Everything You Need to Know About Escape from Tarkov’s 12.12 Patch

Everything You Need to Know About Escape from Tarkov’s 12.12 Patch

As the year ends, Battlestate Games treats Escape from Tarkov players with an update featuring tons of new content. Patch 12.12 is one of Tarkov’s biggest updates in a while as the developers introduce a new map and new NPCs for players to enjoy. The update also features tons of new guns, gear, and a new special item. Unfortunately, the recent patch has been rolled out with a complete wipe, as players will start from scratch once again as all their progress has been erased. Despite the progress reset, players are still happy with the additional content introduced.

What are Wipes?

A wipe is a total reset of every Tarkov players’ progress. The event erases everything from weapons to skills and stats. Wipes occur every six months and usually happen on a Thursday. The previous wipe before the most recent one occurred on July 2021. The objective of players’ progress reset is to even the playing field between veteran players and new players who are trying out the game for the first time. By removing the gear advantage of seasoned Tarkov veterans, new gamers will have more chances of surviving their encounters in the game. Meanwhile, long-time PMCs in the game will only have their skills and knowledge to rely on to get an edge over other players. Post wipe is the best time for gamers to return or try out the game as the playing field is evened out.

What’s New in EFT 12.12?

Escape from Tarkov will be bringing in a lot of changes to the game which is expected for a major update. These new changes can range from game mechanics to new maps and enemies. Here are the things you will find in Tarkov’s post update:

Lighthouse Map and Rogue Faction

Perhaps the biggest addition to the game right now is the new raid map “Lighthouse.” According to the Lighthouse’s lore, it was a previously important strategic location in Cape Dalniy as it served as the point of entry and base of operations for the USEC during the contract wars. The new map will bring in new missions and a new never before seen NPC faction, Rogues.

The new faction is a group of ex-USEC operatives that guards the water treatment plant in the new map. They can be seen patrolling the grounds of the plant or near mounted machine guns ready to fire at any time. These new enemies will aggressively defend their location using various weapons such as laser-sighted guns and grenade launchers. Rogues will shoot on sight PMCs from the BEAR faction while USEC PMCs will be given a warning first. However, they will fire upon USEC aligned raiders if they venture too close to the water treatment plant.

Player Inertia

Tarkov is famous for its brutal and realistic gameplay. To keep in line with this reputation, Battlestate Games will be implementing a new game mechanic that is heavily influenced by physics, Player Inertia. The new feature has been implemented to make movement in Tarkov more realistic. Inertia will manifest in player movements such as walking, strafing, sprinting, sharp turns while sprinting, landing after jumping, falling, and leaning or sidestepping. The inertial force will be influenced by raiders’ weights and Strength levels. Here are the more specific effects of the new game mechanic:

• The time it will take to accelerate once players start moving
• The time it will take to slow down once players stop moving
• The change in speed when changing directions to the opposite way
• The decrease in speed when taking sharp turns while sprinting
• The decrease in movement speed and recovery after jumping or falling
• The delay to return to a normal position after leaning and sidestepping

The new physics mechanic will start increasing from 0 kg of equipment for players with 0 levels of Strength. Raiders will elite-level strength will feel inertia kick in at 10 kg of equipment. The inertial force maxes out at 70 kg and 80 kg respectively.

Crouching and Getting Up

These two types of player movements have been expanded further to get more realistic feels to them. The duration of these player actions will be influenced by the degree of weight overload. Getting up will drain stamina with the amount of stamina drained dependent on the degree of overload and how high players stood up.

Weapon Malfunctions

This in-game mechanic has been expanded further by adding three new additional weapon malfunctions. Other than misfires, here is the list of new malfunctions:

• Failure to eject – This malfunction occurs more due to the technical condition of the weapon and, sometimes, overheating and the type of cartridge used. When this error occurs, the cartridge can be seen at the ejection port as it is jammed by the bolt.
• Failure to feed – The source of this issue is due to weapon magazines, particularly high capacity or drum magazines. The error occurs when a problem appears with the new cartridge feed after players start firing their guns.
• Jamming – Bolts jamming occurs mainly due to overheating and the technical condition of weapons. The two types of jamming are normal and hard. Normal bot jammings are easier and faster to troubleshoot than hard ones.

Weapon malfunctions do not occur to new weapons, unless if the error is due to overheating. Malfunctions and other errors may not occur on some weapons due to their design or mechanism of operation.

Overheating

Weapons heat up after each subsequent shot. The heating rate will heavily depend on the cartridge, barrel, and other weapon parts related to heating. After a weapon has stopped firing, it will enter a cooling phase which is already heavily reliant on the gun parts previously mentioned except for the cartridge.

Overheating has four stages which you can monitor via the gun’s visual state. Each stage has various effects on the guns, so players should be careful and monitor the status of their weapons. Here is the list of overheating stages:

1. Slight Overheating – The weapon is starting to heat up, but there is no visual reddening of the barrel. The effects of this stage are that the barrel, muzzle devices, and handguards are visible in thermal scopes. A mirage may possibly form from the barrel and muzzle devices.
2. Medium Overheating – The weapon is heated, and there is visible reddening on the barrel and muzzle. The effects of this stage are a drop in weapon accuracy, increased chance of malfunctions, increases wear, and reduced maximum durability when firing.
3. Severe Overheating – The weapon becomes very hot. There are visible sizzles on the barrel and muzzle. The effects of this stage are changes in the weapon’s rate of fire and a possible chance of cooking off.
4. Maximum Overheating – At this stage, a weapon malfunction will definitely occur – jamming.

VOIP or In-game Voice Chat

Players can now talk to each other in-game via the new VOIP system. The in-game voice chat will allow players to constantly communicate with their teammates and negotiate with other players. However, Battlestate has warned players that abusing this system may lead to punishments. Insults, spamming music, fogging the air, and other similar inappropriate actions may lead to players being banned from using the feature or, worse, permanent bans.

Improved Bullet Ballistics

Previously, only the bullet weight and initial velocity were considered when calculating the flight of the bullet. After 12.12, Tarkov bullet ballistic also takes bullet diameter, bullet shape, and ballistic coefficient into account. These new bullet mechanics allow Tarkov bullet ballistics to be realistic as possible and be close to real-world data.

New Rangefinder

The new item has been requested by players for a long time. The special item is a handheld optical device that helps players to determine and measure the distance between them and the target. Having this handy device allows players to land more accurate shots by adjusting their shot angle.

Tips Before Trying Out the New Update:

Extraction Points

The Lighthouse has multiple extraction points that players can go to safely exit the raids. Here is the list of all extraction points for the new map:

For All Factions:

• Path to Shoreline – Always open.
• Side Tunnel – Always open.
• Armoured Train – Always open. The train arrives at the 7 mins and 20 mins marker into the raid. The train will stay for 7 mins before it departs.

For PMCs only:

• Road to Military Base V-Ex – Single use & needs 5000 rubles to exit here.
• Mountain Pass – Always open. Needs Paracord, Red Rebel Ice Pick, and No Armor Vest Equipped.
• Norther Checkpoint – Always open.
• Souther Road – Always open.

For Scavs only:

• South Road Landslide – Always open.
• Scav Hideout at the Grotto – Always open.
• Industrial Zone Gates – Always open.
• Hideout Under Landing Stage – Always open.

Points of Interest

Lighthouse is a new map so not all points of interest have been identified yet. Here is the list of all known POIs so far:

• Tarkov Hills Grand Chalet
• Pikes Peak Resort
• Shore Cottages
• Railyard
• Water Treatment Plant

Interacting with Rogues

For PMCs who are under the USEC faction, engaging in gunfights against the new faction will result in the players being tagged as traitors. Those who are tagged will be marked for several raids will be shot on sight by Rogues. In addition, PMCs from the USEC faction who team up with PMCs from the BEAR faction will also be shot on sight if they are seen together.

Rogues are deadly accurate and can take out players in one shot, so raiders who would like to fight them should be incredibly careful. The new NPCs are also known to hold corners, so players are advised not to double peek at them.

Malfunctions

To fix a weapon malfunction, players will have to determine what type of error has occurred first. Gamers can do this by using the weapon inspection hotkey.

It is a good time to play Tarkov with all these new features and the recent wipe. Don’t wait for other players to progress further and be left behind.