Some hints and tips for newer players

This wipe I have progressed more than I have in past wipes, and I think a lot of it has to do with my play-style changing.

I know I am still nowhere near as stacked stash wish or stats wise than a lot of players, but thought I might share some hints and tips for new players that have been helpful for me.

I play mainly duos, sometimes trios with a couple of mates. My play style is relatively quiet (i.e. little sprinting, lots of pausing walking to listen) until I engage the enemy, then as much aggressive flanking and pushing as possible.

So you can see where I currently am this wipe my stash and play stats are here (it's zoomable). TLDR – 41% Survival rate, 120mil stash value, 5.77 KDR.

So onto the tips:

1) Optimise what you bring out of raids:

• I almost never bring armour/rigs that I have looted out of raids in a backpack, although I might drop my armour to wear a level 5 or 6 armour off someone I have killed if it is high durability and I didn't shred it.
• Make sure your bag is always full (but you're below ~50kg if possible). Pick up any loot at the start of the raid, but put the low value stuff at the top of your bag, **then as you find more valuable items to loot drop the less valuable items to make room.**For me the best example of this is weapons. I will almost never end up bringing a full weapon out of a raid in my bag, instead I'll strip off the valuable parts and dump the weapon carcass, however if I don't find anything valuable to replace the weapon itself then best to take it for that extra few tens of thousands roubles.
• Over time you'll learn the value of items commonly found in raid, a sugar is worth quite a bit more than a CPU for example (around four times the value), but it can take a while to learn this.

2) Run. Good. Ammo

• It might cost a lot, but I would rather run an unmodded gun than run subpar ammo at this stage in the wipe. Everyone and their mam are wearing class 5 or 6 armour and you simply won't kill them with shitty ammo.If you are too poor for good ammo, then run Reserve for all your scav runs. There is enough BT/BS 5.45×39 sitting around on the map to fill a backpack with, and you can quickly stock up with it in your stash.
• I mainly run M995, M61 and BS, but you can get away with M855A1, M856A1, M62 and BT/7N39 if you want to go a little cheaper.

3) Keep what you loot in raid

• I know stash size is an issue, especially for Standard Edition players at the start of a wipe. However, the more you sell and then to re-buy the more money you are wasting. Keep weapon parts you use, keep food and drink, keep meds, keep helmets and armour you use. Prioritise buying cases to hold all of this. If you do this you'll find that quickly you can start running raids and only needing to buy one or two things. It really keeps the cost down.

4) Run gear appropriate to your stash

• Have a budget, intermediate and chad loadout and stick to them if you can, mine are below (but for those with lower stash size I would adjust them down in cost:
• My budget kit – Trooper armour, ACHHC helmet, blackrock rig, P90, one grenade, meds
• My intermediate kit – AACPC rig, Fast MT helmet, M4A1 with silencer and valday scope, three grenades, meds
• My chad kit – Slick plate carrier, Altyn, silenced HK/M1A/M4A1 with REAP-IR/side-mounted PK-06, six grenades, meds (including injectors [adrenaline, ETG, propital])
• If you have a low stash I would run a hunter with 10 round mags (M61 for first mag or two then M62), headset, level 3/4 armour, face cover but no helmet, berkut backpack.

5) Make the most of your hideout

• Upgrading the hideout can make you a lot of roubles.
• The bitcoin farm is a gamechanger, but the mag case craft in the toilet and the ammo crafting are also good money makers. The Scav case can also make you dosh.

6) Once you have engaged an enemy play aggressively

• This doesn't mean run head on towards them.
• Instead it can be very effective to re-position fast and engage from a different direction.
• Don't hold the expected angles, a substantial and rapid flank can really surprise the hostile(s), especially if you are continually moving after each trade of fire.
• Re-peaking the same angle is sub-optimal unless you have no other choice. If you don't have a choice then use grenades to force the enemy into cover whilst you push.

7) Sound is your friend

• Obviously sound gives you a lot of clues as to where the hostiles are, what gun they are running, whether they are geared (for example, lots of grenades going off likely means there is either a boss scav, or the hostile PMCs in that direction are geared
• Stop walking every so often to listen, your footsteps cover other sounds, so pausing (in cover) can give you an idea if anyone is close to you.
• Don't sprint until you're engaging the enemy. The sound of sprinting carries a long way and will let everyone know where you are, use it to flank and cover open ground, but don't use it if you can avoid it.
• Pick your route carefully looking at the ground. There may be wood or metal items on the ground that will make a lot of sound, avoid them if possible.

8) When poor, scav in

• Self explanatory, but when you don't have roubles then scav in. You can get enough for two or three low budget PMC runs from one good scav run. I prefer reserve or interchange to scav into, as there can be a lot of valuable items left around and you can easily have 300-700k scav run.

9) Complete quests

• The quests are the fastest way to level, and really help you make money. They also help you learn maps. Do them as fast as you can to level up rapidly. If you are having difficultly with a quest then run it at night time (close to dawn or dusk is good as it will be light enough to see without NVGs).

10) Don't be afraid to use gear

• Survival rates tend to rise as you use better gear. That barrage of shots that would have mowed you down as a hunterling may just bounce off your level 5 rig.
• If you are broke and find decent gear in raid don't stash it away and never use it, either sell it or give it a run and see how it goes.

11) Play with others

• Find a few buddies on the unofficial discord (in the sidebar I think) and stick playing with them, learn how to complement each others' play styles and you'll quickly find more success in game.
• This is a hard game solo. It's fine once you have some experience and you can definitely succeed at it, but for someone who is on their first wipe I wouldn't recommend it.

I hope these tips help at least one person! Happy to expand on any of them if anyone has questions….