Battlestate Games have released update 0.9 for Escape from Tarkov, bringing the first ever boss to the game. His name will be Dealmaker and he will have improved AI. Stun and smoke grenades will also have a debut with this update.
Dealmaker is the first Scav boss to grace the somewhat ruined landscape of Tarkov. This particular gentleman will be running around with his gang of four Scavs and according to Battlestate Games, he will be the first one to feature improved AI.
When Dealmaker's group takes heavy casualties, he will be ably to rally other Scavs to his location, so different tactics may need to be employed by players. His gang will also have more combat equipment, including close combat weapons, grenades and medical supplies which they will now actually use.
He will only spawn at the Customs and will not hesitate to throw his buddies into the line of fire to protect himself. Therefore, players who are hunting Dealmaker might need to flush him out of cover and then shoot him if they're looking to take him out before his posse. On the other hand, players can also just mow through every Scav in the area and deal with the boss at the end.
Dealmaker isn't the only addition in patch 0.9 though, as the update has also added smoke and stun grenades. Just like the Scav boss, these are early incarnations of what Battlestate Games are intending to introduce to the full game. While they work as intended, filling interiors in realistic fashion and smoke dispersing out in the open, there are currently only gas and stun grenades that were manufactured in Russia. Those made by western spies will be added to the game further down the road.
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Developers have stated that they are still working on game optimisation in order to come closer to open beta testing and eventually stage "a major" game event. There is no ETA on either of them, but development and testing of future features are apparently already underway.
