Escape From Tarkov 1.0 is targeting "balanced hardcore," but escaping will be "really difficult and not for everyone"

Escape From Tarkov is known as a hardcore extraction shooter, but its difficulty changes with each and every wipe. These changes - like requiring quest items to be found in raid or adding Marathon-style tasks that require you to travel in-raid to a new location - change the difficulty of the extraction shooter for better or for worse. But now, as Tarkov approaches its 1.0 launch, Battlestate Games's COO, Nikita Buyanov, has confirmed in our recent interview that he wants the game's identity at launch to remain challenging, but fair.

"I hope that Escape From Tarkov's identity at release will be balanced hardcore," Buyanov tells me. "Sometimes difficult, sometimes very difficult. It [1.0] will be the hardcore that was originally intended with small concessions to midcore players. I want the ability to get out of Tarkov to be really difficult and not for everyone."

Buyanov's comments come just a couple of months after the game's notoriously difficult 'hardcore wipe' which disabled the Flea Market and reduced selling prices among other things. The COO says the changes helped his team understand what made the game "more interesting," but his design philosophy has ultimately remained the same.

"Where do I see the game in five years? Right where it is now," Buyanov says. "A harsh hardcore game that is not for everyone. In 15 years, it will be a veteran grandfather. But I think Tarkov will always be Tarkov, both in five and ten years. It's already a cultural phenomenon, and it has found those who resonate with it."

As someone who's been playing Tarkov for over five years now, I have to agree. Tarkov has found its audience, and while the full release is an exciting milestone that'll no doubt encourage more players to give it a go, it's not for everyone.

Escape From Tarkov is difficult and it is punishing. And while it sucks to be on the end of a gnarly losing streak that has you gearing up to go into a raid with nothing but a pistol and a dream, there's nothing quite like outplaying a squad of chads and enjoying the spoils. The high-risk, high-reward cycle is what makes extraction shooters so addictive, but the tension, the skill ceiling, and the challenge is what keeps me coming back time-and-time again. I'm personally delighted that Battlestate Games isn't going to compromise on that.

Plus, it's clear from my chat with Buyanov that BSG's commitment to staying true to Tarkov's identity runs all the way through its approach to 1.0 -  and that the end-product will reflect the team's passion for the game that's helped define a genre.

"What players can expect from the release is a complete end-game product," Buyanov adds. "Made by us the best we could - from the heart, putting all our energy into it, and squeezing every last bit of soul out of ourselves into it."

For more from our recent Tarkov interview, here's Buyanov on the threat of a Steam reviewing bombing and how BSG plans to counter cheaters at launch.