I posted here a bit ago asking for some tips and pointers from advanced players or at least players who have played a bit of tarkov.
Some were kind enough to actually give me some decent advice, others told me to refund the game and to not playing because otherwise I would have been steamrolled by more experienced players (Shame on you guys by the way.) If this is your first wipe, I'd suggest picking this game back up as now it's a little bit died down with the wipe, not as many people are playing tarkov, but next patch, the factory is going to have a field trip.
I've spent almost 16 hours collectively playing the game, and here are some things that I can tell you right at the moment. First things first. DO NOT go directly into tarkov as your PMC character. It can be extremely tempting to go in and immediately start progressing through the game. The reason why I say that this is a bad idea is that Tarkov is an extremely punishing and very grueling game. Going into a full-on raid blind is going to lead to disastrous outcomes.
First things first, you need to familiarize yourself with a couple of things before you start a raid. Start off by familiarizing yourself with a couple of different resources. If you read the Tarkov Wiki mostly everything you need to know is there. There are a few pages that you HAVE TO READ if you're new. The first thing is the Familiarize yourself with the different debuffs (different bleeding status, fractures, contusions, etc). It's very important when you do get into a raid that you understand the health system in the game. It is very complex and takes relatively the quickest to familiarize yourself with. You also want to start learning the ammo system and armor system now, just a quick reminder
You can have the worst gun in the game, but with good ammo, and beat someone that has a better gun, but with bad ammo. No joke. Prioritize ammo over guns. Familiarize yourself with an ammo chart . You'll hear the phrase "Leg-meta" a lot. This means that you run ammo with an extremely high damage rating (like RIP rounds), but not a good penetration rate. Instead of shooting somebody's head or chest, where they're most armored, shoot for the legs that currently do not have armor covering them. Generally speaking, prioritize ammo that has a good armor effectiveness rating, as this is your most efficient way to take someone out. Here are a couple of rounds to keep in mind
7.62x54R (7n37 or SNB rounds. 7N1 also is a great round but not as much pen)
7.62×51 (M993, or M61 rounds)
5.56×45 (M995, M855A1)
9×19( 7n31,AP 6.3,)
9X18 (PBM, PMM)
12Gauge SHOT (Fletchette, 8.5mm buckshot)
12Gague SLUG (AP-20, .50-12c, Poleva-6u)
Generally speaking armor-wise, you have two types of armors. Armored rigs, or armor vests. (Armored rigs also give you the storage, while armored vests you can wear another tactical rig on top of it) If you wear an armor rig, you cannot equip an armored vest. You want to keep in mind, the level of armor, they're ranked from 1-6 with 6 giving you the best cover to rounds. (Generally, people run around with level 3-5 armor). Armors are also made with different materials, which affect how well an armor can be repaired with the worst being ceramic and glass. Titan, aluminum, and aramid armors are best repaired. Keep in mind also, that armors do slow your character down, so you can be a tank, but you'll be a very slow tank!
Once you've familiarized yourself with the stims, armor, ammo, and healing items, get a loadout with a weapon of your choice (I recommend SMG's because they're the easiest to control atm), extra mags, extra rounds in your container, and your preferred healing items (I take a painkiller, Aluminum splints, ifaks, and salewa), and get yourself into an OFFLINE raid with no ai yet.
The reason why you want to load yourself into an Offline raid without any ai is that you want to familiarize yourself with the maps. DO NOT go into a raid without learning a map, otherwise, you will regret it. One of the hardest things to learn in tarkov (at least for me) is orienteering once you spawn in. I would recommend if you have a second monitor to pull up a website with maps on it (my preferred is ) to help aid you in your orienteering. Either that or you pull up a video from one of the various content creators' maps guides, (I watched pestily's) and run through the map with them pulled up on a separate monitor or a phone. Once you go through it once with aid, I would highly suggest you do a solo run-through without any help and guides. This will get you a lay of the land and once you get into a raid you will know exactly where you are, and where you want to go. SPECIFICALLY, pay attention to the extracts. If you know where the extracts are, you are doing yourself one hell of a favor!
The specific map rotation that I feel is most beneficial to learn first to last is Customs> Interchange > Woods > Reserve > Shoreline> Factory > Labs. Customs is where the bulk of your first quests are going to take place. Interchange is probably the best map for making money since there are multiple types of runs you can do (hidden caches, running through the different areas for loot, killing scavs/Killa). Woods again because there are a lot of good loot areas, and you have a decent amount of questing done there early game. Reserve is another great money-making map, although can be a bit more chaotic at times. Shoreline is really open, but it's still a good map for a hidden cache run. Factory is the smallest map, so you can learn it very quickly in comparison to some of the other maps, then the Labs because you cannot actually load into an offline raid with the labs, so you will have to map it as you go along in the actual game.
Got a good feel of the maps? Good! Next load up those maps with AI, this will simulate a typical game. Familiarize yourself with some of the more common Scav spawns. Scavs, when they catch you off guard (especially the boss guards), can actually be pretty devastating when you're starting out. Run through the maps with AI's and you can quickly get attuned to not only where the scavs will spawn, but this will also condition you to look for different types of players, and when you do go for a kill this will also condition you for gun fights. This is extremely useful when you do get into an actual raid, so that you won't die the first thing you see a scav. I would recommend you start off the offline raid with easy bots, but with a large amount, then go into "as online" difficulty with "as online" bot amounts. Then if some of the maps will allow them go to "as online" difficulty and bot amounts but now enable bosses. Scav bosses and their guards are more difficult to kill, and they can be bullet sponges at times. This can also give you guys alot of gunplay experience, healing experience, and all around a great resource to learn. Then if you feel like you got a good sense of where to look for players, what to look for, and how to fight them, now it's time for you to get into an actual raid to get some progress!
(Keep in mind, while you did not progress through your character, you did progress as a player. Knowledge will win 99% of your fights. If you run through this very slow beginning, you will be able to honestly steamroll through once you do get the flea market at level 10!)
Reminder, as a scav, any sort of exp will not actually translate to your character. THE ONLY THING that you keep as a scav, is the loot at the end of a raid. You do not have any sort of exp that goes towards your levels. so do keep that in mind. Also, DO NOT go through a raid so quickly. You want to be in a raid for at least 7-10 minutes in order to gain enough exp (I believe it's 200exp?) in order to avoid a "run-through" status. Run-through will not count towards successful raids, and anything that you looted in your run-through raid, will not have a "found in raid" status. VERY IMPORTANT. Most quest items require the found-in-raid status!
I'd recommend you using scavs as a way to learn how a real game is played. Go through the map, learn where a lot of the items spawn (for example, there tends to be a lot of motors that spawn at the back of Oli), and familiarize yourself with the extracts. (Note. Scav extracts and PMC extracts can be very different). Scavs as well can be used to go through the map without having to worry too much about enemies shooting you every which way, and this is a great resource for you to get decent items and top off your cash flow. (I got two graphics cards on interchange with a scav run. Almost netting me a 2 million scav run alone. It's EXTREMELY valuable stuff, guys!). Also helps if you need a quest item and you don't want to risk your PMC.
PMC's are going to be your main character, It's the character that you've been learning all the maps on! Once you exit a raid with a PMC, your exp, loot, and everything will be yours! It is the FULL tarkov experience when you play as a PMC. Just keep in mind, that once you die in a raid as a PMC you lose everything that you have (DON'T LET GEAR FEAR TAKE OVER YOU!!!!). Realize, that in Tarkov it is an inevitability that you will die. Don't let that intimidate you. You will die, you will lose everything, but then you will get that stuff back. It's not the end of the world. Use your best gear first, otherwise, you're going to have a miserable time when all you're left with is a pistol, paca, and 3000 roubles left in your stash.
Anyways, that is honestly the best advice I can give towards a new player coming from a new player himself (<20 hours). Good luck out there lads!
