"Escape from Tarkov" has had problems with cheaters from the beginning, but despite loudly voicing their efforts to eliminate their influence and sometimes calling them the "scum of the earth," some players are not convinced that the developer, Battlestate Games, is taking this issue seriously They are not convinced. A new anti-cheat measure rolled out in the latest patch may change their minds: the studio is now offering "compensation for reporting players who violate game rules," or bounties for cheaters.

"After a report that leads to the blocking of an offender, players will receive compensation in in-game currency," the 0.14.9.5 patch notes state (via GamesRadar). "Compensation will be made along with an in-game message notifying the player that the report was successful. Compensation for multiple successful reports will be combined."

Details are unclear, with no word on how much will be paid for a successful report, whether some threshold must be met before payment occurs, how reports from multiple people about the same cheater will be handled, and, of course, the value of increased cheater reports, entirely dependent on how Battlestate handles those reports. Whether this program will have a long-term impact on cheating remains to be seen, but it still seems like a step in the right direction.

This is not necessarily an original idea. At least one Redditor suggested introducing such a bounty program to Battlestate over a year ago, pointing out that Yager offered a very similar program in "The Cycle": Frontier. The reaction to that suggestion was, as has often been said The reaction to the proposal was, as has often been said, controversial. The general consensus seemed to be that even if the plan was viable, Battle State was either incapable or unwilling to make it happen. Now that they have accepted the bounty plan, we can only hope that it will work better than it did for Jaeger. Cycle Frontier was closed in September 2023, in part because of the negative impact of the cheetah.

Despite widespread complaints about cheaters, it is the changes to the NPC AI that are getting the most attention from players right now. Simply put, AI-controlled PMCs will be more aggressive, reactive, and communicative after this patch. They will be able to move anywhere in their location, sprint when moving through open terrain, and react when other bots nearby spot the player.

While most players seem to think these are positive changes (although there is some concern that the AI enemies may be a little too good), redditor Thatguydrew7 captures a slightly different mood that some players are feeling: "This is I'm excited, but PMCs wandering around with aimbots on are fucking scary."

The patch also finally allows offline play of Battlestate, the controversial PvE mode that was released in April. The studio said on Twitter that the mode will be available for purchase by all "Escape From Tarkov" owners "within a week or two after the game's infrastructure is stable and ready."