Hardcore Tarkov is Over

(Intro)

Well, after just over six weeks, the community can say the hardcore wipe has come to a close. It didn’t go out with a bang, but instead, a small whimper. On August 20th, BSG released a series of patch notes that reverted almost all of the changes that were associated with the hardcore wipe. There are a couple of mechanical differences that are still prevalent from the hardcore wipe, but most of the grievances of players have been reverted to what they were like in previous wipes. This whole thing has been a crazy ride. Some of it good, some of it interesting but not flushed out completely. And some of it utterly trash. So, let’s go over what has been reverted, where we stand now that hardcore is no more, and just have a small postmortem for the challenge and all the headaches that surrounded the idea. It could’ve been good; it should’ve been good. But sadly, things did not go exactly as planned.

(It was so short)

The first thing that is the biggest disappointment was how long this experiment lasted. A little over a month long. It felt as though the plan was to have this go for a lot longer. The goal was to prolong the early game for longer than any previous wipe. And to their credit, they absolutely succeeded on that front. And it felt good for the most part. But here’s the problem: how long they wanted to prolong it we don’t know and unless the big man himself ever feels like sharing that information we will never know. Technically yes, there are still elements of hardcore still in the game. But the entire concept and all of its moving parts have been removed. It seems that after some surveys both in the game (finally) and from Nikita himself, the overall majority of players were ready to be done with this experiment. To which, Nikita silently but willingly turned it off. So now, we’re almost back to the game feeling like it did before the most recent wipe. However, these reversions were met halfway... sort of.

(It’s still not 100% gone)

The most hilarious observation about the most recent patch is that while yes, most of the hardcore elements are gone, some still remain. Most notably, not being able to put medical items in your container and how much money needs to be spent at the trader to level them up. I have no idea if this was intentional or if they just forgot in the laundry list of changes that needed to get us back to normal Tarkov, and while I don’t mind the container changes staying, the fact I still need to spend two million plus rubles to level up a trader to level three is insane. I guess this is just the monkey’s paw curling. We got what we wanted, but at what cost? Literally. We are now in this weird limbo where most of hardcore is gone, but not all of it so people can insure items again, but it takes seventeen million rubles to upgrade Peacekeeper. So, it’s all very confusing, which once again shows that their plan whatever it may have been, got thrown out the window very quickly. This entire experiment has rubbed people the wrong way. So much so that BSG had been trying to fix and entice people back in since day one. And that always confused me. If you were so interested and adamant about a hardcore wipe, screw it and say full send. But the backpedaling so early on left a sour taste in many people’s collective mouths. It’s like hey we have this cool idea, but we don’t know exactly how to execute on it. So, we’ll just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Not the way to do it. Because nothing really stuck. Some of the ideas people were more receptive to, but the problem there was that those changes were not fixed even if they had been in the game for years. And there is one change in particular that came with this patch that to me, is honestly the icing on this overall shit cake.

(Level 35 flea makes no sense)

The flea market. It’s back; whether you wanted it or not. It has returned into the game, although in a deeply neutered state, at least for the time being. It unlocks at level thirty-five; the highest-level requirement it has ever needed since it was introduced. Which I mean, is cool, but also at the same time my brain immediately goes why? If you are at that level or higher, you likely don’t even need the flea at this point. You have most of what you’re looking for. And for someone who has been struggling with this wipe, thirty-five is no easy feat. That level requirement will take some time, so their one chance at having the ability to feel competitive with other players is just far enough out of reach they might not try. I don’t want to just dump on them for trying to meet us halfway by adding the flea back, but once again, it doesn’t feel thought out that much. I don’t have it, not that I really care for it much. Besides, I haven’t seen if there are any major item restrictions other than, they need to once again be found in raid to put them up for sale. And you are only allowed one item up on the flea at a time, again to reinforce the whole neutered version of this mechanic. But for those who were simply waiting for it to return or didn’t want to play unless the flea was added back, now is your chance. Whether or not they will mess with it any more than they already have remains to be seen.

(My overall thoughts)

I’ve said my piece across most of the recent videos involving the hardcore wipe, but I think it makes sense to get them all in one place so we can move on from this topic and touch on other ideas and conversations. From the start, I was always an advocate of making the game harder. For years, mechanics and systems were added that sped up the entire game process to a point players could if they were skillful enough and a little lucky, blast through most of the content within a matter of the first couple of weeks. And then BSG tried to counter those additions with alterations that made the game not harder, but more tedious. They are two different things. One involves challenge, stakes, having to make tough choices and seeing it through to the other side. The other one, takes something that before was an hour long, and turned it into four hours' worth of grinding. So, finally seeing some system wide changes that actually added stakes, and pressure to the player base was a welcome one. Your life mattered so much more this wipe than it ever did previously. Dying wasn’t just a kit lost; it was a major setback. So, it cautioned players to really think about how they approach raids and certain elements of the game. It was a wonderful sight to see and also experience.

But the mask quickly fell off only after a couple of days. Transit, if it was added properly and worked on day one of the wipe, I still believe could’ve been awesome and I will die on that hill. But it goes beyond that; things came online at a pace that initially felt too fast, then felt fair in the context of a hardcore wipe, but now with it gone after only forty-one days, I think everything happened too quickly. People were so quick to give out their feelings and frustrations. And while that’s completely fair, it almost felt like people wanted this to fail from the start. Granted, it isn’t anyone’s fault this happened. Sorry, let me rephrase; no player was at fault for how this all went down. It lies soley on BSG and their handling of everything. They went very ambitious with this wipe, which I applaud. It was something that hadn’t been done in any official capacity, so they were treading some new waters with how the balance was going to be, and the overall pacing of the wipe. But the plan was fumbled time and time again; aspects of it compromised from day one. It was going to be difficult to enjoy considering it was screwed from the start. And by the time they had addressed whatever the issue of the week was, the community had made up its mind. I’ve said this so many times, but one last time won’t hurt. This could’ve been an awesome experience. It should’ve been an awesome experience. It should’ve been challenging but enticing. A hurdle you had to overcome but was absolutely possible with some elbow grease and a dose of luck. But the reality was that things became even more tedious and grindy, which doesn’t correlate with a challenge introducing real difficulty. It ultimately came down to spend more money to solve the same problems we’ve had for the last seven or eight years. Which to me, isn’t fun nor is it hardcore; they were pretty close with the entire experiment. But sadly, the bad outweighed the good and it all came apart at the end. As long as they learned from this and can use some of the data and feedback for future endeavors, I will say it was all worth it in the end.

(Outro)

After forty-one long days, we can finally close the book on hardcore Tarkov officially sanctioned by BSG. It was filled with a lot of ambitious ideas, some better than others, that when put together didn’t illicit the response it should’ve from a hardcore wipe. Many myself included did out best to try it out, give them the benefit of the doubt, but after a couple of weeks and things turning back into what was so familiar, it’s safe to say their intentions were noble, but not enough. It was an interesting ride to say the least. Here’s to hopefully a successful final stretch into 1.0, when God only knows that’ll release. Hopefully this year, but I’m not counting my blessings in the slightest. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me down in the comment section below your thoughts on the hardcore wipe in its entirety, how you feel about it now that it’s pretty much over and be sure to subscribe for more postmortem reflections on mechanics, systems, events and ideas that were cool on paper but didn’t hit the mark. I hope to see you in future ones.