The developers had already announced that there would be a first patch for the shooter this week. Now the update is available.
The release version of Stalker 2 not only has mutants and anomalies in store, but also an abundance of bugs and technical problems. Quest bugs and other serious problems occur more frequently in the later stages of the game, and can even block your progress. A first patch now fixes hundreds of small and large bugs.
So far, patch 1.0.1 is only available on Steam, where it covers about 14 gigabytes, but it should only take a few hours before it is released on Xbox and in the Game Pass.
What’s in patch 1.0.1?
In addition to the bug fixes, there are also initial balance adjustments that make earning money and fighting mutants easier. We’ll summarize the most important changes for you.
Bug fixes:
- Over 100 causes of crashes have been fixed.
- Numerous quest bugs have been fixed that sometimes blocked the completion of the mission.
- An issue has been resolved where NPCs do not reach their mission goal, which blocks the quest progress.
- Dead NPCs no longer fly away or remain in a T-pose.
- Assassins no longer steal quest items from you.
- Enemies no longer shoot at you when you are behind cover.
- The physics simulation of movable objects has been repaired.
- Fixed a bug that allowed items to be sold at a significantly higher price than intended.
- Missing quest markers have been restored.
- Flickering textures have been fixed.
Changes:
- Weapons and armor repair now cost less.
- You now receive more money for artifacts.
- You now receive more money for completing quests.
- Armor will degrade more slowly.
- Hercules no longer reduces your movement speed.
- Quest items weigh less.
- Various monsters have had their resilience reduced.
All other changes can be found on page 2 of the article. Patch 1.0.1 is just the first of many patches and updates.
As the developers announced in their launch message, bug fixes will initially have priority, before later updates will also integrate major improvements and even add new content to the shooter. The next step, however, is to fix bugs in the AI system A-Life.
Patch Notes
AI bug fixes:
- Bug fixed: Groups of NPCs got stuck near the shelter during active emissions and died.
- Bug fixed: Burer could drop mission items out of the player’s hands.
- Added missing sound effects for Burer’s Telekinesis ability.
- Fixed issues where NPCs would occasionally get stuck and not reach the mission location. This could result in being unable to interact with the NPC or progress to the next mission step due to the mission NPC’s idle behavior.
- Fixed performance issues/potential crashes due to low memory in hubs and locations with many NPCs during long play sessions.
- Fixed issue where NPCs went into A-pose or started flying after dying.
- Fixed the problem where NPCs could not track whether a target was protected from shots in cover, which caused them to shoot in cover.
And others, more than 20 different AI issues.
Optimization fixes:
- Fixed an issue where invisible NPCs/mutants would appear in the field of view while the player was aiming.
- Fixed fire visual effects not appearing at certain camera angles.
We also fixed about 100 different crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.
Audio and sound bug fixes:
- Fixed an issue where battle music would continue to play after combat ended.
And 7 other minor audio and sound bugs.
Balance adjustments:
- Weapon and armor repair costs have been reduced.
- The cost of artifacts has been significantly increased (more income from sales).
- The cash reward for most missions has been increased from 2 to 3.
- Armor and weapon buffs for beginners.
- Damage from mutants is moderately reduced on the beginner difficulty level (further changes to the health status of the mutants in the “Combat Balance” section).
- Damage to the player’s weapon is reduced by 23 percent on the beginner difficulty level.
- Armor durability increased by 12.5 percent.
- Silencer attachment for PTM added to a specific stash in the Lesser zone.
- Sale prices for exoskeletons corrected, they are now more expensive to sell.
- Corrected the selling price for improved weapons.
- Rebalanced Hercules consumables: removed the player speed debuff; increased effect parameters (players can now carry more weight after consumption).
Some additional minor bug fixes.
Combat balance:
- The weight of some mission items has been reduced (including the weight of scanners).
- The damage of Bloodsucker has been slightly rebalanced.
- The rank of Bloodsucker’s attack protection has been reduced (more weapon damage).
- Reduced Bloodsucker’s out-of-combat HP regeneration.
- Moderately reduced the HP of the Controller.
- Moderately reduced the HP of the Burer.
- Moderately reduced the HP of the Boar.
- Flesh HP reduced moderately.
- Boar headshot damage changed to 100% of body damage.
- Wild Boar damage taken from limb shots increased.
- Damage to meat when shooting limbs has been increased.
- Melee range of weapons has been significantly increased.
- Melee range of knives has been slightly increased.
Gamepad Input:
Increased Gamepad Dead Zones
Characters:
- Fixed NPC model eyes and teeth.
- Some minor fixes to NPC models and animations.
Cutscenes:
- Missing footage of TV displays added to the last cutscene.
- Fixed deer animation issue in opening sequence.
And 20 other assorted bugs in cutscenes.
Game Settings and Menus:
- Fixed unreadable text at the bottom of the shader compilation screen.
- Fixed an issue where the “Nvidia Reflex Low Latency” option was not saved when the game was restarted.
And 10 other minor issues.
Interactive objects:
- Physics issues with destructible and movable objects, including those floating in mid-air, have been fixed.
- Interaction prompt with glass doors in the SIRCAA courtyard that blocked a passage has been fixed.
- Fixed missing interior doors in the X-11 lab elevator.
And other minor bugs.
Main and side missions:
Numerous mission blockers and bugs that occurred under certain conditions have been fixed. The most important fixes include:
- Fixed inability to interact with dead guide dogs in the Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
- Fixed unobtainable objectives in the Seek, and You Shall Find mission.
- Fixed several issues in the “There and Back Again” mission, including one where the artifact could not be found.
- Fixed the dialogue loop with Zotov during the “A Needle in a Haystack” mission.
- Progress blockers in the “Answers Come at a Price” mission have been fixed, including issues with bandits after an emission and the missing item “Heavy Key”.
- The mission markers for NPC locations in the “Hot on the Trail” mission have been corrected.
- Issues related to doors in the missions “In Search of a Leader” and “The Side Job” have been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where the cutscene in the mission “Just Like Old Times” did not start.
- Fixed an issue where Lodochka was missing from Quiet’s camp in the “Just Like the Good Old Days” mission.
- Fixed an issue where Lodochka would act aggressively after the emitter was brought to him in “Just Like the Good Old Days”.
- It is now possible to turn off the power in the flooded area during the “To the Last Drop of Blood” mission.
- Fixed several issues in the mission “On the Edge”, including idle NPCs, stuck doors, and the progress of the monolith attack.
- Fixed progress blockers in the mission “A Minor Incident”, including issues with Bayun’s collar and locked doors.
- Performance dips and confusing objectives in the “In Search of Yesterdays Glory” mission have been fixed.
- Issues in the “Visions of Truth” mission have been fixed, including stuck NPCs and blocked progress after dialog.
- Fixed stuck cutscenes and blocked progress in the missions “Dangerous Visitors”, “Gray’s Last Hunt” and “The Eternal Shining”.
- Corrected the spawn behavior of NPCs and enemies in the missions “The Boundary” and “Escape from the Cage”.
- Missions like “Down Below”, “Budmo!” and “A Big Score” have been optimized to fix stuck NPCs, misaligned markers and missing dialogue options.
And about 120 other issues in the main line, side missions and encounters.
Open World Experience:
- Stretched or missing limbs on humanoid corpses have been corrected.
- Missing quick travel paths have been corrected, including the path to the concrete factory for Toadstool.
- Fixed issues with speakers, fast travel, and NPC interactions in various locations, such as the Scientists’ Bunker and the Chemical Plant.
- Adjusted the behavior of hostile NPCs during arena missions, including the tactics of the bandits and the increased ammo for the tyrant fight.
- Corrected the progress of the missions “Black Sheep” and “The Key to Freedom”.
And about 50 other issues were fixed.
Player management, equipment, and weapons:
- Fixed a bug that allowed items to be sold to the vendor for more money than they were actually worth.
- Fixed input blocking issues with the PDA, inventory, and attachments when interacting with artifacts.
- Corrected the behavior of the flashlight after saving/loading.
- Fixed issues with shell type selection, overlapping compass markers, and missing mission markers.
- Fixed inconsistencies with weapon and armor upgrade effects, including pricing and upgrade undos.
- Improved HUD behavior and increased the duration of the point of no return cues during the Down Below mission.
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to sell mission items via gamepad.
And about 50 other minor “anomalies”.
Voice acting and facial animations:
- Missing facial animations for Sava in the “Hot on the Trail” mission and Mugwort in the “The Eternal Glow” mission have been restored.
- Missing voice lines during the “No one should be dissatisfied” mission have been corrected.
- Corrected the effects of radio messages so that the voices of NPCs correctly reflect the distance during communication.
And a few other things were fixed.
World:
- Fixed flickering textures in various locations, including the Sphere, Military Base, and Chemical Plant.
- Fixed movement issues, including getting stuck in certain locations during missions such as “Once More Unto the Breach” and “A Tough Awakening.”
- Fixed artifact spawn points in some areas.
- Corrected NPC behavior during encounters.
- Adjusted voice volume during stormy weather to improve audio balance.
And about 50 other bugs.
