Incredible news: Stalker 2 fixes corpse-eating and sausage blood in big ol' patch which also gives enemies less of a death wish

They refer to it as a one-two combo. Yesterday, GSC hinted that they will soon release the remastered versions of the original Stalker games, as promised last year. Today, they’ve hinted again, indicating that not only are those remasters coming up next week, but they’ve also made over 700 improvements for Stalker 2. Importantly, these improvements address issues like corpse consumption and the use of sausage-like blood in the game.

Patch 1.4 for Stalker 2 is out today, and you can find GSC’s summarised list of its tweaks and fixes below. A few leap out to me, though. First up, the obvious big-ticket items: “Mutants can now use corpse-eating animation if there are dead bodies nearby,” reads one fix. “Fixed an issue where shooting at sausage props produced blood particles,” reads another (which GSC, god bless it, gives its own bespoke section in the patch notes).

It’s possible that the improvements made by GSC in enemy cover behavior might be more significant from a technical standpoint, though less emotionally impactful. If you recall playing Stalker 2 around its release, you might remember encountering enemies whose battle strategy was primarily to charge at you without much variation.

Following the update 1.4, enemies have become more tactical. Now, they smartly utilize their surroundings for cover, preferably taking hiding spots before opening fire, and they’re less likely to charge forward when it’s unnecessary. They also use trees as a form of protection, have improved flanking abilities, and work together more effectively in teams. Essentially, they’ve become less predictable and more challenging to face off against.

Now, weapons feature an additional attribute known as ‘handling’. Additionally, Game-Simulator Company (GSC) has made adjustments to the way all weapon stats are calculated within the game, enhancing the precision of these attributes in your inventory display.

they can no longer use shotguns for sniping.

Here are the expanded notes (full notes here):

Stalker 2 Patch 1.4 notes:

Highlights

Mutants can now use corpse-eating animation if there are dead bodies nearby.
Mutants now have an “alert” state if something is happening near or approaching them.
Improvements to human combat:
- Fixed numerous bugs and problems with cover usage for NPC. Now they can properly use available covers, always try to hide before shooting, and don’t rush forward when not needed.
- Characters use trees as cover.
- Updated combat and cover animations to look more fluent and fast.
- Improved flanking pathfinding and transition to close combat.
- Close combat has become tougher on Veteran and Stalker difficulties.
- Fixed issues in communication and actions synchronization between characters in the squad.
- Characters now communicate tactical actions and reactions more clearly in combat.
- Human characters throw grenades when they want to flush out the target, not on the cooldown.
- Squads now have a finite number of grenades, depending on their rank and faction (bandits have significantly less than military).
- Human characters are able to attack mutants in melee. They use kick melee attacks against smaller mutants.
- Human characters can kick players who are crouched.
- Human characters look around for a brief moment, searching for enemies after combat ends, then proceed to the post-combat activities like looting and healing wounded.
- Humans are no longer able to snipe with shotguns. Fixed problems with pellet dispersion and non-natural ballistic distances.
Increased number of generic heads for NPC randomization
Burer can now use his telekinetic abilities to catch and throw grenades
Improved Weapon stat displaying in the inventory. Updated weapon stats bars and their calculation logic.
Added new weapon stat — handling.

AI and Combat

Fixed erratic behavior of A-Life NPCs after attacking enemy lairs.
Fixed an issue where A-Life NPC didn’t move after transitioning to offline.
Improved mutant behavior during combat.
Fixed an issue where a Flesh mutant was hiding to ambush the Player after they avoided a jump attack.
Fixed an issue where a swarm of rat mutants were ignoring the Player after loading a save made near them.
Improved path building for NPCs in offline to avoid them getting in restricted areas.
Fixed an issue where an NPC was able to stay alive after falling in a wounded state underwater.
Fixed an issue where mutants’ bodies were jumping/shaking/stretching after being killed by shotgun or grenade.
Fixed an issue where patrolling NPCs could clip with each other.
Blind Dogs are now playing peaceful barks when not in combat with Player.
Fixed issues where NPCs were clipping or going through doors while in combat.
Fixed an issue where mutants were able to get stuck searching for enemies after escaping combat during emission.
Fixed an issue when NPCs could be stuck in ambush pose.
Adjusted aim for the NPCs that are in low cover.
Fixed an issue when the NPCs could stay idle after receiving critical damage.
Adjusted shooting range of NPCs depending on their weapon.
Adjusted shooting from cover for the NPCs.

Balance

RPM-74: increased armor piercing value
Explosions now cause more damage on high-ranking targets
Increased RPG damage
Decreased lethal distance for grenades
Increased concussion distance for RPG
Added some silencers into stashes.
Added Khors the possibility to upgrade Zircon Suit.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to install physical protection upgrades twice for PSZ-9I Falcon armor.
Rebalanced stashes in Zaton region.
Improved regeneration and spawn of random anomalies after emission.

Bug Fixes, Crashes, and Performance

Made performance optimization of light and shadows in multiple regions and locations.
Improved LODs for grass in multiple regions.
Performance optimization for light garland at 100 Rads Bar.
Some other Under the Hood CPU performance and optimizations tweaks were made.
Fixed an issue where bullet hit decals would not appear on certain parts of Mutant and NPC bodies.
Fixed an issue where a Vortex arch-anomaly was throwing NPC corpses under terrain.
Fixed an issue where an anomaly spawned by an Electric Poltergeist was invisible.
Fixed an issue where stamina was spent even if action wasn’t available.
Fixed generic issues where NPCs were unable to reach a scripted animation pose if it was located too far.
Fixed an issue where Zombies were able to fall under level geometry.
Fixed an issue where sounds of raindrops were playing for certain props located underground.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to stuck behind the door in Sidorovich’s bunker.
Fixed an issue with the HUD opacity option not working.
Fixed an issue where dynamic shadows cast by flashlight appeared jagged.
Fixed an issue where some effects could stuck on the player after loading a save.
Fixed an issue where some effects could not be applied to the player after loading a save.
Fixed an issue where increment in Psi Protection was displayed on armor stat bar when selecting Radiation Protection upgrade on some exosuits.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to get to Prypiat ahead of time by jumping over the railroad cistern on Yaniv.
Fixed an issue where a broken weapon didn’t have a red background when equipped.
Fixed Trader items being sorted after cancelling trade.
Fixed an issue where no technicians in the game were able to install “Extra Barrel Upgrade” to SVDM-2 and Lynx sniper rifles
Fixed an issue where mutants with telekinetic abilities were unable to pick up or throw items or corpses directly at Player.
Fixed an issue where Bayun didn’t deal any damage during his Jump Attack.

Main & Side Quests, Open World Encounters (warning: spoilers)

Fixed an issue where objective Find Spirit could not end if the player talks to Spirit again right after finishing dialogue during The Boundary mission.
Fixed an issue where Faust was not appearing on the roof of Comm Center during bossfight in Once More Unto The Breach mission, if Player distracted him with a grenade.
Fixed an issue where Scar didn’t approach Visiograph to start dialogue with Player during Visions Of Truth mission.
Fixed an issue where Snork’s collar wasn’t counted as collected if Snork’s corpse is already despawned in In The Name Of Science mission.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to get stuck closed behind two bunker doors in airlocks during The Last Step mission.
Fixed an issue where Max Saturday was already dead and despawned for some users during The Lost Boys mission.
Fixed an issue where a part of the world was missing at the exit from an underground teleportation room near Death Valley in certain conditions during Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death mission.
Fixed an issue with an unresponsive Korshunov in A-pose after the bossfight during the Down Below mission.
Fixed an issue when A Matter Of Honor mission wasn’t completed if the player killed all Duty members after repelling the Monolith attack.
Fixed an issue when Skif could die from bleeding in cutscene after the bossfight with Korshunov during the Down Below mission.
Fixed an issue where the door leading out of Noontide base was locked during the Just Like The Good Old Days mission.
Fixed an issue that prevented re-entering the tunnel after it was opened by a scanner during The Boundary mission.
Fixed an issue with missing Richter during The Boundary mission.
Fixed an issue with inability to progress the walkthrough of Just Like The Good Old Days mission if the fuse was thrown out of inventory.
Fixed an issue where the Ganja mission The Freedom Colosseum was absent if the player character teleported to Rostok via guide.
Fixed an issue with the inability to talk to Dubniy during the Hot On The Trail mission.
Fixed an issue with a locked bunker during the The Boundary mission.
Fixed an issue when it was unable to talk with Roosevelt in the mission Legends of the Zone.
Fixed an issue where the “Get to the helicopter pad” journal objective was not ending during the Law And Order mission.
Fixed an issue where Player’s Camera could get stuck panning at Darwin’s corpse, if Player did save/load during an encounter mission at Ruined Bridge, Backwater region.
Removed redundant invisible collision in the middle of Ganja’s bar at Rostok base.
Fixed an issue where Richter and Warlock’s comments in A Tough Awakening mission could get stuck resulting in permanent Emission weather after Hot on the Trail mission.
Fixed an issue where friendly NPCs were not interactable during Dawn Of A New Day mission if Player threw grenades inside Rostok Depot.
Fixed an issue where emission shelter at Noontide base didn’t protect Player after save/load during Just Like The Good Old Days mission.
Fixed an issue where repeatable missions from multiple vendors were stuck on the reward stage.
Fixed an issue where Player couldn’t talk to Squint during A Needle In A Haystack mission if they sold his artifact.
Fixed an issue where Gray’s Last Hunt mission was not finished if the deer mutant was despawned.
Fixed an issue where Player was unable to give a briefcase to Sultan during The Mysterious Case mission, if they killed ambushing stalkers before talking to them.
Fixed an issue where the game didn’t progress after talking to Senkevych in the Like A Moth To The Flame mission due to the missing radio operator NPC nearby.
Fixed an issue where a marker was missing on Richter during the Bring the collar to Richter journal stage of A Minor Incident mission.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to get stuck in a basement near a cemetery during the Eye of the Storm mission.
Fixed an issue where Scar was not appearing at the Malachite secret entrance after clearing out X17 in the Visions Of Truth mission.
Fixed an issue where Player could leave X17 lab via elevator without a way back during assault in Visions Of Truth mission.
Fixed an issue where Akopyan refused to talk with Player during A Big Score mission.
Fixed an issue where Player wasn’t able to progress the story after reaching Generators during emission in Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death mission.
Fixed an issue where Player was able to break cutscene with the pod and stuck in the room with Richter during The Last Wish mission.
Fixed an issue where the dialog with Scar was not available for some users during the Visions Of Truth mission.
Fixed an issue when the On the Edge mission could start after the death of all stalkers in Zalissya.
Fixed an issue when the All That Is Left mission could not be finished if the player agreed to throw Wardens body into an anomaly.
Fixed an issue where Strelok was dashing too often and almost didn’t attack Player during his boss fight

Technical Updates

Improved pathing for NPCs.
Minor polishment and improvement for scripted NPC animations.
Human characters that turn on flashlights are now slightly more illuminated and visible in the dark.
Improved sound obstruction for grenades thrown outside from indoors location.
Added a new emission shelter in Chemical Plant’s dining room.
Added emission shelter to technician room at Ranger Station, Zaton region.
Improved facial animations and realism.
Improved impact sounds for the bolt.
Removed redundant blur effect on Player’s vitals stat panel during trade.
Added Player’s vitals stat panel in the trade menu.
Added new death animations and sound effects for electricity, acid, bullet, and rat bites’ damage.

We thought that these updates deserve their own spotlight, please be ready!

Fixed an issue where shooting at sausage props produced blood particles
Fixed an issue where ducks could fly into the water after being shot at.

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2025-05-15 19:05

Incredible news: Stalker 2 fixes corpse-eating and sausage blood in big ol’ patch which also gives enemies less of a death wish

Stalker 2 Patch 1.4 notes:

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