The patch notes for the Escape From Tarkov Arena 0.1.4.1 update have been released and they finally fix one of the biggest issues in the game, as well as add a new map and implement new recoil and movement mechanics.
The patch is the third Arena patch so far, but it is by far the biggest and is being welcomed by players. While the new map, Chop Shop, is the headline addition and seems to be a fun smaller map, the most interesting change comes to the matchmaking system.
Players have been complaining since day one that the matchmaking in Tarkov Arena is unfair because you select your weapon preset after you have matched with other players. That means anyone who has better weapons than you can freely select them to have a massive advantage.
This resulted in some massively unfair matches and unless you were grinding to keep unlocking better weapons make Arena almost unplayable. I haven’t actually touched Arena for almost a week because of this issue.
But now the patch has changed it so that you will be matched with people who have been using similar presets over the last few games. Each preset has an MP value which shows how powerful it is. Now matchmaking will take a look at the average MP you have used in recent matches and match you against people with similar MP value.
It seems like it could go some way to fixing the issue, but on paper, it still seems a little flawed. Sure it is great if you are grinding up a single unlock tree, but if you decided to switch to unlock new weapons on another one then your first few matches will have you playing with low-level kit against high-level players due to the matchmaking using previous matches for your MP score. We will have to wait and see how this plays out, but it might not be as perfect of a fix as it could have been.
On a similar note, the economy has changed, so now you will earn more cash and experience when playing. This should fix the fundamentally broken system where even with a 50% win rate you would end up losing money over time.
The other changes mirror the recent Escape From Tarkov patch that introduced new movement systems such as vaulting and reworked recoil. Both systems have now been moved across to Tarkov Arena, but the maps are not yet optimized for vaulting so you may find a few issues in the early days.
You can see the full list of patch notes for all the changes, but the downtime should be over very soon so you may as well just jump in and play if you have got access to Escape From Tarkov Arena.
