Developer Battlestate Games has announced that a new Escape From Tarkov patch will launch tomorrow, February 12 and will most likely remove the snow effect that has been added to all maps since the start of the year.
Patch 0.14.1.0 for Escape from Tarkov will arrive at 7:00AM GMT/2:00AM EST tomorrow, February 12, with an expected downtime of four hours when you will not be able to play the game at all. No patch notes have been released, with these typically arriving when the patch installation starts. However, with this being a larger numbered patch, you can probably expect quite a few big changes, certainly more than the balance patches and bug-fixing patches we have had recently.
While we may not have official patch notes just yet, there is one change that we are expecting to see based on a tease from the Tarkov devs. In the post announcing the patch, Battlestate Games included an image of a weather forecast, that shows a change from snowy weather to cloudy weather. This likely means that the snow effect, which was added to all maps at the start of the wipe will now be removed and maps will go back to normal.
For many players, this will be a welcome change, as while a great experience to start with, some have become tired of the white maps and how easy it can be to spot a player running across snow due to the massive color contrast they have with the snow. But personally, I’ll be sad to see the snow go, it made things feel different, made it easier to spot players, which for a bad player like me made things a lot easier, and made nighttime raids playable without night vision due to the brightness of the snow.
As for what else could be included in the patch, no one can be sure but many are hoping for further changes to the armor system that has proven to be a little buggy in some situations. In recent days Tarkov players have found instances of armors being bugged and blocking too much or too little damage and no one really seems to be sure why.
Chances are there won’t be any major new content added to Tarkov with the patch, with most new content coming with a new wipe, and with the next wipe still months away we likely won’t be getting any new events either. We will only know for sure when the patch notes drop tomorrow, but it might be a good idea to grab the free Lunar New Year gift before the patch drops, just in case it breaks everything.