Escape from Tarkov is about collecting Tarkov items you can lose when you die. The risk and gamble of those precious things is the fun part of the game, other than the action-packed maps and realistic mechanics. As the game is still in development, there are bound to be bugs, but this recent one takes the cake.

Some History About the Bug

The ‘Invisible Player’ bug was encountered as early as 2020. At the time, it was primarily uncontrolled, but players sought to exploit it when it happened. Soon there were reports of being ambushed by invisible and silent players, begging for the fix.

Players who figured it out used it almost constantly. They wouldn’t even need weapons. Sneaking up on people is enough to pickpocket their Tarkov items. One victim even reported seeing their equipped gear disappear as someone they couldn’t see stole his stuff.

It’s not like you could shoot randomly, either. That’s going to attract the attention of visible (and not) players, making you even more vulnerable. On top of losing your haul, you also die, like being kicked when you’re down.

Anyway, this has been long fixed or at least patched up. It hasn’t been a problem for years… until now.

Recent Resurgence

A recent patch returned it to the forefront. Somehow, the bug has resurfaced; this time, players can deliberately activate and exploit it, which is worse. We’re not going through the steps, but suffice it to say it is a problem.

As mentioned above, invisible players don’t have to kill others to steal their items. They can search through your inventory, then slip away without you noticing. Combine that with the hacks that let you know about the position of all the loot in the map (player inventories included), and these exploiters have an unfair advantage from the start.

Even worse, what’s a shooter game without anything to shoot at? If all players use the exploit, there’d be no targets save for the NPC Scavs and bosses. Considering that much of the tension in EFT is between players, this makes everything dull as well. This bug ruins the non-exploiter’s experience and the game itself.

A Solution in the Works

Battlestate Games have been informed and are working on fixing this game-breaking bug. They have patched out the leading cause, so it isn’t exploitable anymore. You can download this update through the launcher. However, they’re still scouring the code, so this won’t happen again.

After all, it’s something they don’t want to persist. It was a surprise that it resurfaced recently. It has appeared before, but players and developers thought it was gone for good. Although it’s not to the notoriety of New World exploits, this kind of thing can ruin the game for many people (as much as a minority enjoy it).

You can avoid it by not playing for a little while. The update might be a short-term solution, and the bug can still return. Still, we won’t know until you play.

Don’t Lose to Temptation

While it’s easy to fall into exploiting bugs, it’s a slippery slope. It does make everything more straightforward, but much of the challenge and tension go away when you can cheat like this. Some players do like this kind of gameplay. However, it cheapens the game experience.

People grow when they’re challenged, not when they’re relaxed. Aimbots and other scripts make things easy, but you don’t learn and grow as a person. You won’t understand how to adjust for recoil, listen to others trying to sneak up on you, or aim at a distance. When they switch games, they’ll transfer these programs to the new game or search for new ones.

It creates a cycle where the player can’t play the game without cheating anymore. They’re so used to getting what they want in the fastest and most convenient way. That means they’ll want to look for cheats and scripts even if they change to another game. They can’t play a game normally after tasting the power that these things give.

The lesson here is, don’t exploit bugs you see, but report them.

You Don’t Need It

You’d enjoy the game more without it. You won’t grow if you use it, and if other people do, they’re a nuisance and the worst players of the game. It follows that the best thing is for this bug to disappear entirely from the software.

Support BSG in its efforts to squash the bug. They’ll need a better solution than banning any Escape from Tarkov account that exploits it. Refuse to use the bug, and enjoy playing a clean game of EFT.