Tarkov's Newest Patch Changed Recoil and the Game Forever

Many of us consider Tarkov Patch 0.14 to be the most content rich and the most impactful update in the game's entire history. And it’s easy to see why people are suggesting that notion. New map, new recoil, updated movement, changes to previous maps, new armor mechanics; the list is gigantic. And since we will be tackling these all in their own videos, I figured let’s go over arguably the biggest change to the game, the new recoil changes to all weapons. Some might say the armor system is more impactful, and while there is an argument there to be had, the primary way we engage with Tarkov is with weapons and shooting others with weapons. For the longest time, Tarkov has had an incredibly intricate and complex weapon and ammo system in the game. But it was generally marred by how recoil worked in the game. Weapons that had an initial high amount of kick, and then slowly by the end of the magazine leveling out and becoming accurate. It never really made sense, and plenty of weapon enthusiasts made their dismay with the system known. But now, it has been fundamentally reworked from the ground up. And let me just say this right now, it’s good. Arguably too good in some circumstances, but we’ll get to that. It’s not perfect, at least to me. There are a couple of very minor things that I've noticed that hold it back from being legendary. But the fact we got an update to recoil at all, and of this caliber is truly something special. So, let’s talk about the new recoil in Tarkov and how genuinely awesome it is. And if you’re new around here, be sure to subscribe. We talk a lot about Tarkov and the many game mechanics that are within it, so if that sounds interesting, be sure to stick around for more in the future.

So, recoil has been adjusted. What does this mean? Well, in the context of Tarkov specifically, it means that for almost every gun in the entire game, the way recoil is handled has been altered. Previously, recoil was this huge immediate discharge of kinetic energy that threw your aim off completely after only a few bullets. I mean, you look at any stock weapon before the patch and those guns were legitimately not usable under most circumstances. The initial recoil was the main problem with the old Tarkov recoil. The recoil started out inaccurate and then slowly as you continued to shoot, the weapon settled into a more reasonable recoil pattern. Which is not how it ever should've been. Because by the time you have accurate shots, if you’re using a 30-round magazine, you hit the bottom of it and can’t take advantage of the good recoil. And it was that initial recoil being so strong that firing in bursts was also completely unusable. I made a video talking about that months ago, and now the situation around tap shooting and burst fire is completely different. Even replacing all the default attachments with new ones, that didn’t guarantee that the gun was usable. No, sadly suppressors were needed, foregrips were advised, and buttstocks needed to be swapped out too. But now, I mean, here’s a stock M4 with no recoil compensation on my end. Yeah, the difference is insane if you’ve seen stock M4 footage from the past. It might as well be a different game. And it isn’t just rifles; every weapon now feels much more like an actual weapon being fired by someone who is trained in using them. Pistols feel reliable and there is a newfound confidence when running just a sidearm. The recoil just pushes the weapon backwards, instead of this insane huge vertical line. The gun now always feels in control, instead of having those moments where you panic shoot with a pistol and the recoil was so insane, that the front sight of the weapon would go everywhere except where you needed it to.

What makes this so incredible is that the early game of Tarkov was always marred by how awful it felt to shoot the guns in the game. All of them. There wasn’t a secret weapon that had no recoil before. Everything felt bad to use. And while that was some of the charm of the early game, as the fights felt much scrappier, now, everyone is that much more deadly with something in their hands. Whether you see someone with just a pistol or a full rifle, they are not to be taken lightly. Because all it takes is one well-placed bullet and you are back to your stash. It’s a little difficult to accurately describe the new recoil if I am being honest. So much of this is personal feeling and experience between the different iterations of the game, but if you have played Tarkov for any length of time in the past 6 months before this most recent wipe. Jump back on now if you haven’t and see for yourself, the game is quite literally a different beast.

Now, there is an argument to be made that the new recoil is perhaps too good now. Blasphemy I know. But hear me out. Completely stock weapons this wipe are significantly more accurate than they were before. But again, the question becomes should a completely stock weapon be this accurate. When you look at any of the AKs or even the M4, yes recoil is still very much prevalent, but with the way it behaves now, it’s so much less of a factor when it comes to landing accurate shots at either a scav or another player. Pistols feeling the way they do should’ve been how they behave from day one. They are honestly some of the most fun I’ve had this wipe regarding using weapons with the new recoil. Shotguns feel good, but to be honest, unless you were using magnum buckshot before, they were already steady in their recoil. But I won’t complain about them being easier either. Again, this whole argument is just to play devil's advocate. I am happy with the recoil as it stands. Of course, there may be a couple problematic weapons that need to get adjusted, but otherwise, the entire game getting these recoil changes was necessary for the longevity of the game. It was becoming untenable with how some weapons were so objectively better than others. And how some weapon classes were just not worth using because of poor ammo combined with higher-than-average recoil. But my hope is that the brevity and variety of this game opens up, and we don’t just see the same 10-15 weapons being used over and over. Also, hopefully the weapon build variety goes up too. Because now that attachments seem to be less vital to make certain guns good, we might see weapons with different focuses. Ergo builds, ranged builds, point-fire builds. The possibilities are endless. Until someone finds the one build for all the weapons, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

New recoil in Tarkov is a dream come true. Something we never thought would be implemented right, if at all. And yet, BSG has knocked it out of the park with how they have handled this change. We saw some early footage months ago during a TarkovTV podcast, and a lot of people were apprehensive at the idea. But it seems like BSG took a lot of feedback to heart and wanted to get this right the first time. Well, I applaud you Nikita and the crew over at BSG. You did good. And to think this is only one of the many major changes that came with patch .14. Which we will be talking about very soon. So, thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and how your experiences have been so far with recoil as well as the wipe in general and be sure to subscribe for more videos about all the changes that have come with patch .14, I hope to see you in future ones.