Battlestate Games has officially kicked off what it’s calling the “Hardcore Wipe,” a sweeping overhaul of the Escape from Tarkov that dramatically alters the extraction shooter’s progression, limits access to maps, and disables much of what players are used to. The update, which went live yesterday, is the final wipe before Tarkov’s long-awaited 1.0 release—but it’s already proving divisive.
The patch locks down all but two maps—Customs and Factory—forcing players to use in-game transit points to access other locations. The idea, according to Battlestate, is to create a slower, more methodical experience. But for players hoping for the usual full-access wipe day, the shift was jarring.
“I tried going to Reserve. This was the experience: Queue was 10 minutes for Customs, five-minute run to transit, 22-minute queue for Reserve just to trade headshots with another player two minutes in,” complained one frustrated player on Reddit.
Adding to the pain, most quests are missing from the game entirely, including those required to unlock key traders. For now, players are stuck grinding without the usual task-based progression that gives Tarkov wipes their structure. “And we have no tasks, so basically the game is unplayable […], pure mindless grind […] with no fun stuff added,” the same player lamented.
The changes don’t stop there. Insurance and repair costs have skyrocketed, the flea market is disabled, rare loot is scarcer, and even secure containers can no longer hold most ammo, meds, and currency. Traders are locked to level 1 for now, meaning hideout progression is gated indefinitely.
Battlestate says these restrictions are part of a “wave-like” system that will gradually unlock over time. Head of studio Nikita Buyanov has acknowledged the backlash, promising that the team is “monitoring feedback” and may tweak the changes as needed. Buyanov, however, made headlines of his own when he snapped at a frustrated fan on X, writing “Oh shut the f*** up”—a comment he later walked back by adding, “I’m joking, don’t shut the f*** up. Every opinion matters.”
The Hardcore Wipe is meant to be an experiment in slowing Tarkov’s often breakneck pace, forcing players to adapt and survive under harsher conditions. Whether it’ll succeed or implode remains to be seen, but the community’s reaction so far suggests that Battlestate may need to rethink just how hard they want to lean into “hardcore.”
The full patch notes include not just the wipe changes but also quality-of-life improvements, new prestige rewards, the addition of the AK-50 sniper rifle, AI tweaks, and more.
For a detailed breakdown of the patch notes, including all the hidden and announced changes, check out the full patch notes below.
Patch 0.16.8.0 Release Notes
New content
Hardcore Wipe
Added balancing adjustments to trading mechanics, AI behavior, in-game tasks, experience and skill gain, availability of weapons, equipment, loot, Flea Market, and other changes aimed at creating a unique and challenging game experience.
There will be several planned stages of progression with additional changes.
Follow the announcements on our socials and on the project website to learn all the details first. We will also be monitoring player feedback closely and will make balancing changes beyond the planned stages if necessary.
PvE mode will not be affected by the Hardcore Wipe changes.
Prestige
Added two new Prestige levels with exclusive rewards:
- New PMC character voices;
- New PMC outfits;
- New mannequin poses for the Gear Rack;
- New posters for the Hideout;
- New target styles for the Shooting Range;
- New Hideout customization options;
- New Dogtag styles.
After earning Prestige 3 and 4:
- Skills and weapon mastery will have their progression saved by 15% for Prestige 3 and 20% for Prestige 4;
- Weapons, helmets, armor and attachments will become available for Prestige item transfer.
AK-50
Added the AK-50 anti-materiel sniper rifle with a related task chain to obtain it.
Changes
AI
Readjusted the PMC bot spawn system. Now, the AI PMCs will no longer spawn immediately at points of interest and will instead have remote spawn points, making them travel to loot POIs and compete with the player.
Improved the friendly-foe identification system for PMC bots to distribute the availability of spawn points and check them for enemies. Fixed several bugs where regular bots and PMC bots would not be hostile towards each other.
PMC bots will try to avoid Boss areas but may still engage in a fight with them.
QoL
Added the stash auto scroll function when click-dragging an item.
Added a storage stacking limit for containers. This is necessary to avoid situations where players would get stuck on the profile loading screen due to excessive amount of items in the stash. The change will mostly affect PvE players who have stacked 7 or more items inside each other, i.e. backpacks. All items that exceed the limit will be deleted.
Character customization
Added new unique PMC customization options, available on the updated website: https://www.escapefromtarkov.com/expansions.
Fixes
Fixed several issues with sound occlusion and incorrect audio propagation on all locations.
Escape From Tarkov’s Hardcore Wipe is live now on PC, with more updates planned in the run-up to version 1.0.
