How to Fix Atomic Heart Fatal Error

After years of development, Atomic Heart is finally out for PC. The first-person role-playing game has stunning visuals, giving users the best experience. Though most players have liked the game, some are unhappy as the bugs and issues negatively affect their experience. Many players have reported Atomic Heart’s fatal error problem. If you are in the same boat, keep reading this article, as we’ll walk you through several ways to fix the issue.

Developed by Mundfish, Atomic Heart was released on PC on February 21st of this year. It is available for play via Steam and Game Pass. The game has stunning graphics and plenty of customization options to play with. Players take on the role of a KGB agent sent to investigate a secret research facility where something has gone wrong. Players must fight through hordes of robotic enemies, mutated creatures, and other horrors to uncover the truth behind the disaster. The gameplay includes shooting, melee combat, and RPG-style character progression.

Fatal errors on Atomic Heart can occur for various reasons, such as server issues, system glitches, and unstable internet connection. Corrupted game files can also cause fatal errors. To run the game without any issues, you would want to make sure that the device meets the requirements for Atomic Heart and that the game is up to date all the time. Thankfully, several ways exist to fix the issue, which we have mentioned in this post.

Now that we know why fatal errors could occur on your device while playing Atomic Heart let’s go through the troubleshooting methods.

How to Fix Atomic Heart Fatal Error?

Go through the solutions below and apply them to your PC to fix the Atomic Heart fatal error. You may not need to try all the solutions. Simply work your way down until you find the one that works well for your PC. So, without further ado, let’s begin our troubleshooting.

Watch Video Tutorial:

We have a video tutorial guide to fix the Atomic Heart Fatal Error on PC. Check out our video tutorial to troubleshoot this issue on your PC.

1. Make Sure Your PC Meets the Requirements

You will likely face many issues if your PC does not meet the minimum requirements. Either the game won’t launch, or you will face problems during the gameplay. It is one of the common reasons for crashing issues or fatal errors.

Make sure your PC meets the minimum requirements, which are as follows:

Minimum Requirements:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 (20H1 version or newer, 64-bit versions)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel Core i5-2500
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: 4 GB VRAM, AMD Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 DirectX: Version 12
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 90 GB available space
• Additional Notes: 30 FPS, 1920×1080 in low

Recommended Requirements:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 (20H1 version or newer, 64-bit versions)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-7700K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: 8 GB VRAM, AMD RX 6700 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 90 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD recommended, 60 FPS, 1920×1080 in ultra

If your PC has the hardware required to run Atomic Heart but still faces fatal errors, go through the below solutions and get it fixed.

2. Restart Your PC

You may be getting fatal errors on Atomic Heart due to software issues on the PC. You can try restarting the computer, which is good enough to fix common software errors. When you restart a PC, it cleans up temporary memory and removes background applications; thus, more RAM is available.

To restart your computer, press the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner, click the power icon, and select Restart. Once the PC restarts, launch the game and check if the problem persists.

3. Verify the Integrity of Game Files

You will always want to check if there’s something wrong with the game files. A game file can get corrupted, which could bring a series of problems to your device. Thankfully, we do not have to go through each file of Atomic Heart to check if they are corrupted. With a single click on Steam, you can verify the game files. If corrupted or missing game files are found, Steam will automatically fix them.

Follow these steps to check your game files (Steam):

1. Open the “Steam Client” on your PC.
2. Go to the game library and locate “Atomic Heart” from the list of installed games.
3. Right-click on the game and select “Properties” from the drop-down options.
4. Tap on “LOCAL FILES” from the left-side menu.
5. Finally, tap on “Verify integrity of game files”.

Once you tap “Verify integrity of game files” Steam will run check the game files on your device and repair them (if required). Once the repair process is completed, restart your PC. Now, launch the game and you should be able to play without any fatal errors.

If you are an Xbox user, follow these steps to verify the game files:

1. Launch the Xbox app.
2. Click “Atomic Heart” under the “INSTALLED” section on the left.
3. Click on the three-dot button and select “Manage”.
4. Go to the “FILES” tab and tap “VERIFY AND REPAIR”.

Xbox will now initiate the scan. If corrupted files are found, they will be repaired automatically. Once the process completes, restart the game and check if the issue persists.

4. Force the Game to Use DirectX and Fullscreen Window

Forcing Atomic Heart to use DirectX and run in fullscreen mode seems to have done the trick for many users.

Follow these steps to force the game to use DirectX:

1. Launch the Steam Client on your PC.
2. Go to “Steam Library” and find Atomic Heart from the list of installed games.
3. Right-click on Atomic Heart and select “Properties”.
4. Tap on “GENERAL”.
5. Under LAUNCH OPTIONS, you will have an empty box to modify the launch options. In this box, type “-dx11”.
6. Close the Window.
7. Launch the game, and you should be able to use it without any issues.

5. Update DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables

In case you are wondering what DirectX is, it’s a set of APIs developed by Microsoft to handle multimedia and gaming tasks on Windows. The collection of libraries it offers allows game developers to gain access to advanced features of graphics cards and sound cards.

Visual C++ Redistributables, in short, is a collection of runtime components required to run applications developed using Microsoft Visual C++ libraries. The bottom line is both DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables have a crucial role in games on Windows. So, you must ensure both are running on their latest version.

• DirectX – Download Link
• Visual C++ Distributable – Download Link

6. Update GPU Drivers on Your PC

Ensure the graphics drivers are current to run games smoothly on your PC. Although an older graphics driver should work just fine, updating them regularly make them compatible with the latest games.

Here’s how to update graphics drivers on your PC:

1. Type “Device Manager” in the search box and hit the Enter button.
2. Expand the “Display adapters” option.
3. Right-click on your graphics driver and select “Update driver”.
4. Tap on “Search automatically for drivers”. Your PC will now scan for new drivers.

Alternatively, you can download the latest GPU driver for your PC from the manufacturer’s website and install it manually. After you have updated the graphics drivers, launch the game and check if can use it without any fatal errors.

7. Disable Overlay Apps

Overlay apps keep running in the background and consume system resources. Although these are useful, they can cause crashing and other issues. Disable them temporarily to check if these are causing the Atomic Heart fatal error.

Steps to disable Steam overlay:

1. Open the “Steam Client” on your PC.
2. Tap on “Steam found” in the upper-left corner.
3. Tap on “Settings” and click “In-Game”.
4. Uncheck the “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game” box.

Steps to disable Xbox Game Bar:

1. Click the “Start” button and tap on “Settings”.
2. Tap on “Gaming”.
3. Turn off “Xbox Game Bar”.

Steps to disable NVIDIA GeForce Experience Overlay:

1. Launch “NVIDIA GeForce Experience” on your PC.
2. Go to “Settings”.
3. Disable “IN-GAME OVERLAY”.

Steps to disable Discord overlay:

1. Launch “Discord”.
2. Tap on the “gear icon” at the bottom.
3. Under User Settings, tap on “Game Overlay”.
4. Now, disable the “Enable in-game overlay” option.

Launch Atomic Heart, and do let us know if this solution has worked for you.

8. Temporarily Disable Your Antivirus

The antivirus software on your PC could block some of the game’s files. To make sure that’s not happening in your case, temporarily disable the antivirus. Or, add Atomic Heart’s installation folder to the exception list. Once done, launch the game and check if you can use it without any fatal errors.

9. Close Unnecessary Background Programs

Atomic Heart is not running on your PC because the physical memory is bound to other unnecessary programs. In such a case, the game will get limited RAM, which can cause problems. You should remove unnecessary background programs first before launching the game again.

Here’s how you can free up RAM via Task Manager:

1. Right-click on the “Windows logo” at the bottom.
2. Tap on “Task Manager” from the available options.
3. Go to the “Processes” tab. Here, you will all the running processes.
4. Right-click on a program you are not using and click “End task”.

Be careful while removing any running processes. Do not remove any system resources. Otherwise, you may face even more problems. Only removes processes that you’re confident about.

10. Update Your PC

You should keep your Windows PC updated to avoid any compatibility issues. Often, the latest build includes stability improvements and bug fixing. You should therefore update the device to check if the latest version fixes the issue with Atomic Heart.

Here’s how to update your Windows PC:

1. Right-click on the Windows logo at the bottom and select “Settings”.
2. Tap on “Windows update”.
3. Now, click on “Check for updates”.

When you hit the “Check for updates” button, the PC will look for the latest updates. If available, download and install them and then restart the device.

11. Reinstall the Game

Despite trying the above solutions, if the problem persists, you can try reinstalling Atomic Heart as a last resort before contacting the game’s developer. This solution should fix all issues with the game. Upon uninstalling and installing the game again, you should be able to use it without running into any fatal errors.

Final Words

Testing a newly released game is always exciting, but when it keeps throwing errors, the excitement could become a frustrating experience. If you were facing Atomic Heart fatal error, we hope one of the solutions from this article would have helped you fix this issue.