I frequentluy see on this subreddit (and on Aqua's stream…) a lot of people expression frustration with Tarkov Shooter Part 8 and really this entire quest line. As someone that has completed this quest line relatively quickly every single wipe (I'm standard account so I need that extra Rep) I have always found it a little odd that this quest is considered such a hurdle for players. So I thought i'd write up a short guide, and im happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Tarkov Shooter Part 8

Objective:

• Kill 3 PMC operatives with a bolt-action rifle in a single raid on Woods

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To me, Part 8 has always represented a bit of a 'capstone exercise', youre meant to be taking all the things youve (hopefully) learnt over the quest line/Jaegers pre-requist quess put it into action in a singluar raid…. But what are the things you're meant to have learnt? To break it down simply, these are:

• How to Play Woods
• How to use a Bolt-Action (agurably one of the worst weapon classes in Tarkov),

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How to play Woods

Woods is an interesting and contentious map. It can feel both incredibly open, but also quite clustrophic as youre frequently in dense forest areas listening for any noise, worried that the trees are alive and someone is about to put M61 into your dome. It is a map of few direct sight-lines and naturally is absolutely littered with soft-cover.

Due to these attributes, personally, i've always felt that maps is a very good map for teaching a beginner incredibly important lessons in Tarkov. It's a map that empahsises the importance of sound, how you traverse through areas (not smacking every single tree) and most importantly the absolutle neccessity of controlling or retaking the 'violence of action' during an engagement – when to engage, disengage and how to move and flank. These are skills that are essential on essentially all maps, but they are the easiest to pull off on Woods due to the sheer prevlance of soft cover – you lose people very easily in the trees – and people are frequently running DMRs or Bolt Actions, so your chances of simply being sprayed down by a meta-m4/mutant are far less likely.

In general, on Woods, fightfights are either over in an instant due to a headshot from a 1hk sniper round, or can be quite long due to the low rate of fire and magazine capacity of the weapons (often) prevelant on the map and their reliance on accurarcy.

As for people's movments, naturally everyone is attracted to Lumberyard and the new USEC camps sometimes. But primarily, around the lumbyard in 3 different areas (I would provide an embedded map below but this subreddit doesnt allow it…)

1. The rocky areas direction North of Lumberyard (Dickhead rock and beyond)
2. The treeline that overlooks Lumberyard on the East
   1. Side note – probably one of the most sketchy areas, as you can be seen from sniper rock, the other sniper rock 'spine' near Jaegers hut and across the Lumberyard. Its also a very popular spot for people hunting Sturhman.
3. The small, dense forest to the West of Lumberyard.

I see people frequently say running into PMC's for this quest is RNG, and I really dont think it is, you just need to be in the common areas. In these 3 different zones will be where you will find your 3 PMCs to engage. Often many more than 3. As people are often here to rotate through or engage/overlook lumberyard. Forget the rest of the map for this quest as its simply too much land to effectively cover. You want to maximise your potential to find players. Personally, I think the number 1 area is the best, as I like to keep an eye on the sniper rock to see if someone is up there going for their SBIH quest and it also provides a good oversight of area number 2. Youre also close enough to quickly engage anyone in area number 3 as required. But, if youre just trying to smash this out, i'd imagine that number 3 absolutely will see the most action due to how many spawns have Outskirts as the extract location. However its the most close quarters of the bunch, which comes with its own risk. As you may notice from the areas suggested, youre not going to be doing a lot of long-distance sniping, it's going to sit around the 50-100m mark.

Final point, but unlike other maps, i notice that people tend to stay in raid for quite a long time in Woods. You can easily find people in and aroud Lumberyard up until that 10-15min mark. So dont think that all hope is lost after the first 10min. The size of the map and the various little quests and 30+ stashes means that people take their time to move about.

How to use a Bolt-Action

Bolt-actions suck in Tarkov. Between shotguns and pistols they are some of the worst guns in the game simply due to their slow rate of fire, low magainze capacity and inability to really engage with the spray-focused 'meta' of tarkov. A DMR does everything it does but better, and any assault rifle can frequently challenge a bolt-action well enough at distance. I think a lot of Tarkov Shooter is teaching you this, and teaching you how to play.

• For example, Part 3 emphasises the importance not only of distance, but how to play around this disadvantage – quickly peeking to fire and running the fuck away/changing up angles etc (as discussed above). Any of the older PC gamers here should remember their time playing Counter Strike and the gamemode 'Scoutknives'. Speed is your friend.

So, when using one, it's best to give yourself the greatest advantage possible. Both in playstyle, but also in the gun itself. For that I am going to suggest something potentially contentious – do not use the fucking mosin. It is awful and representative of the worst aspects of bolt-actions in the game. I get that its a cool historic gun and that it used to have its own meta, but its garbage. The gun has terrible ergonomics, a low magazine capacity, the frequently used 3.5x scope is bad compared to a basic Valday/Burris due to it's one magnification limitation and (in my expereince) also seems to provide a weird performance loss. What this often means in gameplay is that you bring your scope up too slow to properly engage in close-medium combat, the scope isnt well suited to long distance shooting either (both due to the shit sight and the faster arm-strength stamina drain) and youre going to spend a lot more time reloading in tense situations than youd like to.

Use the SV-98, DVL or the M700. They are just fundamentally better guns. Personnaly, i'm a fan of the SV-98 as its cost effective and is less likely to be looted than the other two. Unfortuantely it just received a price increase, but at around 44K it's still miles better. You get a rifle with almost 3 times the ergo of a mosin, immedaite access to any optic in the game, cheap and solid capacity magazines and relatively cheap access to a suppressor. Its velocity is a little slower than the mosin, but its almost unnoticeable. It is also incredibly long and people seem to not loot it in the event you die.

Putting this all together for Part 8

Kit:

• As mentioned, given the preference for PS/SNB or M61/M62 on Woods, armour is really not that useful. Almost everything is going to be penned instantly. Personally, I dress very light. Aside from saving money if/when you die, this also means you get none of those turning/ergo penalities that come with armour and due to being light you can spring faster and longer.
• Headphones are a must, with a beanie/mask (your white face is very shiny), a scav vest and that is it. Dont wear sunglasses, theyre still bugged and can be spotted floating around. For this quest you want to prioritise speed and a low profile. Bring some snacks/water too.
• An SV-98, supressed, one additonal magazine with some extra bullets in your ass. Your scope of choice, I reccommend of the many 1x / x4 optics. Valday is my favourite, Elcan is also always a good choice (though its CQB sights are terrible). Craft some SNB in your hideout, one 39K Red Gunpowered will give you 80rounds. Otherwise, PS (formely 7N1) will work almost just as well, with the added bonus of being able to 1 shot anyone in the thorax up to a <85% level 4 armour.

Playstyle:

Hang around one of the three areas. You can roam, camp up for a little bit (I wouldnt recommend staying anywhere for too long though) and feel free to loot some of the stashes for anything juicy. People will come. Keep watch to see if Shturman is around, he is a threat, but more important he is a huge beacon for players. Those SVD bursts are a gift to your ears.

When you find an opponent, take a shot and immediately re-positon. Given the amount of soft cover and the complete lack of 'hard lanes' on the map you can easily, quickly and safely pull off long flanks and be behind an enemy that you just engaged from the front, who is likely still looking for you in the complete wrong direction. Even if you secure the kill with that first shot, this is a great strategy as a means to prepare yourself for any duo, trio, quad squad that you werent aware of and also prevents you being shot in the ass by a third-party who heard your shots. Rinse and repeat.

Similarly, for the purpose of this quest, dont loot your kill, its wasted time and added risk. Instead use them as bait, and during your roaming, rotate back to check if you catch anyone looting it. Free headshot. This consistent, quick movement is incredibly important and will often ensure youre not caught in a bad position. Similarly, if you are engaged, dont look for the player, immedaitely do the above. Run, serpantine and attempt a flank. Youre chances to fire back at someone in this map are often low due to the sheer amount of angles and distances possible.

Keep doing the above and I gurantee you'll succeed. Personally, it hasnt taken me more than 3 raids each wipe to complete Part 8.

Hope this helps someone!