Correction, September 1, 2026: An earlier version said Preliminary Survey sent players to a laptop outside Reserve’s Dome. Newer quest-screen evidence in the latest discussion places the active mission in The Lab instead, so this article has been updated.
New Ref Quest? [Discussion]
byu/Thatzie inEscapefromTarkov
Escape from Tarkov’s Ref quest, Preliminary Survey, asks players to locate a testing area blueprint stored on a flash drive in The Lab. The quest screen lists The Lab as the location and shows the mission as active.
What Preliminary Survey asks you to find
The objective tells players to locate the testing area blueprint flash drive in The Lab. Ref’s description points to a testing area with unusual fencing and a dome, then explains that its blueprint was transferred to a flash drive instead of being kept on paper.
The visible reward panel includes 14,589 EXP along with additional reward icons, although the screenshot does not make every reward label easy to identify. It also does not establish an extraction condition or a hand-in location, so players will need to check the quest menu for any follow-up requirements after collecting the drive.
The apparent connection to Arena Season 3 remains unconfirmed. The available material does not include a statement from Battlestate Games confirming when Preliminary Survey will appear, whether it will be available to every player, or whether it will officially introduce a new Labs map for Arena.
Would you take on a Ref mission in The Lab for these rewards? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Escape from Tarkov
Developed by Battlestate Games
