dont skimp on your loadout

ever since the wipe happened, i keep seeing people with the most skimpy loadouts ever. and they always end up dead because their loadout isnt equipped enough to handle the challenges they may face in tarkov. like they only bring in a gun and nothing else. every piece of gear is crucial and they all compound together into a fully functional loadout. if you are missing anything then you will not be complete and you will have a glaring weakness that will get you killed. heres a list of things you should always bring with you

weapons – you should always have a weapon suitable to the sort of mission you are going on. dont bring a double barrel shotgun to a long range map like lighthouse. you need some sort of ranged weapon with a scope to function on that map. dont use 50% durability scav guns. and mod out your gun so you can get higher stats. default guns are really bad

headphones – headphones let you hear people from farther away. most fights in this game are won or lost on hearing. if someone hears you and you dont hear them, they can prepare an ambush on you and you wont suspect a thing. you will just be walking into your death. but if you wear headphones, you can reverse the situation and at least be on even footing

helmets – the best time to use helmets is when everyone is a low level. they can actually block most of the bad ammo people have these days. not only are they good for defense, they are invaluable when it comes to attachments. having night vision goggles on your helmet makes a huge difference when playing at night time or exploring dark areas. i always bring night vision with me and everyone who doesnt have night vision is a free kill. i can see them and they cant see me in the dark. always bring a properly equipped helmet so you can be on even footing

body armor – body armor keeps you alive. if you dont wear body armor you will die so fast to any gun. a shotgun will kill you in 1 shot. a pistol will kill you in 2. wearing body armor is the single most important piece of equipment when it comes to staying alive. and just like helmets, they are great right after a wipe because nobody had good ammo yet. a level 4 armor will make you nearly invincible right now

backpacks – there is no point to play this game without a backpack. you could have amazing gear in every other slot but its all pointless without a backpack. backpacks let you pick up items to bring back to sell. if you cant pick anything up then you might as well just load in and extract which means you might as well just stay in your hideout because you wont make any money running without a backpack. you should always run the biggest backpack you can get because they always pay for themselves. most items in this game sell for at least 10k. so filling a 20 square backpack with items will get you at least 200k from selling the items. a 30 square backpack will give you 300k. and this is compounded by every game you play with the bigger backpack

tactical rig – you should always have a tactical rig because without one, you are limited to pockets for reloads and keybinds. rigs give you more space to work with for that stuff. but they also add more space for picking up items. just like backpacks, always use the biggest you can get because it pays for itself as you fill it up

medical supplies – playing this game without medical supplies is the biggest mistake you can possibly make. if you have no way to heal bleeding, you will die whenever someone shoots and bleeds you. if you have no way to heal fractures, you will die whenever someone fractures you because you cant move. if you have no way to restore body parts, you will die whenever someone breaks your stomach because you will starve to death. make sure you have medical supplies to deal with everything

food supplies – a few patches ago, they changed the metabolism skill so it no longer changes the rate as which your food and water drain. every player drains at the same rate regardless of level. and its impossible to go through a full raid without eating and drinking. you run out of food in about 30 minutes. so always bring some food and drink with you so you can refill halfway through a raid. its also good to bring more then you need in case you get into any stomach trouble

so as you can see, everything you bring into a raid is important. if you skimp out on any one aspect of your loadout, that will be a weakness that will get you killed one every few raids. if you skimp out on everything, you will get killed every raid for a different reason. one raid, you will lose your stomach and starve. the next raid you will have a fracture and wont have time to limp to extract. next raid you will lose a firefight for having a broken gun. the only way you will ever survive with a skimpy loadout is pure luck. and playing this game using luck is not the way to go. if you bring a comprehensive loadout then you can be prepared for everything the game throws as you. you can play 10-20 games without ever dying. and at the end of the day, not dying is the most important part of this game. if you dont die, then you get to keep your loadout for the next game. you get to keep all the items you found and sell them. you dont lose any money and you get alot of profits. its the best way to play