This was my 2nd wipe, semi-casually made it to lvl 42. Here’s what wish I had known much sooner or what I think is generally very good to know. If you have any questions let me know. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments.
- Pay to win stuff:
- 2nd Monitor is super helpful.
- Tying into that, spend the 3 bucks on mapgenie.io and always have your map open on the second screen.
- If you think you’ll put in at least 150-200 hours and have the cash to spend without going broke, do yourself a favor and get EOD. Standard Edition is pain.
- Outside resources:
- Wiki ofc, again something a 2nd screen is perfect for
- mapgenie.io, always have a map open to learn them much faster
- tarkov-market.com to check prices and whether or not you need an item for a specific quest or barter. This massively helps with picking up what you need most.
- Any ammo chart like this one to check which is best in slot at any given time, don’t gimp yourself with shitty ammo (https://i.imgur.com/o1y45df.png)
- Quest item chart to always remember what you should keep in terms of FiR items for quests (https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/escapefromtarkov_gamepedia/images/1/19/QuestItemRequirements.png/revision/latest?cb=20211230000913)
- Nvidia control panel: you don’t need night vision most maps if you edit the contrast and gamma settings (0.62 contrast and max gamma is what I use). Don’t complain about interchange being too dark, it doesn’t have to be.
- Tips for leveling and questing
- Prioritize survival and quest completion above everything else
- Stash all the FiR items you need for quests and frequently check what is missing
- Spend every last rouble on upgrading your hideout asap and collecting the necessary items passively. You can craft so many quest items like salewas, gas analyzers, defibrillators etc. it’s a real life saver. Always make sure to check what you need vs. what you can craft
- If you’re an insomniac like me, questing at night in whatever region you are in can make it easier
- Kill every scav you come across as pmc, prioritize them over players and try to akways get headshot
- Night time factory scav farming is good money and insane xp. You can stay in the tunnels and get 8-10 scav headshots in like 10 mins
- Don’t scav more than you need to. It’s useful to stay afloat money wise but don’t ever wait for the scav cooldown to reset instead of playing your pmc.
- Read up on which quests have follow ups. Don’t waste time or money on quests that lead nowhere. Always check beforehand.
- Read up on quest rewards / unlocks and prioritize the ones you need most.
- Need to increase money spent for a trader? There usually are good deals like buying an item another trader will at not much of a loss a bunch of times and resell immediately (i.e. buy m9s from peacekeeper then sell to mechanic, buy dollars from what you get back, rinse repeat)
- Don’t be afraid of lighthouse. Do your quests late in the raid after the more experienced players have already killed the rogues or do offline raids until you know how to do it yourself
- Grenadier: save up impact grenades and take one per raid into factory, you’ll get it done, don’t worry
- Craft a ledx as soon as you get med station 3 so you can turn in private clinic asap
- Gunsmith: Save up dog-tags for the RSASS and save specific parts you come across earlier that might be unavailable on the flea / from your current trader. Always do you gunsmith builds when they come up. It’s basically free xp/ levels
- Silenced ADAR with valday and 20 rounders (can fit lots of em in a scav west) is my go-to for Punisher Pt. 4
- 25 meter bolt action kills are easily done on factory, best imo is gornostay with ap ammo
- Completing Stirrup in the first two weeks is easy even with the shittiest gear
- Wait until you have both humanitarian supplies and the other untar gear mission so the scav kills on shoreline count for both
- Leveling skills:
- Metabolism: i always bring food into raids and eat / drink as often as i can in raids
- Strength: you’ll almost always be overweight so no issues
- Endurance: SUPER IMPORTANT-> whenever you can try to be under the weight limit ( white instead of yellow numbers), or drop stiff to make you light enough at the start kf each raid, then sprint at least 1 full bar. Your endurance should ideally be close to your strength but at least half
- Search: search everything you find and pick up and quickly click into your inventory everything you find, then click it back out for maximum looting xp, always quickly check every body for the xp
- Sniper: run mosins whenever you can with LPS ammo (not the cheaper ones!) and reload it until the red arrow appears
- Build the air filtering unit as soon as you hit lvl 30, the xp boost is insane
- General tips:
- Pre-medding is king. Always being some sort of painkiller. My favorites are golden star, propitol and ibuprofen
- Right side peaks are a must. Always reposition to get a right side peak. I found changing lean to toggle instead of hold to be much nicer. Also bind slow lean to alt + q/ e for more consistency. Smooth lean more! Helps so much with AI.
- Point-firing is bae. Always use a tactical device and only ever aim for precise shots leaning from cover, longer range shots or when you are still undetected
- Bind hold breath to on release and with RMB as secondary key. You’ll be holding your breath as soon as you aim for much more precision.
- Bind inspect weapon and fix malfunction to the same key, one on press, the other on release
- Unbind quick reload, it’s useless
- Bind check time and exits to a single key, the default double tapping is stupid
- Record your deaths with shadowplay or outplayed, you’ll learn a lot and it can significantly reduce frustration
- Jumping with your back to an obstacle lets you jump higher, sideways too
- When running across an area where you might get engaged, never sprint more than half or at max 2/3rds of you stamina bar so you don’t suddenly get caught slow af and wheezing out in the open
- Crouch when shooting to reduce recoil
- Learn good barters and pick up the corresponding items. You’ll never run out of grizzlies if you just pick up enough uv lamps and gas analyzers
- Crafting is very helpful, don’t sleep on it. Airwingmarine on youtube has lots of good vids on it
- Get at least 2 scav boxes and store as many useful barter items as possible
- Avoid fight on or nears stairs when ever you can, the audio will screw you over
- Trust the audio while outside, you don’t have to be so anxious all the time, as long as you have headphones and play on high enough volume you’ll hear everything
- Use grenades tactically, by that I mean don’t necessarily try to kill with them but instead use them as bait, to make the enemy move or to secure an area where you heard someone
- Don’t ever re-peak scavs / ai that aim at you. Move and change position or wait in cover until they disengage. You deserve every head eyes from the buckshot scav if you disregard this.
- Injectors are great and you should definitely choose the injectors case as the reward (go research it now if you don’t know the quest).
- Always bring splints
- Don’t bring a melee weapon. They weigh a lot and you get a free secure slot for looting expensive ones like the antique axe
- Try to maximize fps as best as you can. Anything below 60fps will put you at a considerable disadvantage