Battlestate Games has revealed that Escape From Tarkov 14.5 will launch tomorrow, and with it being a numbered patch fans are expecting it to bring a lot of big changes with it.
Escape From Tarkov patch 14.5 will be installed at 8:00 am BST / 3:00 am EDT tomorrow, April 3, with the installation process expected to take five hours. Escape From Tarkov servers will be down between 8 am and 1 pm BST, meaning the game will not be accessible to anyone.
However, the extended downtime should bring with it some big changes to play with. While the patch notes have not been revealed, with them typically launching as the installation process starts, the fact this is a numbered patch rather than a technical update bodes well for this being a major patch with new content.
The last patch, which introduced the current in-game event, was just a technical update and the last few updates have also been listed as such. These updates typically don’t bring too many big changes with them, and sometimes are just behind-the-scenes changes. However, a numbered patch like 14.5 typically brings some new features or quests, and given it has been a while since we got some new toys the community is getting very excited.
There is, however, a chance that all the fun stuff that will be added with the patch could be locked until the Spring Never Changes quest, which requires 1,000,000 bonfires to be lit, is completed. At the time of writing 542,892 bonfires have been lit, but with it being a long weekend for many progress on that might slow down over the coming days meaning we could be waiting a while to get our hands on the next stage of the event.
Of course with this being the midpoint of the wipe, we aren’t expecting massive changes like we saw back in December, but it’s a safe bet to assume there could be one or two new additions. We could see the addition of the streamer items from the streamer challenge a few months ago, and another safe bet would be the promised Ground Zero matchmaking queue for players over level 20, who are currently unable to play the map as a PMC.
As ever, the community is also calling for some improved protection against cheaters, with community hubs still being filled with posts complaining about the situation. It’s probably unlikely that any major improvements will come with the 14.5 patch, but we know that Battlestate Games is constantly banning thousands of accounts each week.
