While the Cost of Hope DLC is on the way, GSC Game World is also preparing another extra for players looking to return to the Zone.
GSC Game World has shared more details about the next free update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, titled Sealed Truth, which will launch alongside the new Cost of Hope DLC. According to GSC, this content update expands the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl with a meaningful story encounter tied to the deeper mysteries of the X-18 laboratory. It is also framed as a kind of thank-you to the community for sticking with the Zone.
Players previously visited X-18 during the base game’s main mission Answers Come at a Price, in which protagonist Skif fights through bandits to get there, but only the upper section was accessible: the reception area, a few corridors, and a locked upper level that could be opened with the 2603 code supplied by a mysterious intercom voice. That voice is the key hook here. It contacts Skif voluntarily, seems to know who he is, helps him escape the pursuing Ward soldiers by activating an experimental psi-weapon that turns them against each other, and then vanishes with a cryptic farewell, without giving a name or any further explanation.
That previously abandoned story thread now returns with this update. Rumors are spreading among the stalkers that Diod, a technician from the Slag Heap, somehow made it into the lower levels of X-18. Interestingly, Diod is not after loot – he only wants something he desperately needs. As luck would have it, Skif may be the only person who can get him there. Players can expect a high-risk, high-reward mission full of mystery, danger, and unpredictable consequences. On top of the payout, there may be other gains too: lost knowledge, useful equipment, or something far more significant buried deep inside the lab.
Sealed Truth will arrive alongside Cost of Hope. The paid DLC is expected this summer and will add two brand-new regions, Iron Forest and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, along with dozens of hours of new content to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Source: Gematsu
