No one is walking into Battlestate Games Escape From Tarkov and expecting an easy time.
The pseudo-open-world gameplay pits players against each other on large maps with multiple points of interest scattered across, with drastic changes in elevation and sharp corners offering sudden ways to expire when you’re least expecting it.
If you’re curious how strong your heart is, go ahead and boot it up.
Yet while no one is expecting a necessarily easy time, it’s a fair statement to presume that Battlestate Games is doing their best to ensure that the title is fair across the board, with the primary difference between accounts being either how much a user paid for their account (offering advantages that are meted out as everyone levels) or how long they’ve been working on the current wipe (meaning they have far more resources).
The most recent patch has more than a few Escape From Tarkov players frustrated, as it has shifted the level 1 power generator up in crafting supplies: it now requires a car battery, which sells on the market (only unlockable once a player hits level 10 within a wipe) for 250,000 roubles.
They noticeably rare across all maps as well – players frankly have a better shot at being able to purchase one on the market to get power running than being able to successfully escape from a raid with one, especially considering how hotly contested the better loot areas tend to be.
The most recent wipe was on December 24: Battlestate Games has effectively raised the leveling of players’ hideouts after a wipe has already been underway, meaning new players are now at a far more obscene disadvantage than they were by simply playing against more experienced players. And Escape From Tarkov has an absolutely monumental difficulty climb when players first join, learning how movements mechanics work and dealing with the recoil that shatters wrists.
Granted, it’s well-understood that Escape From Tarkov is in beta, and it’s very noticeable with crashes and bugs being seen nearly every raid – it’s crushing to manage to finally get to your extract, but the game encounters a bug and you can’t leave.
Scavs also seem to spawn far less, making many missions far more difficult while also making maps a bit more stagnant, with many players stating that additional Scavs are simply far too resource-intensive for Battlestate Games to maintain unless it’s far later in a raid.
But balancing, ensuring that newer players can at least have a chance to find their footing, shouldn’t be conducted partway through a wipe, as it makes the difficulty curve that much more daunting for new players.
