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Steam News8 June 20262mo ago

Big New

Hello friends. I made updates quickly and even forgot to post a news item here, so I decided to combine three into one — no point writing three separate posts. Let’s go: Patch 0.4.

Full notes

Full CHEMISTS: Dead Zone update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

Repeated intro

Hello friends. I made updates quickly and even forgot to post a news item here, so I decided to combine three into one — no point writing three separate posts. Let’s go:

What changed

1 fix11 additions34 changes5 removals
  • Gameplay
  • Store
  • Events
  • Performance
  • UI and audio
  • Balance
addedWhat’s new
addedA fishing spot has been added to the city reservoir.
addedA flashlight has been added to the Hunter’s shop.
changed"Military conscription" event — completed.
changedPetrenko’s storage in the city moved to the Chemists' Yard.
removedRemoved the FPS value field.

CHEMISTS: Dead Zone changes

addedWhat’s new
addedA fishing spot has been added to the city reservoir.
addedA flashlight has been added to the Hunter’s shop.
changed"Military conscription" event — completed.
changedPetrenko’s storage in the city moved to the Chemists' Yard.

Patch 0.4.25 Х

What’s new

  • Weather effect: radioactive-chemical rain.

  • A Trader has appeared in the city bar on the 1st floor. He will help you with paper money.

  • A fishing spot has been added to the city reservoir.

  • Crafting equipment has been installed in the Chemists' Yard.

  • A flashlight has been added to the Hunter’s shop.

Changes

  • "Military conscription" event — completed.

  • Petrenko’s storage in the city moved to the Chemists' Yard.

  • The Guide’s sign now shows the names of transit points.

  • Removed the FPS value field.

  • Tweaks to lighting, fog, atmosphere, etc.

  • Changed vehicle behavior on game start.

  • Added smooth distance-based fade for toxic fumes.

  • Added smooth distance-based fade for smoke and fire at campfires.

  • Quest markers now appear in correct locations; player-placed markers snap to ground or building roofs when placed on a house.

  • Replaced base class for Calendula.

Optimization

  • NPCs were moved to a closer draw distance.

  • Optimized some toxic fumes and other VFX.

  • Ticks were disabled across the time anomaly (collection test).

  • Optimized idle vehicle behavior.

  • Optimized campfire smoke and fire effects.

  • Optimized campfire logic.

  • Reduced shadow distances for performance.

  • Optimized the scientists' base in the City.

Miscellaneous

  • Most NPC ticks were forcibly disabled for testing: Agafon, Farmer, Valera, Matt — test of overall NPC behavior. If this works well, I'll disable unnecessary ticks on other NPCs too.

  • Animations for Farmer, Guide, and Valera updated.

  • Fixed UI display of the safe zone when exiting it.

Patch 0.4.26

Summer Marathon — a unique in-game event

How to start

  • The event runs automatically. See level information in the pause menu by pressing the event button.

Event goal

  • The only requirement is experience gain. The more XP you already have, the faster you level in the marathon.

Marathon structure

  • Total levels: 100

  • Requirement: reach the required XP for each level

  • Level reward: each of the 100 levels has a reward

  • Progression: higher levels require more XP and give better rewards

Rewards

  • Included in rewards:

    • Regular items — can be found or bought in-game.

    • Exclusive items — available only from this event.

  • When you complete a level, its reward is automatically placed into your inventory.

Exclusive weapons

  • The event features 8 weapons from the “Summer Marathon” collection. All are superior to their basic counterparts.

Overall marathon rewards

  • Money reward: 755,000

  • Reputation points (various factions): 2,500

  • Exclusive weapons: 8

  • Powerful grenades: 160

  • Alloy ingots: 80

  • Other items (not listed above): 1,000+

  • Total item weight: 404 kg

Why participate

  • The event is free — no purchases required.

  • Rewards scale with effort.

  • Unique weapons unobtainable elsewhere.

  • Great way to level reputation and gather crafting resources.

  • The more you play, the faster you progress and earn better rewards.

Note: Card collection was disabled.

Patch 0.4.27

What’s new

  • The city bar is now a safe zone.

  • Emissions now deal more damage and build debuffs faster.

  • When you finish a level in the Summer Marathon, a notification (subtitle) appears for the completed level.

  • Added Auto Collect in settings — this lets you pick up everything at once when interacting with containers/enemies/mobs.

  • Plastic scraps can now be made into ingots (blanks). The crafting recipe can be purchased from Tony in the village and from the Gunsmith in the city.

  • An assistant near the Gunsmith sells ammo and recipes for craftable ammo of all PSM-type samples; access depends on your reputation with certain factions.

  • The Gunsmith now sells blueprints for ammo components: powder, casings, primers, and bullets.

  • Knives can now be dismantled into scrap metal.

Changes

  • Pause menu design reworked.

  • Repair bench window UI updated.

  • The city fishing spot now works.

  • Lead ingot crafting changedyou must now break lead ore into lead pieces; players already have these pieces from dismantling batteries. To use both ore and batteries for smelting ingots, an intermediate step (lead pieces) was added.
  • Rebalanced stats for 10ga and 8ga ammunition types.

  • Reputation costs and quantities for PSM ammo blueprints were adjusted because they will now be available for sale. In the future, all blueprints will be available as story progression rewards.

  • Plastic scrap weight reduced fivefold.

Saves

  • Updated the Easy Multi Save plugin.

  • Worked on fixing save/load issues when using save slots. Internal testing shows stable save/load after multiple times without data loss.

  • When exiting the game, the last 100 saves remain in the slots; older saves are removed automatically. This is a forced measure because many slots may strain the system.

Miscellaneous

  • Other minor world bug fixes.

Reputation

  • Warning: due to save work, reputation values were reset. Apologies for the inconvenience. During active development, such problems can happen. To address this during the summer, the following will be implemented in upcoming updates:

    1. A x3 reputation multiplier will be active for the whole summer.

    2. Reputation requirements for top-tier items will be lowered. As an alternative/secondary restriction, their prices will be increased.

    3. When trading with factions, faction tokens (items) will be added for each faction; these tokens will be used for top-tier trades of unique items.

That’s the news. I’ve already restored some reputation and will report more in 0.4.28. I’ve got a lot to do — I even work weekends. I know I should rest sometimes, but I don’t always manage to. I keep making progress though.

Source

Steam News / 8 June 2026

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