Tarkov Halloween Event 2026 Guide: All Quests, Skier vs Therapist & Rewards (1.3.0.0)

The Tarkov Halloween event 2026 is live. It launched with patch 1.3.0.0 on October 29, 2026, and this is the zombie event players were waiting for: two event maps, Infected Tagilla with his scythe, and a branching questline from Skier and Therapist. If you've already started, the decision that matters is what you do with the vaccine batch on Lighthouse, because it changes your costs, your rewards and which achievement you can reach.

Quick answer: Start with Halloween: Rumors from Skier and flip to the event tab on the map screen. The first three quests are shared. Then you make two choices: stash the vaccine for Skier or hand it to Therapist, then take Tightening the Quarantine (Skier ending, Shields Up!) or A New Vaccine (Therapist ending, Triumph of Science). The Therapist ending is the better pick for most players: it pays 520,000 ₽ plus an Item case on the last quest alone and stays on the infected maps after the Lighthouse run. Insurance is off on both event maps. BSG has not announced an end date as of October 30, 2026, so don't sit on it.

When Did the Tarkov Halloween Event Start and When Does It End?

The event started on October 29, 2026 with patch 1.3.0.0, after a planned 5 to 7 hour install that began at 07:00 GMT. It's still Season 1 KORD BREACH: this is an event, not a wipe.

There's no official end date yet. Forbes reports "no word on how long the event will last", and we found nothing newer from BSG. Treat any specific date you see online as a guess.

Battlestate's press release sums up the choice at the heart of the event: players "can either help enforce the quarantine in standard locations with moderate risk or venture directly into isolated outbreak zones teeming with infected to search for vaccine components."

What else changed in the region, per the wiki's event page:

• Every map is affected. Infection levels show on the location selection screen.
• Virus effect: getting hit up close can remove your hearing briefly and drain hydration. It only clears on extraction or death.
• Scav run change: no Scav karma penalty for killing Scavs as a player Scav.
• Cultists: night raids are more dangerous, according to BSG.

How Do You Start the Halloween Questline?

The chain opens at Skier. These three quests are the same for everyone:

#	Quest	Trader	Objective	Reward
1	Rumors	Skier	Kill 10 infected on Infected Factory	26,000 EXP, €1,800, AA-12 Gen 2, 3 drums, 4 packs of SuperFormance slugs
2	The Best Defense	Skier	Kill 10 infected on Infected Lab	36,000 EXP, €2,700, QBZ-191, 3 mags, 4 packs of DBX95
3	Follow-Up Examination	Therapist	Open the dead scientist with Medical tools, hand over the blood sample	40,000 EXP, €2,700, 2 Labs keycards, 2 Adrenaline, 2 Trimadol

We'd run the AA-12 on the kill quests after Rumors. It's a 20-round automatic shotgun, and you get it from the first quest.

Follow-Up Examination opens once you've accepted The Best Defense, so stack them in one Infected Lab raid. The scientist has three Lab spots: the tunnel to Sewage Conduit, the intersection near the Blue keycard room, and the middle of the working area. On Infected Factory he's outside the medical labs or on top of the tanks by the pumping station. Bring Medical tools: they're consumed, and you can't complete the objective without them.

Should You Pick Skier or Therapist in the Tarkov Halloween Event?

Pick Therapist unless you specifically want Shields Up! There are two decisions, and they don't have to match, which is the part most quest lists skip.

Choice 1: Who Gets the Vaccine Batch?

Both options start the same way. The TG-VI-26 vaccine batch is on the 2nd floor of Building No. 3 at the Lighthouse water treatment plant. It's a quest item, so you lose it if you die before extracting.

Option	Quest	What you do	Reward
Side with Skier	Unexpected Help	Stash it in room 105, two-story dorm, Customs (needs the Dorm room 105 key)	38,000 EXP, €2,700, Ammunition case
Side with Therapist	Initial Examination	Hand it to Therapist	38,000 EXP, 200,000 ₽, Document case

Doing one fails the other. Handing it to Therapist also skips a Customs trip and the 105 key, so it's the cheaper line.

Choice 2: Tightening the Quarantine or A New Vaccine?

After a time gate (15 minutes for A New Vaccine, 15 to 60 for Tightening), both quests appear, whichever way you went. Completing A New Vaccine fails Tightening the Quarantine.

The catch: the wiki lists a Skier-line and a Therapist-line version of both quests. Our reading, backed by Skier's dialogue in the Therapist version (he calls you a turncoat for taking the vaccine to her), is that Choice 1 decides which version you get.

Quest	After siding with Skier	After siding with Therapist
Tightening the Quarantine	Hand in 5 heavy-bleed medkits, 2 balms, 2 surgical kits (found in raid). Reward: 48,000 EXP, €1,800, AK-12, 3 mags, 7N40 pack	Hand in 7 medkits, 3 balms, 3 surgical kits (found in raid). Reward: 48,000 EXP, €2,700, Money case
A New Vaccine	Extract from both infected maps, hand over $2,000. Reward: 41,000 EXP, 300,000 ₽, 2 Mr. Holodilnick thermal bags	Extract from either infected map. Reward: 41,000 EXP, 150,000 ₽, 2 Labs keycards, 2 Surv12 kits

Read that as: the side you helped first gets easier terms on its own quest, and switching means more work. Solo players should go Therapist then A New Vaccine: one extraction and you're through.

Wondering which path gets the big case? On the wiki's reward lists, the Money case comes from the Therapist-version Tightening quest, and the Item case comes from Final Push at the end of Therapist's ending. They sit on opposite sides of Choice 2, so one playthrough can't take both.

What Is the Full Therapist Quest Order?

This is the route for Triumph of Science. Rewards below come from tarkov.help's quest pages, as the wiki hadn't filled these in when we checked.

• High-Risk, High-Reward: kill 30 infected on either event map. 44,000 EXP, 350,000 ₽, 3 Propital.
• First Results: kill 25 infected under the RDE-68 gas effect. 42,000 EXP, 350,000 ₽, 5 Grizzly kits. This is the quest that stops most people, so read our First Results guide before you burn your grenades.
• Studying the Enemy (opens alongside First Results): hand over 2 Infected Tissue Samples. 34,000 EXP, 175,000 ₽.
• For the Common Goal: take the infection data and pass it to Skier through The Deal. 24,000 EXP, 175,000 ₽, 4 Labs keycards, 2 Ibuprofen, 2 Augmentin. The Deal then pays 18,000 EXP, €2,100 and the tissue samples you need.
• Final Push: kill 30 infected under the RDE-78 effect, then kill Infected Tagilla. 60,000 EXP, 520,000 ₽, Item case, RDA-78 vaccine, TG-Vi-24 prototype, Triumph of Science.

Three warnings for Final Push, from tarkov.help's walkthrough. RDE-78 grenades kill infected on their own, and only kills with your weapon count, so you have to shoot fast. Therapist's RDE-78 barters need tissue samples or a Model 8230 CS gas grenade, and on this route you'd buy spare samples from the Flea Market. Infected Tagilla spawns at 100% on the event maps, and players report he's oddly passive right now, so take him when you see him.

What Is the Full Skier Quest Order?

This is the route for Shields Up!. It takes you back to the regular maps, which is the "moderate risk" half of BSG's pitch.

• Danger Zone: kill 15 of any target in each of four pairs: Ground Zero or Customs, Woods or Interchange, Shoreline or Streets, Lighthouse or Reserve. 44,000 EXP, €2,800, weapon repair kit, IOTV Gen4 Full Protection, 1 tissue sample, plus new Therapist barters.
• Coincidence?: find the folder at the Lighthouse water treatment plant. Tarkov.help places it in the radio room on the 1st floor of hangar 2. 42,000 EXP, PKM, 2 100-round boxes, 10 packs of BT.
• Prototyping (opens alongside Coincidence?): hand over 2 TG-Vi-24 vaccine prototypes. No reward data yet, and no confirmed world spawn. Players report buying them on the Flea, since Final Push on Therapist's side hands them out.
• Enemy of My Enemy and An Agreement: take Skier's folder to Therapist. Finishing the Agreement also completes the Skier half.
• Blind the Enemy: hand over the vaccine and destroy surveillance cameras on five maps: Woods, Customs, Lighthouse, Reserve and Shoreline. Finishing it grants Shields Up!.

It's safer per raid, but those Flea-only prototypes are the bottleneck right now.

What Are the Infected Lab and Infected Factory Rules?

Both maps sit in a separate event tab and insurance doesn't work on either. Bring gear you're happy to lose.

	Infected Factory	Infected Lab
Raid time	20 minutes	30 minutes
Players	4-6	8-10
Entry	No keycard listed	TerraGroup Labs access keycard
Exits	Gate 0, Gate 3	Parking Gate, Sewage Conduit (item required)
Conditions	No special rules listed	Lights off, all doors unlocked

Infected Factory is the place to farm kills. It's short, both exits are open, and the zombies come to you, so hold a spot with one or two entrances and aim for heads.

Infected Lab is where raids go wrong, because you can't just walk out. Parking needs Car keys, and Sewage Conduit needs the Collector map. Grab one before you start killing.

The wiki places both items in the rounded conference room in the Recreation Area, and the Collector map can also be on a PMC body in the server room. If you're new to the layout, our Labs guide covers the map.

Expect PvP too. A long r/EscapefromTarkov thread complains about geared players sitting on Sewage Conduit instead of fighting zombies, while others report informal ceasefires. Don't assume either: enter the exit area ready for a fight.

How Should You Prepare for the Event?

• Ammo first. Infected take a lot of body damage, and head HP is a live complaint on the subreddit. Carry more mags than you think you need.
• Respirator or gas mask. Bring one for the gas grenade quests, or the gas hurts you too.
• Team up for gas kills. One player in a Reddit tip thread reported about 16 kills per gas run with a squad firing together, against the 8 to 9 per grenade you need for First Results.
• Stock Grizzlies and surgical kits now. Tightening needs them found in raid, so keep what you loot if you may go that way.
• Save your tissue samples. Don't sell them until you've finished Studying the Enemy and bought your RDE-78.
• Use the Scav karma break. Player Scav runs can shoot AI Scavs without a Fence penalty for now, so Scav runs are lower risk during the event.

Keycards are the hidden cost. Labs entries add up, so keep the ones from Follow-Up Examination for Infected Lab raids and do the kill quests on Factory.

What Rewards Can You Get From the Halloween Event?

Three achievements, all Legendary rarity:

• Triumph of Science: finish Therapist's line.
• Shields Up!: finish Skier's line.
• Groovy: kill 300 infected during the event.

Per tarkov.help, once you hold one route achievement, the other needs an account reset. So one playthrough gets you two of the three. BSG's press release also promises an exclusive event poster.

Elsewhere in the update, Arena gets CheckPoint: Bloodlust, a 5v5 melee-only mode with double XP and a 1.5x Battle Pass bonus. The Unity 6 upgrade has moved to patch 1.3.5.0 in mid-November, and our Battle Pass deadline guide covers what's left of the season.

Is the event eating your roubles and your quest time? No insurance, Flea-priced samples and a long questline make it easy to fall behind on everything else. Here's what we can take off your plate.

• EFT Kappa Container & Quest Boost: your regular quest line handled by pro players while you play the event
• EFT Roubles: cover Flea prices without farming (pick PvP, PvE or Season 1 at checkout; profiles and economies are separate)
• EFT Leveling Boost: PMC levels and skills pushed fast

FAQ

Is the Tarkov Halloween event live right now? Yes. It went live with patch 1.3.0.0 on October 29, 2026, and there's no announced end date as of October 30.

How do I start the Tarkov Halloween quests? Accept Halloween: Rumors from Skier, open the event tab on the map selection screen, and kill 10 infected on Infected Factory.

Can I do both Skier and Therapist endings? Not on one playthrough. Finishing A New Vaccine fails Tightening the Quarantine, and tarkov.help says the second route achievement needs an account reset.

Do I need a keycard for Infected Lab? Yes, a TerraGroup Labs access keycard. Follow-Up Examination gives you two, and later Therapist quests give more.

Why can't I extract from Infected Lab? Only Parking Gate and Sewage Conduit work, and they need Car keys or the Collector map. Find one before farming kills.

Is the event in PvE? Players are running the infected maps in PvE as well as PvP, going by threads on r/EscapefromTarkov and r/EscapeFromTarkovPvE. Remember that each zone is a separate profile, so progress doesn't carry over.