S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's first update lands with over 650 fixes, here are the patch notes

Just as promised, GSC Game World's first post-launch update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has landed. The patch is aiming to make the open-world adventure set in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone a much more stable experience, with the studio touting the over 650 fixes being included in it for resolving "quest blockers, memory leaks, crashes, and minor bugs."

Aside from general optimizations and fixes for AI, audio, controls, characters, cutscenes, menus, and a whole lot of quests, the studio has made a massive number of tweaks to game balance too. This involves decreasing weapon and armor repair costs, better rewards for missions, easier rookie difficulty, reduced weight for some items, and HP reductions for a number of enemies that were called out for being bullet sponges.

Here are the complete patch notes straight from the developer:

AI Fixes:

• Fixed groups of NPCs getting stuck and dying near Shelter during active Emission.
• Fixed issue when Burer could drop any mission items out of the player's hands.
• Added missing sound effects for Burer’s 'Telekinesis' ability.
• Fixed issues with NPCs occasionally getting stuck and not reaching the mission location, which might have caused inability to interact with NPC or progress to the next mission stage.
• Fixed issues with performance drops and potential out-of-memory crashes in hubs and locations crowded with NPCs during long play sessions.
• Fixed issue when NPCs would move to A-pose or start flying after death.
• Fixed issue where NPCs could not track whether a target in cover was covered from shots, causing them to shoot into cover.
• And other, more than 20 different issues with AI.

Optimization Fixes:

• Fixed issue with invisible NPCs/Mutants appearing in FOV while the Player is scoping.
• Fixed fire visual effects that were not rendering at certain camera angles.
• Fixed approximately 100 different crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.

Audio & Sound Fixes:

• Fixed issue when combat music was still playing while combat was finished.
• And 7 other minor audio & sound bugs.

Balance Adjustments:

• Weapons and armor repair cost is decreased.
• Significantly increased cost of artifacts (more revenue from selling).
• Money reward for most missions increased from 2 to 3 times.
• Rookie difficulty armor and weapons buffs.
• Damage from mutants is moderately decreased on Rookie difficulty (more mutant health balance changes in Combat Balance section).
• Damage to player's weapon decreased by 23% on Rookie difficulty.
• Armor durability is increased by 12.5%.
• Added silencer attachment for PTM to specific stash on Lesser Zone.
• Fixed sell prices for Exoskeletons; they are now more expensive to sell.
• Fixed sell price of upgraded weapons.
• Rebalanced Hercules consumable: player speed debuff removed; increased effect parameters.
• Some additional minor bugfixes.

Combat Balance:

• Reduced weight of some mission items (including scanners).
• Slightly rebalanced Bloodsucker’s damage.
• Decreased Bloodsucker’s strike protection rank (more damage from guns).
• Reduced Bloodsucker’s HP regeneration outside combat.
• Moderately reduced HP of Controllers, Burers, Boars, and Flesh.
• Adjusted damage to Boars and Flesh from headshots and limb shots.
• Significantly increased weapon melee distance.
• Slightly increased knife melee distance.

Gamepad Input:

• Increased gamepad dead zones.

Characters:

• Fixed eyes and teeth on NPC models.
• Some minor fixes of NPC models and animations.

Cutscenes:

• Added missing footage to TV displays in the final cutscene.
• Fixed issue with deer animation in the opening cutscene.
• And 20 other different bugs in cutscenes.

Game Settings & Menus:

• Adjusted unreadable text at the bottom of the Shader Compilation screen.
• Fixed issue with the 'Nvidia Reflex Low Latency' option not being saved on subsequent boots of the game.
• And 10 more minor issues.

Interactable Objects:

• Fixed physics issues with destructible and movable objects, including those floating in the air.
• Fixed interaction prompt with glass doors in SIRCAA’s inner yard, which caused a walkthrough blocker.
• Fixed missing inner doors in the X-11 laboratory elevator.
• And more minor bugs.

Main and Side Missions:

• Resolved numerous mission blockers and bugs under specific conditions.
• Fixed missing interaction with dead Blind dogs in Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
• Fixed uncompletable objectives in the Seek, and You Shall Find mission.
• Fixed multiple issues in There and Back Again mission.
• Resolved dialog loop in A Needle in a Haystack mission.
• Fixed progression blockers in Answers Come at a Price mission.
• Corrected mission markers in Hot on the Trail mission.
• And approximately 120 other issues in missions and encounters.

Open World Experience:

• Fixed stretched or missing limbs on humanoid corpses.
• Fixed missing fast travel routes, including to the Concrete Plant for Toadstool.
• Resolved issues with loudspeakers, fast travel, and NPC interactions.
• Adjusted hostile NPC behavior during the Arena missions.
• And approximately 50 other issues were fixed.

Player Guidance, Gear, and Weapons:

• Fixed bug allowing items to be sold to traders for more money than they cost.
• Fixed input blocking issues with the PDA, inventory, and attachments.
• Corrected flashlight behavior after saving/loading.
• Resolved issues with grenade selection, compass marker overlaps, and mission markers.
• And approximately 50 minor anomalies.

Voiceover and Facial Animations:

• Restored missing facial animations for Sava and Mugwort in missions.
• Fixed missing voice lines during the Let No One Leave Unsatisfied mission.
• Corrected radio call effects for proper distance reflection during communication.

World:

• Fixed flickering textures in various locations.
• Resolved movement issues in specific missions.
• Corrected artifact spawn points in some areas.
• Fixed NPC behavior during encounters.
• Adjusted voice volume during storm weather for improved audio balance.
• And approximately 50 more bugs.

The A-Life simulation system was also mentioned as being looked into by the developer, something that the playerbase has been reporting to be broken. Fixes for it will only arrive in later patches, though. GSC Game World is requesting players to submit more bug reports in its dedicated technical support portal here.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and GOG) and Xbox Series X|S, as well as Game Pass.

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