The next Escape From Tarkov wipe is due to arrive sometime next month, but for the sake of players still on the PvP mode, it needs to arrive sooner rather than later.
Ever since the controversial launch of the PvE game mode, and more recently the mode being opened up to everyone for purchase, the PvP game mode has felt a little lacking. While PvE players effectively got to start a new wipe mid-way through the traditional wipe cycle, PvP players are left waiting in what is likely to be one of the longest periods without a wipe ever.
The last wipe arrived all the way back in December, which already makes it seven full months since the last wipe, and there’s a chance that could extend to eight given the vague release window we have so far. For many players, myself included, Tarkov is at its best in the early wipe stage when everyone has similar level weapons and fights are generally quite fair, and this extended late wipe that hasn’t quite reached the end of wipe event stage is really dragging.
Many expected a return to a six-month wipe schedule when the last TarkovTV stream was announced, which piqued interest in the game once again. But now, weeks later, that interest has fallen away and players are still grinding out the last quests of the wipe against all the hardcore players who play non-stop. The occasional events give us average players something to do, but they have been reasonably few and far between, with no sign of the near game-breaking events that the last week of a wipe usually brings.
I’m now at the stage where I’m waiting for those end of wipe events to start before I go back to Tarkov, just so I can throw all my good gear into the bin in a fun way. Typically, by the time a new wipe approaches I still have some want to play Tarkov regularly, but this time it has been weeks since I’ve felt that way. Seven months feels too long for a wipe, with the old six-month schedule being near perfect for Tarkov in terms of giving you enough time to do everything but not making things stale with no new content.
Hopefully, when the new wipe arrives and adds new hideout sections to unlock, new weapons to play with and likely the Factory map rework there will be a lot of new things to do in Tarkov, but for now this extended wipe is hurting Tarkov, and I, for one, can’t wait for it to come to an end.