{"id":1248746,"date":"2026-02-28T21:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/EsPP9Ajj2DmJVUEmXTKxYA"},"modified":"2026-02-28T21:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:35:12","slug":"escape-from-tarkov-blindsides-players-with-immediately-controversial-hardcore-wipe-that-removes-quests-and-disables-most-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/escape-from-tarkov-blindsides-players-with-immediately-controversial-hardcore-wipe-that-removes-quests-and-disables-most-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape From Tarkov blindsides players with immediately controversial ‘Hardcore Wipe’ that removes quests and disables most maps"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Escape From Tarkov got a new wipe today, and it’s not going down too well.<\/p>\n

The community is in open revolt in reaction to today’s Hardcore Wipe<\/a>, a sweeping patch that upends the extraction shooter’s economy, format, and progression in a bid to slow things down. At least, that’s how players are reading the decision to disable all maps but two, limit ammo crafting, and make core features like insurance wildly expensive.<\/p>\n

Despite developer Battlestate’s efforts to prepare<\/a> players for the Hardcore Wipe last week with X posts, those who only read the sparse patch notes<\/a> were blindsided by Escape From Tarkov’s dramatic decrease in content overnight.<\/p>\n

Chief among players’ laundry list of complaints is quests: The majority of them are simply missing, greatly limiting options for progression at the start of a wipe set to last months. The plan is for more quests to roll out over time, but that’s of little comfort to players who were excited to play a bunch of Tarkov on wipe day.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the fact that only two of Tarkov’s 11 maps are available to raid, with travel to other maps only possible through in-game transit points on Customs or Factory. Many seem to agree that maps only accessible through other maps is, conceptually, a neat idea for a hardcore mode, but Tarkov’s excruciatingly long load times throw cold water on the whole thing.<\/p>\n

“I tried going to Reserve. This was the experience: Queue was 10 minutes for Customs, five-minute run to transit, 22-minute queue for Reserve just to trade headshots with another player two minutes in,” wrote Reddit user SakeMadaMada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Insurance might be expensive this wipe…<\/a> from r\/EscapefromTarkov<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n