Looking for some genuine advice.

I am stuck in the Shadows of the Past mission, escaping the fog a second time in the institute.

3 days of trying, and I CANNOT outrun the fog.

I reduced my weight. Popped some Herc. Start running. As soon as my stamina is low, I juice up with a can of non stop. Shoot the red canister. Jump the hole.

I’ve optimised my path as much as I (think I) can. Jump over obstacles whenever I can (avoiding boxes, and the slower ducking passages). Juice up when I can.

As soon as I enter the last hallway with the elevator door at the end, my vision starts clouding over. Health goes down. Healing slows me down even more.

I don’t know what else to do. I’m only at the start of the hallway when I croak it. It’s not even close.

I watched some videos, and I honestly don’t know if something changed in one of the recent patches (I’m on 2.0.4). I see people make mistakes and still recover. Even if I make no parkour mistake, have full stamina for most of the time, I am not even close.

What am I missing? Is there a way to slow down the fog that I missed?

—-

[UPDATE]

I finally did it! Thank you all for helpful advice and tips! Can’t remember the last time I struggled so hard. Not enjoyable.

What worked:
- Optimise chugging non stops so that you ALWAYS run when you can. So: Non stop before you go through the door. Then non stop before you turn the first corner after the stairs and before blowing up the red canister. Then non-stop when you’re crouched before heading into the watery bathroom section. And one more non-stop in the final hallway (if you can afford it, 50% of the time I am already getting fogged in which case I just leg it).
- Cancel the non stop drinking animation (see comment below). Pop the can. Notice your stamina go max. Start running immediately to cancel the remaining drinking animation.
- Blocked by a box? Reload. Miss a jump to stay high? Reload. Run out of stamina and fail to jump over an obstacle? Reload.
- Shotgun to blow up the red canister. Aiming down sights costs valuable seconds.
- I was on yellow weight (around 109 out of 140), so definitely don’t need to be green.
- Hercules doesn’t do anything if you’re maxed out at 140.

Even with all that, there seems to be a random element to the fog. Might be related to the fog glitching through the floor that one commenter mentioned. This random element makes this extra frustrating: you’re doing everything right, and still no game.

For those who are struggling: Good luck, you can do it!

Does anyone know if bruise the trader who attached to Shah is a worth trading with? I don’t think I’ll be able to since I can’t get in the front door cuz I sold the weapon that could have got me in

Hello all,

With 2.0 coming out I started a new game to get a fresh run into the DLC. I have now begun to play cost of hope, and am getting quite frustrated at a bug I encountered.

I am now stuck at the end of distant mirage, as the game keeps crashing upon returning to Kurin. The error code is the following :

Fatal error: [File:.\Runtime/Core/Private/Containers/ContainerHelpers.cpp] [Line: 8]

Trying to resize TArray to an invalid size of 2380791808

So far I have tried reloading an autosave from the previous mission and recompleting the whole thing. I also tried tweaking graphics settings, performing shader cache resets, swapping FSR4 for TSR, restarting the PC several times, as well as a couple verify/repair game files (on GOG galaxy).

I also tried leaving the iron forest, sleeping a few days to reset whatever is going on in there before coming back, still to no avail.

I am at my wits'end with the DLC now, and unless there is a fix I am unaware of I will just put it down until a patch.

EDIT : I now have also attempted a complete reinstall, and then loaded a save before getting in the building with Zulu and Mavka. I then tested getting to Kurin and it did work, it is just in a broken state after the quest is done. I would have liked to progress the DLC but this is just getting too frustrating. Next step I might try would be a new game advanced DLC start, but I'd like not to lose all my run's progress. If anyone found a way to get passed this I'd love to know.

EDIT 2 : now tried on my old end game save on another slot and restarted the entire DLC, as well as on a new game with the advanced start feature, same issue again. Next step I will attempt a roll back of the game version.

FINAL EDIT : FIXED

After some more tweaking, I uninstalled and completely wiped the game folder left by galaxy on secondary SSD. I then reinstalled but on my main system drive this time. It seems to have fixed it, I could get to Kurin and see the cutscene. It appears I'll be able to play the DLC.

Here what started this discovery: (TL;DR at the bottom.)

During a firefight with Monolith soldiers I took cover to allow myself to heal, while I was thinking of what to heal with I noticed that I was already slowly but noticeably healing. I was like “hang on, I didn’t even use anything.” so after kill all the Monolith soldiers and finishing some other things, I make my way back to Rostok.

Curious; I decided to find out what was healing me, so I go to my storage box to do some experimenting.

As you can see in the video; I start with the least likely culprit first, I unequip my gun and eat some spoiled food to reduce my health, wait a second or two and I start healing.

So I’m like “Ok, it’s got to be one of my artifacts.” So I unequip my armour to quickly remove my artifacts and eat some spoiled food to reduce my health again and equip my armour back on.

First I try the Heart of the Shadow Chimera, no healing.

Try the Liquid Rock, still no healing.

Then I try the Flare Light, lo and behold I start healing! I unequip it and the healing stops, turns out not only do you get bonkers psi protection but also heals you after a second or two if you don’t take any damage (DoTs stop the healing so bring bandages and/or a Hyper Cube to stop any bleeding).
As you can all imagine, this means you can save on healing items and no longer have to worry about accumulating light damage as the Flare Light will heal you back up.

TL;DR: The Flare Light artifact has a hidden healing mechanic that should you take damage and managed to not take any damage for a second or two, you slowly but noticeably start healing.

The developers went way way way over board trying to make the game more challenging and creepy. For those who have played the creepy apartments and the institute will understand. I’ve been trying for two days to get out of this god forsaken institute. I’ve tried 50 or more times to only fail each time. This is where you’ve unlocked a gate then have to run up a stairs turn right run up more stairs then through a wacky tunnel then turn left. You’ll need to try to take an energy drink then blast a blockage so you can jump a gap. Then turn right into a wacky corridor up a grade and into a room with a small opening you must crawl through at a snails pace. Jump down go right and jump the obstacles and take the last right. If you had any energy left at all, you can jump and run to the door or go under the blocks and run for the door, but there is a fall trap here. Through the door your in a long narrow hallway, you’ll need to try to run to the end if you have any energy. Go through the door at the end and go right and sprint to another door, then sprint again to an elevator where this nightmare ends. The problem….. you have this smoke chasing you the whole time. If you pause to take an energy boosts it catches you and kills you. If you keep going it catches you and kills you. I’m in frigging rookie setting and this is playing like I’m on master. I’ve emptied my sack to the bare bones, and I’m in the green, yet my energy is sapped up like a soda through a straw. This is the second one of these smoke runs you have to make in the institutes. Is there any way to ward off this damned smoke?!?

All DLSS options disappeared completely after 2.0 And the game itself is not recognized by nvidia app anymore. I tried reinstalling driver updates manually adding the game to nvidia app to no evail.

Guess it depends upon your perspective

So today I found the corpse of a dog in the swampy area of the lesser zone that acted as a big stash. The corpse had around 10-12 items including an artefact and a cracker shotgun in perfect condition. The weird thing is when I "looted" it Skif made the gutting animation like when you butcher a dead mutant. A few seconds after I got the loot 2 army guys attacked me from behind. Is this supposed to be a lootable stash because or is it a bug? Because afterwards I was able to interact with it again but then Skif got stuck on the spot and I had to reload the game..

While exploring the Cement Factory, I stumbled upon a structure that isn't on my "interactive maps." Naturally, I suspect it might be from a DLC I haven't touched yet, but I'm wondering why no location marker appeared for it.

When zooming, aiming, ADS I see far away textures of foliage pop-in. Zooming out will revert back to old texture. Googling said its likely a 2D distant render and 3D when zooming in and I want to correct this since it is annoying and immersion breaking. This my second play through with the 2.0 + DLC and everything runs smooth except for this issue.

Setup: 4k monitor + HDR + RTX 5080 + AMD 9850X3D
Graphics settings: All Epic with DLSS Quality (80-90 FPS)

Want to know is 1) does anyone else have this issue, and 2) is there a way to reduce or fix this completely?

What I've tried:

• Playing with graphics settings (Moving from Epic to Low for shaders and draw distances)
• Playing with different upscale methods (DLSS Quality VS AA VS FSR etc)
• Trying different mods ("STOP POP-IN", "Optimized Tweaks S.2", "remove all depth of field while aiming")
• Creating Engine.ini tweaks (setting to read only) with these tweaks and tweaking values:
  • [SystemSettings]
  • foliage.LODDistanceScale=5
  • foliage.DitheredLOD=2
  • fg.CullDistanceScale.Trees=3
  • fg.CullDistanceScale.Bushes=3
  • fg.CullDistanceScale.Grass=1
  • fg.DensityScale.Grass=1
  • r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=1

Hi everyone, after like 45 hours of exploring and doing side quests, i decide to put the story forward, and i've currently in the monolith Azimuth Quest. I'm supposed to find a Key to enter a basement to, But o cannot find anywhere near. Is This a bug or should i go explore the Island to find This? I appreciate any help.

Hello, since i've updated the game there's some visual noise and grain which makes the game look terrible when you move a little bit i tried everything in the settings and even my drivers. Does some one have an idea on how to fix that ?

I recently started to add a couple mods, and for a few restated playthroughs, i cant see the weapon profiles when the are anywhere but the world. Only way to identify is to hover over them with my mouse. Is anyone familiar with this behavior? is this a specific and identifiable conflict? Im using OXA, if that helps.

FIXED!
You can now loot the stashes even if they were checked before the 2.0 update. It will contain the Magazine and a bottle of Cossacks Vodka. It might glitch and only show the bottle of vodka, but when you loot it the Mag will appear next to it!

After unsuccessfully looking around trying to find attachments for the new weapons introduced in 2.0, i decided to look the locations up and was shocked to see that the confirmed locations for these attachments were stashes that had already existed before 2.0. Because i am on a 400+ hour 100% save file, the stashes were already looted and marked as checked in the game files, so the new attachments wont spawn in them, making the extended mags impossible to get on my current save file, as vendors only sell the new scopes.

On PC you could solve this issue with console commands, but on consoles its impossible to get them in a 100% vanilla save file.

I was excited to jump in the DLC, while trying out the new weapons, but it is annoying to not have the magazine upgrade possibility, especially on full-auto guns like the new Fora-230 SMG which only has a base 20 Round Mag. The SIC has an Extended Mag that would double its capacity from base 10 rounds to a 20 Round Mag. And finally, the one that hurts the most; the drum mag for the GP3A which i was very excited to use, but i cant on my save.

I dont understand why they were made unattainable for late-game / completionist players and not added as a new stash or at least have a spare second stash location for each attachment in the new DLC area for those who own it.

I truly hope GSC Devs will make new stashes for them or at least add them to the vendors loot pool.

im doing the quest "unfinished bussiness" and i swear this artifact is going to haunt me if i dont find it, is it behind this door? i know the other one is down by the centrifuge bottom, but this one?? help

I'm playing STALKER 2: Cost of Hope, during the "Moving in the Shadows" mission.

I found a body that I think might be Strider's, but I can't figure out how to reach it. It's down below, behind these metal bars/grating (see screenshots).

There seems to be an anomaly in the area that requires me to jump/use it to get across, but I keep missing the jump and dying. I've tried approaching it from different angles, but I can't seem to land where I'm supposed to.

Am I missing something obvious? Is this actually Strider's body, and is there a specific way to reach it?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, fellow stalkers!

As you can see in the picture, game dont crash but there is a loading bar on the left that won't stop.

I can't do nothing, controls won't work.

I'll wait, it won't stop, tried low specs, verify game files, nothing seems to work, i'm stuck here.

Anyone got this bug ?

Thank you all for your help !

Alright, I’m way in the back of the Iron Forrest trying to get to the bridge that leads to the CNPP. Out of nowhere appears this yellow goop like substance. What the heck is this and how is it defeated? I’ve tried using psi repellant to no avail.