A small patch to Escape From Tarkov earlier today added a new item to the game that many think is the start of a new ARG-style event signalling the end of the current wipe.
The technical update to Escape From Tarkov arrived earlier today with no patch notes, which is quite unusual even for smaller changes. But after a few minutes, it became clear why, as players started to find a new item known as an Encrypted Flash Drive in their raids, with game director Nikia Buyanov even tweeting out an image of the new item.
The community is still figuring out exactly what to do with the flash drive, but its in-game description mentions a login for an ARRS terminal, which is a system that has been used before as part of an ARG experience around end-of-wipe events for Tarkov.
The website for the Tarkov ARRS terminal in real life is currently down, presumably due to so many people trying to access it, however, its meta description in Google search shows it has been updated today, further suggesting that this is where the event is leading us. One Twitter user appears to have successfully entered the username found on the encrypted flash drive into the terminal and now requires a password.
It also appears that a new key has been added to Tarkov in the update, but even less is currently known about this. The name seems to have a bug where it is just a random string of letters and numbers, so it could be anything. However, it probably isn’t unreasonable to think that the password required for the ARRS could be found wherever this key leads.
All signs are pointing to this being the next end of wipe event after the test event that removed flea market restrictions and made Labs free. The flea market changes appear to still be live for further tests, but the free Labs entry is now gone. With this being another ARG-style event it is likely to go on for a while as players are drip-fed information from the developers and try to figure out all the secrets.
That would likely mean the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will arrive in early or mid-June, especially with the confirmation that a TarkovTV stream is expected before the end of May. However, nothing is confirmed at this stage so we could still be waiting a while for the next wipe.
Update 10:55 am BST:
A teaser trailer for the new event has been released.
