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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Will Open the Zone’s Center on August 20

The paid expansion will arrive alongside version 2.0, which adds new weapons, attachments, engine upgrades, and mutant behavior changes to the base game.

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First-person view of binoculars overlooking an industrial landscape in the Zone

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope will take players to the center of the Zone on August 20, 2026. The release date appeared in an official Steam announcement.

The center of the Zone has remained closed to stalkers until now. Skif will be the one trying to uncover what waits inside, but the journey will also force him to make a difficult choice between the beliefs of Freedom and Duty.

Additional details describe Cost of Hope as the game’s first paid expansion. Skif will reportedly join forces with Zulu of Duty and Mavka of Freedom as the group heads toward the center of the Zone and the ruins of the nuclear powerplant. Zulu previously appeared in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, while Mavka is described as a Freedom-affiliated sharpshooter associated with the Rostok Arena.

The expansion will launch alongside the free version 2.0 update. The update is set to move the game to Unreal Engine 5.5.4, with improvements intended to reduce resource demands and improve features such as glass rendering. It will also change mutant behavior, although the full details have not been disclosed.

Promotional material has shown six weapons planned for version 2.0: the Fort-230 submachine gun, Vepr-12 semi-automatic shotgun, G3 battle rifle, HK51 battle rifle, HK433 assault rifle, and SKS-31 carbine. The update will also add attachments for existing weapons, including a Picatinny rail adapter for dovetail mounts such as those on the AKM-74/2. The expansion’s price has not been announced.

The announcement keeps the details of the Zone’s center hidden, leaving the upcoming story focused on discovery and the consequences of Skif’s decision. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, with the free version 2.0 update arriving alongside Cost of Hope on August 20.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the unforgiving FPS survival adventure in a dark science-fiction open world. Scavenge for gear and resources, hunt for wonders, make hard decisions to survive and pave the path through the Chornobyl Anomalous Zone.