The hardcore shooter Escape from Tarkov is about to undergo a major gear reset, resetting everything to zero. If you’re saturated with your own battle royales like CoD: Warzone or Apex Legends: Give Tarkov a try – the timing is perfect.
The most important things at a glance:
- The tactical shooter Escape from Tarkov is about to undergo a wipe with patch 0.12.11, resetting progress
- Currently, special rules apply in the game – traders have bargain prices, and secure containers are disabled
- MeinMMO briefly introduces you to the shooter and shows why “Battle Royale” fans should take a look
What is Escape from Tarkov? The hardcore shooter has been in closed beta for nearly 4 years and is considered a hidden gem in the shooter genre. Over the years, Escape from Tarkov (EFT) has gained many fans who are convinced by the uncompromising gameplay.
Especially at the beginning, every shot can be deadly, and even reloading your magazines is challenging at the start. You will be hungry, thirsty, can get severely injured, and have comprehensive control over your movement speed to precisely regulate how much noise you make while moving. If you die, nearly your entire inventory is lost and can be looted by other players.
The matches in EFT are called “raids” and drop you on a map where human players and NPCs roam around. You can go in as a squad of up to 5 players. Each round has a time limit to reach a specific objective on the map – however, the objective is not marked specifically, just like your current position. Even your teammates do not have name tags, which promotes teamwork and good communication.
Tarkov is therefore a relatively brief tactical shooter with larger and smaller maps, and matches usually last no longer than 30 minutes. Besides the matches, your hideout and trader quests are part of the gameplay, which are designed to keep you motivated in the long term.
Developers hint at wipe for tonight
What’s happening right now? Occasionally, there are progress resets in Tarkov with major patches, known as wipes. All progress is lost, and all players are more or less back to the same starting point – the more expensive your game version, the better your starting equipment.
Before a wipe, special rules apply. This time, the traders are quite cheap and offer ammunition, weapons, and equipment at bargain prices. Additionally, a securing mechanism for your loot is disabled: secure containers currently do not secure any items. Normally, you have these containers in your inventory to secure important keys, as well as quest items or expensive equipment. You can buy and loot almost anything that comes your way.
When is the wipe? Patch 0.12.11 will be deployed today, June 30, at 9 AM. The developers say on Twitter that the implementation takes about 4 hours – until 1 PM. They also warn that it could take longer.
Battle Royale with a twist
Why should fans of battle royale games like Warzone or Apex take a look? Escape from Tarkov is not a battle royale, but the raids are quite similar. You encounter enemies in an area and must achieve your objective. However, instead of taking out all enemies, you clear out troublemakers along your looting route while trying to reach your goal.
Similar to a battle royale, you must always be on guard, and at any moment a headshot could end the match for you. The sense of “loss” is even greater, the stakes are higher. Because if you go down, you often lose your entire inventory. The “gear fear” adds a certain thrill, especially when starting Tarkov.
That’s why a round where you collect a few good items without engaging in any firefights can be just as exciting as a battle royale with many kills.
To take a bit of the edge off when starting, you can also play scav rounds. You go into a raid with a random character and have a similarly random loadout of gear and weapons. If you make it to the extraction, you get to keep everything. If you go down, your main character loses nothing. However, scav rounds have a cooldown, and you cannot start a “risk-free” round immediately again.
We will embed a video with gameplay for you in case you want to take a look:
Why is now the best time to start? If you log in before the wipe, you can equip yourself with strong items from the traders at a low cost. The gear is unbelievably cheap, and the standard pre-order version gives you 500,000 rubles right away. This way, you can jump into battle with strong gear.
After the wipe, you will face weaker opponents because many players need to collect their high-tier equipment again. Players with real skill will quickly get their good gear again, but in general, the equipment level is lower after a wipe. Also, the skill level of players is somewhat lower because the wipe brings many returnees into the game, who do not immediately return to their highest levels.
What does Escape from Tarkov cost? Technically, EFT is still in a closed beta. However, all purchasable versions give you direct access to the “test phase.” The standard version for pre-orders costs €34.99 and is available on the homepage of Escape from Tarkov (via escapefromtarkov.com).
Currently, you get a decent amount of gear and a base stash for your stuff with the standard version. The more you spend on the version, the larger your stash and the more gear you have at the start and after each wipe.
Escape from Tarkov: Patch 0.12.11 likely brings Hammer-Scav
What’s coming with the new patch 0.12.11? The content of the patch is not quite certain yet. The developers released a teaser two weeks ago titled “Operation Manager” on YouTube, which we will embed here:
It is possible that an expansion of the “Factory” map and a new scav boss – Tagilla, who is armed with a sledgehammer, will be introduced. Both have already been presented by the developers in the official forum with screenshots, and the trailer could be a strong indication that patch 0.12.11 will bring the boss and map expansion.
It is currently rather unlikely that there will be a release of the new map “Streets of Tarkov”. At the Summer Games Fest just before E3, a gameplay trailer of the map was shown, but there was no indication of a release date.
