Your first order of business should be getting the Scav Junkbox from Therapist. In fact: don't touch your PMC before you do. And here is a quick rundown as to why:
- The scav junkbox is a must have, sooner rather than later. A lot of the loot you aquire won't have value until you either hit the flea market, reach a certain quest or reach a certain hideout stage, so if you don't want them to go to waste, your stash will be filled to the brim in no time. A scav junkbox helps out massively.
- The scav junkbox is now easier to attain then ever before. It is available at level 1 therapist and it costs just a bit more than a million roubles, when it cost around double that before.
- Flea Market being locked behind level 20 means that you won't hit flea market before your stash is full. Before, you could get to flea market without filling your stash completely and then make room by selling off stuff. Now that is basically impossible (unless you want to loose out big time)
And here is why you shouldn't use your PMC to get there:
- Your early wipe perfomance (especially if you are only joining now) will be incredibly inconsistent. You won't have the gear and ammo you want to run and you are a lot more prone to dying stupidly, because of that. Even AI scavs are a serious danger, when the armor you are wearing won't stop a PS round from one tapping you in the thorax.
- Most of the reliable ways to make consistent money as a PMC are not accessible yet, even more so than before: You have no access to flea market to make consistent income from high value items and even selling guns nets you less money, now that durability has become so significant and anyone other than Fence won't buy guns below 60 base durability (btw, if you have guns under 60 durability, strip all of the parts before selling to Fence)
- With scav karma, being a scav is generally a lot safer now (though there are more and more exceptions. Pls tweak BSG) so your survival rate will be a lot higher.
- Aside from quests, there really isn't much difference early wipe between playing as a PMC or a scav. In both cases, you will have to rely on mediocore gear and in both cases, you will probably spend a lot of time collecting a bunch of garbage. As a PMC you have risk involved though and everyone is hostile towards you.
- With the 500k you start with, it should only take you a few quick scav runs to get the money for a scav junkbox. Even if you don't have much time, at most you'll delay your PMC progression by 2 days.
Given all this, your best bet for a good start in this wipe (and probably future ones too, if things stay similar) is to spend the first day of wipe scaving in on factory. You'll join with around 10 minutes left usually, meaning most PMCs are either dead or gone by then, the map is small so you can loot up everything quickly (check the drawers for Gas analyzers and flash drives and check typical PMC spawns like Forklift for dead PMCs) and if you have a quest item you need found in raid (in most cases) enough time has already passed for you to get a survived rating even if you exit right after spawning in. Happy junk collecting and say no to scav on scav violence
