There’s a new patch out for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl-the 1.5.1 version; this mixed bag update hopefully fixes some pesky issues while putting out more annoying ones. Those weirdest bugs of the game were among the ones the update attempted to clear up: like bloodsuckers crashing the party in safe zones (literally!) and NPCs flying off into orbit after a headshot. Though the patch promises stability, most reports of crashes have come from the Xbox Series X.
The patch notes published onto Twitter by the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. account recounted the important fixes. Now Bloodsuckers-whatever those creepy ones were, mutants invisible, so they could get into hub areas, which was totally immersion-breaking-no longer may do this. And now NPCs are supposed to remain on the ground after being shot, stopped improvising as rockets. However, celebrations are very short-lived.
Reports of crashes on Xbox abound. One user, @Iateyourhorse, claims ‘even with all mods disabled, in fact, every five minutes, it would boot me to the dashboard.’ @ciullilorenzo went as far as saying, “Please, even after this patch every time I enter the game, the game continues to crash (Xbox Series X) 😪.” Oof.
PC people are experiencing their share of troubles, as well. @Beardface1982 says the hotfix isn’t even out for PC Game Pass in Europe, and crashes are still random. Whereas @Timoshi_Gusu, on the other hand, has decided to wait until a “big performance patch” drops, so hooray for that.
Not everything here is gloomy or all dark! Some players actually loved the bugs; @haysquirt joked, “I kinda liked the STALKER Space Program!” referring to the flying NPCs bug, while @Shay16663377054 lamented, “The stalker space program is over. :(”
The release of the patch has also descended upon the final days of the Steam Summer Sale 2025, which goes on offer with a 30% discount for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2; the sale ends on July 10. If you ever hesitated in making the purchase, this is that moment-bugs and all.
Still, the skeptics are rising. “Disappointing,” @AvalancheGamin4 wrote, frustrated with enemies glitching inside of walls and firing through them. Others like @HCMFC94 candidly asked, “Is this worth a redownload? Played on release and was a bit of mess.”
There’s still a whole lot more that GSC Game World needs to tackle, like controller deadzone settings being non-responsive (@mati_z8 was complaining about that), and disappearing weapons off dead enemies (@kurolneko protested in Ukrainian). But with the studio very much still involved, hopefully, there will be a fix for this very soon.
Does that mean you jump into it? If you’re a PC gamer willing to cope with some jank, maybe. As for Xbox players? Maybe hold on a little while longer. Whatever, though, the Zone is still calling-bugs and all.
At least the bloodsuckers won’t spoil the aura of safe zones anymore. Can’t promise you any more wins like this one; until then, cherish it.
