‘STALKER 2’ Addresses Balancing and AI-Related Issues in Substantial Patch

STALKER 2 was the beginning of the Xbox’s “soft reboot” era. Releasing at the tail-end of November 2024, it was the first Xbox exclusive in quite some time to reinvigorate the brand. Now, Microsoft’s favorite Green Machine is firing off on all cylinders: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, 33 Immortals — hell, even Forza Horizon 5 heading to the PS5 is a major win for the console! STALKER 2, the arguable origin point of Xbox’s recent indomitable goodwill streak, received a major patch! Let’s see what’s going on, shall we?

‘stalker 2’ patch 1.3 details

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.

‘stalker 2’ 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 STALKER 2 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.

(2)

• 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 a STALKER 2 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.

(3)

• 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.

‘stalker 2’ 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.