Hey everyone! Hope you aren't too critical of this little guide I put together. Not exactly looking for a career in making guides, just wanted to put down some of the knowledge I've gained in the hopes it might help someone.
All of the following is based on personal experience and is only my opinion. I am sure everyone has a bit of this they disagree with. I am not going to go through every single detail, just some things that have come to mind lately. Hope it helps, happy to answer any questions!
So here are some of my thoughts on how to succeed in Tarkov.
You will lose everything. Either by dying or when the next wipe comes. I had over 80 million rubles and a stash value about double that (peanuts compared to some people), all gone with the last wipe. I couldn’t use it fast enough before the wipe happened. The reason I say this is USE YOUR STUFF. Nothing worse than losing gear because you never use it. USE IT.
Map knowledge is key. No one is going to follow this advice but I will say it anyway……..
The most advantageous thing you can do is have the maps on a second monitor and walk through each one in offline mode with no AI. Look through each building to take note of any containers, go to each extract to get an idea of where they are, find loot stashes if the map contains them so you aren’t scrambling mid raid to find them etc. Once comfortable, do the same with scav AI enabled, that way you can learn the spawn points and routes which will help you identify AI scav in live raids. You can do this between scav runs so you can just disconnect once your scav cooldown runs out.
If you are getting “sniped out of nowhere” it is most likely because someone knows the map better than you. One well placed bullet is all this game takes, so knowing how to get the jump on someone is the difference between life and death.
Ammunition is king. It is really everything in this game. While it is nice to have a modded up AK or M4, what really matters is the type of ammunition you are putting down range. Of course, the modifications will help you get those bullets on target, but if you are shooting garbage bullets it won’t matter. Especially early on, the majority of the money I spend on a loadout is on the ammunition.
Silence is golden. Fully crouched + slowest walk speed = complete silence…unless you step on something (glass). Use this to your advantage. Also, WEAR A HEADSET. If you hear someone first, get to this speed and wait them out. This leads to my next point.
You get no bonus points for extracting early. This seems obvious but it leads to a bigger point. If you shoot and kill that guy with 15 minutes left, does the loot change if you get to him with 14:45 left as opposed to 13 minutes? Unless someone else gets to him, no. So TAKE YOUR TIME. Any time you fire a bullet you are essentially sending a flare straight up in the air to other players.
If you think you heard someone, you did. If you think you saw someone move on the other side of a window, you did. Get to that slow speed and try to outmaneuver them (map knowledge is key). This point is the exact same for holding a corner. Wait for them to make the mistake, be patient but make sure you aren’t being outmaneuvered yourself.
Quick note on loot/stash: I mention it elsewhere, but to me everything is to be sold. There is no reason not to sell everything at the flea market price. Barring any major changes (which do happen, do not get me wrong) anything you sell you will be able to buy at a similar price. The ONLY things worth keeping to me are the find in raid . Hideout requirements can be bought again, magazines can be bought etc.
How I started out
Scav run at every opportunity. Free gear, the ability to gain map knowledge, and quite frankly it is a fun and different way to play than PMC.
Scav AI are friendly except if
A) they are Raiders/Bosses (they will have high level gear and mostly warn you before they kill you. mostly)
B) you shoot a scav that did not shoot you first (if they shoot you first that was a player or an aforementioned raider/boss)
Staying friendly to the AI allows you to move around the map a bit more freely since they will not engage and either kill you or give away your position.
I would take my gun/armor from scav runs and use it on my PMC to get to level 5. My personal strategy is to sell absolutely everything except for the following “find in raid” .
Weapons are NOT generally worth looting outside of the equipped slots unless you plan on using them. The value per square is not even close to that of most other items, if anything just take off any scopes/silencers/laser/other attachments.
After unlocking flea market at level 5, every item I bring back I right click and do filter by item. This takes you to the flea market and will show you market prices. Most items that sell at a high value sell the highest on the flea market. Check those prices vs the price at each vendor to see what makes more sense. Eventually you will know which items to loot and which to leave, as well as which to list on flea vs sell to each trader.
Always make sure you have inventory space. I always completely gear up my PMC (including filling pockets, chest rig etc. with items) in order to get maximum stash space before a scav run. This way you don’t have to play Tarkov Tetris after a successful raid and potentially discard some things.
If you do not have money, split time between scav runs and offline runs to learn more. Turn the AI up another level, or turn horde mode on etc. if you have to. You don’t lose anything so it's just a net gain in terms of your ability.
Storage Stuff
I wanted to show a few quick pictures to demonstrate how deconstructing weapons helps with storage. At the least, remove magazines and pistol grips. I always sell these items as they are easy to buy again at a similar price on the flea market, so they are just taking up space.
Backpack storage:
The Berkut/Scav BK are ideally as small as you want to go. Those (generally) fit a standard weapon in them. I do not suggest looting weapons, but if you are going to then it is best to at least be smart about it. As you can see, folding the stock below allows a horizontal storage of my AK-74M. This in turn allows enough space for a Berkut above it. Removing the silencer would also shorten it by two total squares (as you can see in the weapon storage pictures above).
Random stuff
There are only two situations where you do not get insured items back:
- someone else loots them and extracts from the match
- the game timer runs out to 00:00 and you are MIA with the stuff on you. If you drop it first, then you will get it back in insurance. If someone takes it and they die, you get it back.
NEVER use the matching feature at the ready screen to join with randoms. You will mostly just get spawn killed and the fact that you can’t communicate at all will make things difficult anyway.
Bind Animations. Correction thanks to u/jmanjones**. You can also bind animations and voicelines while in the hideout.** Do it in the first offline PMC raid and then your first Scav raid if you can take the time to do so. If you hold down the “Open Mumble dropdown” button (Y by default) the dropdown will allow you to assign different hand motions/phrases.
As a scav- I always bind the follow me, thumbs up, wave, and the direction/pointing motion. If you motion for a scav AI to follow you, they sometimes will. This can create some cool opportunities to team up with them. By team up I mean use them as bait but that's ok.
As a PMC- As USEC you should bind useful phrases as they are in english and people MAY respond if you tell them to hold fire. Or they may shoot you in the face. Such is Tarkov.
Change keybinds – everyone more or less suggests these so you’ve probably seen them before.
- Check Extracts – press O (or to release so you don’t have to change the original “check time”), I find no reason not to see extracts along with time but it is personal preference.
- Grenades to a mouse button (if you have extra) or double tap “G”. Killed myself and my teammates too many times trying to hit F….
- Blindfire overhead – I changed it to U but literally anything other than what it is. With this set to default you cannot use any “Alt-button” commands while walking (like mag check or changing sights etc.)
- I bind additional number keys to the extra buttons on my mouse. That allows me to use multiple types of meds/grenades without going into the inventory.
Hope some of this helps! Let me know if there are any particular areas of the game or things you would like explained more. I may hop on a stream and walk people through the game that way too if there is any interest.
EDIT: Two important pieces of info on being silent!
I said you would be silent when moving in crouched/slow except on glass, corrections below!
Correction 1: thanks to u/Holly_Holman : You will make sound… walking on wood/glass, small sounds going through bushes and metal. It's far quieter than walking normally though. It's a bad idea to presume you are completely silent when slow walking, even when crouched, but you are very quiet.
Correction 2: I am not positive on this one, need verification from some more people that know – thanks to u/maddogbg27. If another PMC/player scav has a headset they will hear you no matter if you walk a t slowest speed and crouched… if you have max covert movement maybe. but otherwise if they have head set they will hear you.
