As patch 0.13 of Escape from Tarkov gets longer in the tooth, BattleState Games is spicing up the game with limited-time events. The current one, Failed Setup, sees you hunting the Cultists across the game. These shifty fanatics are armed to the teeth and, thanks to the environments they prowl in, can be some of the most dangerous NPC enemies in the game. And you have to kill a lot of them, all with an additional stipulation making the task all the harder. Here’s how the Failed Setup cultist hunting event works in Escape from Tarkov, fully explained, and how to complete it.
How to Complete Failed Setup Task in Escape from Tarkov with Hunting Cultists
During the cultist hunting event, you have a task from Mechanic called Failed Setup, which asks you to kill 30 Cultists on any map where they spawn: Customs, Woods, Shoreline, and Night Factory. They’ll have a 100% spawn rate (only at night), and you can complete the task once you kill enough of them.
There’s just one catch: You can’t kill a single Scav anywhere. Killing even one will reset the kill counter back to zero, no matter how full it was. Scavs will, of course, still attack you, and they’re no less aimbot than they’ve been all wipe.
Your goal, then, is to find a Cultist farm that’s relatively consistent and free enough of regular Scav traffic that you can get in and out. There’s no penalty for dying on the quest — so long as you only kill Cultists, whether Guards or the Priest — you’ll get credit.
If you’re a newer player to Escape from Tarkov and want to take part, you should know that Cultists only spawn between 22:00 and 07:00 on the in-game clock. That means nighttime raids only and only during this relatively short window.
Cultist Spawn Points in Escape from Tarkov
Cultists also have set spawn points on maps where they appear. Factory is the most chaotic by far and probably the worst map to try this task on. While there is technically a set spawn for the Cultists there, because the map is so small and its combat so chaotic, the risk of killing a Scav and deleting your progress is high.
Cultists on Customs spawn near the repair shop, directly south of the Crack House and near Warehouse 17. Players will often use the repair shop as a staging area for Cultist farming, as it and its surroundings provide plenty of cover and escape routes should things go south.
Cultists on Woods spawn near the Ritual Site west of the Sawmill and near the Checkpoint on the road near the woods. They also appear in the Abandoned Village. Note that the Cultists will only spawn at one of these three locations, so if you get an unfavorable spawn, you’re unlikely to find them if other players are on the map hunting.
Cultists on Shoreline spawn among the rocks east of the Path to Lighthouse extraction and northwest of the Gas Station near the Pier. As with Woods, they will only spawn at one of these locations per raid.
In short, if you want to help guarantee you always know where the Cultists are, you will want to farm Customs as much as you can. You will not, unfortunately, be the only one with this idea, so expect PvP as well. And if you take more than a few minutes to get to the area around the repair shop, expect someone to already be in or near it.
That is everything you need to know about the Escape from Tarkov Failed Setup cultist hunting event and how to complete it.
