4Game

This post is for the new players, and anybody else that might be struggling. As somebody that’s played FPS games for +20 years — For me, struggle is such a huge part of the game. And I can promise: all those deaths, lost loot, rage quits because of the aforementioned, anxiety, frustration, and overall amount of time spent overcoming these obstacles.. is easily the most rewarding experience I’ve ever felt from a video game ever.

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately related to things that involve how hardcore the gameplay is. It’s not meant solely to punish you.. but you may find yourself being punished for mistaking this games level of difficult. And this game is by no means impossible to master. Your questions, concerns, and frustrations are completely, 100% normal.

Upon first sight, the game seems like your average FPS. But then after playing, you’ll quickly come to realize how far from average this game most certainly is.

You may have seen a really good streamer absolutely roll people in this game. But they didn’t do it overnight; they’ve invested hundreds and thousands upon thousands of hours into this game. But that being said, you don’t have to invest that much time to get a grip on things.

The beginning is brutal, getting on your feet is the most frustrating part. The game is molding you, it’s setting new challenges for you to overcome. The reward for accomplishing these challenges is immense, but only so in terms of EFT logic.

You’re never going to get handed anything in this game; you’re going to fight, die, die, and die a lot more. Here’s some tips that helped me a lot throughout the last wipe:

•

As soon as you can start appreciating the smallest things from this game, the more you will thrive. (Example: You just started playing, and were able to identify that a guy was in a building. You go in, and die to him. You lost everything. But you now have the small gain having confidence of more then likely, now knowing where somebody is. You didn’t lose gear — you gained an IRL skill level, and you should be proud of that.)

•

Continuation of the first tip: Money, items, guns, armor… as soon as you get it, just never consider it to be truly yours. You’re going to lose it at some point. Just like the decked out Chad that head-eyes you with a fully kitted M4 is going to lose all that gear too.

Knowledge, and retaining it is by far the biggest asset in this game. Everything else.. it’s for the birds my friend..

•

Studying is a thing in this game. You’ll be putting vast amounts of time into learning every fine little detail this game has to offer, which is a literal ton of information. Which is why this section is one in its own:

•••

Learn the maps: This is by far, the utmost important tip I can possibly give in terms of direct gameplay. There is an offline mode that lets you explore every map without fear of losing (or gaining) anything at all. Even just 15-20 minutes of exploring a map in offline mode will benefit you 10 fold. There’s tons and tons of crevices, shortcuts, and routes in this game; some of them, only visible after you’ve really paid attention (or saw a streamer use) and that’s how this game is. You’ll be rewarded for your time and effort in every way.

Learn the purpose for different ammo/armor types: You’ll quickly come to find this game is not entirely about what gun you have, but the ammo you’re using.

There is multiple statistics put into each and every different type of ammo in this game. Having knowledge of it will help greatly in getting the most bang for your literal buck/rouble/euro.. (fml). Download Battle Buddy app. For your phone, and you’ll be shown the stats quickly on the spot, as the game does not currently detail the many aspects involved in each different kind. I highly recommend looking up a video just detailing ammo — because knowing how ammo works, will show you how to use it most effectively, and from there you’ll be forming your play style in firefights.

Then there’s armor. Armor below level 5, becomes more and more useless as the wipe progresses. As soon as a majority of the games population begins to use armor penetrating rounds, it’s going to render most armor useless besides 5/6 armors.. and even level 5 armor can get busted up good. Also, look up a video on armors as well.. as knowing what you have on in accordance with the material it’s made out of will also greatly influence your movement patterns, and combat decisions.

Before I move into the next subject, I want to reassure everybody that by doing quests, you’ll later be able to get level 5 armor from prapor for very cheap. Moving forward.

•

Do the quests to level your traders; invest in your hideout: Traders will, in the long run, give you massive discounts on more and better items the more you progress through the quest lines. You’ll be saving tens of millions in the long run.

The hideout is not entirely meant to gain money from, in fact, a very small portion of it ever really makes you much money by just collecting from it. For a part, it can give an opportunity to make money from it by giving the option to funnel your resources towards creating a different item by combining multiple items together which can garnish a larger profit overall.

For another part, it will also eventually begin to give bonuses to your regenerations (health, hydration, energy), and garner overall PMC experience, and exp. towards skills later on.

•

Don’t sprint everywhere: This was a huge tip for me starting out. Sprinting is.. loud. And the most common way people are going to find you in this game is through audio.

When you do sprint, try to hit grass. It’s the least noisy of any of the surfaces; avoid concrete, metal, and wood like the plague — it’s the noisiest and people/NPC’s can be alerted from a very large distance from it.

But sometimes, you really do have to sprint across those loud surfaces.. just try and judge as best you can!

•

There is more ways to play then simply going in decked to the teeth every round: Quite simply put — get good with a pistol only. There’s a quest early on from Skier for this, you’ll know what I’m talking about soon enough…

It’s cost efficient, and I’ve laid out fully decked PMC’s rocking M4’s with well laid out pistol shots before. It’s much more difficult to do so, but the reward vs. risk is in itself very worth it.

•

Money is the biggest issue until you unlock the flea market at level 10: I put this one here for reassurance. With the flea market open, even going broke later levels can still get you where you need to be over the course of 1 single good raid with the support offered through the flea.

Also.. memorize the spawn places for rare and expensive items!

•

If you don’t know the maps well yet, always have a map pulled up on a seperate screen. Whether it be a separate monitor or your phone (I used my phone) the maps being pulled up will be able to assist greatly in quests, finding extracts, and so much more.

Just Google it! There’s tons of different map types for each map btw.

•

Always utilize your secure containers: Whatever item you find most precious, yet still use on the field — stash it away in that container and be in situations that require you do make a move quickly.. the downside for those instances, you can’t create a hot key for these items. So be quick!

Personally, I never put grenades in secures. But as an example: I put expensive ammo in there, keys, and just anything that is more support related that I don’t have to pull out on the fly for it to be effective. Remember to put the most valued things in there overall!

•

Biggest tips include: Learn the maps, have a map pulled onto a separate screen, learn how to move correctly in accordance with audio, learn the item spawns, and utilize that secure container!!!

Remember: this game is never going to hold your hand entirely. You’ll be rewarded little by little the more you play, finish quests, advance your hideout, and learn the maps. Until all those little advancements build into a big help to you overtime.

YouTube has tons of videos to aid/answer your questions, quests, and sooo much more.

Lastly, skill leveling in this game will also give you massive benefits overtime — but they can be very hard to acquire.. but again, this is Tarkov.. the risk is always worth the reward!

•

Hope this helps. Feel free to task any questions! Merry XMas to all!