To everyone struggling with solvency:

Here's a bunch of tips for ways to make roubles and how to keep them coming in. Your results may vary but I started out as a complete newbie last wipe and farmed well over 400m, had all keys, all the cash I could spend. I'm on my way to that same level this wipe so it seems the strategies are working still, take them or leave them as you will.

Scav Runs

The first order of business should be purchasing an intelligence folder and upgrading your Intel center to at least level 1 (reduces timer to ~16 min) these extra runs will quickly pay for the cost of the folder, it also helps you progress towards your other hideout upgrades. Such as bitcoin farm, scav box which will help with more easy money later.

The runs. There are varying schools of thought here, some people like to take their time and loot interchange or reserv others like to get in and out quick, I am among the latter group. Neither is incorrect but I will explain my reasons for in and out runs.

• scav timer doesn't count down until you exit raid as scav, longer runs means fewer scav runs.

• quicker runs are lower risk, the longer you're in a raid the more likely someone has heard you or seen you and could be stalking you, a quick run you could be gone without any players knowing you're there.

• better for morale (personally) If I spend 40 minutes looting all of interchange to die heading to extract with 600k, im going to rage. Where as if I die with 50k of loot on factory that I just spawned with I can easily shrug it off.

My personal strategy is to spawn on factory, run straight to my scav extract (not gate 3, for the love of God). If I find a dead body along the way, I'll loot it. At my extract if there was a scav near by that I can kill quick loot and then immediately extract, I'll do that as well. It's usually 100-200k profit per run and I survive 90% of the time.

Squads Squads Squads

If you want to play solo, that's fine and perfectly viable but know that you have just set yourself against a harder task.

Squads offer huge benefits a few listed below:

• extra sets of eyes, and ears to help spot potential threats
• extra people trying to kill your enemies
  -tactical options such as covering multiple exits, flanking, covering fire, diversions
• people to watch your back when you're most vulnerable, when looting, healing, packing mags, etc.
  -people to ditch your gear (or pull it out) if you die to increase your insurance returns
  -more gear left on the ground if you squad wipe so you're still more likely to get some stuff back since the enemies are less likely to be able to loot everything.
  -less potential enemies on the map with you (they occupy a slot that otherwise would be filled by a hostile PMC or Player scav
• it's just more fun to have someone to chat with

Your downsides are that you're going to split loot in some way shape or form reducing potential/theoretical profitability (but in practice, it increases actual survival and there by profitability)

You have to have patience, waiting for everyone to get out of raids especially when someone dies early on into a raid is a pain.

The occasional team kill (accidents happen even amongst coordinated squads)

You'll divert at times from your objectives to complete someone else's objectives.

I usually find a 3 man squad works best at balancing the pros and the cons but duos and quads are doable. 5 man squads can get unwieldy and I really only do those on labs.

If you don't have a squad,and want one, Find a discord channel, join it, play with a random squad, if you don't like their community, find another, there are tons of discord out there keep trying until you find people you click with.

looting

Knowing what and how to loot will increase your profitablilty on every raid you survive, so your wins are better and carry your through more losses. This is hugely important if you are struggling with money/survivability trying to make every slot and rouble count.

Barter items: Commonly found items scattered throughout the map, unfortunately this list is extensive and ever-changing with the ebbs and flows of the markets. There are people and wikis that keep updated spreadsheets with item values I would suggest you refer to. Or taking a look at the market and getting a feel for it. Just playing the game you will build up this knowledge over time.
The only suggestion I have here is that if you've never seen something before, get it out of raid. Worst case scenario is you find out it's worthless and you now know for next time, best case, it's a rare item (hence never seeing it before) and you just made bank.

Looting kills:

-When first opening up or 'tabbing' into a body look at the experience you get for searching that body it will be indicative of loot quality to some degree. Scavs with 50-100xp on initial opening likely just have their gun/ammo and an AI2 on them or similar. Scavs with 200-300xp are likely sporting labs keys, door keys, or rare items, search them entirely, pockets and all.

-search pmc pockets for things like grenades and meds, this is usually missed and can have good utility and or value.

-attachments, attachments, attachments. If you can't fit the gun what attachments does it have, items to focus on are suppressors, optics, lights, and lasers, combined they usually hold the majority of a kitted guns value between them, they're smaller and can easily be tucked into the nooks and crannies in your rigs.

-similarly, what ammo are they running? Check their magazines even if you can't fit the magazine the ammo may be worth taking out, did that player you just killed have 2 30 round magazines of bt in his vest? Great unload those puppies and place that single squar of 60 rounds in your pack, it's worth 20k give or take on the flea market.

-insurance fraud, always insure when going into raids. If you find a piece of armor, weapon, etc that is comparable to yours in value and utility, trade it out. Hide your insured item somewhere reasonably safe, and it will likely come back to you allowing you to free up space for more profit and mitigate risks as well. (now if someone kills you and loots you its not your stuff they're stealing).

If you're especially broke, you can plan to do this from the start. Don't bring in a Triton, bring in a micro rig, bring in a lightly modded scav weapon and trade it out the first opportunity you get, etc. Extend the life of YOUR gear by safely tucking it away. Even if you never extract your 1 set of gear might last you 5+ raids this way, costing the approximate 10-20% of value each time to insure. I've got a few Mrigs that I keep having come back to me on insurance since day 1 of the patch, at this point I've traded each of them up for a Triton or better and sold that for 10-20k end of raid 5+ times. That at this point only cost me 1kish to bring into each raid.
If you want to be extra safe break down your weapons before tossing them, the likelihood of someone finding a loose suppressor or pk06 that's hidden in a patch of tall grass or a bush is laughably low.

Overall focus on value per slot when looting. Even on customs there's enough loot that when properly done can net you 700k+ profit for a single raid.

Risk Mitigation and cost effectiveness

This is where I find most people have the hardest time with their money. They buy stuff they don't need, over spend on stuff they'll never use, and risk/lose tens of thousands of roubles per round for no reason, they're better off throwing their money down the toilet.

Every item you bring should have a purpose, an intended use, take a good hard look at your play style, what you use, and don't bring fluff. Everyone has a different playstyle, skill set, and understanding so I can't tell what you use and what you don't. Be critical in your self evaluation though.

Common examples I see, friends copying weapon builds that have lasers, flashlights, or canted sights that they haven't used in the 10 raids I've watched their stream. Grenades they forget about unless I specifically ask for a grenade and they check to see if they have it. Stims they never pop, side arms they never switch to, etc.

Another thing I see far too often, players using armor long past its expiration date. Armors effectiveness at resisting penetration (and thus doing its joplb protecting you) is directly related to its durability compared to its original maximum durability. If you've repaired that kirasa armor so many times it's new maximum durability is 25. It's worthless at protecting you and even buckshot is going to tear through that fairly easily, it's best use at that point is being sold to fence.
Generally speaking armor should be tossed when it is no longer repairable to at least 50% of its original maximum durability. I've killed more rookies this wipe rocking sub 20 maximum durability killa armor than I can count and that's with me using 545 ps ammo that has horrendously bad penetration. Worse yet they likely bought that useless armor on the market for 80k+ because it was the 'cheapest killa armor'

Make sure what you have has a purpose, isn't costing too much for your cash/income level to justify that purpose, and mostly make sure it's serving that purpose.

This even extends to some 'given' items that most people bring into every raid. If you're running a pistol, do you really need meds in your container? What are the odds you're going to survive a firefight, need to heal with those meds? Now balance that against how often you could've gotten out with another few items you found in raid, say wires, screws, bolts, those 4-5 extra slots could've been something worth 40-50k. This will depend on your skill but for most I'd lean towards not bringing the meds in that specific instance.

Early wipe (or if I'm broke) for instance you'll see me running a scav weapon with a sight/ foregrip, a rig, a spare mag or two (with 120ish rounds spare to repack in my gamma) meds (also gamma) and a scav backpack.

location, location, location

Where are you going? what do you expect to encounter? Why are you going there? Your gear and location should match accordingly. If I'm going to shoreline with just a scav gun solo, sure I might get lucky if I go to resort but I'm also drastically increasing my odds of running into geared enemy PMCs. I'd probably be better served looting pier, weather station, village, cottages, etc. I'll find enough loot to make 200k+ profit after a scav kill or two and I don't drastically increase my odds of dying and losing everything.

Consistent medium cash is the path to riches much more readily than rolling the dice hoping for that red key card.

These are a few tips to get you started on the path to profitability. I can do follow-ups or edits with suggested loadouts, weapons, links to barter item prices as necessary if there is interest.