Escape from Tarkov’s enormous 1.1.0 patch is finally here, and it introduces the game’s first season, amongst many other things. It’s called Kord Breach, and it’s themed entirely around the Black Division faction that has been plaguing users for several weeks. It’s the most major update to hit the game since November 2025, and it changes many things about the core experience.
In the middle of the 1.1.0 update sits an overhaul to the game’s side task system, balancing changes to make many elements of Escape from Tarkov easier, and new core mechanics, like a spectator camera.
Below, you’ll find a full walkthrough of the patch notes for the 1.1.0 update.
Escape from Tarkov Update Notes Change Everything
Escape from Tarkov’s Kord Breach update is, in a word, incredible. It adds, alters, and amends many base aspects of the extraction shooter, and it’s a cross-platform update, which means it impacts PvP, PvE, seasonal characters, and Escape from Tarkov: Arena.
At the heart of this update sits the Kord Breach content, which includes the new seasonal character system. The team wrote in the full patch notes:
Added a new Seasonal Character profile. Seasonal Characters exist on separate servers and are completely independent from PvP Zone and PvE Zone characters.
Seasonal Character progression is automatically reset every four to six months with the release of a major content update and the start of a new season.
Seasonal Characters can be created and switched between from a dedicated character selection screen.
This seasonal character is, as we know, bound by modifiers, both global and personal, and that means that you’re selecting alterations that will exist for that character for several months, so you’ll need to choose wisely.
As you work through a season, you’ll unlock exclusive rewards, many of which will never return outside of that season. To get them, you’ll have to reach a specific PMC level, complete a specified task, or complete an entire chain of missions.
That’s in addition to the new Kord Breach storyline, which allows users to unlock more side missions, get unique achievements, and unlock trade offers for highly specialized and new weapons.
What’s great is that anything you unlock during a season will stay unlocked.
As you can imagine, there’s a battle pass system arriving with the 1.1.0 patch, and that’s totally free to consume, which is amazing in this day and age. It’s shared across PvP, PvE, and PvP Season, and to level up through it, you need to find TerraGroup documentation around the world.
You’ll find these documents in various locations, on the bodies of Black Division operatives, or you’ll be given them by completing Kord Breach missions. Additionally, you can access the new Expansion Hub and purchase Classified Documents, which override the standard TerraGroup documents and allow you to unlock everything in the battle pass if you’d rather do it quickly.
Making Things Easier – Almost
Escape from Tarkov’s 1.1.0 patch notes reveal the balancing changes that Battlestate Games has talked about for several weeks, designed to make some elements of the base game much easier.
For instance, the Kappa Path achievement has now been removed from the game, and it’s a bit easier to complete the road to the Kappa container. The new achievement is now called Dawn of a New Era.
In the side task space, users will find that tasks are now tied to trader loyalty levels, and they’ll become available to complete in a more non-linear fashion, in groups of two to four at a time. This is to make progress less dependent on specific tasks.
You’ll also earn more money and experience than you would have previously for completing these tasks.
Alongside this change comes a stack of rebalances for almost all existing side tasks, including a tweak to all ‘eliminate Scav’ tasks, with bosses, Raiders, and Rogues no longer counting toward these missions.
If you play as part of a group, you can now lean on shared progression:
- Eligible objectives may come from Story, Side, or even Operational Tasks.
- Any player, regardless of level or faction, can contribute to your task progress, even if they do not currently have the task active. The only requirement is that they are in your group.
- The assisting player must still fulfill all task conditions, such as distance, required equipment, active status effects, and so on.
- Some tasks remain strictly solo. We consider completing these tasks alone to be an important test of player skill (for example, The Tarkov Shooter, The Punisher, and similar task chains).
The team at Battlestate Games also made a massive amount of balancing changes across the board for Tarkov:
Economy:
- Increased the trader prices by an average of 25%;
- Reduced the price traders pay for items sold by players by an average of 20%;
- Increased the Flea Market fee from 3% to 5%.
Traders:
- Removed the required trader sales volume from Loyalty Level requirements;
- Rebalanced the reputation requirements for all Loyalty Levels of the following traders: Prapor, Therapist, Fence, Skier, Peacekeeper, Mechanic, Ragman, and Jaeger;
- Reputation rewards from side tasks have also been adjusted;
- Reputation values for existing PvP Zone and PvE Zone characters have been recalculated based on the new requirements.
- Rebalanced the character level requirements for all Loyalty Levels of the listed traders.
Trade Offers:
- Several popular ammunition types and magazines previously sold at Trader Loyalty Levels 2 and 3 have been moved down by one Loyalty Level, making them available earlier.
- Reduced the price of the following ammunition:
- 5.45x39mm FMJ
- 5.56x45mm FMJ
- 7.62x39mm FMJ
- 9x19mm Green Tracer
- .45 ACP Lasermatch FMJ
- Added new weapon presets to Trader Loyalty Level 1 for several traders;
- Many trader offers previously locked behind task completion are now available immediately upon reaching the required Trader Loyalty Level;
- Some trader offers previously unlocked through tasks have been moved to different task rewards;
- Players who had previously unlocked these offers will lose access to them until they complete the new required task;
- Removed the outdated trade offers that could still appear in Flea Market tooltips;
- Ref’s inventory now primarily features armor vests and plate carriers without armor plates installed, and their prices have been reduced accordingly;
- Significantly reworked weapon mod trader offers, including which traders and Loyalty Levels unlock them, as well as their prices and purchase limits.
Hideout:
- Simplified the construction requirements for some Level 1-3 Hideout zones;
- In both PvP Zone and PvE Zone, the Found in Raid requirement has been removed from some construction materials;
- Reduced construction times for certain Hideout zones;
- The Workbench is no longer required to access the Weapon Build system. Weapon builds are now available from the start of the game;
- Added money requirements to the construction of many Hideout areas;
- Some crafting recipes previously unlocked through tasks have been moved to different task rewards;
- Players who had previously unlocked these recipes will lose access to them until they complete the new required task.
Insurance:
- Applies only to PvP Zone and PvE Zone, as insurance is disabled in PvP Season:
- Added a new insurance option from Jaeger. It offers the fastest return time but is also the most expensive. However, Jaeger doesn’t like to wait, so insurance return messages expire much sooner;
- Insurance returns from Prapor and Therapist are now much faster, though their insurance services have become slightly more expensive. Insurance return messages are also stored for longer;
- Higher Trader Loyalty Levels now provide a small discount on insurance.
Therapist Post-Raid Healing:
- Reduced the cost of healing;
- Higher Loyalty Levels with Therapist now provide a small discount on healing services.
Weapon Repair:
- Weapon repairs are now slightly more expensive at lower Trader Loyalty Levels, but higher Loyalty Levels provide a small repair discount.
Experience:
- Rebalanced experience modifiers for transitioning between locations;
- Added experience rewards for completing story chapters.
Containers:
- Increased the size of the Medicine Case and Magazine Case;
- Adjusted their prices and barter trades accordingly.
Weapons:
- Significantly reduced the accuracy penalty for revolvers and revolver shotguns when firing in Double Action mode.
Tactical Clothing
- Tactical clothing purchased from Ragman is now permanently unlocked on your account. You no longer need to repurchase it after resetting your profile, reaching Prestige, or creating a Seasonal character;
- Increased the price of Ragman’s basic Tactical Clothing;
- The Predator Upper and Adik Tracksuit, unlocked through achievements, no longer require purchase and are permanently unlocked on your account immediately.
Spectator Camera
- After your PMC dies, you can now spectate any surviving squadmate until they die or the raid ends;
- You can leave spectator mode at any time and proceed to the raid end screen;
- Spectator mode now activates automatically after your PMC dies. This can be disabled in the game settings.
Expanded Beginner Support Messages
- Support messages now more accurately identify players who have fallen into difficult situations;
- Players who die in a raid while in severe financial and equipment hardship will now receive a support message containing a special container with enough gear for a fully equipped raid;
- This support package can be received no more than once every 18 hours, and the message must also be claimed within 18 hours of being received.
PvP Season content has been synchronized better with EFT: Arena, which means you can transfer PMC experience, skill and weapon mastery, trade reputation, currency, and tactical clothing from Arena to PvP Seasons.
Fresh Elements and Optimization (Fixes)
Players will now be able to customize their characters’ appearance and voice in an all-new customization tab in the main menu, which is amazing and very long overdue.
Interactive mechanics have been added across the game world, including padlocks on certain doors and containers that must be blasted off, and openable elevator doors on some maps. There are also new environmental elements, like breakable bottles, exploding fire extinguishers, and cars that react to physical damage.
And let’s wrap up talking about the new optimizations, additions, and fixes:
- Implemented a new method of calculating the playable area on Streets of Tarkov. This reduces unnecessary location data processing and frees up more system resources to render the environment actually visible to the player.
- Performed additional optimization work on Customs.
Content
- Norinco QBZ-191 5.8×42 assault rifle;
- Howa Type 20 5.56×45 assault rifle;
- HK 416A5 5.56×45 assault rifle in RAL 8000 color;
- New attachments for PKM/PKP, AKS074U, FN SCAR, AR-15, and more;
- New 5.8x42mm caliber:
- DBP191 general-purpose cartridge;
- DBX95 tracer cartridge;
- DVC12 armor-piercing cartridge;
- DBX12 armor-piercing tracer cartridge.
- 4 new streamer items;
- 2 new Tactical Clothing sets:
- USEC Corsair;
- BEAR Airborne Infantry.
Fixes
- Fixed an incorrect third-person player animation when stopping after walking;
- Fixed the missing weapon sway while aiming;
- Fixed the missing reload animations for bots in certain cases;
- Fixed multiple culling issues across locations;
- Fixed several incorrect voice lines for the USEC Rob voice;
- Fixed the incorrect trader reputation calculations after reaching Prestige;
- Fixed the incorrect distant LOD of the Lantac Dragon 5.56×45 muzzle brake;
- Fixed the ricochet settings for gear with armor points, including armor vests, plate carriers, helmets, additional armor components, and more;
- Fixed a UI freeze that could occur while interacting with the BTR Driver dialogue in certain cases;
- Fixed the issue with the skill leveling bonus from trophies in the Hall of Fame, and removed the requirement for the player to personally score the kill;
- Fixed an error that could occur when loading into a raid in certain cases.
I think you’ll agree that this is a massive, overwhelming Escape from Tarkov update. Let us know what you think about these changes over on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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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