STALKER 2 Update 1.4.2 Is Out — It’s Small, But Worth a Look

If you’ve been hoping for a major leap forward in STALKER 2, slow your roll. Update 1.4.2 isn’t a game-changer. It doesn’t touch framerate issues. It doesn’t overhaul the A-Life system. It’s not going to transform your playthrough. But that doesn’t mean it’s useless. There are some quality-of-life fixes here that make the game less annoying and more consistent, and at this point, that’s still progress.

One of the more noticeable changes hits players using a gamepad. Before, if your framerate dropped, camera sensitivity also dropped to near-unplayable levels. It made aiming clunky and exploration sluggish. That’s been fixed, finally. Gamepad sensitivity now scales better and feels smoother, no matter your FPS.

Mutant behaviour also gets a bit less broken in this patch. Some enemies would spaz out when reacting to nearby threats—think twitching, shaking, straight-up goofy movements. That kind of jank has been ironed out, and they now move like actual creatures instead of broken physics objects.

Quick slots are another small but welcome fix. Items like food or meds were showing up in your UI as usable even when they weren’t in your inventory. Confusing as hell in combat or survival situations. That’s no longer the case. What you see is what you’ve actually got.

There's also one balance change: the armour-piercing multiplier for 9×18mm rounds has been nerfed. No surprise there—early-game ammo was punching way above its weight. This tweak should help rebalance some of the progression and reduce the viability of cheap gear in tougher fights.

Now, onto the more formal side of this patch.

Title Update 1.4.2 for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a stability-focused release. While it does not introduce new gameplay mechanics or optimisations, it addresses several issues affecting moment-to-moment play and narrative continuity. For players using controllers, the patch improves responsiveness by fixing an issue where camera movement was unreasonably slow under low-framerate conditions. This adjustment significantly enhances input consistency.

The update also includes a correction for abnormal enemy animations. Specifically, mutants would sometimes perform erratic movements while reacting to threats, breaking immersion. This behaviour has been resolved, ensuring that hostile encounters retain their intended tone and tension.

Inventory management has been improved with a fix related to consumables appearing in quick slots. Prior to the patch, items would display as available despite not being present in the player's actual inventory. This has been addressed to reduce confusion and unintentional decision-making during encounters.

Narrative progression has seen several critical bugs corrected. These include stuck objectives, missing quest triggers, and NPCs behaving inappropriately during mission sequences. These fixes ensure that affected quests—particularly “Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Last Step,” “The Boundary,” and “Once More Unto the Breach”—now proceed as intended.

Importantly, the patch appears to maintain full compatibility with existing mods. Mods enabling parkour-style climbing, unrestricted fast travel, enhanced looting mechanics, unlimited carry weight, and graphical improvements remain operational under version 1.4.2. As always, it is advisable to back up and save data and mod configurations prior to applying any official updates.

STALKER 2 Patch 1.4.2 Notes

• Balance changes: lowered armor piercing multiplier for 9×18 ammo.
• Fixed an issue where camera movement sensitivity was too low on low framerate when using gamepads as input devices.
• Fixed an issue where mutants were shaking and twitching erratically when investigating a threat.
• Fixed an issue where consumable items were duplicated in quick slots, and appeared as available, despite not being present in Player’s inventory.
• Fixed an issue where radiocall with Strelok was not triggered and next objective didn’t trigger if Player hadn’t killed all Wardens at TCS location during Dangerous Liaisons mission.
• Fixed an issue where Scar could get stuck playing confused animation after killing him during bossfight in The Last Step mission.
• Fixed an issue where Sanya Ocheret could start a combat with stalkers in his squad during The Boundary mission.
• Fixed an issue where doors to Duga’s underground tunnel and Location D could be locked on user saves during Once More Unto The Breach mission.

Steam will automatically apply the patch the next time the game is launched through the client. Players can review the full list of changes in the patch notes section below.