons drawn.
• Added new VFX animals and a new type of a visual anomaly.

Game

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Systems

Released

November 20, 2024

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Intense Violence, Blood, Use Of Drugs And Alcohol, Language, Crude Humor