Tarkov Blackout Event Guide: The Lab Quests and Codes

Skier found a hole in TerraGroup's security and, shocker, immediately decided to loot it instead of reporting it. The escape from tarkov blackout event dropped on 14 July 2026 and turned The Lab into a pitch black meat grinder where everyone, PMCs, Black Division, and a boss called The Wedge, wants the same four numbers scribbled on a whiteboard. Bring a flashlight or NVGs, because the lights are off for the entire event and nobody is turning them back on for you.

What Actually Changed

• All lights on The Lab are switched off for the duration of the event, so pack night vision or a torch.
• The Wedge and his Black Division goons now spawn directly on the map and carry Model 8230 CS gas grenades because regular bullets were apparently too polite.
• The Wedge, his followers, and Black Division can carry the TerraGroup Labs arsenal storage room key, the only thing standing between you and the code.
• Only Parking Gate and Hangar Gate extractions work, and both need to be activated in the system admin's office first.
• Transit out of The Lab is dead, transit in still works, so you can enter but the easy way out is gone.
• Raid time is cut to 25 minutes, so stop admiring the scenery.
• A 4-digit code in the system admin's office opens every keypad lock on the map, and it changes every single raid.
• The TerraGroup Labs access keycard is buyable from Therapist LL3 and Ref LL3, or barterable from Mechanic LL2 for a Bulbex cable cutter and a Pipe grip wrench.

Getting Into The Lab

Before any of this matters you need a the lab labs keycard, and most of them come from plain RNG loot spawns across every map. Two routes skip the gamble: barter with Mechanic at LL3, or craft one at the Intelligence Center once it is levelled. Entry itself runs through Factory, via the sewer tunnel under the flooded area to the green exit sign door, or through Streets of Tarkov, via the basement next to the Klimova building with the cosmonaut mural. Both routes burn the keycard on use, so stock up before you commit to a run.

The code on the whiteboard is not universal, it is rolled per raid, so memorizing "5619" from some forum post will get you nowhere. Read the board every time or stay locked out.

Get your bearings before you get shot. Hangar sits on the south side, glass offices sit north, red is east, green is west. Green room sits directly above black room, red and violet are neighbors, and yellow hangs just off the red side near a staircase. The Wedge and his guards always carry the code, Black Division rank and file only sometimes do, so kill priority matters if you are farming the key.

Each corner of the map hides a staircase down into a basement level connecting everything underground. Top floor pushes are riskier since AI in the basement can spot you from below while you cross open platforms above. Routing through the basement corridors instead of across the top is slower but noticeably safer, since the narrow hallways only expose you to one direction at a time.

The Five Blackout Quests

The chain kicks off with Wrench and Waterboarding and runs through four more jobs before you unlock the going dark achievement. Skier hands out most of these because apparently interrogating a random civilian technician counts as a solid business plan.

Wrench and Waterboarding

Skier's opening pitch boils down to walk into the scariest map in the game and tell me what you see. The objective is simply to visit The Lab, but getting there and back alive is the actual test. He wants confirmation that emergency power got switched on, which conveniently is also the entire premise of the event.

Key to Every Door

This is the emergency access code the lab quest, and it is the backbone of the whole event. You need to locate the code in the system admin's office and then confirm it works on any keycard keypad. The code sits on a whiteboard inside that office, and the office itself is locked behind the TerraGroup Labs arsenal storage room key. No key, no code, no shortcuts.

My Blood Type Mark is on the Sleeve

Sanitar wants blood, literally, for a my blood type mark is on the sleeve favor involving his usual shady research obsession. You need one TG-y sample from the glass glove box in the Laboratory experiment area behind the Black Keycard door, one more TG-y sample from one of three spots in the second floor Laboratory block behind the Green Keycard door, and Sanitar's lab journal from the room facing that same block. All three items are quest-locked handover items, meaning you lose them for good if you fail to extract.

Patch the Vulnerability

Someone finally admits the emergency code is a disaster and wants it patched, which is rich given they are the ones exploiting it through you. Plant a Local network hacking device in the system admin's office at the server racks, one in the Vestibules room behind the Yellow Keycard door, and one in the Security room behind the Violet Keycard door. Then kill 10 Black Division operatives, though the ones on Icebreaker and Wedge's personal guards do not count toward that total. The server room itself is explicitly a dead end, do not waste raids planting anything there.

If I Can't Have It

The final job is a straightforward massacre order, eliminate 15 PMC operatives on The Lab, dressed up as concern for public safety. Complete it and the going dark achievement unlocks along with a very generous machine gun bundle, which is the game's way of thanking you for doing its dirty work.

Loadout and Survival Notes

The Wedge fights dirty, favoring 7.62x51 rifles like the SA-58 and MDR loaded with M62 and M993 rounds, sometimes swapping in an MP7A1 for close quarters, and his whole crew throws CS gas without hesitation. Bring gas protection or plan your fights around open air. Because insurance does not apply on The Lab, dying here means losing your gear permanently, event or not. Treat every raid like the last one you can afford to lose.

The Wedge himself is oddly the weaker half of his own crew, running an MP7A1 with AP-SX ammo that hits but does not hit hard, while his personal guards carry far better ammo and near flawless aim. Skipping his guards entirely and looping around them is often smarter than trading shots, since you do not need to kill them for any objective. Once the AI locks eyes on you and calls it out, back off the peek immediately, the first shot is the only one you are guaranteed to win.

Opening the gates to activate an extraction triggers a loud alarm across the map, so hit that panel only once you are actually ready to run for it, not a second earlier. Red keycard rooms lean toward ammo stockpiles, yellow and violet lean toward rare item spawns, and the double black keycard room needs two black keycards just to open, so budget your key slots accordingly.

Once you finish your first successful visit to The Lab during the how to get into the lab tarkov process, the map unlocks for direct queue access from then on, no more transit tunnels required, just a keycard at the door like the old days.

Quick Reality Check

None of this is charity work. Skier gets his loot, Sanitar gets his samples, some faceless handler gets a patched vulnerability, and you get shot at by three separate factions for the privilege of carrying their errands. The patch the vulnerability quest and if i can't have it quest both hinge on kill counts, so squad up if soloing 25 PMCs across two quests sounds like a bad night. It usually is.