The StunLock

Battlestate Games, Escape From Tarkov’s development studio, released patch 16.6.7 for the extraction shooter on the 23rd of June, shortly after announcing another wipe before the game releases in 1.0 sometime in Q4 of 2025. Among the most important changes include:

• Implemented changes to optimize the performance in various parts of Reserve.
• As part of this update, the audio engine systems and its individual subsystems have been significantly expanded to provide a more immersive Escape from Tarkov experience.
• Readjusted the sound subsystem that checks for obstructions between the listener and the source:
• Improved the sound processing between the listener and the source when the source was behind obstacles: uneven terrain, rocks, vehicles, crates, and other environmental elements;
• Fixed several issues where various sounds were processed and muffled incorrectly;
  Improved the sound penetration processing inside and outside interiors with walls of different thickness;
• Improved the sound penetration processing between floors of buildings and on stairways;
• Improved the occlusion of interactive windows and doors;

To kick things off, the reserve changes, following up with the lighthouse optimizations that were made in 16.6.0, have increased performance on the map. NoGenerals, Tarkov streamer and peak extraordinaire, managed to momentarily get over 200 FPS on Reserve after the update.

While not the most important aspect of 16.6.7, more FPS in Escape From Tarkov is always a plus, since the game often requires workstation PCs worth around two thousand dollars just to run at a consistent 100FPS, in some cases. The more optimization the game gets, the better.

The absolute height of the patch comes from the audio changes. Escape From Tarkov is infamous for having complicated, inconsistent, buggy audio. Thanks in whole due to the absurdly technical audio system which scales sound origin out not just by giving it to enemies within a certain radius, but also by calculating the occlusion the sound source would receive moving through walls, up staircases, or bouncing off objects. In short, a player couldn’t trust what they were hearing before this patch.

Patch 16.6.7’s audio changes, almost universally, are being hailed as absolute improvements across the board. Where the nuances of the system are still being tested, and bugs are to be expected, in almost every situation players can at least be sure where their opponents are. Long gone, it seems, are the days of getting no audio’d.

With these changes, one of Tarkov’s biggest threats has been taken out of the game: audio jank.