A new patch for Escape From Tarkov and Escape From Tarkov Arena is set to launch tomorrow, with the servers expected to go down for four hours while it is installed.
At 8:00 am BST/3:00 am EDT tomorrow, June 13, patch 0.14.9.1 for Escape From Tarkov will be released, with the usual server downtime expected to last for four hours. During this time, the Tarkov servers will be down, and you will not be able to play the game at all.
At the same time, patch 0.1.8.1 for Escape From Tarkov Arena will also launch, with the servers also expected to go down for four hours. During this time, Arena will not be playable either, meaning you will have no way to get your Tarkov fix until the new patches are live.
There is currently no word on what these patches will include, but given both games are going offline at the same time, it is probably a safe bet to assume that there will be some tweaks to the account linking between the two games that launched with the last Tarkov patch. Now you use the same character across both games and can transfer some items such as money between the two games. There have been some balance changes made already, specifically to the amount of cash you can move between the two games, but given these are proper patches, I’d expect to see some slightly bigger changes.
Hopefully these patches will fix the incredibly annoying system of completing quests in Arena. With the launch of the new trader, Ref, there are now quests that you will need to complete in Arena. However, to accept these you need to speak to Ref in the main Tarkov game, then quit and go to Arena to complete them. As if this wasn’t annoying enough, a lot of users have experienced bugs where the quest acceptance was not recognised when they booted up Arena, so had to go back to the main Tarkov game to accept it again. With a bit of luck, this issue will be fixed in the patch, and we might even get a way to accept the quests in Arena itself.
As for other content, I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for major changes. While the reworked armour system is expected to launch this month and has been teased on X by Nikita, it seems much more likely to arrive towards the end of the month, which would still fit with the roadmap of expected content before the next wipe.