I'm level 45 and have been playing since 2017 with about 4k hours. This wipe, I pretty much only played arena until ref 4 and did basic quests on the main traders like peacekeeper/mechanic. I have purposefully not done proper and the pocket watch quest specifically to spite the questing system and focus only on PVP gear. Has worked out very well, don't have to sweat it out and still get to enjoy decent PVP. Servers are now pretty much dead though.
@taeyeoff sounds like cope. They will add a quest line or two, but I doubt they will revamp the every quest or at least 50%. Pretty much what is now will be in 1.0 because we are more or less a year away from 1.0, which is around two wipes
It's not about progression or money imo, it's about how dead the wipe has felt right from day one. I think it's a combination of PVE, Arena, cheaters, and a lackluster patch. With a lot of casuals moving to PVE, and the early grinders on Arena, there wasn't a feeling of community progression in the early weeks. No groups of timmies trying to collect pocket watch or do the early game grind together. I only played a handful of Arena matches because of all the sync issues, and early wipe almost felt identical to the end of last wipe. The raids felt partially filled and there was hardly conflict at the main task areas. There used to be one way to play Tarkov and progress, and that was getting into raid and surviving. That's what made it special and so intense back then. Also, players are usually extremely goal driven in this game, and having a fast pass to flea means you bypass one of the first big milestones. That surely played a part in the lack of early game taskers. So no, I don't think Arena directly ruined the economy or even progression, but it definitely took a toll on how the early wipe felt.
Besides gz, every other map has been pretty dead. You're on the dot about a combo of all of these affecting how the wipe feels. I actually overlooked this because I've been spending my last 4-5 wipes ignoring pocket watch and customs until I'm at 5 dorms kills for jaeger and by then the map isn't as packed so I'm already running quests on a non conventional route. However, main task areas being dead should hypothetically be a non issue if we had a larger player resurgence but thats up to bsg to pump out a large enough patch so people would actually want to play tarkov. Everyone I know that still plays is in it for the pvp and they all get their fix from arena.
Arena helped me with Tarkov so much because I don't get much time to play and none of my friends play it so it usually takes me a grind to flea. Arena has helped so much with that.
arena didnt ruin tarkov, bsg did by adding throat hitbox, ruining spawns, ruining audio, making fighting not worth it, and doing nothing about the rampant cheater issue. people play arena because you get to have your pvp fix in a slightly less broken state than in regular tarkov while making progress in regular tarkov without having to put up with how absurdly shit the game is
i 100% agree with the timmy vs no lifer take. gearing up in all your best stuff only to run into hatchet runners and people with bad gear doesnt feel very good or rewarding, more people with mid-high tier stuff is more fun imo
Arena is blessing for players that dont have 8-10 hours per day to play Tarkov. In my case it was extra fun because of pure pvp. I think BSG did good job with progression from Arena to classic Tarkov.
I really love your takes on this taeyoff. Arena and the fleamarket changes for me really saved the game and I enjoy the progression and balance much more now. The real problems bsg needs to work on imo are performance, load times, bugs, and hackers. The game is in a very good state without these issues.
I’ve played a bunch of arena this wipe (363 matches ref lvl 4 1.24) and I think there is xp balancing that is needed. The money from arena is balanced but you get way too much xp. I’m level 47 and just now getting through shoreline quests. A 60-75% arena xp reduction is needed.
Once you go over the 45 barrier dailies give 30-100k xp because they only exist to help you push to 61 back when 61 was required for kappa, they never reverted this and it applies to main game dailies too. Pre 45 you get about 10-11k xp max, and like 6k on easy ones. A 60% reduction is too much past 45 but I can see an argument for it pre LL4 traders, thats why I said in the video that they should tie xp gain to hideout modules.
I bought the game 4 days ago i got arena for free whit the keys while i was playing arena i got to lvl 38 when i bought the game i was lvl 40 whit lvl 1 trades no quest completed it felt gooooddd
It's not because people have improved, they have but the player base has decreased by 80% no doubt. none of my friends play or even mention the game anymore at all. we all play deadlock now.
While I do agree that Arena has been overall beneficial, the progression is a little on the crazy side. I'm currently level 52 this wipe and I have only played 19 PMC raids. My daily quests after level 46 on Arena will usually net me around 50k-120k and weekly quests will typically fall between 210k-430k. This would seem to contradict the Wiki but, I do have screenshots to back this up. Another thing to keep in mind is the daily class bonus for wins. Every 24 hours you get a double XP bonus for a win with each class. Usually this results in roughly 17k-18k XP if you are able to achieve roughly 40 or more kills in a Last Hero match and win. I have played roughly 200 matches on Arena. The vast majority of those matches were played in Last Hero however, I do happen to have an extremely high win rate. Depending on your proficiency level, your results will vary because, as stated in the video, only those who come first place attain the winning bonus. Side note, in my first day of playing Area I was able to reach level 6 after one match and level 19 after 32 matches, 23 of which were wins. I tend to drag my feet a little at the start of a wipe so hitting level 19 the first day with minimal effort as well as actually having fun was pretty cool.
The xp is accurate, wiki is only up to date for pre lvl 45, there was one wipe where they slapped a lvl 61 lock onto kappa and buffed 45+ dailies to compensate, never undid it. Levels are pretty much irrelevant after 45, 42 for max traders, 45 for lightkeeper. Doesn't really matter if you're 42 or 69.
@@taeyeoff Yeah, I understand that anything past level 42-45 is kind of just extra but, I just find it kind of comical how fast I was able to progress. I hope they don't go overboard on the Arena nerf this coming wipe as one seems likely. Arena progression is maybe a tad too strong but, I would not have played this wipe had Arena progression not been a thing. I actually do sincerely enjoy playing Arena.
I think it is the opposite . EFT save Arena . no one was really going into it, but once they add the money. coins, and lvling. people went to try Arena and someone ended up actually liking Arena, so again EFT saved Arena. without the link . Arena would of stayed the same, and everyone in EFT would of kept in EFT trying to find out what other ways can they lvl and get more of an upper hand to other players.. so at the end. they both now benefit from each game. as for me . I still stick to EFT on everything and dont mind who other get the upper hand, as long as they aren't using cheats lol. the game is the best thing on the players doing or playing whoever they enjoy the game, and for me i still stay the way in EFT so it gets a bit harder , cause everyone else s fidn other faster ways to get a upper hand, but i dont mind , that is a good challenge for me , so that is how im choosing my difficultly. I dont use anyting social media or reddit. so I dont fall into any of the he said she said. I just enjoy playing the game and let other bark on their believes lol. enjoyed your video. I said about the cheaters, but I got used to them too( no different from other games).
money is not an issue, but the xp is definitely a lot, especially after 46. I'm level 70 and have only played 200 raids in eft. I think they can cut the xp in half and it would still be a good incentive to play arena
I prefer farming rubles on Arena in the weekend because its a SAFE rubles..Yes you can make more on scav BUT...let say you have 5 min queque tak you loot 5-10 min and then you die to raider/PMC/Scav then you waisted 15-20 min for nothing while on arena even if you place in middle of the pack you get some rubles..
I've reached level 44 without Arena, but the sheer amount of level 50-65 players absolutely dunking on me while having less than half my hours is insane. I'm not a naturally gifted tarkov player, my reflexes aren't great, my positioning and flanks are quite good though, along with my general game sense, after 6400 hours since 2018, but damn, I've NEVER seen level 60+ players killing me one after the other in 6 years of playing this game and the main difference is Arena. There was totally unrestricted flea market and level 6 armor barters, people were about lvl 48 for the mostt part then that killed me, not 62. What gives? Also the CONSTANT AACPC chads are getting boring as all hell to be honest, and that is all thanks to Ref and Arena.
Why does it matter what level they are after 42? The reason why they're 50+ is due to a grandfathered in "fix" to that one wipe they put kappa at lvl 61, dailies after lvl 45 gives you 30-100k xp depending on difficulty. If it wasn't for the boosted xp from dailies they wouldn't be over lvl 50. The gear these level 50+ players have is that same as you at level 44. Sure they get one or two decent barters from ref but thats nothing you don't have access too, and ref's reset timer is pretty much one use per play session.
Such a great video! Agreed! If it had not been for Arena … I would not have played to max traders. I’ll grind Kappa and do my daily and weekly Arena challenges … because of Arena! The chads think we are there to be pubstomped by them … we are not. Everyone who grinded to Ref 4 will always have my respect! GG’s
Honestly, for me, it's the cheaters that are keeping me from coming back. I am not a great player and only have time to play a round or 2 here and there between work and life. When 1 of those 2 rounds is dying to a cheater it's just not worth it for me.
@@taeyeoff Honestly I rather play SPT, No cheaters, no desync from shitty servers, no loading times, and with a few community-created mods the PMC ai is pretty much not distinguishable from the live game. All having unique play styles movements and more. Plus many small enhancements like colored found in raid logos so you know if you need and item for a quest or your hideout.
Cheaters ruin it more IMO, shit optimization and AI tracking through walls ruin the game. We have like 13 kinds of 5.45 ammo but cheaters can still loot through walls and fly hack or whatever. fix that shit we dont need content imo. I am excited for 1.0 but holy shit fix the cheating and optimizations please.
for sttreamers the early wiipe is what ? 4 days witthout arena ? they complain because everyone is leveling faster and theres no timmy everywhere. Also the real casu are in pve. nowadays theres almost oonly 2000h min gamers in pvp tarkov. of course we level up really fast.
You aren't looking at this from the perspective of the casual Tarkov player who returns to enjoy the early progression and then stops playing around lvl 30-40. For many of us, we romanticize the collective early game struggle which only takes place during the first week or so of wipe, it's a truly special time. The problem with arena is that it opens a path with less resistance, from which players can bypass levels 1-20. The 1-20 experience is exactly what many.. perhaps most players, return for each wipe. It's not an issue of time management or XP/Rubles per hour, it's about a fundamental change to the level 1-20 experience that has historically been worth returning for.
That one week time frame only existed when the majority of players had no clue what they were doing back in the day. Most tarkov players nowadays know exactly what they need to do to pump 15 levels within 48 hours, 24 if the servers don't shit themselves day 1. If they don't, there are a billion resources they can find that'll teach them how to rush for 15, these guides never existed back in the day. Early wipe is nothing but a fantasy, even if they nerf arena xp to the ground next wipe people are still going to hit 15 within the first day or 2.
@@taeyeoff It's true that there are significantly more players now who choose to pump than before, and many of these same players know how to level efficiently. There are more wolves and less sheep, and now there will be even fewer sheep. I have two groups that I play with, one group pumps to lvl 40 in under a week, while the other are casual and below average players - these two groups enjoy the sandbox of Tarkov in fundamentally different ways. For the second group and in previous wipes, progress from level 1 to 30 **is the game** and only as far back as January, it did in fact take a significant amount of time(usually a month). This is because 1-20 is a struggle for them and there's a lot of backtracking to assist with the same quests multiple times across 5-7 players/accounts. It's an experience we have always found fun, and the fun typically stops sometime after the struggle period is in the rear; we enjoy the fruits of our labour, equipping formidable gear in relative comfort and then quit. Arena enables these types of players a path with little resistance, and taking place outside the game of Tarkov, the struggle is dislocated, spoiling many of the rewards associated with progress. This last wipe we played arena and never bothered with the main game because we had already achieved much of the carrot which had been so enticing over the years. Love your content by the way
@@taeyeoff i always thought ppl really overblow it but the early wipe leveling is the only thing thats maybe a bit much, they should probably reduce the xp before a certain level or have it scale a bit up to how the xp is currently when u hit 15 or 20
@@ett32g All arena does is give them flea, why is it relevant what level they are? If you're level 20 from arena you still need to spend enough rubles and get enough rep to get your trader levels up. To achieve the rep you still have the do the exact same quests. If it took you 1 month in january wipe to go from pocket watch to shoreline, its still going to take you 1 month now to go from pocket watch to shoreline. Just because the number says level 20 doesn't mean your questlines are done for you.
@@taeyeoff Unlocking the flea early kinda makes the game a lot more boring because then you have way better gear than the players that didn't play arena and are trying to quest. I think that is kind of why it was level locked in the first place. And most people don't want to rush through the game just because they can, for example im playing for 2 weeks and only yesterday i unlocked the flea. I think Arena takes the struggle of the game and makes people who didn't want to rush, rush through the game so they can have a fighting chance agains't people with way better gear trying to complete the same quests as they're trying. Plus, Arena isn't free, in my country, the money conversion (because you can only buy in dollars or roubles) makes it really expensive. I think the biggest problem is that today, there's 2 types of Tarkov players. The ones who enjoy the progression from 1-30, and the ones who preffer 30-50 or 60.
lvl 5 armour and m80 should get removed from LL3 and put up to lvl 4. i cant play streets. so normally, a lot of quests are locked out and my progression halted thanks to that. with arena, i "boosted" myself to lvl 20 and can enjoy looting and shooting. havent even gotten jägers letter yet. that dude can starve this wipe idc lol loot got increased so much, arena is now for me just a waste of time. why grind arena, if i can just scav reserve and get high tier ammo and massive loot. or scav lighthouse, check rouge camp and "reset"- transfer to shorelne and back, to get lvl 4-5 armour and good ammo. i feel like its mostly the "no lifers" (like myself) who are complaining. "early wipe" lasted for me usually like 2 weeks. then i only ran korund and m80... while the people with a life, still were trying to do their "early" tasks... was it nice the first time to stomp timmies? hell yeah. now its just sad cuz i know, i spend more on ammo, than i get loot back..
the level 5 and m80 should stay. by the time most people get level 3 ref people already have or are about to reach max traders where you can get all that stuff anyway, and m80 is kinda mid
its not arena. tarkov is fundemetally flawed in its progression. a level 15 could be as geared as a level 42 due to the flea market. there is no point in using 70% of the gear in the game because class 3 and 4 armor is useless and only pen matters. the reason why tarkov progression is too quick is mainly due to the flea market being too open to low level players and arena just exposed that. the only gaps are level 1-14, 15-42, 42+. the game should feel like level 1-14, level 15-23, level 24-32, level 32-36, level 37-42, level 43+. Heres my take. ban all level 5-6 gear and 42+ pen ammo from traders and flea. Make certain keys purchasable from traders after a certain level-locked quest. end game gear can be found behind those key-locked doors. a good example of this is kiba, but instead of needing the keys randomly, have it purchaseable from ragman after some level 30+ quest. Then, ban the ability to buy gear/ammo on flea until the player could obtain that gear. for instance, if you were level 42 and got a slick, you could sell the thing in full with the plates and all, but only to players who have done a quest that could sell a key that has slicks in its loot pool. that means that if some sniper who mainly plays lighthouse wants to continue sniping but they need bullets or the gun or other gear, they could buy whatever they want off flea given they have done a quest that allows them to buy that gear but not force the player to run certain maps like interchange for rigs and plates or woods for bullets and so on. an example of this would be like finishing the cult part 2 to gain access to one of the dorm rooms in customs that has a 100% spawn chance of a kitted hk416 with parts and all, but you also gain access to buy/sell those parts on the flea to other players who have completed the quest. another could be 338 AP if you complete huntsman path relentless TLDR everything is restricted on flea and is quest-locked. everything could be bought/sold given you have done a certain quest.
with this wipe, giving a chance to the "poor" makes tarkov more skill based than gear based, and that IS good. of course arena didnt kill tarkov. this is the best wipe for me so far as full time worker with family. the "hardcore" wipes just make the gap between end game and shitty gear bigger for the non sweaty players, and that is NOT good.
the problem with arena early wipe also allows people to invest in later items early on in the wipe by purchasing of the flee with the extra money i made from arena. by seeing where i was with quests and hideout upgrades this would allow me to see what items i needed a few days before i got there and also to buy extra and every time i bought in bulk i mad my money back in a few days and kept me way ahead financially. i think arena is great for learning but 1.5mil is to much for early wipe. but in general tarkov has major problems with hackers and it this wipe fell off two weeks after wipe day, players dropped off, hacker became more common in lobbies (competent hackers). Running into a speed hacker in 3 raids in one evening was fucked and then seeing all the stuff about recent hacks verybadscav and especially the easyanticheat "backdoor" to get innocent players banned. with these two things combined my favorite part of tarkov which is early wipe isn't as enjoyable anymore. these aren't the only reasons but this is the main reason this wipe wasn't as enjoyable. i am a player that would prefer a tarkov with no flea market which i believe is in the minority so take my opinion with that in mind. i prefer a sluggish grind.
I didn't have the time to play the main game with how late the wipe came, I played occasionally solo or in a duo with a Standart acc guy who has more time than me, so he tried to rush kappa. With arena dailies we had around 5-7 lvl gap, except at the end I didn't have basically any lvl4 traders besides prapor and mechanic, because I didn't do my quests, and for me completing 3 dailes and a weekly in one arena game is much easier than doing several quests with required survival at the same time. Also thanks for the suggestion to play comp, it really helped me to not suffer outside of deathmatch
arena saved tarkov regular mode i went broke almost everytime coz of cheaters and campers this is safe coz i know i play against players who actually use keyboard and less cheaters than in reg. mode
Yeah its hard to get pmc kill quests cuz all the players in pvp rn are good while are the trash players are in pve, nikita should just remove pve or make it so unplayable people stop playing it
@@michaelarcher6121 idk, it just seems like a massive cop out because people are so afraid of cheaters. i have a lot of time this wipe and havent gotten killed in any way that would make me feel like someone is cheating
Its bsg's job to make pvp as appealing as pve. I'm sure pve players agree pvp is more fun, but there are too many downsides. The game needs to be engaging without wipes imo and its up to bsg to figure it out
Your single wipe of anecdotal experience of pre vs post arena progression in reaching max traders is complete and utter garbage. Level 42 took at least half the hours, or less, than any other wipe. Sorry but this is at least part of the reason why many aren’t playing - it’s too easy. Also I don’t know why every comparison you make is from a pvp lens, where someone is punching down on someone else. It’s already been surveyed that more than half of the playerbase play the game for the questing and the grind rather than just straight pvp. When those players no longer feel like the challenge or grind is there, they disappear. To me, that’s why this wipe is dead.
It's sadly true. After having played arena for the better half of a week, the starting point in the main game wasn't compelling; it would've been like playing on easy mode. Without changes to the XP/Rouble rewards during the first month of wipe, I can't see myself playing next wipe either. I would rather play modded SP
You're not making sense, if more than half of the player base is there for the quest and grind then arena doesn't help. The only difference between a level 15 and a level 42 with no quests done is a number. Arena doesn't progress your questlines, it only progresses an arbitrary number thats irrelevant after achieving flea. You still need rep for trader levels and you get that through questing. If this was the easiest wipe ever and all the grind is gone then why has the lightkeeper achievement stayed at 0.7%? I do talk about this in the video. Last wipe I'd be at least 10 quests deep into lightkeeper by now and I was playing casually last wipe.
@@taeyeoff you think you are smarter than you really are and it comes across in your arrogant 'you are all wrong and here is why' videos. Grow up and try to put yourself in other's shoes. Questing, until this past wipe, was the one and only practical way to level up. Therefore, questing and the associated grind felt impactful and meaningful to work through and complete. With the reward being access to the gear, weapons and ammo provided by the max traders. If you don't understand that you learned nothing in your 7k hours. This is not a tarkov specific driver of player behaviour either, this 'journey not the destination' is the exact reason Classic World of Warcraft has been so popular.
@@PLAYER2035 My arrogant thumbnail and titles is to click bait people into seeing the opposite perspective instead of the vocal minority. Its a fact that levels past 15 are meaningless. Each loyalty level has a character level lock but it can be achieved in tandem when questing for rep. If you are questing efficiently, you are reaching the exact levels when you have enough rep. I already mentioned in the video that newer players who haven't learned to quest efficiently, arena maybe a faster way to level. I didn't go in depth but you can cherry pick easy quests that give rep while leveling through arena, I argued FOR arena leveling being faster as a newer player. What I'm understanding from your perspective is, turning in quests and watching your xp bar fill up gives you a dopamine pump so it feels "impactful and meaningful". So subjectively, for you, it feels nice to progress gradually through questing and slapping the turn in button. Objectively, I still have to grind through all my quests towards kappa or lightkeeper despite being level 50. I am still running class 4 and
Early wipe tarkov is history. Just play arena for a couple days, unlock the flea & transfer a few million roubles over, then Timmy stomp bronze pocketwatch day 3 of a wipe with endgame meta kits from the flea. 2024 EFT is an easy game.
It never took me over 24 hours after wipe day to hit flea, the only thing that slows me down are the servers exploding. Every wipe for me has been stomping pocket watch day 2, this is the only wipe you can't just gear check people because everyone has access to the same stuff at around the same timing.
@@taeyeoff exactly Tarkov is idle game easy now. You can literally just unlock the flea day 1 by letting your Blastgang team cary you while you listen to podcasts with the game on mute. Once you have the flea that's endgame and you're pretty much done. In 2024 there's no challenge in Tarkov, no skill required.
@@WhisperingDeath idk if you can tell but I'm disagreeing with you, with or without arena early wipe never existed. Its your fantasy from 2019, people are good enough nowadays to hit flea day 1 or 2.
"the notion that arena somehow removes early wipe is just plain wrong" Play arena till lv 15, unlock flea, bypass the lv 1 traders, buy mp7 and fmj, mow down lv 3 Timmy with mp5 and paca, holy fuck I love the new early wipe
And where is the supply of this stuff on hour 4-8 of the wipe? when no one has traders leveled enough to flip the ammo and mags all this stuff is priced by supply and demand and 100% FIR. It takes experienced players around 70-100h to get to max traders + depending on rng they might not have all the unlocks yet. What you propose here is that the enemy gets no vote, there is no opportunity cost to running an smg on a map where you could get engagements out to ~125m. It's not that simple, early wipe has lasted longer because as taeyeoff said people generally suck at questing, for the top players early wipe is mostly over in 4-7 days.
Everyone plays arena to 15, launches tarkov, looks at market, there is nothing to buy on flea because demands are no where close to meeting supply because nobody is playing the main game. Goes back to looting maps with mp5 and paca, holy fuck there is such a big difference.
My brother in christ if you are going to say that someone is wrong, you better have a reason. I grinded the crap out of arena and the only 4 things that was worth it to come out from it is the grumpy key, AACPC barter, m80 20 round boxes and getting enough XP to essentially skip to the flea
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm level 45 and have been playing since 2017 with about 4k hours. This wipe, I pretty much only played arena until ref 4 and did basic quests on the main traders like peacekeeper/mechanic. I have purposefully not done proper and the pocket watch quest specifically to spite the questing system and focus only on PVP gear. Has worked out very well, don't have to sweat it out and still get to enjoy decent PVP. Servers are now pretty much dead though.
Current questlines just aren't fun, hopefully the main questline is good when 1.0 comes out
@taeyeoff sounds like cope. They will add a quest line or two, but I doubt they will revamp the every quest or at least 50%. Pretty much what is now will be in 1.0 because we are more or less a year away from 1.0, which is around two wipes
@@rixuuu yeah im coping got a problem?
It's not about progression or money imo, it's about how dead the wipe has felt right from day one. I think it's a combination of PVE, Arena, cheaters, and a lackluster patch. With a lot of casuals moving to PVE, and the early grinders on Arena, there wasn't a feeling of community progression in the early weeks. No groups of timmies trying to collect pocket watch or do the early game grind together. I only played a handful of Arena matches because of all the sync issues, and early wipe almost felt identical to the end of last wipe. The raids felt partially filled and there was hardly conflict at the main task areas. There used to be one way to play Tarkov and progress, and that was getting into raid and surviving. That's what made it special and so intense back then. Also, players are usually extremely goal driven in this game, and having a fast pass to flea means you bypass one of the first big milestones. That surely played a part in the lack of early game taskers. So no, I don't think Arena directly ruined the economy or even progression, but it definitely took a toll on how the early wipe felt.
Besides gz, every other map has been pretty dead. You're on the dot about a combo of all of these affecting how the wipe feels. I actually overlooked this because I've been spending my last 4-5 wipes ignoring pocket watch and customs until I'm at 5 dorms kills for jaeger and by then the map isn't as packed so I'm already running quests on a non conventional route. However, main task areas being dead should hypothetically be a non issue if we had a larger player resurgence but thats up to bsg to pump out a large enough patch so people would actually want to play tarkov. Everyone I know that still plays is in it for the pvp and they all get their fix from arena.
Arena helped me with Tarkov so much because I don't get much time to play and none of my friends play it so it usually takes me a grind to flea. Arena has helped so much with that.
thats one of the main reasons i like ref for
After 2.5k hours I took a 2 year break, but now I'm back. It feels nice to just play from level 1 without feeling like I'm apart of a race.
this is where arena truly shines
arena didnt ruin tarkov, bsg did by adding throat hitbox, ruining spawns, ruining audio, making fighting not worth it, and doing nothing about the rampant cheater issue. people play arena because you get to have your pvp fix in a slightly less broken state than in regular tarkov while making progress in regular tarkov without having to put up with how absurdly shit the game is
honestly, the hitreg and desync in arena is so much better compared to tarkov its crazy
i 100% agree with the timmy vs no lifer take. gearing up in all your best stuff only to run into hatchet runners and people with bad gear doesnt feel very good or rewarding, more people with mid-high tier stuff is more fun imo
Arena is blessing for players that dont have 8-10 hours per day to play Tarkov. In my case it was extra fun because of pure pvp. I think BSG did good job with progression from Arena to classic Tarkov.
I really love your takes on this taeyoff. Arena and the fleamarket changes for me really saved the game and I enjoy the progression and balance much more now.
The real problems bsg needs to work on imo are performance, load times, bugs, and hackers. The game is in a very good state without these issues.
I’ve played a bunch of arena this wipe (363 matches ref lvl 4 1.24) and I think there is xp balancing that is needed. The money from arena is balanced but you get way too much xp. I’m level 47 and just now getting through shoreline quests. A 60-75% arena xp reduction is needed.
Once you go over the 45 barrier dailies give 30-100k xp because they only exist to help you push to 61 back when 61 was required for kappa, they never reverted this and it applies to main game dailies too. Pre 45 you get about 10-11k xp max, and like 6k on easy ones. A 60% reduction is too much past 45 but I can see an argument for it pre LL4 traders, thats why I said in the video that they should tie xp gain to hideout modules.
I bought the game 4 days ago i got arena for free whit the keys while i was playing arena i got to lvl 38 when i bought the game i was lvl 40 whit lvl 1 trades no quest completed it felt gooooddd
It's not because people have improved, they have but the player base has decreased by 80% no doubt. none of my friends play or even mention the game anymore at all. we all play deadlock now.
there prob is some truth to this. I quit and dont play anymore. the only people still playing are the chads
While I do agree that Arena has been overall beneficial, the progression is a little on the crazy side. I'm currently level 52 this wipe and I have only played 19 PMC raids. My daily quests after level 46 on Arena will usually net me around 50k-120k and weekly quests will typically fall between 210k-430k. This would seem to contradict the Wiki but, I do have screenshots to back this up. Another thing to keep in mind is the daily class bonus for wins. Every 24 hours you get a double XP bonus for a win with each class. Usually this results in roughly 17k-18k XP if you are able to achieve roughly 40 or more kills in a Last Hero match and win. I have played roughly 200 matches on Arena. The vast majority of those matches were played in Last Hero however, I do happen to have an extremely high win rate. Depending on your proficiency level, your results will vary because, as stated in the video, only those who come first place attain the winning bonus.
Side note, in my first day of playing Area I was able to reach level 6 after one match and level 19 after 32 matches, 23 of which were wins. I tend to drag my feet a little at the start of a wipe so hitting level 19 the first day with minimal effort as well as actually having fun was pretty cool.
The xp is accurate, wiki is only up to date for pre lvl 45, there was one wipe where they slapped a lvl 61 lock onto kappa and buffed 45+ dailies to compensate, never undid it. Levels are pretty much irrelevant after 45, 42 for max traders, 45 for lightkeeper. Doesn't really matter if you're 42 or 69.
@@taeyeoff Yeah, I understand that anything past level 42-45 is kind of just extra but, I just find it kind of comical how fast I was able to progress.
I hope they don't go overboard on the Arena nerf this coming wipe as one seems likely. Arena progression is maybe a tad too strong but, I would not have played this wipe had Arena progression not been a thing. I actually do sincerely enjoy playing Arena.
I think it is the opposite . EFT save Arena . no one was really going into it, but once they add the money. coins, and lvling. people went to try Arena and someone ended up actually liking Arena, so again EFT saved Arena. without the link . Arena would of stayed the same, and everyone in EFT would of kept in EFT trying to find out what other ways can they lvl and get more of an upper hand to other players.. so at the end. they both now benefit from each game. as for me . I still stick to EFT on everything and dont mind who other get the upper hand, as long as they aren't using cheats lol. the game is the best thing on the players doing or playing whoever they enjoy the game, and for me i still stay the way in EFT so it gets a bit harder , cause everyone else s fidn other faster ways to get a upper hand, but i dont mind , that is a good challenge for me , so that is how im choosing my difficultly. I dont use anyting social media or reddit. so I dont fall into any of the he said she said. I just enjoy playing the game and let other bark on their believes lol. enjoyed your video. I said about the cheaters, but I got used to them too( no different from other games).
Dat spawncamp doe 😭😭
money is not an issue, but the xp is definitely a lot, especially after 46. I'm level 70 and have only played 200 raids in eft. I think they can cut the xp in half and it would still be a good incentive to play arena
I prefer farming rubles on Arena in the weekend because its a SAFE rubles..Yes you can make more on scav BUT...let say you have 5 min queque tak you loot 5-10 min and then you die to raider/PMC/Scav then you waisted 15-20 min for nothing while on arena even if you place in middle of the pack you get some rubles..
I've reached level 44 without Arena, but the sheer amount of level 50-65 players absolutely dunking on me while having less than half my hours is insane. I'm not a naturally gifted tarkov player, my reflexes aren't great, my positioning and flanks are quite good though, along with my general game sense, after 6400 hours since 2018, but damn, I've NEVER seen level 60+ players killing me one after the other in 6 years of playing this game and the main difference is Arena. There was totally unrestricted flea market and level 6 armor barters, people were about lvl 48 for the mostt part then that killed me, not 62. What gives? Also the CONSTANT AACPC chads are getting boring as all hell to be honest, and that is all thanks to Ref and Arena.
Why does it matter what level they are after 42? The reason why they're 50+ is due to a grandfathered in "fix" to that one wipe they put kappa at lvl 61, dailies after lvl 45 gives you 30-100k xp depending on difficulty. If it wasn't for the boosted xp from dailies they wouldn't be over lvl 50. The gear these level 50+ players have is that same as you at level 44. Sure they get one or two decent barters from ref but thats nothing you don't have access too, and ref's reset timer is pretty much one use per play session.
Such a great video! Agreed! If it had not been for Arena … I would not have played to max traders. I’ll grind Kappa and do my daily and weekly Arena challenges … because of Arena! The chads think we are there to be pubstomped by them … we are not. Everyone who grinded to Ref 4 will always have my respect! GG’s
Honestly, for me, it's the cheaters that are keeping me from coming back. I am not a great player and only have time to play a round or 2 here and there between work and life. When 1 of those 2 rounds is dying to a cheater it's just not worth it for me.
run some arena if you have it, its fun and if you ever go back to the main game you'll notice your movement and shooting improve
@@taeyeoff Honestly I rather play SPT, No cheaters, no desync from shitty servers, no loading times, and with a few community-created mods the PMC ai is pretty much not distinguishable from the live game. All having unique play styles movements and more. Plus many small enhancements like colored found in raid logos so you know if you need and item for a quest or your hideout.
Cheaters ruin it more IMO, shit optimization and AI tracking through walls ruin the game. We have like 13 kinds of 5.45 ammo but cheaters can still loot through walls and fly hack or whatever. fix that shit we dont need content imo. I am excited for 1.0 but holy shit fix the cheating and optimizations please.
One thing killing it is you have access to too much ammo and gear from flea market. Also ref has too much good gear as well
ref gear 1-3 is pretty mid, a few things at 4 is ok but ref reset is a massive timer and like I said in the video, it takes 5 weeks to get there
@@taeyeoff agree but definitely we need more restrictions on flea market they made it too loose
for sttreamers the early wiipe is what ? 4 days witthout arena ? they complain because everyone is leveling faster and theres no timmy everywhere. Also the real casu are in pve. nowadays theres almost oonly 2000h min gamers in pvp tarkov. of course we level up really fast.
Finally someone with some sense.
But, BSG needs to unass themselves and get these games done. The fact that there is still just 3 BG maps is insane.
They need to lower the price money on unranked...
You aren't looking at this from the perspective of the casual Tarkov player who returns to enjoy the early progression and then stops playing around lvl 30-40. For many of us, we romanticize the collective early game struggle which only takes place during the first week or so of wipe, it's a truly special time. The problem with arena is that it opens a path with less resistance, from which players can bypass levels 1-20. The 1-20 experience is exactly what many.. perhaps most players, return for each wipe. It's not an issue of time management or XP/Rubles per hour, it's about a fundamental change to the level 1-20 experience that has historically been worth returning for.
That one week time frame only existed when the majority of players had no clue what they were doing back in the day. Most tarkov players nowadays know exactly what they need to do to pump 15 levels within 48 hours, 24 if the servers don't shit themselves day 1. If they don't, there are a billion resources they can find that'll teach them how to rush for 15, these guides never existed back in the day. Early wipe is nothing but a fantasy, even if they nerf arena xp to the ground next wipe people are still going to hit 15 within the first day or 2.
@@taeyeoff It's true that there are significantly more players now who choose to pump than before, and many of these same players know how to level efficiently. There are more wolves and less sheep, and now there will be even fewer sheep.
I have two groups that I play with, one group pumps to lvl 40 in under a week, while the other are casual and below average players - these two groups enjoy the sandbox of Tarkov in fundamentally different ways. For the second group and in previous wipes, progress from level 1 to 30 **is the game** and only as far back as January, it did in fact take a significant amount of time(usually a month). This is because 1-20 is a struggle for them and there's a lot of backtracking to assist with the same quests multiple times across 5-7 players/accounts. It's an experience we have always found fun, and the fun typically stops sometime after the struggle period is in the rear; we enjoy the fruits of our labour, equipping formidable gear in relative comfort and then quit. Arena enables these types of players a path with little resistance, and taking place outside the game of Tarkov, the struggle is dislocated, spoiling many of the rewards associated with progress.
This last wipe we played arena and never bothered with the main game because we had already achieved much of the carrot which had been so enticing over the years.
Love your content by the way
@@taeyeoff i always thought ppl really overblow it but the early wipe leveling is the only thing thats maybe a bit much, they should probably reduce the xp before a certain level or have it scale a bit up to how the xp is currently when u hit 15 or 20
@@ett32g All arena does is give them flea, why is it relevant what level they are? If you're level 20 from arena you still need to spend enough rubles and get enough rep to get your trader levels up. To achieve the rep you still have the do the exact same quests. If it took you 1 month in january wipe to go from pocket watch to shoreline, its still going to take you 1 month now to go from pocket watch to shoreline. Just because the number says level 20 doesn't mean your questlines are done for you.
@@taeyeoff Unlocking the flea early kinda makes the game a lot more boring because then you have way better gear than the players that didn't play arena and are trying to quest. I think that is kind of why it was level locked in the first place. And most people don't want to rush through the game just because they can, for example im playing for 2 weeks and only yesterday i unlocked the flea. I think Arena takes the struggle of the game and makes people who didn't want to rush, rush through the game so they can have a fighting chance agains't people with way better gear trying to complete the same quests as they're trying. Plus, Arena isn't free, in my country, the money conversion (because you can only buy in dollars or roubles) makes it really expensive.
I think the biggest problem is that today, there's 2 types of Tarkov players. The ones who enjoy the progression from 1-30, and the ones who preffer 30-50 or 60.
lvl 5 armour and m80 should get removed from LL3 and put up to lvl 4.
i cant play streets. so normally, a lot of quests are locked out and my progression halted thanks to that. with arena, i "boosted" myself to lvl 20 and can enjoy looting and shooting. havent even gotten jägers letter yet. that dude can starve this wipe idc lol
loot got increased so much, arena is now for me just a waste of time. why grind arena, if i can just scav reserve and get high tier ammo and massive loot. or scav lighthouse, check rouge camp and "reset"- transfer to shorelne and back, to get lvl 4-5 armour and good ammo.
i feel like its mostly the "no lifers" (like myself) who are complaining. "early wipe" lasted for me usually like 2 weeks. then i only ran korund and m80... while the people with a life, still were trying to do their "early" tasks... was it nice the first time to stomp timmies? hell yeah. now its just sad cuz i know, i spend more on ammo, than i get loot back..
the level 5 and m80 should stay. by the time most people get level 3 ref people already have or are about to reach max traders where you can get all that stuff anyway, and m80 is kinda mid
how many hours u got
7k
Early wipe isn’t fun and I don’t have 24/7 to grind just keep the progression how it is
I say it makes people more spongey. Vitality skill leveled high than normal. Cheaters still fucking game flow :/
its not arena. tarkov is fundemetally flawed in its progression. a level 15 could be as geared as a level 42 due to the flea market. there is no point in using 70% of the gear in the game because class 3 and 4 armor is useless and only pen matters. the reason why tarkov progression is too quick is mainly due to the flea market being too open to low level players and arena just exposed that. the only gaps are level 1-14, 15-42, 42+. the game should feel like level 1-14, level 15-23, level 24-32, level 32-36, level 37-42, level 43+.
Heres my take. ban all level 5-6 gear and 42+ pen ammo from traders and flea. Make certain keys purchasable from traders after a certain level-locked quest. end game gear can be found behind those key-locked doors. a good example of this is kiba, but instead of needing the keys randomly, have it purchaseable from ragman after some level 30+ quest. Then, ban the ability to buy gear/ammo on flea until the player could obtain that gear. for instance, if you were level 42 and got a slick, you could sell the thing in full with the plates and all, but only to players who have done a quest that could sell a key that has slicks in its loot pool. that means that if some sniper who mainly plays lighthouse wants to continue sniping but they need bullets or the gun or other gear, they could buy whatever they want off flea given they have done a quest that allows them to buy that gear but not force the player to run certain maps like interchange for rigs and plates or woods for bullets and so on. an example of this would be like finishing the cult part 2 to gain access to one of the dorm rooms in customs that has a 100% spawn chance of a kitted hk416 with parts and all, but you also gain access to buy/sell those parts on the flea to other players who have completed the quest. another could be 338 AP if you complete huntsman path relentless
TLDR everything is restricted on flea and is quest-locked. everything could be bought/sold given you have done a certain quest.
with this wipe, giving a chance to the "poor" makes tarkov more skill based than gear based, and that IS good.
of course arena didnt kill tarkov. this is the best wipe for me so far as full time worker with family. the "hardcore" wipes just make the gap between end game and shitty gear bigger for the non sweaty players, and that is NOT good.
the problem with arena early wipe also allows people to invest in later items early on in the wipe by purchasing of the flee with the extra money i made from arena. by seeing where i was with quests and hideout upgrades this would allow me to see what items i needed a few days before i got there and also to buy extra and every time i bought in bulk i mad my money back in a few days and kept me way ahead financially. i think arena is great for learning but 1.5mil is to much for early wipe. but in general tarkov has major problems with hackers and it this wipe fell off two weeks after wipe day, players dropped off, hacker became more common in lobbies (competent hackers). Running into a speed hacker in 3 raids in one evening was fucked and then seeing all the stuff about recent hacks verybadscav and especially the easyanticheat "backdoor" to get innocent players banned. with these two things combined my favorite part of tarkov which is early wipe isn't as enjoyable anymore. these aren't the only reasons but this is the main reason this wipe wasn't as enjoyable.
i am a player that would prefer a tarkov with no flea market which i believe is in the minority so take my opinion with that in mind. i prefer a sluggish grind.
I didn't have the time to play the main game with how late the wipe came, I played occasionally solo or in a duo with a Standart acc guy who has more time than me, so he tried to rush kappa. With arena dailies we had around 5-7 lvl gap, except at the end I didn't have basically any lvl4 traders besides prapor and mechanic, because I didn't do my quests, and for me completing 3 dailes and a weekly in one arena game is much easier than doing several quests with required survival at the same time. Also thanks for the suggestion to play comp, it really helped me to not suffer outside of deathmatch
arena is the only reason i play cuz ppl just no life the game so it put pvp on a even scale for me vs someone who only plays this game
always enjoy your perspective
even though hes dead wrong?
@@ryanwysocki7615 you still have not said whats wrong XD
based
arena saved tarkov regular mode i went broke almost everytime coz of cheaters and campers this is safe coz i know i play against players who actually use keyboard and less cheaters than in reg. mode
PVE was worse.
completely agree
pve is worse for the game than arena
Yeah its hard to get pmc kill quests cuz all the players in pvp rn are good while are the trash players are in pve, nikita should just remove pve or make it so unplayable people stop playing it
@@michaelarcher6121 idk, it just seems like a massive cop out because people are so afraid of cheaters. i have a lot of time this wipe and havent gotten killed in any way that would make me feel like someone is cheating
@@glassboxes there are barely any cheaters on tarkov maybe 1 in a hundred raids. Why would people cheat on tarkov anyways
Its bsg's job to make pvp as appealing as pve. I'm sure pve players agree pvp is more fun, but there are too many downsides. The game needs to be engaging without wipes imo and its up to bsg to figure it out
@@michaelarcher6121 thats a dumb question
Your single wipe of anecdotal experience of pre vs post arena progression in reaching max traders is complete and utter garbage. Level 42 took at least half the hours, or less, than any other wipe. Sorry but this is at least part of the reason why many aren’t playing - it’s too easy. Also I don’t know why every comparison you make is from a pvp lens, where someone is punching down on someone else. It’s already been surveyed that more than half of the playerbase play the game for the questing and the grind rather than just straight pvp. When those players no longer feel like the challenge or grind is there, they disappear. To me, that’s why this wipe is dead.
It's sadly true. After having played arena for the better half of a week, the starting point in the main game wasn't compelling; it would've been like playing on easy mode. Without changes to the XP/Rouble rewards during the first month of wipe, I can't see myself playing next wipe either. I would rather play modded SP
You're not making sense, if more than half of the player base is there for the quest and grind then arena doesn't help. The only difference between a level 15 and a level 42 with no quests done is a number. Arena doesn't progress your questlines, it only progresses an arbitrary number thats irrelevant after achieving flea. You still need rep for trader levels and you get that through questing. If this was the easiest wipe ever and all the grind is gone then why has the lightkeeper achievement stayed at 0.7%? I do talk about this in the video. Last wipe I'd be at least 10 quests deep into lightkeeper by now and I was playing casually last wipe.
@@taeyeoff you think you are smarter than you really are and it comes across in your arrogant 'you are all wrong and here is why' videos. Grow up and try to put yourself in other's shoes. Questing, until this past wipe, was the one and only practical way to level up. Therefore, questing and the associated grind felt impactful and meaningful to work through and complete. With the reward being access to the gear, weapons and ammo provided by the max traders. If you don't understand that you learned nothing in your 7k hours. This is not a tarkov specific driver of player behaviour either, this 'journey not the destination' is the exact reason Classic World of Warcraft has been so popular.
@@PLAYER2035 My arrogant thumbnail and titles is to click bait people into seeing the opposite perspective instead of the vocal minority. Its a fact that levels past 15 are meaningless. Each loyalty level has a character level lock but it can be achieved in tandem when questing for rep. If you are questing efficiently, you are reaching the exact levels when you have enough rep. I already mentioned in the video that newer players who haven't learned to quest efficiently, arena maybe a faster way to level. I didn't go in depth but you can cherry pick easy quests that give rep while leveling through arena, I argued FOR arena leveling being faster as a newer player. What I'm understanding from your perspective is, turning in quests and watching your xp bar fill up gives you a dopamine pump so it feels "impactful and meaningful". So subjectively, for you, it feels nice to progress gradually through questing and slapping the turn in button. Objectively, I still have to grind through all my quests towards kappa or lightkeeper despite being level 50. I am still running class 4 and
REVERT INTERTIA
Early wipe tarkov is history. Just play arena for a couple days, unlock the flea & transfer a few million roubles over, then Timmy stomp bronze pocketwatch day 3 of a wipe with endgame meta kits from the flea.
2024 EFT is an easy game.
It never took me over 24 hours after wipe day to hit flea, the only thing that slows me down are the servers exploding. Every wipe for me has been stomping pocket watch day 2, this is the only wipe you can't just gear check people because everyone has access to the same stuff at around the same timing.
@@taeyeoff exactly Tarkov is idle game easy now. You can literally just unlock the flea day 1 by letting your Blastgang team cary you while you listen to podcasts with the game on mute. Once you have the flea that's endgame and you're pretty much done. In 2024 there's no challenge in Tarkov, no skill required.
@@WhisperingDeath idk if you can tell but I'm disagreeing with you, with or without arena early wipe never existed. Its your fantasy from 2019, people are good enough nowadays to hit flea day 1 or 2.
"the notion that arena somehow removes early wipe is just plain wrong" Play arena till lv 15, unlock flea, bypass the lv 1 traders, buy mp7 and fmj, mow down lv 3 Timmy with mp5 and paca, holy fuck I love the new early wipe
And where is the supply of this stuff on hour 4-8 of the wipe? when no one has traders leveled enough to flip the ammo and mags all this stuff is priced by supply and demand and 100% FIR. It takes experienced players around 70-100h to get to max traders + depending on rng they might not have all the unlocks yet. What you propose here is that the enemy gets no vote, there is no opportunity cost to running an smg on a map where you could get engagements out to ~125m. It's not that simple, early wipe has lasted longer because as taeyeoff said people generally suck at questing, for the top players early wipe is mostly over in 4-7 days.
Everyone plays arena to 15, launches tarkov, looks at market, there is nothing to buy on flea because demands are no where close to meeting supply because nobody is playing the main game. Goes back to looting maps with mp5 and paca, holy fuck there is such a big difference.
This video is so blatantly wrong about basically everything lmao.
go ahead and post your reasoning
How?
My brother in christ if you are going to say that someone is wrong, you better have a reason. I grinded the crap out of arena and the only 4 things that was worth it to come out from it is the grumpy key, AACPC barter, m80 20 round boxes and getting enough XP to essentially skip to the flea
Worst takes ever I agree. It also feels like he is just talking at us like we are all wrong
@@PLAYER2035 another person with room temp IQ I see