Battlestate Games has released the patch notes for Escape From Tarkov patch 0.14 and they include a ton of cool additions to the game including a new map Ground Zero, the new boss Kollontay and the reworked recoil system.
Ground Zero is the biggest new addition, being an entirely new map that is restricted to PMCs under level 20. This is designed to give newer players a safer place to play without running into super high-level players they stand little chance against. However, you can scav into the map at any level. It is set in the city centre of Tarkov, and looks to feature a number of highrise buildings with multiple floors.
New boss Kollontay and his guards are a new addition to the Streets of Tarkov map. Kollontay will patrol the Klimov Shopping Mall and the Tarkov Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs areas of the map, and will sometimes try to beat you with his police baton.
Another addition to Streets of Tarkov is the new BTR, which you can use to travel around the map safely, provide covering fire and even send items back to your stash mid-raid, which will make long looting runs a lot easier.
Other new content includes a rework to the Shoreline map, which now has a new cattle farm area, some new weapons, new guards for boss Kaban and the new achievement system that will give you something to work towards over multiple wipes as progress will not reset.
The other big changes in the patch aren’t totally new additions but rather overhauls to existing systems. The movement system has been changed to now include vaulting, which should completely change how you can move around maps. With many maps having difficult-to-reach areas on purpose, vaulting should make it easier to move around naturally.
The other massive change comes to the recoil system, which has been overhauled in patch 0.14. We don’t have many specifics and based on some of the patch notes it seems it could undergo further changes as the team will be looking at player data going forward.
Perhaps the biggest system overhaul is to the armour system, which now works in a completely different way. Hitboxes for armour have been changed, and will now only protect you around the actual area of the armour, not your entire midsection. 37 new ballistic plates have been added, which you can now place in your armour to customise it and offer better protection from bullets.
Escape From Tarkov Servers Are Down
The full patch notes are long, but probably worth a read considering Tarkov will be down for a good few hours as the patch is added to the servers. The update started to be deployed at 7am GMT / 2am EST and is expected to take six hours. So the Tarkov servers should be back up around 1pm GMT / 8am EST.
But when it does go live later today you can jump in and try all the new changes for yourself. First impressions seem good and that this will be a fun update for Escape From Tarkov.
