The launch of a new website suggests that Escape From Tarkov players are being blackmailed by a mysterious character known as Lightkeeper, and must collectively pay an exorbitant fee in order to bring traders back.
Yesterday (April 27), traders and the Flea Market were removed from Escape From Tarkov. According to a letter shared by developer Battlestate Games, this is in response to “threats from the lightkeeper” – who is presumed to be an electronics-based trader who will take up residence at Lighthouse.
Today (April 28), things have taken an even more dramatic turn. Scav Cases – a hideout upgrade that sends Scavs out to retrieve items in return for valuables – have been changed to only take roubles, however players don’t get anything back for paying their Scavs.
The change has coincided with a new website launched by Battlestate Games, which features two numbers: the first is how much money players have already paid, and the second is how much is left to collect. The site also includes the same letter shared yesterday, which claims traders are being extorted by Lightkeeper.
Battlestate Games COO Nikita Buyanov has since shared a screenshot of an online chat room, which confirms that LK (presumably Lightkeeper) is “extorting money” from players.
“He will get what he wants and it will de-escalate for sure” reads the photo’s last message, confirming that traders will return once players pay the full price listed on the website.
— Nikita Buyanov (@nikgeneburn) April 27, 2022
Battlestate Games has also shared a letter in Russian, which further confirms that the money being sent via Scav Cases is going straight to Lightkeeper.
As translated by Twitter user Bakeezy, the letter claims that Scavs are currently transporting large amounts of money gathered from Scav Cases to a “scary as fuck” client.
“While I was carrying the bags around Tarkov area I also saw something interesting. Some guys are carrying money from Scav Cases and the funny thing is they are just taking the money from Scav Cases and are not bringing anything back,” adds the letter, confirming that players will not receive any in-game items for sending roubles through the Scav Case.
Translation:
Ch, you won't believe it! I got a new job to transfer bags of money. Bags FULL OF MONEY, I swear! Each of them is completely full. I don't know how many of them I transfered through the night. I have never seen this amount of money in my life.— BakeeZy (@IamBakeeZy) April 27, 2022
“P.S. It’s time to find out whose getting all that money. I’m really curious and nobody is talking. Maybe it is somehow related with all the traders’ shops being closed? I heard they lost big money, I’m extremely happy about that,” ends the note.
At time of writing, Escape From Tarkov players have raised just 108billion in roubles, with a staggering 1.3trillion left to pay.
In other gaming news, an update to Call Of Duty‘s anti-cheat will make normal players appear invisible to hackers.
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