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Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl sees its biggest patch yet as developers roll out over 1,700 fixes in a single Xbox/PC update. GSC Game World, the developers behind the adventure survival game, released patch 1.2 on Xbox Series X/S and PC. It easily dwarfs the first patch released in early 2025.
The developers shared a Steam blog post detailing every change on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
The post read: “We are ready to present you Patch 1.2. A massive one, with over 1700 improvements and fixes to all aspects of the game: balance, locations, quests, blockers, crashes, performance, more A-Life 2.0 fixes, you name it.
“This work wouldn’t have been possible without your feedback and comments on your personal experience with the Zone, thanks for sharing it here on Steam, Reddit, Discord, and other socials.”
What’s new in Stalker 2?
There’s a lot to unpack from the 1.2 update, so here’s the gist of it.
- The A.I has seen technical improvements all around. This includes fixes to NPC interactions, shooting accuracy, stealth detection, and the behavior of mutants in combat.
- Balance updates have been rolled out. Damage has been rebalanced for pistols, spawn rates have been adjusted, and more NPCs can be traded with at Hubs.
- Stalker 2 will also see better FPS performance all around. Players will see a smoother experience in certain boss fights and when navigating the game’s U.I.
- Quality of Life improvements have been introduced, including renamed ammo types, NPC bug fixes, and improved lighting.
- Several problems that have plagued the main story missions have been addressed, with over 300+ quest issues resolved.
- Anomalies in certain side quests were dealt with, from level design improvements to more consistent rewards in repeatable missions.
- 30+ issues were raised about interacting with objects and map experience, from A-posing corpses to missing damage state icons. These issues have since been mended.
- The gear and state player’s experience in the game has been adjusted, creating more robust gameplay with grenade behavior, animation fixes, and more.
- Game settings are better this time around, with maps presenting more information, and controls/key binds suffer fewer hiccups.
- Graphical improvements have been implemented across Stalker 2’s locations, and players will be less likely to be stuck in certain areas of the map.
In the post, GSC Game World said: “Audio, Cutscenes, and VO have been improved with almost 100 fixes, each aimed to enhance your game experience.”
Further details can be read on the official Stalker 2 website patch 1.2 page.
Stalker 2 has seen a lot of patch updates since it was first released on November 20, 2024. Last year’s patch for Stalker 2 fixed up a whole host of AI issues and more.
The game has come a long way since then and has released various patches to resolve issues that were prevalent at Stalker 2’s launch.
