Extraction shooter fans everywhere are preparing for a collaboration that writes itself. Recently, the Escape from Duckov team posted a cryptic image and message on social media talking about the game’s first collaboration event. The image was decoded quickly enough by fans, and it looks like Escape from Tarkov characters will be headed into the duck-themed extraction shooter.
Escape from Duckov was released in October 2025 and quickly sold millions of copies, soaring to a peak concurrent player count of 301,000 users on Steam. It’s a satirical, tongue-in-cheek stab at the unwelcoming extraction genre, and it parodies Escape from Tarkov, the hyper-challenging shooter, in multiple ways.
Are Tarkov and Duckov Joining Forces?
In a recent post on social media, the Escape from Duckov folks from Bilibili and Team Soda posted an image showing one of the game’s duck-like characters studying a whiteboard.
On that whiteboard, we see two perfectly normal ducks turn into something threatening. One is wielding a large hammer and wearing an armored vest, while the other has rippling muscles and a large rifle.
The post was accompanied by a message:
【Two ……. interconnected memory …… bloodline …… exceptional combat …… instability.】
This is almost a direct reference to Tagilla and Killa, two of Escape from Tarkov’s most iconic boss characters. They’re brothers (interconnected memory and bloodline), and one has exceptional combat skills, while the other is somewhat unstable.
The collaboration effectively writes itself, and it means we could see these two characters emerge in a game other than Escape from Tarkov for the first time.
On October 22, Nikita Buyanov, the head of the studio at Battlestate Games, praised Escape from Duckov’s successful launch and one million copies sold in just a few days. Little did we know that would be a precursor for things to come (or potentially come, at least).
Escape from Duckov has maintained a relatively solid player base on Steam, standing at around 11,000 peak players every day. Escape from Tarkov is primarily played via Battlestate’s proprietary launcher, so it’s hard to tell how many people are playing it, but 26,000 or so were playing at the time of writing on Steam alone.
Are you excited to see an Escape from Tarkov and Escape from Duckov collaboration? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server what you hope will happen.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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