Status: Workaround Available
last updated 9/8/2026
Combat (Ambush) encounters on the world map can fail to complete, leaving players stuck in combat unable to resolve those battles.
- Enemies in an ambush encounter do not move, attack, or respond when your turn ends
- A random encounter does not end after all enemies are defeated
- You cannot return to the world map from an encounter
- Combat appears to be waiting on an enemy turn that never resolves
This issue is tied to how the game distributes work across your CPU's cores. It primarily affects Windows PCs with newer Intel processors that have both "performance" cores and "efficiency" cores—most Intel 12th-generation chips and later.
The fix: launch the game on four cores
The issue can be resolved when Wasteland 3 is restricted to four CPU cores. There are three ways to do that. The first is permanent and takes about a minute.
Option 1: Create a launch shortcut (recommended)
- Open your Wasteland 3 install folder. On Steam: right-click the game in your library and choose Manage → Browse local files.
- Right-click an empty area in that folder and choose New → Shortcut.
- For the location, enter the following, adjusting the path if your install folder differs:
%ComSpec% /C Start "" /Normal /Affinity F "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Wasteland 3\WL3.exe"- Name it something you'll recognize, such as Wasteland 3 (Core Fix).
- Use this shortcut to launch the game from now on, instead of launching from Steam directly.
Option 2: Download a ready-made shortcut
If you'd rather not create the shortcut yourself, we've made one you can drop straight into your game folder.
- Download and extract the shortcut into your Wasteland 3 install folder.
- Launch the game using that "WL3.exe - Shortcut" from now on.
Your antivirus may flag this file. It's expected that a shortcut that launches a program with modified settings resembles a pattern security software watches for. The file is safe, and you may need to allow it through your antivirus before it will run. If you'd rather not download anything, Option 1 above does exactly the same thing.
Option 3: Set it manually for one session
This works without creating or downloading anything, but has to be repeated each time you launch the game.
- Launch Wasteland 3 as normal
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
- Find Wasteland 3, right-click it, and choose Go to details
- Right-click the game's process and choose Set affinity
- Uncheck all but four cores
If restricting to the first four cores doesn't help, try the last four instead. On processors that have both performance and efficiency cores, either grouping can work, what matters is that the game stays on four cores of the same type.
Still stuck?
Another option to try if you're still not having success with the above, will require reverting to a save file from before this error began. If you have such a save available, drive around in the world map until you encounter an ambush and proceed as you would normally. After the battle is done, but before leaving the encounter, review your squad inventory and drop any and all non-mission critical gear. We won't be able to tell you exactly what to drop, but the more you drop the better your chances are that the issue will be resolved from there on out.
Once the items are dropped, the ambush encounter can be exited. In so doing, those items that were dropped are deleted from game memory. At this point, try to keep your inventory pared down as an abundance of items in your inventory can trigger the error.
If the issue persists beyond all these steps, please submit a request and include your platform, your CPU model, and which of the above you've tried.