Who are Killa and Tagilla? - Escape from Tarkov Boss Lore and History Part 2

In this video on Escape from Tarkov Boss lore and history, we look at the two fearsome brothers, Killa and Tagilla, and what little information there is in-game about them.

Some fighters call themselves brothers in arms. The bonding experience of being in combat together binds those who go through it. Tarkov is no exception. But what if you were also blood brothers too? Fighting side by side for not only your group, but for your family as well. If that road meant going to some very dark places, would you do it? For family? This is what little information there is about the two most fearsome brothers in Tarkov.

The shops of the ultra shopping complex have long since been looted. Most of the unlocked rooms were torn into long ago, with clothes, food and electronics all being spirited away. By the time the PMC factions had made it to the mall, there was barely anything worth scavenging. As they checked around for anything still left behind, they found what looked like a keycard reader next to one of the doors. As they were trying to work out how to open it, they hear a metal clink on the floor behind them. Before they have time to react, a blinding flash illuminates their vicinity. A loud burst of fully automatic gunfire rings out across the area, and then silence. This is just one of many such stories of encounters with the scav boss they call Killa.
Killa, a lone fighter and a fashion freak. He is a former athlete, was brought up by the street, recognizes only his own rules, prefers action to conversation.
This guy has good equipment, wearing heavy armor and hand-customized helmet. He is a very dangerous enemy.”

There is next to no information about Killa's background. Literally the only reference we can find to him in the game is from the quest huntsman path - sellout, which describes him as such:
" I heard that there was that one person - a former athlete, he's already been racketing before the war, and now as he has felt more power than ever, he's killing everyone indiscriminately. People call him Killa, and his helmet... you won’t miss it." There is some text in the desciption for the Stylish one quest, but ragman just calls him a stylish asshole.
The only other scrap of information about Killa can be found in a strange place. Behind the urinals in the toilets of the burger bar, there's a keycard reader. If you happen to have found either a 21ws or 11sr keycard, you can open either a shipping container full of weapons or a safe room, filled with valuables that also acts as an extract. This room is obviously meant to be Killa's saferoom, where he stores the best of the loot he's found and where he chooses to sleep. It's interesting that the cards used to access this room are old Terragroup access cards. Could the mall once have been used by the company, hiding behind Emercom once it became a major evacuation hub in the area?

Beyond this, there was no other information about Killa in the public domain. This was until the advent of patch 12.11, which brought Killa's brother Tagilla to Tarkov. He dwells in the factory zone and his name in Russian is Nachal'nik Zavoda, which roughly translates to Plant Manager. Jaeger again provides us with some more background on this fearsome beast:
"Good health to you, hunter. The old chemical plant has a new menace to it. There's this new psycho, Scavs call him Tagilla. And from what I've heard of him, I actually know him from back when I worked there. He worked in that factory, always tried to follow his brother's steps, wanted to surpass him in everything. They say he even borrowed the helmet idea from his brother. Ordered some experts to make his mask bulletproof. And apparently, the bullets really knocked his brains off, because now he's running around the factory with a sledgehammer, sending everyone to the heavens indiscriminately."
So we can see from this quest that Tagilla wants to follow in his brother's footsteps, which could mean that Killa also at one time worked at the factory too. In any case, if he was the plant manager of Chemical plant no.16, he would have been working there when it was under the control of Terragroup, so he must have some knowledge about the shady dealings and experiments of the company. Looking at his stature and behaviour, would it be any surprise if Terragroup were experimenting on him too?

Regardless of their circumstances, both bosses are fearsome enemies that will absolutely destroy unprepared PMCs. If they were both in the employ of Terragroup, or at least around when the crisis kicked off, it could explain their bloodthirsty disposition of killing PMCs and Scavs on sight. Were they both driven to madness by a crazy company's experiments and are out for revenge? Again, with so little information to go on, only time will tell what their backstory has to say.

#escapefromtarkov #tagilla #lore