Escape From Tarkov | TarkovTV Special Edition - Wipe Confirmed

In a surprise announcement, the developers of Escape From Tarkov scheduled a TarkovTV Live devblog – Special Edition today, December 23, 2020, at 11:00 AM EST. TarkovTV Live is a streaming series where Battlestate Games share updates and changes to the game live on Twitch. During the short one hour stream the developers dropped a bombshell – update patch 0.12.9 will be coming out tomorrow and it comes with a full wipe. That’s right. In less than 24 hours, every player’s progress and characters will be wiped back to start. The developers shared changes to the game coming with the update which we’ve compiled here. As a result, you can read the key changes coming with the wipe and 12.9 patch to Escape From Tarkov below.

TarkovTV LIVE Devblog Special Edition Summary

Update 12.9 Will Release Tomorrow

The first major surprise to be announced during the devblog was the release of update 0.12.9; scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 AM MSK ( 03:00 AM EST ). Battlestate Games has emphasized during previous devblogs that update 12.9 will be coming out in 2020. However, with only 8 days left in the year many players were doubtful that they would deliver. Especially since the developers were quiet about the update throughout December and released many smaller updates recently – one just last night. Update 12.9 will bring many changes to the game which we will go over below. Alternatively, we have also attached the official patch notes found at the bottom of this article.

Woods Map Expansion

Woods Expansion Emercom Camp — New Lumber Yard

The developers have confirmed that update 12.9 will introduce the long anticipated expansion to the Woods map. This expansion has been teased by Battlestate Games over the past few months. It will be the fourth map receiving an expansion this year following changes to the Customs, Reserve and Interchange maps. During the devblog, the developers gave us a sneak preview by walking through the new expansion area to Woods. However, they purposely avoided new landmarks to allow the players to discover on their own. Regardless, we did get an opportunity to see new lake area, many trails running through the woods and a brand new village with cabins similar to those found on Shoreline. For more information, check out our articles about What To Expect and What We Would Like To See with the Woods expansion.

12.9 Coming To Tarkov With A Full Wipe

The biggest surprise announcement during the devblog was the confirmation that the 12.9 update will arrive with a full wipe. This means that every player’s characters will be completely reset. All items will be deleted, quest progress reset and skills returned to zero. Essentially, everyone will be starting over from scratch. Wipes can be hard on players invested in their progress during the current wipe; however, we have always enjoyed the game the most right after a wipe. It is a time where most players don’t have meta guns and gear and battles are fought with anything you can find. Arguably, it is a period of the game that embraces the tone of Escape From Tarkov the most as a survival experience taking place in an abandoned region.

5 New Guns Coming To EFT

Lead game designer and COO, Nikita Buyanov, confirmed during the devblog that update 12.9 will introduce 5 new weapons to the game. These new guns are:

KRISS Vector chambered in 9×19 and .45 ACP
SIG MCX assault rifle chambered in a new .300 AAC Blackout
H&K UMP submachine gun chambered in .45 ACP
S.W.O.R.D. International Mk-18 Mod 1 Mjölnir chambered in 338 Lapua Magnum

The developers showed us a little bit of the 9×19 KRISS Vector in action by firing it in the new Woods expansion. The weapon used a removeable suppressor and a surprising 50-round drum magazine. Just as we predicted, the KRISS Vector appears to be a fast firing SMG best suited for close quarters.

In addition to the new weapons, we see two new bullets introduced to Escape From Tarkov: .300 AAC Blackout and 338 Lapua Magnum. The .300 AAC Blackout will be a harder hitting round that can be loaded into standard 5.56 magazines. Meanwhile, the 338 Lapua Magnum will likely be the most damaging bullet in the game when it is introduced. Nikita emphasized that the 338 Lapua Magnum round will be “a beast”. Fortunately, to balance this power he stated that it will be reserved for the end-game as it will require Jaeger at Loyalty Level 4 to purchase. And we can expect it to be very expensive – both the rifle and the bullets.

For more information on these weapons, be sure to check out our article BSG Teases New Weapons Coming To Tarkov where we review each gun in more detail.

New Bullet Effects To Bleeding

Update 12.8 implemented the heavy bleeding mechanic to Escape From Tarkov. This was a status effect that caused your PMC to quickly lose health unless treated. Many of the original Injury Treatment items could not fix a heavy bleed with the exception of a Salewa First Aid Kit or a Grizzly. In addition, players could fix a heavy bleed with 2 new items added to the game: the CALOK-B Hemostatic and the Esmarch tourniquet. Players suffering from a heavy bleed will also leave a blood trail where they walk.

Now, update 12.9 will add to the heavy bleed mechanic through a new stat found on bullets. Essentially, certain bullets will be able to trigger a heavy bleed more often than other bullets. Nikita used Hollow Point Rounds as an example of a bullet that will cause more heavy bleed effects. The goal for this change is to introduce new combat play styles and equipment viability to the game. We will have to see how this plays out in the new wipe.

Weapon Attachment Stats Have Been Reworked

One of the unique features of Escape From Tarkov is its abundance of weapon parts that grants you more flexibility in gun customization than any other video game today. Currently, there are 1,138 weapon parts in the game today! With roughly 2,000 items in the game that means over half are weapon parts. Unfortunately, with so many items in the game it has made balancing a difficult challenge for the developers. For example, players have identified that the Knight’s Armament Company SR-25 7.62×51 in game has worse stats than the Springfield Armory M1A 7.62×51, but costs nearly twice as much making it not a viable option.

Fortunately, the developers have heard the feedback and confirmed that update 12.9 includes a major rebalancing of weapon parts stats. Their goal was to introduce more viable play styles and change the same existing meta. These changes represent a lot of work by the team, but hopefully the result will have the desired effect. Players will always find ways to min-max their builds and we don’t see how meta builds can be avoided, but we will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Skills Have Been Rebalanced

Weapon parts are not the only area of the game to be rebalanced. The developers have also changed the effects of certain skills. Nikita exampled during the devblog that the recoil control benefits from both Weapon Mastery Skills and Weapon Type Skills (example: Assault Rifle) have been nerfed. Currently, these weapon skills improve three stats for their respective weapon type:

Increased Reload Speed
Increased Weapon Switching Speed
Reduced Weapon Recoil

The Metabolism skill has also been reworked; however, no details were shared during the devblog or in the patch notes. Currently, experience in the Metabolism skill is earned by eating and drinking Provisions while in a raid. It provides the following benefits:

Decreases energy consumption and dehydration rate
Decreases rate of forgetting physical skills
Decreases maximum scale of forgetting physical skills
Enhances food and drink positive effects

Lastly, a new Immunity skill will be added to the game, but no details have been shared. The Immunity skill is currently found in the game; however, there is no information provided. The skill is accompanied by a blue shield icon with what appears to be a cold or virus in the upper left. Perhaps Escape From Tarkov will introduce a virus mechanic to the game … somehow. Probably not, but right now your guess is as good as ours!

Overweight Status Will Apply Sooner

Update 12.8 also introduced the Overweight status effect to the game. If your PMC was carrying more then 40 kg of gear, then an overweight status would trigger causing your character to move and regain stamina slower. Carrying even more gear could trigger a Heavily Overweight status that slows you down even more and forced you to go prone to regain stamina. Having a higher Strength skill allowed your character to carry more before the status effect was triggered.

With the new update, the weight limit that triggers the overweight status has decreased from 40 kg to 35 kg. As a result, players will be experiencing the Overweight status more often. In fact, some players using heavily armored builds would start a raid with the Overweight status! No confirmation if Strength will impact the weight limit the same or if the Heavily Overweight status conditions have changed as well.

Quests Have Been Reworked

Trader quests and tasks are an important part of the game; however, many are not ideal. Many quests have received complaints by players for their seemingly absurd conditions to complete; particularly Jaeger’s quest line. Thus, it was no surprise that players were happy to hear that the developers have reworked the quest conditions and specifically “simplified” Jaeger’s quests. We will have to discover what changes have been made after wipe arrives with patch 12.9 to Escape From Tarkov.

New Face And Clothing Options

Because of the wipe coming with patch 12.9 to Escape From Tarkov every player will have to make a new character. This time players will have an additional customization choice. Players will be able to select one of two faces for their PMC during character creation. The faces will vary based on whether you joined the USEC or BEAR faction. Each faction has two faces resulting in a total of three faces available for PMCs. No details have been shared if you can change your PMC’s face after character creation, but we will be sure to find out after the patch.

In addition to the new faces, each faction will also receive four new clothing options: two new upper clothing and two new pants.

Armbands Will No Longer Be Lootable

After the wipe arrives with update 12.9 to Escape From Tarkov we will be seeing a lot more players wearing armbands in game. This is a result of a new change where the armband slot will no longer be lootable. Thus, if another player were to kill you and loot your body, they will not be able to take your armband. The effectiveness of the armband is arguable as many heavier armors and tactical rigs tend to cover the armband; however, they are extremely cheap costing only a few hundred Roubles. If you can’t lose the item, then you might as well wear one, right?

Summary

These are the key takeaways from the TarkovTV Live devblog going over the upcoming 12.9 patch and wipe coming to Escape From Tarkov. The official patch notes for the update are included below. If you enjoyed this guide, then be sure to check out our other articles on game news.

Official 12.9 Patch Notes

Escapers, here are the patch notes for update 0.12.9, Planned for tomorrow, December 24th:

THERE WILL BE A WIPE

Added and changed:

“Woods” expansion.
Reworked PMC initial gear sets.
Added customization of head and voice when creating character: for now it’s only two new heads for each faction added. You can’t change head and voice after the character is created. You will be able to do it only after profile reset or wipe.
Added skill “Immunity”.
Reworked “Metabolism”.
Reduced the volume of steps and interaction with vegetation.
Added chance to cause bleedings to the ammunition. Now some ammo can cause heavy or light bleeding more often than other rounds.
Now some face shields and glasses will reduce the time of blindness effect from flashbang rounds and grenades.
Players will be receiving letters with a supply package for the first 7 days of playing.
Added “All” button in the purchasing menu when buying from dealers via Flea market. Now you can select all available items with a single click.
Filters in the W-List tab are now modified separately and do not affect other Flea market tabs.
“Enter” button now confirms the action in most dialogue windows.
Slot highlighting when dragging items in your inventory can now be turned off.
Equipped armbands are now unlootable and can’t be lost upon death.
The letter with the reward for the exit in cooperation with the scav will now come with a slight delay.
Containers will apply restriction filters to mods installed on the transported object. I.e., putting a mount with a thermal sight installed on it into a secured container is no longer allowed.
New equipment and clothing is added: PMC tops and bottoms, body armor, rigs, Smoke balaclava, and tops for the Scavs.
Changed the characteristics of a large number of weapon mods.
Simplified the Jaeger quests.
Updated some quests: changed execution conditions, starting conditions, rewards.
Reduced bonus of recoil reduction from the recoil control skill and weapon mastering.
Now character overweight starts at 35 kg. Used to be 40.
Increased purchase limits for some ammo from dealers.

New weapons and ammunition:

KRISS Vector SMG in both 9х19 and .45.
SIG MCX Assault rifle in .300 Blackout.
UMP SMG in .45.
Mk-18 mod 1 Mjölnir DMR in .338 LM.
.300 blk, .338 Lapua Magnum ammunition.
Various new weapon mods.

AI:

Fixed bots hanging behind stationary weapons.
Fixed a bug where Killa could not hear the enemies approaching from behind.
Other various bot fixes and optimizations.

Optimization:

Animation optimizations for interfaces.
Optimizations of sounds in RAM.
Server optimizations.

Fixed:

Aiming a GL40 with Reflex sights.
The position of the character’s body when blind firing was not reset after opening the inventory.
Blinding was imposed even if the player used a thermal imager.
The stationary machine gun was removed from its mount if the player used it while in the blindfiring position.
It was possible to use the tops and bottoms of the opposite faction.
The nickname could not be changed if the new nickname was 15 characters long.
The range value of the sight did not change immediately after alignment if the weapon had two sights on it.
A duplicate weapon could hang behind the player’s back for a few seconds after changing weapons.
Some pants had the equipped gun hanging outside the holster during the fitting on the Ragman service screen.
The observer did not see the player checking the fire mode on his weapon.

Weapon presets:

It was impossible to delete the overwritten preset.
Wrong mods were installed on the weapon if the build was initiated during a save process.
Failed to redeem all available items in the lot if the player attempted to purchase items over the limit.
Failed to interact with the inventory in a raid if the player had previously disassembled the weapon via the context menu.
When reactivating the exit with the hermetic door at the location Reserve, the siren stopped working earlier than it should have.
The sensitivity while aiming down sights changed when putting and removing sights from the weapon.
A character was performing a light grenade throw only by double-pressing the RMB.
Uninformative message about the lack of space in the stash when transferring items from the letter on “Receive all”.
The “Found in raid” status for the weapon would not update if you would put non-found in raid weapon mod on the gun.
Incorrect information about the level of mastering in the weapon inspector.
The price of 1 item decreased by 1 ruble if a player bought several of the same items from a dealer.
The azimuth was missing if the player opened the pause menu with a compass in his hands.
The camera could go through the body of another player.
Missing messages in group chat.
Various server errors.
Various minor fixes.
Various localization fixes.
Various location fixes.