Escape from Tarkov still has plenty of work ahead, and Battlestate Games COO Nikita Buyanov has offered a look at what the studio is considering next. The plans include a co-op PvE mode for EFT: Arena, a sandbox for player-made mods, returning weather effects, more character customization, and the long-awaited End of the Line location.
Buyanov covered those plans in the published Q&A, which also addressed Linux support, the next season, Tarkov’s side projects, and the ways Battlestate Games is trying to make the opening hours less punishing for new players.
EFT: Arena is still getting a co-op PvE mode
The mode previously referred to as Overrun is in development for EFT: Arena, although that name may not survive. Buyanov said the final title will probably be different, but the core idea will remain: a cooperative PvE experience.
No release window was provided, so Arena players will have to wait for more information before they know when the mode will arrive. For now, the important part is that the project remains active rather than being abandoned.
Mod support is planned, but Linux support is not currently scheduled
Battlestate Games is also working on mod support for Escape from Tarkov. The feature belongs to a separate project that Buyanov did not go into detail about, but he described its eventual setting as a sandbox environment where players can create mods.
Linux support has a much less certain outlook. There are no current plans to bring EFT to Linux, with Buyanov pointing to the small share of players on the operating system and the added development and testing costs. He did leave the possibility open if the studio has more time in the future, so the answer is not a permanent rejection.
Night raids, weather, and character customization remain in progress
The planned overhaul for nighttime raids has been postponed to 2027. The work is expected to cover nighttime hours and night-vision goggles, with new graphical techniques involved, but Battlestate Games has not shared more specific details yet.
Dynamic weather is also coming back in some form. During an earlier effort to optimize the weather system, certain conditions stopped appearing, including storms with lightning and thunder. Buyanov said the missing weather types will return.
Players can also expect visual updates to character customization. Battlestate Games wants to add beards and hairstyles, while the studio would like to update the appearance of the Adik tracksuit. The tracksuit is tied to a time-consuming achievement, but there is no timing yet for its visual refresh.
Peacekeeper fans will need to keep waiting for a more personal meeting with the trader. Buyanov joked that he would like to speak with Peacekeeper himself, but could not say whether that will become possible in the near future.
The next season will include a short break
The second season will not begin immediately after the first one ends. Buyanov confirmed that there will be a short break between seasons, though the studio did not provide a specific length for the downtime.
End of the Line will begin with a single-player experience
Development on End of the Line is continuing, and Battlestate Games plans to show more of the location as work moves forward. It is described as a large, fully fledged raid area with a new boss and other content for players to discover.
The first introduction will follow a structure similar to Icebreaker. Players will encounter End of the Line through a single-player experience before it becomes part of the wider raid offering.
Other Tarkov projects are moving at different speeds. The mobile companion app is not a high priority, while Guncyclopedia is currently in development. A full single-player game set in the Tarkov universe is still in pre-production, and Battlestate Games has other side projects that rank even higher on its current priority list.
Old TarkovTV ideas have not been discarded
Buyanov said the studio does not scrap content shown during TarkovTV episodes. Some ideas may take a long time to reach the game, which is why something shown a year earlier can suddenly appear in a later patch, but the material remains in development in one form or another.
That means older reveals are not necessarily dead simply because they have gone quiet. Tarkov’s development backlog is still active, even when a particular feature disappears from the conversation for a while.
Battlestate is reducing friction for new players
One of the studio’s current goals is making Escape from Tarkov easier to enter without removing its harsh survival-focused identity. Buyanov said some mechanics are complicated without adding meaningful depth, leaving players with rules that are difficult to understand rather than rewarding to master.
Buyanov put the reasoning plainly:
“There are elements in the game that are complicated for the sake of it. They don’t add complexity or depth to the gameplay – they’re simply difficult to understand or get the hang of. These are the elements we’re tackling.”
“We’re lowering the entry barrier slightly, at least at the start of the game, so that these players can settle in, find their feet and gradually join the rest of the community in hardcore environment.”
We present the second part of @nikgeneburn answers to your questions, collected for the latest TarkovTV episode but not included in the live broadcast.
● When will the Overrun mode be added to EFT: Arena?
We’re currently working on it. It probably won’t be called that, but… pic.twitter.com/LAJUrlwjfU
— Escape from Tarkov (@tarkov) August 21, 2026
The push follows Escape from Tarkov‘s 2025 Steam release, which moved the game beyond Battlestate’s proprietary launcher for the first time in almost a decade and brought it to an entirely new audience. Tarkov now has one of the highest concurrent player counts among extraction shooters on Steam, giving Battlestate a clear reason to make the first hours easier to understand.
The change is aimed at the beginning of the game, especially as more people arrive through Steam without experience in games built around Tarkov’s style of play. The current tutorial lasts about six or seven minutes, and the interface offers little in-game guidance beyond a few text tips. Lowering the initial barrier should give those players time to settle in before they face the rest of the game’s hardcore systems.
One practical addition is already in place: proximity markers can point players toward task items. Battlestate Games also plans to add a GPS function that directs new players to extraction points, giving them a way to learn maps inside the game instead of depending on third-party tools.
Weapon durability and malfunctions are among the mechanics that changed most from the original plan. Early designs called for broken weapons, frequent failures to fire, limited ammunition, and a heavier emphasis on survival during the opening stages. Weapons were also supposed to have stronger recoil until players leveled up.
Those systems were scaled back after Buyanov decided the game needed to remain playable. Repairs and weapon-related problems still exist, but they no longer dominate the experience in the way the original design intended.
Task item searches followed a similar path. The small-object hunt was added on purpose, inspired by the pleasure of finding hidden secrets, but longtime players have already completed those tasks many times. New players also face plenty of other hurdles, so Battlestate Games has started simplifying the process with tools such as proximity markers for task items.
Not every Tarkov mechanic changed completely, but many of the game’s roughest ideas were softened as the studio found a better balance between hardcore survival systems and basic playability.
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Escape from Tarkov
Developed by Battlestate Games
