Trees, grass and decor are now drawn as solid or masked objects instead of soft see-through ones.
Foliage now uses a dithered pixel fade rather than going semi-transparent. This is the only cosmetic change in this pass. The intended look is the same. The performance is not.
Trees fade around you, your cursor and nearby NPCs without the old heavy per-tree check.
Foliage and decor are batched more like grass, so the game is doing less unique work per object.
Decor that needs collision stays in the world, but is no longer drawn when it does not need to be. Decor with no collision has been removed.
NPCs and weapons skip their draw work when they are off screen.
Cover and range checks for NPCs no longer run every frame. NPC-to-NPC target acquisition works the same way. How NPCs notice you and how aggro builds toward the player is unchanged.
Less hitching when a dense clump of trees comes on screen.
No performance drops on enemies you cannot see yet.
AI that still tracks you properly without effecting performance.
A small visual change to how trees part around the Hunter. If something looks off, tell us. This is the one place the optimisation is allowed to look different.
More easily modify weapon attachments and effect ranges.
Laptops should now correctly detect and use the discrete graphics card automatically. This resolves the common issue of the game running poorly on systems with integrated graphics unless you forced the high-performance GPU through Windows settings. No more external fiddling required.
Additional performance improvement: surface buffers for shaders are no longer constantly recreated when using non-integer resolution scaling.
Fixed a bug that caused overlapping icons.
Sprinting now always works as toggle by default when using a gamepad.
The sprint icon now only appears when sprint toggle is enabled.
The “Toggle Sprint” setting no longer affects gamepads. Toggle is now the default (and generally preferred) behaviour for controllers, so we expect this to have little to no impact for most players.
Items can disappear when using the sort feature. To reduce the chances of this, do not sort when your inventory is almost full and you have large items (taking up 4 slots or more)
5.56x45 M856A1 ammo container can not be dropped to the ground and can only placed in stash
## What changed
**New Roaming Boss: Phantom** — A new boss enemy patrolls the Swamp map similar to Arman, equipped with Ghillie Suit armor and a modified N1o rifle for stealth gameplay. Killing Phantom drops Coordinates that reveal a hidden chest location on your map.
**Containers System** — New storage containers can be crafted at the Bunker Crafting Bench to hold up to 99,999 of a single item type, supporting ammo, scrap materials, armor, food, meds, and weapons. Use the "Track" option while crafting to monitor required materials in the field.
**Bunker Radio Feature** — Complete the new quest "Get Some Music" from the Barman to unlock a Bunker Radio with speakers for playing music tracks in your base.
**Train Skins** — Six new cosmetic train skins are now available through the Conductor, unlocked by joining factions (Green Army, Crimson Corporation), reaching 450+ reputation (Scientist), completing quests (Watcher via "The Crystal"), finishing the game (End Game), or discovering the secret ending (Anomaly).
## Bug Fixes
- **Image quality** — Fixed pixel shimmering for improved visuals
- **Quest items** — Fixed an issue where certain quest items would fail to spawn
## Overall
ZERO Sievert adds a challenging new Swamp boss, expanded storage and base customization, and cosmetic unlocks tied to progression milestones.
Added a new roaming boss to Swamp called Phantom.
Phantom actively patrols the map, similar to Arman, so you'll need to stay alert at all times.
Phantom is equipped with a unique loadout, including a Ghillie Suit armor designed for maximum concealment, and custom ghillie modifications for his N1o, enhancing stealth gameplay.
Once killed, Phantom drops Coordinates revealing a hidden chest location directly on your map.
Added containers to support a variety of items, including: all types of ammo, Scrap Ammo, Scrap Armor, Scrap Food, Scrap Material, Scrap Meds, and Scrap Weapon.
Each container can hold up to 99,999 of a single item, allowing for large-scale resource management.
To craft a container, head to your Crafting Bench in the Bunker and select the new 'Containers' option.
For easier crafting, tick the "Track" option for the Container you want to craft. This helps you know how many materials you need when out in the field.
Added a new quest "Get Some Music", given by the Barman after completing "Towards Makeshift Camp".
Completing this quest unlocks the brand new Bunker Radio feature.
Added a Bunker Radio and speakers which allow you to find and play music tracks in the Bunker.
Added a new train skin system, used by talking to the Conductor.
6 new train skins available, each tied to specific achievements and progression paths:
Green Army - Join the Green Army.
Crimson Corporation - Join the Crimson Corporation.
Scientist - Reach 450+ reputation.
Watcher - Complete the quest "The Crystal" .
End Game - Finish the game with any ending.
Anomaly - Complete the game via the secret ending.
Improved image quality - fixed pixel shimmering.
Fixed an issue where certain quest items would fail to spawn.
## What changed
- **Death crash** — fixed a crash that occurred when the player character died
## Bug Fixes
- **Death sequence crash** — resolved the game crash that was triggered upon player death
## Overall
The patch stabilizes the death sequence by eliminating a critical crash that was occurring when players were eliminated.