The StunLock

Escape From Tarkov’s Hardcore Wipe specifics are finally getting released. Via Discord, BSG released the image above giving broad strokes to the mysterious canvas that is their “Hardcore Wipe”.

Update: The Wipe Date has been announced. Link here.

This article will be updated as details regarding the wipe expand. BSG have announced more information to come, keep it bookmarked for the time being. Last updated July 8, 2025, 9:30AM PST.

An update from BSG:

We are carefully monitoring player feedback and would like to provide more clarity on the details of the upcoming wipe. All restrictions indicated in the infographics will be wave-like: as players progress, we have planned sets of changes that will affect the gameplay, including the gradual opening of locations on the location selection screen.

Whether these suggests that these various parts to the wipe will compound OR be independent at one another remains to be seen.

PART ONE

Flea Market Disabled

As everyone and their mother could have guessed, the Flea market will be disabled for the entire wipe. This means that instead of purchasing rare ammunition, weapons, or keys from other players, everyone will be forced to loot for their needed resources. Exciting!

Hideout Item Changes, FIR Not Required

In a surprise reveal, BSG have also shown at the items required for hideout upgrades will be increased, while hideout upgrades will not require found-in-raid status. While the hideout requirement increases will increase the grind, to be sure, the more interesting aspect to these changes is the lack of FIR requirements.

FIR was a mechanic introduced to, essentially, distinguish between items found in raid and items traded to the player either through traders or players. The point of that distinction being to discriminate against the easy acquisition of items: Given an item instead of looting one out of a raid? Doesn’t count towards anything that requires FIR. With the FIR requirement gone, one wonders if players who play in squads will be able to trade hideout items to one another to gain an economical advantage over solo players. Black market to come?

Limited Hideout Ammo Crafts

This initial reveal also mentions “limited hideout ammo crafts”. Does this mean certain ammunitions will be excluded, or that they’ll give less rounds per craft? Unclear! One thing is for certain, though: PP 5.45 x 39 ammunition is going look a lot prettier for the next few months.

Reduced Spawn Chance of Rare Loot

If you’re a w-key chad, this is probably going to be far more upsetting for you than anyone else. If you’re like the rest of us, rare loot didn’t exist in the first place, so this means nothing.

Typically, maps like Labs, Lighthouse, and certain parts of Reserve and Shoreline are associated with rare loot like LEDXs, marked keys (with more rare loot in their rooms), and military-grade electronics. Less spawn chance of these means less items to barter, less weapons and ammo to use, and less important hideout upgrades. This wipe is going to be brutal, and I can’t wait.

PART TWO (7/2/2025)

Secured Container Restrictions

The lists of items aren’t yet known, but BSG has stated that you won’t be able to store ammunition, currencies, or certain medicines in your pockets. Without a shadow of a doubt, not being able to store ammunition is a MASSIVE nerf to PvP focused players who often carry one or two extra stacks of ammunition to pack their mags during or after a fight. Now, players will have to make the assumption that whatever ammo they bring into a game, they are likely to lose. 60 round magazines? More like ammo dump buckets, amirite?

Medicines, while certainly painful, won’t cause much difference in the meta. At most, not being able to Surv. kit yourself in-raid consistently will make pain meds more valuable. And without the flea, they will certainly be priority items to find in-raid. All of that said, the med changes will not be as big a deal as not being able to stack ammo. Expect PvPers to run single shot, accurate weapons with lower capacity magazines often.

Limited Trader Interaction

BSG has stated that they will reduce available weapons, ammo, medicine, and armor for the upcoming wipe. Not only will ammo and armor be harder to find in-raid, but those items will also be restricted via traders: expect 5.45 PS ammunition to actually be considered decent moving forward.

As for specifics, again, nobody knows. You can make a sure bet that players will be checking weapon boxes, ammo crates, and grenade cases very often during the hardcore wipe. As for medicine, all we can guess is that getting shot in the legs, forcing a pain med intake, will actually suck. Like, your entire net worth will be spent fixing your legs in a single raid.

Cheers.

Higher/Lower Item Buy/Sell Prices

Because why not? Imagine how little you get for selling items to Fence, but now reduce that and apply it to every trader. Then increase the buy price of an AKS-74U to 100kRUB (or something.) There you go, hardcore amirite?

PART THREE (7/4/2025)

100% Boss Spawn Chance on All Locations

With the limited gear available by default, 100% boss spawn means that killing bosses like Reshala or Tagilla in the early game will absolutely be the way to go for gearing up. This point stipulates heavily on the players’ skill levels. If you’re good at Escape From Tarkov, the Hardcore wipe will be SO MUCH FUN for bossing purposes. If you’re bad at Escape From Tarkov, it will be terrifying since all the chads will be eager to get stuck in.

That said, avoiding confrontation will never have been easier in Tarkov since most players will be rushing bosses early and often. Quest locations are going to be much, much lighter on the PvP (although, early wipe will still be dynamite, no denying it.)

Reduced XP for Killing Enemies and Dying / Increased XP for Survival

We thought to include these two rules in the section since they belong together contextually. Reduced XP for combat and increased XP for survival, to the mathematician, might suggest parity. On the contrary, it suggests a total reshaping of the encouraged playstyle: Immersion over chadding.

Pragmatically, people are going to play the way they always have, but consider this: if combat gives less XP, and surviving gives more, every player now has to choose between risking less XP and all of their gear to rush bosses for upgrades, or playing safe, looting (which still gives the same amount of XP) and extracting.

This may be a wipe where respecting someone’s spawn location is going to be more important than ever. Loot is king, and combat may not be worth the risk associated with it, on average.

Increased AI Difficulty

This could mean many things, but all that comes to mind is getting one tapped by Rogues a mile away on Lighthouse. Frankly, if the AI is the biggest threat in the game, players may be encouraged to open mic to one another and work together (yeah right lol)

Just imagine, Reshala rockin’ his golden pistol, head-eyesing the player from 200 meters away with 100% spawn rate: It’s going to be such a fun wipe.

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This article will be further updated upon release of more information from BSG