Battlestate Games has released the roadmap for Escape From Tarkov Arena, promising three big updates in the coming months that will finally add some heavily requested game-changing features.
The roadmap, which was quietly released with a simple tweet on the Tarkov Arena X account, details three big updates that will be coming over the next few months. The first is set to arrive before the end of the month, with the next scheduled for mid-spring and the last scheduled for mid-summer. As is often the case with Escape From Tarkov updates, no specific dates were mentioned, as the team tends to only finalise a date once everything has been completed internally.
The February update will address some of the biggest criticisms of the game, as well as bring in some features that were recently added to the core Tarkov game. The main change comes to presets, and how they are balanced in matches. Now each preset has a tier, and you will need to select that tier before you get into a match, meaning there should be no more matches where a player with a higher-level gun can destroy everyone else. There will also be limits on multiple people on the same team having the same preset, and a rebalancing of all the presets.
The updated hitbox and armour system that was added to the main Escape From Tarkov game a few months ago, will also be transferred across to Arena, which should have a big impact on how difficult it can be to kill a heavily armoured player. And rounding out the patch will be improvements to the custom game system that seems to be setting up for more esports tournaments.
Next up is the mid-spring update that will add a new location and game mode, as well as a lot of optimisations and performance improvements. However, the big talking point for this patch is that your Arena and EFT profiles will synchronise, so you can use your cash from the main game to play Arena. This has been a long-promised feature and one that should finally make the games feel like they are one experience.
The big exciting update is the one scheduled for mid-summer, which will finally bring with it preset customisation. One of Tarkov’s strengths is its massively complex weapon modding system, so it was strange to see Arena force you to play with pre-made loadouts that you couldn’t change. But this update will allow you to customise weapons within the presets, which is a good start to getting some of the customisation players have been calling for. This update will also add a new map and new game mode, as well as more technical improvements.
The first update, coming this month, will be the first major update Escape From Tarkov Arena has had since launch, when it proved popular but a frustrating invite system and perplexing economy turned a lot of players away. Hopefully this, along with the further improvements down the line, will bring players back to Arena.
