Escape From Tarkov Arena finally gets an unranked mode.

Credit: Battlestate Games

The latest set of patch notes for Escape From Tarkov Arena has finally added an unranked mode that allows you to play a more casual style with fewer restrictions.

The 1.5.1 update for Escape From Tarkov Arena, which is available now, makes some big changes to the game with the most notable being the addition of the unranked game mode. Now you can queue for a match using the unranked option, which was previously locked.

In unranked you can play both Team Fight and Shootout, with the 2×2 and 3×3 variations for the latter. You can also play on any map, with the restriction for selecting multiple maps removed, meaning if you only want to play a single map you can. The restriction of having no duplicate presets on the same team has also been removed, so you can all run around with exactly the same loadout if you wish. Cash rewards have also been scaled up, but you obviously won’t be gaining any ARP for winning.

While there aren’t all that many differences between ranked and unranked, having a slightly less high-stakes experience that doesn’t punish experimentation quite as hard is certainly a positive. I expect many players to keep grinding ranked but having unranked will certainly help the new player experience as they learn the game, providing queue times are not super long.

Elsewhere in the patch, there are new punishments for anyone who is found to be team-killing. The amount of team kills required to get a warning has been reduced from four to three, which still seems high, while the number of team kills to be kicked has been reduced from six to four. If a player kills or damages a teammate before the start of a round or shortly after it starts the offender will be instantly killed and issued a warning. If they do it again they will be kicked and blocked from playing another match for 30 minutes. If they end up doing it again in another match that punishment can be increased.

While the warning system does still seem a bit generous, this should go some of the way to dealing with players who are griefing games, which has become a bit of a problem in Arena in recent weeks. While personally, I would like to see stricter rules and fewer chances I understand that it can be very easy to team kill someone in Arena. However, getting the chance to do that three times before any punishment seems a little generous.

Rounding out the Escape From Tarkov Arena patch notes are some general quality-of-life changes, including a volume setting for the announcer, reducing the volume of the radio on and off noises and reducing the time it takes to get into a game, which are all very welcome changes.