There’s a new location, a new boss, and much more
When Escape from Tarkov entered closed beta in 2017, it quickly became the hottest extraction shooter on the market. Since then, Battlestate Games’ developers have added tons of new content and updated features in their quest to create the best Tarkov possible. Players were treated to yet another new content drop today. The 0.14 Escape from Tarkov patch includes a new map called Ground Zero, which is intended to be a location best suited for beginner players.
In addition to the Ground Zero location, players will most likely encounter a new boss named Kollontay who is now roaming the streets. Plus, the boss Kaban has beefed up his security by adding two guards Basmach and Gus. These two “dandies” should make it more difficult to bring him down. Battlestate has also introduced a full Shoreline rework, added several new weapons, and implemented a host of bug fixes and updates.
The full patch notes for the 0.14 Update can be found below. Escape from Tarkov is now available for PC.
The Escape from Tarkov 0.14.0.0 patch notes are now available. The patch will result in a wipe. This update has no impact on Escape from Tarkov: Arena or player progress.
New content in update:
Ground Zero:
The Ground Zero location has been added and can be located in Tarkov’s city center.
The location has a large number of modern city infrastructure facilities such as banks, cafes, restaurants, stores, pharmacies, and so on. Tarkov’s skyscrapers tower over all of this. The main TerraGroup Russian branch office, where the original conflict began, is located in the very center of the location. The most violent clashes between USEC PMC operatives and OMON occurred on the premises of the facility.
- The location is intended for beginners with skill levels ranging from 1 to 20.
- PMCs of higher levels (20+) will not be able to access the location;
- Scavs will have access to the location regardless of their player level.
- The location now has new starting quests;
- The location now has visual cues for new players.
- The text descriptions for the quests “Debut,” “Checking” (renamed “Background Check”), “Shortage,” “Supplier,” and “Gunsmith – Part 1” have been updated.
New Boss – Kollontay:
Kollontay, a new boss, has been added to Streets of Tarkov. He is a former MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) officer; during his time in law enforcement, he was known as a vile man whose behavior was sometimes feared by his coworkers. During his work, he frequently used his favorite method of interrogation – a rubber baton – as well as other non-statutory pressure on anyone who did not agree with him.
After the events of the TerraGroup scandal, he formed a gang and began doing what he was recently supposed to combat – looting and banditry – thanks to his physical strength and bold temperament. However, even before the war, he frequently provided protection to local “businessmen.” For instance, his good relationships
Kollontay has a small number of guards, prefers to stay in one position, and patrols his territory on occasion. If he believes he has the upper hand, he may use his police baton. He lives near Klimov Shopping Mall and the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Tarkov Academy.
Kaban’s new guards:
Basmach and Gus, two of Kaban’s closest associates, join him. They have been Kaban’s loyal associates since the time he was actively involved in business, resolving many delicate issues for him. Their devoted service and outgoing personalities earned them the title of his most trusted confidants. These two “dandies” liked to dress up at Ragman’s house and organize illegal street races through the streets of Tarkov in tuned cars from Kaban’s dealership in their spare time.
Basmach and Gus are always near Kaban and charge into battle for him. They prefer their unique clothing to their battle gear, with a few exceptions. Basmach has a thing for machetes, and Gus has a thing for crowbars.
Shoreline Rework:
- Visually reworked most of the landscape, keeping the main points of interest intact;
- Added a new area – a small cattle farm that is home to smugglers and Scavs;
- Updated the light sources;
- Optimized most of the location, and completely redesigned the culling system;
- Reworked location borders: concrete fence replaced by minefields and snipers in most areas. The location is also slightly expanded in some areas;
- Reworked some points of interest, including the addition of new quests and activities in several previously empty zones;
- Some areas have been reworked to improve gameplay: added a river crossing, reworked almost all elevations and sniper positions, as well as Scav areas of interest, etc.;
- Added more than 30 new containers and Jaeger stashes;
- Fixed over 1200 visual and minor bugs.
New weapons, gear, and loot:
- A number of new items, weapon modifications, equipment, and customization have been added.
New weapons include:
- KBP 9A-91 9×39 compact assault rifle;
- KBP VSK-94 9×39 rifle;
- SIG MCX SPEAR 6.8×51 (.277 FURY) assault rifle;
- Degtyarev RPD 7.62×39 machine gun;
- Degtyarev RPDN 7.62×39 machine gun. The models and animations for the Simonov SKS 7.62×39 carbine have been updated.
Modifications and new mechanics:
Achievements:
The game now includes an achievement system:
- After completing various objectives, players will receive achievements.
- Wipes will not result in the loss of earned achievements.
- The earned achievements are displayed on the character screen under the “Achievements” tab.
The Hall of Fame:
The game now includes a new Hideout zone called Hall of Fame:
- The zone serves as a place to display mementos:
- You get a combat skill leveling bonus for wearing the dog tags of opposing faction players killed by your PMC.
- The skill bonus increases with the level of the eliminated player.
- You can save items as favorites. These items will be visible in your profile.
New Hitbox and armor system have been added:
Hitboxes:
- The head is divided into simple hit zones that correspond to the protection zones of helmets and masks.
- The head area now has three hit zones: front neck-throat, back neck-neck, and a Face collider.
- The hit zones for the thorax and stomach are divided into front, back, and sides; the pelvic hit zone is divided into front groin and back buttocks. Hits to these zones cause Stomach zone damage.
- The diameter of the forearm hit zones has been reduced; the death screen now displays more detailed information about the area that was fatally wounded. For instance, “Thorax, Upper back.”
Armor:
- The game now has 37 ballistic plates: 7 for the chest section, 6 for the rear section, 20 universal plates (for the chest and rear sections), and 4 for the side sections.
- Ballistic plates have their own armor-specific parameters, such as strength, material, armor damage absorption, ricochet parameters, armor type, and so on.
- Depending on the size and format of the armor section, ballistic plates are classified into various “formats.”
- While wearing body armor, ballistic plates cannot be inserted or removed. It must first be removed.
- A ballistic plate’s visual appearance is determined by its durability.
- Ballistic plates can spawn in specific areas and containers on specific locations.
Ballistic plates are affected by the “Light Armor” and “Heavy Armor” skills, depending on their type (Light or Heavy).
- Separate ballistic plate zones were added to the character to visually match the location in the body armor:
- All body armor and plate carriers with slots for this plate format have the hit registration zones of ballistic plates of the same format in the same position; the dimensions of the ballistic plate zones are the same as the average dimensions of real ballistic plates of that format.
- Body armor vests and plate carriers now have ballistic plate slots and integrated armor slots:
- In the armor plate slots, all ballistic plates of the corresponding format can be installed. Some armor plate slots can be fitted with plates of various formats. For example, the ANA Tactical M2 plate carrier’s chest section can be outfitted with SAPI and Granit format plates.
- Body armor protection is no longer standardized. It is now dependent on which areas of the body armor are visually protected. No body armor, for example, protects the armpit area.
- Body armor durability has been converted to installed armor durability.
- For a large number of body armors, an armored collar that protects the neck hitbox has been added; body armor vest cost, weight, and penalties have been adjusted – some of the cost, weight, and penalties have been “moved” to ballistic plates.
- A large number of helmets now have integrated armor slots:
- Helmet durability has been converted to integrated armor durability.
- Integrated armor in body armor and helmets:
- The protection of armor and helmets is divided into separate zones, depending on which section this zone protects (sometimes several zones). These are the slots with integrated armor;
- Integrated armor zones have their own separate durability. For example, you can now reduce your opponent’s chest zone armor durability and not damage the durability of other armor zones if you shoot them in the chest;
- In the inspection window, you can see exactly which areas of the vest or helmet are protected and what their durability rating is;
- Integrated armor cannot be removed or replaced;
- Each integrated armor has its own armor-specific settings: durability, material, armor damage absorption, ricochet parameters, armor type, and others;
- Integrated armor is affected by the “Light Armor” and “Heavy Armor” skills depending on the type of the armor (Light and Heavy).
- Balancing:
- The damage parameter on various armor materials has been adjusted to reflect the new durability values.
- Repairs:
- When repairing body armor, durability is distributed according to the following priorities: ballistic plates (chest, back, sides) and then integrated armor (chest, collar, back, pelvis, sides, other);
- You can also repair ballistic plates as separate items;
- When repairing helmets, durability is distributed according to the following priorities: integrated armor (face, top, eyes, jaws, back of head, ears, other);
- Integrated armor can receive an enhancement when it is repaired;
- Chances for armor to receive common and rare enhancements while being repaired have been increased.
- Interface:
- You can now see the durability of different armor zones and ballistic plates by hovering over the durability digit of a vest or helmet. This also works for Flea Market offers;
- You can see brief information about the presence and quantity of ballistic plates in the posted Flea Market offers;
- Slots for ballistic plates and integrated armor (if the vest has them) have been added to the vest and helmet inspector screens. The order of the slots is always the same;
- Armor class is now displayed with a Roman numeral icon on the ballistic plate icon and in the Armor Class list.
- Flea Market and Trading:
- The Flea Market ban has been removed from a large number of body armors;
- Ballistic plates of protection classes 5 and 6 cannot be sold on the Flea Market;
- Ballistic plates have been added to the inventory of various traders.
Vaulting and obstacle interaction:
- Obstacle vaulting has been added to the game;
- There are two types of vaulting:
- Climbing the obstacle and remaining on it. For example, climbing a crate to fire at the enemy from the top of it;
- Vaulting over an obstacle. For example, jumping over a small fence to take a shortcut.
- Each of these types has different animations for different heights, different parameters of stamina and arm stamina consumption, and different action speeds, depending on the negative effects;
- During a sprint, you can jump over obstacles without the goal of climbing them (Vaulting);
- If vaulting is performed while walking, the loudness of such actions will be noticeably lower than jumping and sprinting;
- For the convenience of overcoming obstacles, an option has been added to the game settings: “Vaulting over medium obstacles”, where you can choose “Auto” or “Hotkey”. If you select “Auto”, your character will climb over medium and low-height obstacles by himself. If you select “Hotkey” you will need to press the “Jump” key to initiate vaulting, but this way you can control the character’s actions more precisely;
- The character now stops if he hits a wall while walking or sprinting.
Shoulder transition:
- The ability to move firearms from the right shoulder to the left shoulder and back has been added to the game. This can be useful when you want to fire from the left side while behind cover;
- Shoulder transition is available during walking, crouching, leaning, and other actions;
- Shoulder transition is not available while prone and overhead and side blind firing;
- Positioning the weapon on the left shoulder imposes a penalty – the weapon has additional sway when moving.
Controls settings:
Warning: All control settings have been reset to default.
- Added “Shoulder transition” action, the default key is “Mouse4”;
- Added “Vaulting” action, the default key is “Space”, press type is “Continuous”;
- The “Jump” action has been reassigned to the “Spacebar” key with the “Release” press type. Try these controls settings in-game before changing them.
Preset ammo loading:
- You can now save settings (presets) for loading ammunition into magazines sequentially, as well as quickly loading magazines using these presets;
- Players can name each preset, select the appropriate loading preset, view its contents, and compare it to other loading presets;
- The magazine loading preset is divided into three blocks:
- “Top” – How many and which cartridges will be at the top of the magazine/belt, i.e. which cartridges will be first;
- “Loop” – How many and which cartridges will be cycled in the magazine/belt;
- “Bottom” – How many and which cartridges will be at the bottom of the magazine/belt, i.e. which cartridges will be last?
- You can create up to 30 unique magazine-loading presets, with a limit of 5 presets per caliber.
New recoil mechanics:
- The recoil mechanic has been improved to make it more realistic and comfortable for players. A special emphasis has been placed on improving the feel of semi-auto and short-burst shooting;
- The new recoil mechanic now includes a variety of flexible settings, allowing for balance adjustments based on analytical data and player feedback;
- All weapon recoil parameters have been rebalanced.
Lightkeeper services:
After completing certain Lightkeeper quests, you will be able to unlock access to the following services:
- “Sacred Amulet” service – Lightkeeper gives the character the item “Sacred Amulet”. While the character is wearing the amulet – all cultists on all locations do not attack you unless provoked;
- “Rogue Support” service – When a player purchases this service, in that raid, Rogues will not attack the player who ordered the service, regardless of their faction. In addition, Rogues will provide fire support by attacking targets that the player who purchased this service has directed their attention to;
- “Zryachiy Support” service – When a player buys this service, in that raid, Zryachiy will support the player by firing at the targets the player is attacking.
Weapon Rack:
- Now you can add the displayed weapon to your favorites. These weapons will be displayed in your profile.
Viewable profiles:
- Added the ability to view another player’s profile page;
- In a player’s profile, you can view:
- Gear equipped by the player;
- Brief statistics;
- Rare achievements earned;
- Favorite weapons displayed at the Weapon Rack;
- Favorite items displayed in the Hall of Fame.
- Player profiles can be viewed on any screen of the game (including the raid exit screen after dying to another player).
AI:
- Adjusted peaceful and combat behavior of AI when moving from one area to another within one location.
Here are the main list of changes to the game:
- Fixed several visual bugs and artifacts on Streets of Tarkov and Shoreline;
- Fixed incorrect spawn points of random containers on all locations;
- Fixed a problem that led to the lack of damage registration from melee weapons in some cases;
- Fixed incorrect behavior of Rogues when attacking the hangar buildings on Lighthouse;
- Fixed an issue where killed bots would remain standing;
- Fixed the lack of muzzle flash when looking at a shooting player;
- Fixed AI behavior when interacting with stationary weapons;
- Fixed incorrect values of some parameters in character statistics;
- Fixed incorrect camera behavior in the Hideout when scrolling in UI elements;
- Fixed several compatibility issues with weapon attachments;
- Fixed the ability to hear outdoor sounds while inside the bunker on Reserve;
These are the patch notes we thought you should be aware of. To view the Patch notes in their entirety, please visit their website here.