Escape From Tarkov‘s major new 0.14.0.0 update is live now. It brings with it all of the many features announced last month, including a new map, Ground Zero, designed specifically for newcomers, as well as a vaulting system, new armor and hitbox modelling, and much more.
The new location is in the city center of Tarkov, surrounded by skyscrapers and packed with “banks, cafes, restaurants, stores, pharmacies, and so on”. The area is designed for players from level 1 to 20, with starter quests designed to ease newcomers to the often brutal extraction shooter. Players over level 20 won’t be able to access the area at all.
Hitboxes are now more detailed, with particular areas of the body being subdivided into smaller hit zones. The head, for example, now includes three newly distinct areas: the neck, the throat, the face. The stomach and pelvic areas have been similarly divided, while forearm hitboxes have been “reduced in diameter.”
All of which matters because a new armor system has been added in the update, which includes 37 ballistic plates that match to the hitbox divisions. These plates have particular specs, such as strength, material, damage absorption, ricochet and more. You can scavenge for them, trade them, and if they’re damaged, repair them.
The other major feature is “vaulting and obstacle interaction”, which adds options for clambering over or on top of obstacles in the game world. Tarkov is aiming for realism, so new ways to interact with its world are a big deal, and vaulting is simulated such that – for example – doing it while walking makes less noise than when sprinting.
There are many, many other changes in the full patch notes, including a new boss, the ability to move weapons between shoulders, more realistic weapon recoil, and more.