Greetings, stalkers!

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally come. With Update 1.00 the game leaves Early Access and brings a complete storyline with multiple endings, new quests, weapons, and plenty of improvements.

To celebrate the release, I’ve prepared a small gift: everyone who launches the game between August 22–24 and visits the base of the Free Stalkers will receive a unique Golden AKS-74U. Its stats are the same as the standard model, but it has increased durability and will serve as a memorable token of your support.

This journey has been long and challenging. Almost two years of daily work, dozens of patches, hundreds of fixes, and countless messages from you — all of this helped turn Z.O.N.A: Origin into what it is today.

I started as a solo developer with a small idea, but thanks to your support the project has grown into a full-fledged game with its own atmosphere, stories, and community. Every comment, bug report, piece of advice, and even criticism made the game better.

Thank you!

I want to express my gratitude to everyone who was with me during Early Access:

• those who helped with testing and feedback;

• those who inspired and pushed me forward;

• those who simply believed and waited for the final release.

Without you, this journey would not have been possible.

What’s next?

Although the main story is complete, the game will continue to be supported. I’ll keep releasing updates when possible: fixes, improvements, and maybe even some new small features.

Z.O.N.A: Origin is not just my work, it’s our shared achievement. The game will live on as long as there are those who want to return to the Zone.

Are you ready to accept your fate?

New Features:

• Added a quest that continues the main storyline.

• Added an ending for the “Dawn” faction.

• Added an ending for “O.S.Z.”.

• Added an ending for Alex, if you chose to help him.

• The “Strike” faction now has a new fighter type — a heavily armored soldier with an HMG. Despite its large spread, the machine gun more than compensates with sheer firepower, quickly tearing down enemies in open areas.

• Added a quest to obtain the “Barrett M82” — “No Right to Live”. It can be taken from Fox at the Free Stalkers base after unlocking the path to the Dawn base.

• Added a new quest “No Witnesses” at the Free Stalkers base. Available from Owl after progressing through part of the storyline.

• Added a new sniper scope “RKL UltraX12”, available for purchase at the Black Market.

• Added the “Barrett M82” rifle, obtainable only by completing its quest.

• Added ammo boxes and magazines for the “Barrett M82”, purchasable at select Black Market locations.

• Added the “AAC Honey Badger” rifle, along with its magazines and ammo. Available at select Black Market locations.

• Added the “Huot LMG”, along with its magazines and ammo. Available at select Black Market locations.

• Added the “CZ Scorpion EVO 3”, along with its magazines. Since it uses pistol ammunition, it’s compatible with existing ammo types. Available at select Black Market locations.

• Added a new item — “Assault Shield”, purchasable at select Black Market locations.

• Items and weapons now produce impact sounds depending on the surface they hit. By request of the player LeviAckerman, this long-awaited feature has been added — thank you for the idea and contribution!

Changes & Improvements:

• Faster reloading and unloading of heavy weapons when using ammo boxes.

• Improved faction AI: they now alert their allies more actively when attacked.

• Completely reworked faction AI in “Tactical” mode: they try to maintain distance and maneuver more effectively. “Rush” and “Skirmish” modes remain unchanged.

• Improved AI shooting behavior — firefights are now more dynamic.

• Additional minor AI tweaks for factions.

• “Dark Stalkers” have been strengthened — they’re now harder to kill, even with headshots.

• Minor improvements to monster AI.

• Improved bullet tracers.

• Increased damage of “Doomsday” faction snipers.

• Black Market selling prices now depend on difficulty level. The higher the difficulty, the less money you get. Each location has its own multiplier.

• Updated food descriptions: now they display not only their effects (steak, donut, sausage, bacon, etc.), but also the maximum values when fully cooked. This makes cooking easier to manage.

• “Raw Steak” now restores more health after cooking and can serve as a replacement for medical injections. Increased from +35 to +65.

• “Raw Donut” now restores more health after cooking. Increased from +19 to +35.

• “Sausage” now restores more health after cooking. Increased from +25 to +45.

• For weapons AK-74, AK-74M, AKS-74, AKS-74U, Valmet M78, VSK-94, AS Val, Huot LMG, and OTs-14 “Groza”, the bolt now behaves realistically: after running out of ammo, it does not lock back but returns forward (since these models have no bolt hold-open). After inserting a new magazine, you must manually rack the bolt.

• Increased ballistic range for all weapons.

• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t check the chamber when moving between locations. Now you can always confirm if a round is chambered.

• Fixed an issue with the skin of the “17 Ghost” — the central design wouldn’t save when moving between locations.

• Fixed a physics bug with the “17 Ghost” and “Saiga-9” when holding the foregrip with the off-hand: releasing it could cause the hand to get stuck.

• Improved hand interaction with loot — items are now easier to grab.

• Backpack interaction improved: even with a full backpack, it’s easier to grab the desired item.

• Updated Black Market assortments across different locations.

• Faction backpacks can now contain magazines with extra ammo.

• Fixed lighting highlights on some Black Market items.

• Fixed a bug on the “Depot” level where equipping or unequipping the thermal imager turned the screen blue.

• Improved lighting on the “Palace of Culture” level.

• Minor tweaks and adjustments on the “Industrial Zone” level.

• In the raid “Valley of the Fallen”, it’s now possible to climb onto the church roof.

• Removed one camera effect, which should improve overall image clarity.

• Improved sniper scopes SV36-54 and SPO456.

• Adjusted descriptions for scopes and tactical modules (SV36-54, SPO456, LE117GA, SE119G, LE117G, TN20112024, HE503R-GD, CD2481) with the new weapons in mind.

• Fixed a rare issue with the “Large Injection” that sometimes failed to activate during healing.

• Fixed save file display in Ukrainian and Chinese localizations: now all saves display correctly (previously only the first was marked as a player save, others appeared as autosaves).

• Minor fixes and improvements across several levels.