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The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Is The Best It's Been In Years

The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Is The Best It's Been In Years

Forbes5 days ago
Takrov is feeling great right now.
The hardcore wipe in Escape From Tarkov got off to a rough start, with some questionable decisions or simple oversights that really hampered the player experience. But now those have mostly been solved, the hardcore mode has reignited my love for Tarkov after more than a year of being away from the game.
A new wipe is always an exciting time in Tarkov, but not since the addition of Ground Zero well over a year ago have I been itching to play whenever I have free time. With little in the way of major new content since then, wipes have just become resets rather than a chance to explore new content, and have quickly become tiresome as I realise it's essentially the same old stuff once again.
But this wipe, with the new hardcore ruleset that makes everything that little bit harder, is proving to be enough of a change to keep me interested. The reworked economy and no flea market, as well as the increase in difficulty, means I no longer always have over a million in the bank and can afford new kit, and the lack of rare loot means I can no longer do one of my trusty loot runs, which I'm not going to share, to earn that kind of cash in minutes.
This in turn means I'm having to learn how to use new weapons, and truly scrounge whatever I can from the map each time I survive. Running out of a raid with a TOZ in my backpack is now a worthwhile thing to do, just so I can build up a stash of weapons for when I inevitably lose all my good ones and have no cash to buy any more.
With all maps now available with no transit required, which is probably the last quality of life change that needed to be made, this hardcore Tarkov wipe is feeling fantastic. Every encounter with AI or other players brings back that adrenaline that was only there during my first couple of wipes, and losing a fight feels truly heartbreaking once again.
I don't want to go as far as to say this is how Tarkov should be played, it is tough and a lot of players are bouncing off this wipe as a result. The 70% boss spawn rate also means chill raids are just no longer a thing on some maps and could be toned down a little. But I do think, providing player numbers can support it, a permanent hardcore mode in Tarkov when it launches later this year would be a good thing.
I, for sure, would play it, and likely even run two different characters, one for normal Tarkov and one for hardcore. It's a completely different change of pace and one that, right now at least, is really working for me and my enjoyment of Escape From Tarkov. There are still a few things to improve here and there, but as a concept this has been an undoubted success now the big issues have been fixed, and with a tiny bit more refinement it could be a very welcome permanent addition to Tarkov.
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The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Is The Best It's Been In Years
The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Is The Best It's Been In Years

Forbes

time5 days ago

  • Forbes

The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Is The Best It's Been In Years

Takrov is feeling great right now. The hardcore wipe in Escape From Tarkov got off to a rough start, with some questionable decisions or simple oversights that really hampered the player experience. But now those have mostly been solved, the hardcore mode has reignited my love for Tarkov after more than a year of being away from the game. A new wipe is always an exciting time in Tarkov, but not since the addition of Ground Zero well over a year ago have I been itching to play whenever I have free time. With little in the way of major new content since then, wipes have just become resets rather than a chance to explore new content, and have quickly become tiresome as I realise it's essentially the same old stuff once again. But this wipe, with the new hardcore ruleset that makes everything that little bit harder, is proving to be enough of a change to keep me interested. The reworked economy and no flea market, as well as the increase in difficulty, means I no longer always have over a million in the bank and can afford new kit, and the lack of rare loot means I can no longer do one of my trusty loot runs, which I'm not going to share, to earn that kind of cash in minutes. This in turn means I'm having to learn how to use new weapons, and truly scrounge whatever I can from the map each time I survive. Running out of a raid with a TOZ in my backpack is now a worthwhile thing to do, just so I can build up a stash of weapons for when I inevitably lose all my good ones and have no cash to buy any more. With all maps now available with no transit required, which is probably the last quality of life change that needed to be made, this hardcore Tarkov wipe is feeling fantastic. Every encounter with AI or other players brings back that adrenaline that was only there during my first couple of wipes, and losing a fight feels truly heartbreaking once again. I don't want to go as far as to say this is how Tarkov should be played, it is tough and a lot of players are bouncing off this wipe as a result. The 70% boss spawn rate also means chill raids are just no longer a thing on some maps and could be toned down a little. But I do think, providing player numbers can support it, a permanent hardcore mode in Tarkov when it launches later this year would be a good thing. I, for sure, would play it, and likely even run two different characters, one for normal Tarkov and one for hardcore. It's a completely different change of pace and one that, right now at least, is really working for me and my enjoyment of Escape From Tarkov. There are still a few things to improve here and there, but as a concept this has been an undoubted success now the big issues have been fixed, and with a tiny bit more refinement it could be a very welcome permanent addition to Tarkov.

‘Escape From Tarkov' Makes Major Changes After Controversial Wipe
‘Escape From Tarkov' Makes Major Changes After Controversial Wipe

Forbes

time11-07-2025

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‘Escape From Tarkov' Makes Major Changes After Controversial Wipe

Tarkov is making some changes. After a somewhat controversial new wipe, Escape From Tarkov is making some big changes to its new hardcore mode after fan backlash, with a lot of players complaining that the game was too hard and had no real incentive to progress. The recent launch of the hardcore wipe in Escape From Tarkov was initially welcomed by a lot of fans, with the changes making things feel fresh. However, after a few hours it was clear some of the changes had not quite worked out as intended, and now some of them have been reverted. Perhaps the most controversial change was the removal of quests. This was always meant to be temporary, but a recent technical update has restored quests a little earlier than many expected after a lot of players complained about the lack of motivation to do anything. With no quests, all players had to do was level up and collect loot, which some felt was not enough incentive to play. Personally, I quite liked the feeling of there being no early quests. Fights were happening in more varied locations on the maps, and there were no raids where you felt your time was wasted if the key spawn you needed was already taken. However, having no quests for an extended period of time might have made things get tiresome quickly. Another of the big sticking points for players was the extended scav cooldowns the hardcore wipe brought with it. In the early days of a wipe, players expect to have long scav queues, but these being artificially inflated by an increased cooldown timer felt harsh, especially with the extra loot restrictions this hardcore mode has brought with it. As a compromise, those extended wait times have been reduced, which should give you more of a chance to go and scav to find weapons and gear if you are running low. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The other big change came to the price of insurance, which has been reduced. This was also increased as part of the hardcore wipe, but combined with the other changes of the wipe, it felt quite harsh, especially with how difficult it is to find and keep top level gear. There has also been a fix for the transit spawn system, which was spawning ungrouped players next to each other resulting in mass fights as soon as you spawn in, which was not ideal to say the least. Escape From Tarkov game director Nikita Buyanov has also announced that more features that are currently turned off will slowly return over the coming days and weeks. Things such as trader levels and being able to queue directly into certain maps instead of having to transit will return soon, but the goal is to slow down the progression of a new Tarkov wipe, which seems to be working. The hardcore wipe in Escape From Tarkov has certainly proven controversial, but as a long time player it is refreshing to have something new, especially just before launch when the lack of new content has started to make things feel a bit stale. If you aren't enjoying the current state of Tarkov, the good news is that in a few months things will be back to normal with lots of new content when Tarkov finally launches.

The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Launches Tomorrow
The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Launches Tomorrow

Forbes

time08-07-2025

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The ‘Escape From Tarkov' Hardcore Wipe Launches Tomorrow

The hardcore Tarkov wipe is here. The next Escape From Tarkov wipe is launching tomorrow, July 9, and for the first time it will be a hardcore wipe, which brings some interesting changes for all Tarkov players to deal with. The hardcore Escape From Tarkov wipe has been teased for a few weeks, but now it has officially been confirmed, with the wipe date revealed as July 9, which is tomorrow. At 8:00 AM BST / 3:00 AM EDT the Escape From Tarkov servers will go down, including those for Escape From Tarkov Arena, and the new wipe will be deployed, alongside patch 0.16.8.0 for the main game and 0.3.2.1 for Arena. The downtime is expected to last for six hours. That all means that, should the installation go smoothly, the Escape From Tarkov Hardcore wipe will launch around 2:00 PM BST / 9:00 AM EDT on July 9. However, as with most wipe patches there is a good chance the actual launch is later than this, and there is also a chance the servers will be unstable for the first few hours as thousands of players return for a new wipe. When the hardcore wipe does launch in Tarkov there will be some big changes to how the game is played and the gear you can get. Once again the flea market will be disabled, meaning you can't buy the items you need from other players, and the hideout upgrades will require more items, making them even more difficult to achieve. Rare loot will be less common and you will not be able to craft high tier ammo, then to make that sting even more, you'll get less money for selling to traders and they will have even more limited stock than usual, so this really will be a wipe for budget gear. There will also be changes when you are in the game, most notably that bosses will have a 100% spawn chance, so will be in every raid, and some locations will only be accessible via map to map transit, so you cannot load straight into them. Exactly which maps will be available as normal have not been revealed, but expect these to be very busy in the opening weeks of the wipe. You'll also find that AI are stronger than ever, and you'll get reduced XP for killing them. But to combat that you'll get more XP for surviving, so this wipe really is all about playing safe and not dying, otherwise you'll lose gear that is harder to find than ever and come out with basically no rewards. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder There is no news on what other changes will be coming with the patch notes, other than the addition of a new AK-50 rifle to the game, but do not expect this to be a major patch. Initially, there was not going to be a summer wipe this year as the team prepares to launch Escape From Tarkov into its 1.0 form, so even getting this should be seen as a bonus.

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