Escape from Tarkov burst onto the gaming scene in 2016, promising a hardcore and realistic multiplayer shooter experience. Players are plunged into the war-ravaged city of Tarkov, tasked with escaping by any means necessary while engaging in heart-pounding firefights and loot runs.
However, while Tarkov delivers an intense adrenaline rush, it has been plagued by rampant cheating right from the start. Players using hacks, such as ESP (wallhacks), aimbots, speedhacks, item duping, and more gain massive advantages with little risk. This has enabled a "cheating culture" to take root.
In this guide, we‘ll analyze the current state of cheating in Tarkov, the financial and emotional impact it has, and most importantly – how legitimate players can learn and grow even after devastating losses to cheaters.
The Scope of Cheating
Cheating had already become a known issue early in Tarkov‘s beta testing. After the game‘s full release in December 2022, the problem only accelerated. The number of cheaters appears massive based on player reports and monitoring by the community.
Battlestate Games, the developer, is infamously tight-lipped about hard statistics. However, we can extrapolate based on the volume of cheating accusations and the responses of cheat developers. Several sites openly sell "undetected" Tarkov hack subscriptions for over $100 a month to thousands of customers.
This level of demand has created a cheating environment described by players as “like the Wild West.” The problem persists through waves of mass banning by Battlestate. Many cheaters return again and again with new accounts, knowing the profits from hacking far outweigh the minor cost of rebuying the game.
The Cheater‘s Toolkit
Cheaters have access to a wide variety of hacks that enable almost every kind of unfair play:
ESP Hacks: Reveal the live positions of players, loot, extracts, and more via wallhack overlays
Aimbotting: Automatically snap crosshairs to enemy heads and bodies dramatically improving aiming
Radar: Details not just locations but the direction players are facing
Speedhacks: Superhuman movement speed to ambush players rapidly
Item Duplication: Generate unlimited in-game currency and loot to sell
These cheats provide cheaters complete situational information to ambush legitimate players. Their software highlights the best loot spawns, shows exactly where everyone on the map is, automatically tracks targets through walls, and kills enemies with computer guided pinpoint accuracy.
For a hardcore game like Tarkov where positioning, awareness, and aim are pivotal – this is devastating.
Losing Everything: The Impact of Cheaters
Unlike most shooters, Tarkov features permanent character progression, inventory management, and item loss on death. Players invest hundreds of hours into accumulating weapons, gear, ammunition, keys for rare loot rooms, cases to store it all and unlocking merchant quests. A single misstep means losing your prized and customized loadout.
Running into a cheater often results in dying in seconds to impossible headshots from nowhere. You instantly forfeit all items brought on that raid. For new players with basic loadouts, this stings. For veterans with millions of Roubles worth of equipment, this is infuriating. Some particularly painful losses include:
- Fully modified weapons worth ₽500,000+ Roubles with expensive attachments, ammo, etc. Crafted and adjusted over many hours to specific preferences
- Rare keyed room quest items that can take days of grinding to acquire just one
- Keys with a flea market value of ₽7,000,000+ Roubles to access lucrative loot rooms like marked rooms
- Massive backpacks stacked full of 60+ slots of looted hardware, tech, or item cases
Additionally, as players level up, their secure containers expand from 4 to 16 slots for storing protected items on death. Many players use this for valuable keys that are nigh irreplaceable if lost.
Losing this gear is not just financially costly but emotionally devastating after so much time invested. It can feel like weeks of progress deleted instantly.
Cheater kills are extra painful because they usually involve headshots from unseen angles. You often die without realizing what happened or having a chance to react. It leads to hours of lost gameplay with no closure. Getting one-tapped from the ether by an opponent who can see you through solid walls induces intense frustration.
The Cheaters Team Up…Against You
Bad enough that cheaters wield their unfair ESP vision and computerized aim against normal players. Now cheaters have begun deliberately partying up in groups, coordinating to wipe lobbies, and griefing legitimate players.
The prevalence of cheats has fostered buddy systems among those who want to maximize unfair advantages. They roam maps as an unstoppable wolf pack, mowing down any resistance in seconds with perfect information.
This exacerbates the feeling amongst legitimate players of an “Us vs Them” culture – the cheaters vs the real players. Instead of dynamic matches with unknown variables, now it feels cheaters are specifically hunting you.
Reports have surfaced of harassment from cheaters who add players just to mock them after kills. They brag about seeing valuable inventories or quest items through walls, teabag corpses, and dare people to report with no consequences.
This culture destroys any sense of fair play community. It becomes collaborating hackers preying upon an isolated playerbase desperate for change.
No Choice But to Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
With rampant cheating, many Tarkov players feel the game is in an unplayable state. Some have uninstalled until major anti-cheat improvements arrive. They don’t want to waste energy on an exponentially unfair fight. That’s understandable.
However, others have begun adapting their mindsets and techniques specifically against cheaters by necessity. This includes:
- Bringing low-value “sacrificial” gear to bait cheaters into giving themselves away
- Changing routes and behaviors to be less predictable against ESP vision
- Lobby surfing during late raids when less traffic means less likelihood of packs of hackers
- Analyzing death spots/angles to predict common hacker locations and aiming points
- Dodging shots then repositioning unpredictably to throw off tracking
- Bait shots from one angle then instantly push from another
Essentially, legitimate players must embrace insurgent-style guerilla tactics to stand any chance. This demands creativity both tactically and mentally to turn losses into learning instead of misery.
How to Learn & Grow from Cheater Losses
It hurts deeply to lose everything you worked for to an opponent who didn’t earn it legally. Allow yourself time to vent frustration. But afterwards shift perspective into improving for next time. Losing gear is part of Tarkov but losing the lesson is wasteful.
Analyze what tactics cheaters used and what the technical tells were. Studying these patterns makes you better at identifying and responding to hackers. Documenting and reporting these encounters also helps the community.
Most importantly, remember that cheaters only expose their own lack of skill and character. Needing hacks to succeed proves their inability to excel legitimately. Their “wins” have asterisks while your hard-fought achievements are honestly earned. Stay confident.
Plus, losing gear in unfair fights allows you to mentally “reset.” Take a break from endgame quest grinds to run budget loadouts. Rediscover early wipe dynamics. Help newcomers learn maps and mechanics. View setbacks as chances to reinvent goals.
Finally, join the rising player chorus demanding Battlestate Games address cheating. Only ongoing community pressure can prompt the extreme intervention clearly required at this point. Add constructive voices to promote fairness for all.
While cheaters will keep seeking shortcuts, take pride in overcoming challenges fairly – the essence of Escape from Tarkov. Hardship builds patience and skill. Let toxicity fade as you support teammates against hackers. Achieve more, together, moving as one.
Stay strong survivors! Bring your best out there in the hellscape of Tarkov.