Howdy.
Discussion about how shitty the Tarkov Shooter questline occurs frequently (it is shitty! I agree) and when I open such threads, I know I'm going to see posts about how especially horrible Tarkov Shooter pt 8 is, especially late wipe.
It is a horrible quest, and I almost quit playing the game in frustration trying to complete it. One thing that made this quest hard was the lack of comprehensive guides on how to do it. Most of the content creators that make really good guides for other quests just generally say "play aggressive and get lucky" which, while there is a good deal of truth to that, is advice that is pretty limited. When I asked for advice here, I got some really great tidbits that I hadn't thought of (huge shout out to them!), and that advice helped me finish this task on my 41st attempt. While luck plays a large role in this task, to be sure, there are things you can do to greatly increase your ability to capitalize on that luck, especially late-wipe, and especially post thorax buff. There are four parts to this guide: 1) Strategy, 2) Equipment, 3) Movement, 4) Tactics. Let's dig in.
- Overall Strategy
Folks make the point all the time with this quest is that it is much harder late wipe since there are fewer people playing woods, and the ones that are come in geared for PvP. That is absolutely true, so you have to do the following things to increase the likelihood you will "get lucky".
1.1) Try the quest during the weekday early evenings, or weekends before 7pm or so.
You want to maximize the chance you will load into a populated woods map, with newer players questing, ideally solo questing. The best times to do this are either weekdays after work when people who just picked up the game are messing around on their own and trying to do those early quests. At the same time, I DON'T recommend trying to do this quest late at night, or during primetime on weekends. This is because during those times you are more likely to run into sweaty players or groups. While getting super lucky encountering a group of ultra noobs trying to quest is great, this late in the wipe it's just extremely unlikely and even a halfway competent group will overwhelm you with your bolt action. Killing 2/3 of the group is not good enough if you can't live to get that third kill.
1.2) Set an expenditure allowance, and stick with it.
Decide how many roubles you are willing to spend on an attempt, and stick with it. I decided I was okay with 150k roubles per attempt, and I would try 3-4 attempts per play session before waiting for insurance and trying again in the next session.
2) Equipment
2.1) LOADOUT TIERS
a) Barebones
No armor, no rig. Mosin infantry carbine, 10 rounds of 7n1 in your pockets, healing and backup ammo in your containers.
b) Budget (This is what I used)
Mosin infantry carbine w/ montecarlo stock, armored rig (M1 rig, green for camo), comtacs, shemagh (camo and style), 2 flashbangs. Propitol in container.
c) "Money doesn't matter, just let me finish this goddamn quest"
TWO mosins. obrez for close encounters, sniper with thermal and archangel stock for primary. Tactec, headphones, helmet. Multiple flashbangs. Green stim.
2.2) NOTES ON THE MOSIN ITSELF
a) In my experience, going long range on this quest is not ideal. The tactics you need to be a successful sniper simply don't lend themselves to getting three kills in a match, especially late wipe. You might get the first kill on a group, but when they push you, you probably will not have time to take off your scope/reload in order to fight CQB.
I was pretty decent at Battlefield 1 so iron sight mosin for me was ideal. You could definitely go red dot on a tri-rail, but that adds another 30k to your expenditure/attempt.
b) ERGO is the most important stat. You need to be able to snap to ADS as fast as you can. A mosin with PU scope is painfully slow to ADS, and by the time you do, you probably missed your opportunity for that long-range shot, or you are already dead because you lost the CQB fight.
That being said, the montecarlo stock (pretty cheap) and the archangel stock (expensive) are good investments because they have a huge ergo boost. The archangel stock itself isn't expensive, but the mags required for it are like 50k each on the market (which you have to pay because this is the quest that unlocks their trader purchase). If money is no object, the archangel has the immensely helpful 10 round clip.
c) MOSIN INFANTRY CARBINE.
The infantry carbine is the best here. It has big ergo bonus over the sniper, and an insignificant MOA penalty. Some people recommend the obrez which, unless you have another mosin, is not good enough. It has great ergo but the MOA penalty is so bad (the ironsight is worse as well imo) you will end up hitting the target but not getting the kill. Especially after the thorax buff, it is super important that your 7n1 round hits where you need it to. Ideally head, or thorax. You generally don't have the time to rechamber a round after blacking someone's arm, leg, or stomach to win that engagement.
d) 7N1
Always. Post thorax buff it is crucial. 7n37 is great at penetration but doesn't do as much flesh damage if you do penetrate. Everything else is not good enough unless you are a sniper god and in that case, this guide probably isn't helpful. You aren't using a whole lot of rounds per attempt anyway, just get 7n1.
e) FLASHBANGS
A super helpful addition to my kit for this quest that another Redditor recommended. They run cheap, people do not expect them on woods. They are crucial for two situations. The first is they allow you to win when you are in another 1 v 1 mosin battle against another PMC close-range. The second is you can use them to tie up the other members of a group while you focus on killing them one by one.
f) HEADSET, NO BACKPACK, GREEN CAMO, & STIM
You do need a headset, more on that in the tactics portion. For keeping a low profile and using bushes, it is important to use green colored equipment if you can and to not wear a backpack. I've killed plenty of folks hiding in bushes on woods because the red thing/water bottle was sticking out of their scavBP and I saw it. Moreover, there will be times when the only cover you have is to drop into the grass in a ditch – not having a backpack will be the difference between being seen and not seen. A backpack is just more money wasted since you aren't going to be doing enough looting to justify it. If you killed a geared boy just take their backpack if you really want it.
The stim is very useful. Either green stim or propitol (ghetto green stim). If you get into a fight with multiple people, for this quest you need to be able to pop a stim to heal over time and push for the kill aggressively.
I also didn't use a penis helmet for two reasons. One is that it adds expense, and two is because it has a very distinctive silhouette that might make the difference between being seen in a bush and not. Green shemagh ideal.
3) Movement
There are essentially two phases to every attempt in this quest. We will call them rotation 1 (red on map) and rotation two (blue on map).
>>>> Rotation 1 (RED): [First 0-8 minutes]
Right after spawning, you need to push the other spawns close to you to secure that first kill early before everyone dies in the subsequent PvP. Because woods is so spawn PvP heavy, the likelihood of there being enough other players on the map to complete your quest goes down every minute that passes. If you hit the 20-minute mark without a kill or just one kill, you should probably just extract and try again.
If you spawn on the UN side, pre-med and immediately push the spawns closest to you on the wall. Likewise, if you spawn on the outskirts side. If you spawn in the middle/cliffs area, proceed immediately to rotation 2 below.
>>>> Rotation 2 (BLUE): [5-20 minutes in]
With your first kill or two hopefully secured during rotation 1, your next task is to move to the rotation 2 area and either counter-snipe or try and third party any gunshots you hear. Both rotations have the best bush/tree cover in the game that will make it easier to conceal your movement.
If you spawned UN side, your rotation 2 area includes checking the wall for any noobs trying to stay out of the fight, counter-sniping any people that are going up on spine, peaking into the sawmill area (especially if shturman spawned and is baiting people), checking the jaegar hut/bunker for noob questers, or using the bushes to third-party groups in the field still fighting from spawn.
if you spawned on the OUTSKIRTS side, your rotation includes peeking at groups fighting on the beach/sawmill area, counter sniping dick-head rock, killing noobs trying to farm scavs at scav house of visit ZB104, and hatchet runners trying to hit the cabins/key spawns in sawmill and get out via the car.
4) Tactics
Generally, rotation 1/spawn pvp is where your flashbangs will come in most handy. Pre-med, flash them, don't be afraid to be aggressive and then run away and rotate if its a group and you've killed on.
Rotation 2 is all about hiding in a bush and listening (why you need the headset). You are listening for the sounds of other fights you can sneak up on and try to third party, sounds of questers trying to kill scavs in your area, sounds of shturman popping off his SVD so you know whether to check out sawmill, or sounds of people who won their spawn pvp running past you unaware that you are waiting in a bush to cap them.
If I am in rotation 2 and the game hasn't hit the twenty-minute mark, if I hear gunshots on the other side of the map I will ignore them and wait. Odds are there are still PMCs in your area, or whoever wins the fight on the other side of the map will have to push your direction eventually. If I am still in rotation 2 but it is past the twenty-minute mark, there probably aren't a whole lot of people left in the match so I will go over to a gunfight on the other side of the map if I hear it.
FINAL NOTE:
In case you are interested in hearing how all these things played out for me on the round I completed the task. I was playing at 5pm or so eastern on a Friday. Mosin inf w/montecarlo, flashes, and m1 rig. I spawned on the beach spawn on outskirts. For rotation 1, I ran immediately to the wall where I ran into another guy doing the quest solo. I won that fight by flashing him. Conveniently, that guy's mosin had a scope on it so now I had a long-range mosin and a short-range mosin.
I moved to rotation two. I actually saw a naked guy prone in a bush in the woods and hit him two or three times. He got up and sprinted towards the sawmill, where he was gunned down by a scav en route. Frustrated that I didn't get that kill, I went to the edge of rotation 2 and hid in a bush to see if my shooting had baited anyone. Sure enough, a couple minutes later I saw a mid-level dude creeping around, scoping out the area about 100 meters away. I used the long-range mosin to ensure the headshot kill.
I went to loot that guy and I was lit up by a player scav (seriously? who the fuck scavs on woods). He got me really bad, I had to propitol and run as far as I could, hit a bush, and then CMS kitted back which took me about three minutes.
The game was at the 25-minute mark, and I figured all the fighting was over and I was shit out of luck, again. I started moving towards UN extract, when, lo and behold, I see a pistol runner sprinting on the road by the sawmill. I hit him in what must have been the shoulder. I run and start checking bushes. He lights me up with a p226 and I barely survive before no scoping him at point blank. Quest done. I extracted, and promptly deleted (not sold) the 6 or so mosins in my stash. TBH besides a few labs raids for fun I haven't played since. Fuck this quest. Best of success!
