Escape From Tarkov, the realistic tactical first-person shooter is deep in its wipe. Most players have grinded their way to god-level, with inventories valuable more than ever and millions of in-game currency. At this point, it’s all about the meta guns and armor, as everyone can afford it. To sustain the same entertainment level as in early wipe, some players opt to reset their account profile, starting from scratch. In contrast, others have gone farther down the road and invented personal challenges to keep them attached to the game.
These challenges usually consist of custom rules. The most recent challenge is the Snowball Challenge, invented by a known and influential Twitch Streamer, DrLupo. His challenge is probably the most brutal out there, as it requires a lot of player dedication. Hence, most of the Tarkov Streamers nowadays compete for the world’s first title as no one’s done it yet.
Even though some streamers modify the core Snowball Challenge rules, the main goal applies to all. It’s killing the Scav bosses on all maps without dying. However, there are some parallel challenges to the main one, and they are as follows:
- Players must use a fresh Escape From Tarkov account – Perks such as perception, vitality, endurance, and everything else gained as a passive attribute is now automatically gone.
- Denied usage of Flea Market or in-game traders – Everything player-related such as gear, weapons, and consumables have to be “found in raid” to use them.
- Zero to Hero phenomenon – The first raid has to be you start either naked or with a pistol and work from there. Some streamers start as Scav, so they get at least some gear before they start the challenge.
- No healing or food/drink allowed out of the raid – Once your raid finishes, you decide what you take and what you leave in your global inventory. Items left in the inventory cannot be used, so managing/modifying weapons or paying attention to your hunger and thirst becomes much more valuable. If you die, only then are you allowed to click the APPLY button at the end of the raid.
While everything of the above applies, you need to kill every Scav boss in the game. The order of the kills is not important. You can go to whatever map you want first. The bosses are:
- Killa – Interchange
- Gluhkar – Reserve
- Shturman – Woods
- Sanitar – Shoreline
- Reshala – Customs
The challenge is tough to accomplish, and not a single streamer has completed it yet. Obviously, this is a streamer challenge considering their broadcast guarantees if they’ve done the challenge correctly. Some people are seamlessly breaking the rules by applying heals or using consumables while being out of the raid. Thirst and hunger management is what makes this challenge extremely hard.
The Snowball Challenge is basically like playing DayZ inside Escape From Tarkov. The challenge puts the “survival” aspect at the top priority, which is usually not a strong side in Tarkov. Are you willing to commit to this Escape From Tarkov challenge and see if you pull it through?