So, I have never posted in this subreddit, just lurked since I've been playing since release. I have recently gotten some friends to re try tarkov, telling them there has been a lot of optimization and fps increases since release, and that this patch is sooooo much fun.
My first tips are for the newest people, people just getting into the game:
–DONT GET FRUSTRATED EARLY. YOURE GOING TO FAIL A LOT WHEN YOU START. STICK WITH IT: ive been killed by so many players that I can tell have played less than me, but are cool, and calm while raiding.
-Don't listen to everyone here. Most people who play and comment on this sub are very polarized as to how they want this game to be played. Pick your own playstyle, DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU.
-The wiki is your friend. Look at the loot tables, look at what is best to loot for what items. Get familiar with how to make money. The wiki lays out every task to tell you exactly what to do. Use your phone, have it out, and follow for your first times doing the quests.
-This patch, most people are saying to sell everything you find on the flea if you started the wipe early, yeah it is profitable, but these items can be a grind. And, if you are newer, you have nothing to really spend the money on outside of the flea market.
I woul add to this, that you should take everything you find in raid out once, just to see what it sells for to traders, and what it sells for to the flea market. This gets you an idea of what items you should be picking up over other items.
-Get familiar with FACTORY first. Learn the extracts, learn everything about it. Explore about in OFLINE RAIDS (For learning the maps, offline is your best freaking tool). I say this because, it is so easy to pick up a scav run in factory, make your way safely towards your exit, and when you are near, loot what is around and get out. This is your easiest money-maker, and you will not know a lot of the scav extracts on other maps. PMCs and Scavs can always use gate 3. Find it, learn it, love it.
-Building guns can be daunting, so I broke it down into kits for my friend, as to what you should bring in:
Levels 0-10 (Early wipe, you should use gear you get from scavs) It is simply not worth the money building up big kits. Focus on XP (surviving a raid and challenges) and get your traders up). PS…Throughout these levels, I didn't even bother healing out of raid. I wasn't wearing armor, so, if someone had the jump on me, I was done anyway. It saved me 10k per raid.
Levels 10-25 (You are going to be broke. There is so much to do this patch and so many things to buy, and this should be when you are getting deeper into your traders. Pistol runs are still good and profitable, but you should at least be able to kit out a gun every few raids. DON'T use your scav gear, unless you like the kit, sell it and run some cheaper raids to build a kit you are comfortable with. XP through these levels are hard to come by. Quests are your friend, but don't get bogged down. You should be surviving a LOT of raids now)
Levels 26-35 (The grind is over, you shouldn't be going into raids without at least level 4 armor and helm. You should be kitting out your favorite gun every time, and focusing on playing raids any way you like to, focusing on learning the intricacies of each map. This is where you should be absolutely working on your hideout, buying end-game gear and everything else).
Now for people returning. LEARN THE NEW MAPS. They are all money makers and are some of the best combat that tarkov has seen. Don't spend all your time on customs and shoreline, just because they had the best loot back then. Interchange prints $ and it is easy to sneak around, and RESERVE is like the best map in the entire game. Don't even try labs if it is new to you, until you are rich. Most of us had a whole wipe to try labs for free so it could get nerfed to the ground.
I've been playing for a while, and if anyone has any questions, and don't know where to post, throw something in the comments and I'll help out if I can.
GOOD LUCK RAIDING!
