Partizan, PMC Karma and the Connection Between the Two

The newest boss to be added into Tarkov, Partizan or as the community has aptly nicknamed him “Parmesan”, is a weird boss to say the least. His lore is probably the most unique out of all the other bosses and how he operates is also strange and not exactly understood. BSG has been tight lipped about exactly how he functions; only giving us vague answers in the past but confirming he, in some way, is directly tied to another hidden mechanic that was added in with patch 0.15, another karma system. Not PMC karma, not scav karma because we already have that. Just karma; what a wonderful new mechanic that is so easily understood by just that one word. We have been told numerous times that this was a matter of when and not if, and now that we finally have some version of it, we need to talk about how the community thinks it works, how it’s directly tied to Partizan, and how it might change in the future. As well as some other changes that also came with this update to help fill you in on where your own karma might be and whether or not Partizan is actively hunting for you right now. So, let’s talk about it.

As a boss, Partizan is kind of an interesting bag. He is another nomadic boss that can spawn on multiple maps and doesn’t stick to one specific area. Personally, I’ve only encountered him once. It was on Shoreline at the resort. He kind of just ran up to me, said a few voice lines and then I killed him. Here’s the achievement you get when you do take him down. His loot wasn’t that impressive other than the key that’s needed to get into the estates on Shoreline. If he has his AK with the grenade launcher that’s probably the best thing he can spawn with. He also has his own backpack similar to Sanitar. But his main goal is to hunt down other players who have low karma. Because a version of karma has been added into the game. And because it’s BSG we’re talking about, there is no direct way to tell what your karma is. This goes for both bad PMCs as well as scavs too, which I guess I understand the scav component more because now there is even more of a reason to not shoot other players and AI when you are playing on your scav. The last thing you want is this rogue lunatic chasing you down because he deems you, and I’m quoting BSG directly here: “dishonest”. It’s vague; and that’s what I don’t like about this new karma mechanic.

They don’t tell us how it works. It’s left to us for figuring it out and explaining it to other players. People have had their own interpretations of not only how PMC karma works but also how it’s positively or negatively influenced. I think BSG was more concerned with ways to lower it rather than raising it. So, and this is just my own head cannon here, it wouldn’t surprise me if there aren’t any ways to raise it other than letting time do it. But the ways it can do down is staggering. And it mainly revolves around being idle for too long in certain areas on maps. Mainly, bushes and especially extracts. There are people speculating that bushes, trees and anywhere that might perpetuate ratty behavior have this new hitbox around them that counts down how long you’ve stayed in that position without moving. And if you stay for too long, you get the new unique bird chirp sound effect that says Partizan didn’t like that and is coming for your booty hole. We don’t know for sure and this is speculation on my part. But part of me thinks this was added to directly attack camping of any and all kinds. Because on the patch notes they specifically use the language of “dishonest” gameplay. What that means we don’t know. It could be a bad translation or it could mean camping and hiding in places that people and the developers would see as not okay. But if that’s the case this raises a lot of red flags. For example, what is classified as “dishonest” gameplay? Is sitting on a perch with a bolt action rifle for too long bad gameplay? Will Partizan not like that and come looking for me? If I press a movement button every couple of seconds while on a bush does that refresh the timer? How many times do I need to hear the new audio cue to know Partizan is now hunting me down? How low can my karma get? All these questions with zero answers. BSG seems adamant about keeping this stuff close to their chest. Which is annoying because a karma mechanic like this can have massive gameplay ramifications if people don’t know how it works exactly. I’m sure with time, they might give us some information about how it works or the community as a whole will figure it out. Or, and this is something I’ve thought about as well: what if this karma mechanic only applies to Partizan?

Seriously, BSG has talked about adding karma for PMCs at some point, and maybe this is the first phase of that. But we all thought it meant that killing other players of the same faction would lower your karma. Because that fundamentally changes the game entirely. But that’s not how it works. Camping, hiding, and not doing what I guess technically BSG deems honest gameplay makes you lose karma. And the only penalty to that is Partizan hates you more, and will actively hunt you down if he’s in raid if he’s not setting up his own tripwires and traps around the map. Dealing with the traders doesn’t change, I’d imagine talking to Lightkeeper is the same, and the other bosses and AI already hate PMCs, so who cares about your karma if it only means Partizan is more annoying? Again, this could be stage one for karma and they might continue to add onto it and make changes without telling us of course because it’s a hidden mechanic and we can’t know everything about the video game we are playing. It was cool when they added the cultists and didn’t tell us. But stuff like this needs to be laid out on the table for people to read and understand.

Partizan as a boss isn’t anything to write home about other than he uses tripwires. But the added layer of the karma system is just the first step in how BSG begins to force people to play the game the way they see fit. Sure, you can ignore the system entirely and just keep going as you please, but I imagine more penalties will be levied against the player to basically drive them out of that style, which I think isn’t justified. Tarkov has some of the most creative and open-ended ways of engaging with the game. While yes, that means people sit in bushes or near extracts the entire raid to ruin other people’s raids, if that style of play was allowed before, those should be embraced or at the very least not incentivized by other more lucrative ways of playing the game. Add more extracts that require positive karma, give bonus rewards for players who have good karma being either items or bonus exp at the end of raids. There are so many ways you could stomp out toxic gameplay if you just add more ways to positively reward players who play the way BSG wants us to play. But by trying to squash those who enjoy sitting around, it’s going to eventually alienate a select group of people from playing anymore. And I think that’s a shame; it’s Tarkov. Anything can happen. Let’s keep it that way. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know your thoughts about the new boss and the karma system down in the comments below and subscribe for more videos about BSG ruining playstyles in the game that might not be fun for everyone but should be allowed to exist. I hope to see you in future ones.