In keeping with the studio’s monthly update cadence for its open-world survival shooter STALKER 2, developer GSC Game World has now released Patch 1.3 for the game. The update follows February’s large Patch 1.2, and like that patch, this one brings well over 1,000 fixes, improvements, and tweaks to the Xbox and Windows PC exclusive title.
In total, Patch 1.3 features 1,200+ notes (check the section at the bottom of this article for a list), including improvements to mutant movement animations that make them smoother and more readable, tweaks to make their combat behaviors more consistent, the addition of new contextually chosen death screens so you don’t always have to look at that ugly bloodsucker face, and over 400 fixes for main and side quests. On top of that, GSC has adjusted the exceedingly rare archiartifacts with some small nerfs and/or buffs and has also improved performance by resolving numerous technical issues.
Overall, very few of the patch notes are individually very significant or noteworthy, but all of them should come together to refine the overarching STALKER 2 experience. One additional that’s crucial to mention, though, is the introduction of squirrels to The Zone. I mean, look at them; you’d best guard your nuts closely, stalkers.
Look whose here! 🐿 🐿 🐿 Restless squirrels will appear in the Zone with patch 1.3. Not so dangerous as some bigger ‘locals’, but these creatures can get nuts from any stalker.🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿 pic.twitter.com/ymn9h3epf2March 12, 2025
All in all, Patch 1.3 seems like a pretty great update, though the more I’ve played STALKER 2, the more I’ve come to realize that the game still has a glaring issue with its in-game trade/repair economy. It’s often frustratingly difficult to earn enough money from jobs and selling loot to keep your gear repaired, let alone buy new stuff like valuable armor upgrades, weapon attachments, and stuff like that.
This aspect of its gameplay hasn’t meaningfully been adjusted much since STALKER 2 came out last November, and it’s why community-made tweaks like hawkidoki’s Reduced Repair Cost are some of the game’s most popular mods. I was really hoping we’d finally see GSC ease our financial burdens with this update, but sadly, that didn’t happen — and at the moment, it’s unclear if it’s something the studio even plans to adjust.
Still, it’s nice that this is something you can easily address in the PC version of the game with mods, and that solution will be available on Xbox too once the developers bring mod support to console (we know it’s coming). Until they do — or balance the economy in a future update — Xbox stalkers will just have to be frugal with their cash.
Notably, GSC Game World says it’s “already started working on the next update,” and that it’s eager to get feedback from players about how STALKER 2 plays on social media. If you encounter bugs or glitches, the studio also requests that you fill out a report on the STALKER 2 Technical Support Center page so that it can start working on a fix.
What might come in a hypothetical Patch 1.4 is anyone’s guess, but we do know STALKER 2 is eventually getting some major content additions like PvP Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch multiplayer and a pair of story expansions. A roadmap was planned for Q1 2025, but it hasn’t been shared yet; hopefully it comes soon, as I’m looking forward to learning more about what GSC is cooking.
STALKER 2 is available to purchase on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC for $59.99, though notably, it’s on sale for just $38.79 at CDKeys thanks to a pretty killer deal. Alternatively, you can access it by subscribing to Xbox Game Pass, with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate letting you play it across Xbox, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
STALKER 2 update 1.3: Patch notes
Below, you’ll find the highlights from the patch notes of this update that were taken directly from GSC Game World’s Steam news post about the patch. Note that the full patch notes are available on the studio’s website; they’re far too long to list here.
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.
