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‘Hours’ of Fresh Mystery Hunts Land in Stalker 2 as Massive Free Update Drops Across All Platforms
December 17, 2025Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl isn’t taking the end of the year quietly. Instead, it’s rolling out a major free update, packed with new quests, unsettling mysteries, and fresh gear, for every platform on Tuesday, 16th December. This isn’t a token patch. Players are getting several new hours of gameplay, new faces to meet, and a new corner of the wasteland to claim as home.
Stalker 2: Eight New Quests, Unique Gear, and a Whole Lot of Trouble in the Zone
Here’s what’s really going on. The update, titled Stories Untold, isn’t just adding surface-level content. Eight interlinked quests create a new mystery unfolding across seven distinct locations. The drama kicks off near the Malachite region in the west of the map, after a sudden wave of bizarre reports from scientist research teams. According to the studio on PlayStation Blog, “Strange things start happening near the Malachite… research groups sent by scientists were reporting a signal interfering with their usual PDA communications. After listening to it, stalkers were suffering from headaches, nose bleeds, and hallucinations… You may hear their emergency transmission almost anywhere in the Zone.”
If you want to trace this breadcrumb trail, focus on the Red Forest Region. From there, all bets are off: the story leaves much up to your investigation, your choices, and how quickly you can piece together a puzzle that’s already driving others mad. Prepare to dig in, with hallucinations and nosebleeds as your new constant companions, on what could be the wildest rabbit hole in the Zone yet.
Stalker Community Gets a New Home, Six Oddball Characters, and the GP37V2 Rifle
The Stories Untold update doesn’t stop at a questline. Six new characters make their debut, each bringing new stories (and probably new trouble) to the region. These aren’t faceless quest-givers. They come with backgrounds that add new layers to the game’s decaying world.
The update also throws in one particularly enticing piece of kit: the GP37V2 rifle. It’s a modified, no-nonsense version of the original GP37, and it’s designed for single and burst fire only. For seasoned stalkers, it’s another tool to push their luck further or get out alive when luck fails.
Your actions carry extra weight this time. The update opens the possibility of establishing an entirely new hub in the Burnt Forest. Pull it off, and you’ll unlock access to a technician, trader, medic, guide, and other survival essentials. But this new safe zone won’t build itself; you’ll need the right decisions for it to even appear.
Alongside this content, it’s worth noting that 2025 has already been a landmark year for Stalker 2. GSC Game World shipped several hefty updates tackling everything from the A-Life system’s quirks to performance tweaks. The PlayStation 5 version finally dropped, marking a major expansion for the community. All this, with the studio continuing work through the chaos of war back home in Ukraine, a topic they dug into with Eurogamer just last month.
For players hungry for more after countless hours in the Zone, this update is engineered to pull you in all over again. Stories Untold is free and available everywhere Stalker 2 runs, landing December 16th. Happy holidays, and good luck. You’ll need both.
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