BattleState Games has finally delivered on the one big features their loyal Escape From Tarkov fans have been asking for forever.
As reported by Forbes, the game is now experiencing its first ever hardcore wipe. This wipe comes alongside patch 0.16.8.0, as well as patch 0.3.2.1 for Escape From Tarkov Arena. As BattleState warned, the servers will be down for the duration of the wipe, which is expected to last for six hours. But there’s also a chance that the servers will remain unstable as players jump back into the servers after the wipe.
This wipe does more than start players back at zero, as the game itself will have some changes for what could be the most masochistic player community in live service. The flea market is disabled, so players can’t buy items from each other. You’ll earn less money trading any items you do find in the field, and traders will also have less items in stock. Hideout upgrades will be harder to earn, requiring more items than last time. Rare loot will become much rarer, and it won’t be possible to craft high tier ammo.
This is not even the end of it. Bosses have a 100 % chance to spawn again, meaning they will be there for every raid. There will also be limited access to some locations, so that you will have to move map to map to get there. Enemy AI is stronger in general, and you’ll get less XP for defeating them. The one concession BattleState gave is to reward more XP for surviving. On the side PvE mode will be unaffected by this patch.
This patch was a pleasant, but genuine surprise for players, because Escape From Tarkov is set to finally leave beta after eight years. Yes, this game which popularized, and arguably invented, the extraction shooter, and spawned imitators like the now defunct Call of Duty: DMZ, has been in closed beta for most of its existence. Everything about this game seems set to change, as BattleState Games plans to release Escape From Tarkov as a full priced retail game with no free-to-play elements or microtransactions, though there will be DLC.
That means this won’t be exactly the same kind of live service game that we’ve come to expect after Fortnite and PUBG. One could say they’re trying to sell this title like Concord, though there’s no argument that Escape From Tarkov definitely has a lot more going for it. While we ponder what the future holds, loyal players seem set to get the best play sessions they have ever had in this survival monster, in the next few days.
