The launch of the new Escape From Tarkov wipe and patch has been plagued by a range of technical issues that have caused players to lose gear, be able to access things that should be locked and struggle to actually get into a raid.
After launching earlier today, the new Escape From Tarkov wipe and patch has been well received in terms of the new content added, but poorly received due to technical issues, with some streamers saying it is the worst wipe they have experienced in a long time.
Not only are players having to deal with the usual wipe server issues, which are resulting in long queue times and frequent disconnects, but there are also some more serious tech issues. Many players around the world are reporting a lot of lag spikes and stutters as they play, which is something I have also experienced and is incredibly frustrating.
Then, multiple players have reported losing gear and getting no rewards to extracting due to server issues, whereas others have died in a raid only to land back at the main menu with all their gear still in their inventory. One example is streamer Pestily, who lost a LedX due to the missing items bug that rewarded him XP for the previous raid he was on.
These tech issues are not the only ones, as another appeared within the first few minutes of the wipe going live. In the patch notes for the Escape From Tarkov 0.16.0.0 update, it was announced that the flea market would be closed for the first two weeks of the wipe. This seems like a great idea on paper, that should solve one of the biggest problems Tarkov has had in recent wipes; the rapid progression hardcore players experienced.
However, when the wipe first launched, some players discovered that instead of the flea market being off limits, it was in fact open for business. While this is unconfirmed, it looked like it was the same flea market from the end of the previous wipe, so there were a lot of very rare items available for sale on there, which obviously could give players who purchased rare items as major advantage.
The game was taken offline and the flea market was wiped, removing it for the next two weeks, but it appears that players who purchased items were able to keep them. A secondary wipe likely would have been a better solution, given it was spotted within 15 minutes of the first players getting into the game, but that did not happen despite some speculation that it would.
On the TarkovTV stream that was taking place at the time, game director Nikita Buyanov said the game was also the victim of a DDOS attack, however the timing for that seemed a little convenient when it happened minutes after the flea market issue was discovered.
If you are yet to start the new Escape From Tarkov wipe it might be a good idea to wait a day or two for the issues to be resolved and then start playing, as it will likely be a much smoother experience then. If you want to wait until the end of the year, then you can also earn some Twitch Drops that could make your first raids a lot easier given the rarity of items that are being given out.
