In a new roadmap published by Battlestate Games, the immediate future of Tarkov Arena was outlined. Since launching in December 2023 and putting on its first esports tournament, Tarkov Arena has gone a little quiet, so the release of this roadmap has pleased fans the world over. There’s plenty of content coming over the next six months, including cross-platform synchronisation between Escape from Tarkov and Tarkov Arena. It’s not enough for some of the more hardcore fans of the game, but you can’t please everyone.

Tarkov Arena is the standalone multiplayer game released by Battlestate Games as a ‘companion’ to Escape from Tarkov. It’s just as intense as the extraction shooter that has been around since 2016, but its operating model is completely different. It’s all about climbing the ranks and being the best player in the Arena, unlocking more classes and loadouts as you go. It shares Escape from Tarkov’s movement mechanics, weapon physics, healing features, and more, but for now, it’s a separate game entirely.

Tarkov Arena’s Newest Roadmap

Image Credit: Battlestate Games

In the new roadmap released by Battlestate, several sought-after additions and updates were highlighted as coming over the next six months. These include:

‘Synchronisation of Escape from Tarkov and Escape from Tarkov: Arena game profiles’. It’s not yet known how this’ll work, but players are desperate to link their profiles.
‘Preset customisation’. One of the most called-for things in Tarkov Arena is the ability to edit presets.
‘Achievement system’. This will align Tarkov Arena with Escape from Tarkov, given that the latter game just got this feature.
‘Improvements to custom lobbies’. Fans are annoyed that custom lobbies have limitations – this will fix that.

There’s plenty more content coming to Tarkov Arena besides those key changes, though. For instance, the second and third updates (being released in the Spring and the Summer of 2024) will bring a new mode and location each. We’ll also see an unranked mode arrive in the game, as well as unlocking the ability to view other players’ profiles, which empowers users to crack down on cheaters more effectively. Along the way, there are planned improvements for the game’s anti-cheat system, quality-of-life improvements in matchmaking, the game client, and AI behaviour, and a rework of the preset system.

If there’s one negative to take away from this roadmap, it’s that Escape from Tarkov’s new armour and hitbox mechanics are being pulled across this month. This is a sticking point with current players, as one of the most ‘broken’ features from the latest major Tarkov update was the addition of new armour hitboxes. It has caused havoc in the popular extraction shooter, making fights wildly unpredictable and awkward.

Unfortunately, there’s no news on the next Tarkov tournament, but I’ve reached out to Battlestate Games to see if there’s any more on that front.

For more Escape from Tarkov news, stay tuned to Esports.net