Last week Escape From Tarkov released a sweeping patch and what it calls a “Hardcore Wipe”—resetting progress for all players, upending how the game’s economy works, altering the progression system, and even changing the game’s structure and disabling existing maps.
Naturally, players reacted in a calm and rational manner. Only kidding: most were mad as hell, with some sections of the community in open revolt at what developer Battlestate Games has done to their beloved extraction shooter. The main impact of the wipe was to slow down the game’s progression a great deal and, despite Battlestate giving some prior warning this was going to happen, the dramatic reduction in the game’s content still seemed to blindside some.
Two particular bugbears have now been addressed by Battlestate Games, which says it’s continuing to monitor feedback on the wipe. The biggest issue was only two of Tarkov’s 11 maps being available to raid, with the others only accessible via in-game transit points: this has been abandoned and “all locations are now available for selection.”
Second, the guaranteed boss spawns have become less guaranteed. The initial hardcore wipe made the chances of a boss spawn 100%, which spiked the difficulty for solo players but was rather a boon for well-drilled teams that could farm them for loot. The game’s now “reduced [the] spawn chance of bosses to 70%”, which doesn’t seem like a massive change but we’ll see how it plays out in practice.
Nikita Buyanov, head of studio at Battlestate Games, says “we will gradually switch on features like traders [loyalty levels], locations and everything to simulate and slow down OG gameplay of Escape from Tarkov,” so expect more additions as the hardcore wipe settles in. Buyanov also has a few words for some of the game’s most vocal critics: “shut the fuck up.” Russian devs: they’re built different.
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