Tarkov Blackout Event Guide: The Lab Code, Black Division & How to Farm the Best Loot Window in Years (1.0.6.5, 2026)

The lights just went out on The Lab — permanently. Escape from Tarkov's Blackout event dropped on July 14, 2026 with patch 1.0.6.5, and it's the biggest shake-up TerraGroup's underground complex has ever had. A new boss crew has moved in, every keypad now answers to a single code, and for a short window The Lab has become the most lucrative — and most dangerous — map in the game. This guide covers exactly what changed, how to get in, the one code that unlocks everything, how to survive the Black Division, and how the Patch the Vulnerability quest works.

Quick answer: Blackout plunges The Lab into total darkness a few minutes into every raid. A new faction — The Wedge and his Black Division squad — has seized the facility. You get in with a one-time Labs Keycard, then farm Black Division for the TerraGroup Labs arsenal storage room key (Blackout), which opens the system admin's office. Inside, you grab a single 4-digit code (it rerolls every raid) and activate emergency power — that one code then opens every keypad door in The Lab, including rooms that normally cost millions of roubles in keycards. Only two extracts work (Parking Gate and Hangar Gate) and the raid timer is cut to 25 minutes. Bring night vision or thermal — it's not optional. Blackout is the warm-up act for Season 1, Kord Breach.

What is the Tarkov Blackout event?

Blackout is a limited-time in-game event centered entirely on The Lab, tied to the 1.0.6.5 patch. Battlestate Games frames it through Skier, who has found a way into TerraGroup's most secure facility. As the official event briefing puts it:

"Skier has discovered a vulnerability in the Lab's security system and plans to strip the facility clean. Information this valuable was never going to stay secret for long, and now all kinds of interested parties are converging on the underground complex — each with their own motives. However, someone else was already one step ahead: a team of unidentified operatives in black had infiltrated the Lab."

— Battlestate Games, Blackout event briefing

Those "operatives in black" are the Black Division, led by The Wedge, a former SAS operative. If they feel familiar, that's because you first tangled with them when the Icebreaker content landed a few weeks earlier — and they're clearly setting up the story for Tarkov's first full season. Blackout is explicitly the warm-up for Kord Breach: the Black Division you fight here is not done with you yet.

What changed on The Lab in Blackout

This is not the Labs you remember. Everything below is live for the duration of the event:

• Total darkness. The lights cut out a few minutes into the raid and cannot be turned back on. This is a night map now.
• The Wedge + Black Division. The Wedge runs the facility with his Black Division squad. Regular Black Division fighters roam the map; The Wedge and his personal guards are significantly tougher.
• Lootable gas grenades. Black Division throw Model 8230 CS gas grenades — and for the first time you can loot those grenades off bodies and use them yourself. Toss one into a corner room to smoke out campers, exactly like Wedge's boys do.
• One code for everything. Every keypad lock in The Lab opens with a single 4-digit code pulled from the system admin's office. It rerolls every raid, so there's no point memorizing a number you saw on a stream.
• Only two extractions. Parking Gate and Hangar Gate are the only ways out — and both must first be activated from the system admin's office.
• No transit out, shorter raids. Transits into The Lab still work, but you cannot transit out, and the raid timer is down to 25 minutes. Plan a tight route before you load in.

How to get into The Lab during Blackout

The door hasn't changed: you still need a Labs Keycard, a one-time-use item consumed when you enter. Three ways to get one:

• Find it in raid. Keycards spawn anywhere mechanical keys do — drawers, jackets, stashes, sealed crates, and in the pockets of Scavs and bosses across every map.
• Barter from Mechanic. At Mechanic Loyalty Level 3 you can barter for a Labs Keycard.
• Craft it. With Intel Center Level 2 in your hideout, you can craft a keycard.

Both the barter and the craft assume real account progression, so early-wipe players will mostly be finding keycards in raid or buying in from the flea market when available. If you're time-poor and just want to run the event, a Labs-focused Tarkov raid boost gets a pro into the map on your account without you eating keycard after keycard on failed runs.

The Blackout code: how to unlock every door in The Lab

This is the heart of the event and the reason it's the best loot window The Lab has had in years.

Normally, The Lab's high-value rooms are gated behind expensive, single-use keycards that can cost millions of roubles each on the flea. During Blackout, all of those doors are re-keyed to one shared code. Here's the loop:

• Kill Black Division and loot the arsenal key. The Wedge carries the TerraGroup Labs arsenal storage room key (Blackout); his guards and regular Black Division fighters can also drop it.
• Reach the system admin's office. That key (or fighting your way there) gets you into the admin office. Inside is the 4-digit code written on the wall and the controls to activate emergency power and the two extracts.
• Open everything. With power on and the code in hand, every keypad door on the map opens — including the rooms that normally demand keycards worth millions. No keycards required.

Because the code rerolls each raid, treat the admin office as your first objective every run: it hands you the door code and the extraction activation in a single visit. As one player farming the event put it, "there is a code on the wall which gives you access to all the rooms on the map."

The Patch the Vulnerability quest (and the Blackout questline)

Blackout comes with its own event questline handed out by Skier. It opens with Wrench and Waterboarding, which is essentially "get into The Lab." Completing it pays out a serious early kit for a night map:

Reward	Amount
XP	+15,000
Roubles	75,000 (up to 86,250 with Intelligence Center Level 2)
Cyclone Shakhin 3.7x thermal scope	2
Torrey Pines Logic T12W 30Hz thermal reflex sight	2

Skier is deliberately kitting you out with thermal optics because you're heading into pitch darkness against the Black Division. The quest chain then continues into Key to Every Door and the signature Patch the Vulnerability.

The signature quest is Patch the Vulnerability. Its objectives:

• Plant a signal jammer in the system admin's office (the power/janitor room).
• Plant a signal jammer in the garage gate control room.
• Plant a signal jammer in the central security monitoring room.
• Eliminate 10 Black Division along the way, then extract.

Those three rooms are spread across the facility, so plan a loop that threads all three plus your extract into a single 25-minute window. Because you have to kill 10 Black Division anyway, this quest doubles as your arsenal-key farm: every BD body is a chance at the key that opens the whole map. Heads-up — several players report Wrench and Waterboarding (the quest that unlocks this chain) is soft-locked for some accounts in the first days of the event, so check that you can actually accept it from Skier before you commit a Labs run to it.

If you'd rather bank the XP and event rewards without repeatedly getting farmed by The Wedge's squad, a Tarkov quest boost clears the Blackout tasks on your account.

How to survive Black Division (and actually farm Labs)

The Black Division are the real difficulty spike. Player intel from the first days of the event:

• They cluster and block each other. When they stack up in a doorway, dump rounds into the front man — they stun and body-block their own squadmates, so a stacked group is easier than a spread-out one. Hit them at an angle and you get wrecked instead.
• Stay out of the center. The open central areas of The Lab are a death trap in the dark. Hold right-handed peeks in the surrounding halls and let them push into you.
• The basement is quieter. Early reports say the lower level sees fewer Black Division — a usable "rat tunnel" for repositioning and looting between fights.
• Wedge and his guards are cracked; the rest are detuned. The boss and his personal guards are brutal, but the regular roaming BD are noticeably weaker than the Icebreaker version — above Rogue level, but beatable with disciplined peeks.
• Night vision wins. Whoever sees first, wins. Run NVG or thermal, pack a flashlight as backup, and use the looted CS gas grenades to flush corner-campers before you push.

Between the single door code, the free keycard-room access, and 25 tight minutes, a good Labs runner can pull more roubles per raid here than anywhere else in the game right now — as long as you survive the Black Division. If you'd rather cash out than grind, you can top up instantly with Tarkov Roubles and gear up for the event without farming the economy first.

How Blackout connects to Season 1 (Kord Breach)

Blackout isn't a standalone gimmick — it's the on-ramp to Season 1: Kord Breach, Tarkov's first full seasonal model. The Black Division you fight in the dark are a seed for the season's story, and the event is a chance to rack up XP and rare thermal optics before the seasonal character system kicks off. If you're planning your Season 1 run, pair this with our Season 1 priority guide and the Icebreaker loot guide where the Black Division first appeared. Want to power through the level requirements first? See how to level up fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the code to Labs in the Tarkov Blackout event? There is no single fixed code — the 4-digit code rerolls every raid. You read it off the wall in the system admin's office after reaching it (usually by looting the TerraGroup Labs arsenal storage room key from Black Division). That code then opens every keypad door on the map for that raid, so grab it first.

How do I get into The Lab during Blackout? You need a Labs Keycard, a one-time-use item. Find one in raid (drawers, stashes, boss/Scav pockets), barter for it at Mechanic LL3, or craft it with Intel Center Level 2 in your hideout.

Where do I plant the signal jammers for Patch the Vulnerability? Three locations inside The Lab: the system admin's / power room, the garage gate control room, and the central security monitoring room. You also need to eliminate 10 Black Division and extract to finish the quest.

Do I need night vision for Blackout? Yes. The Lab goes fully dark a few minutes in and the lights can't be restored, so NVG or a thermal scope is effectively mandatory. Skier even hands you thermal optics as a quest reward. Carry a flashlight as backup.

How long is a Blackout raid and how do I extract? The raid timer is 25 minutes and there is no transit out. Only Parking Gate and Hangar Gate work, and both must be activated from the system admin's office first — another reason to make that office your opening move.

Is the Blackout event worth farming? For loot, absolutely — one code opens rooms that normally cost millions of roubles in keycards, making it the best Labs loot window in years. The catch is the Black Division, who make it a late-game/endgame event. Come with good gear, night vision, and a plan.