Escape from Tarkov – A New Beginning

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Nothing can prepare you for the game that is Escape from Tarkov. The three thousand hours in Playerunknown’s Battleground could not begin to get me ready enough for what would happen to me in my first week in the game’s beta version 0.12. Join me as I explore my first week in Escape from Tarkov from Battlestate Games.

Getting Started

The first thing that you have to do for access to the game is to purchase a pre-order copy from the game’s website. After you do that it’s off to the races in what I would call a “hurry up and wait” situation. Locate it here.

I have watched a lot of my streamer friends play this game and I could never determine if this game would be any good for me or not. I believe I am coming into the game at a good time because a lot of the initial bugs that I have seen or heard about have been fixed. That is not where we will start though. We will start at my beginning.

I logged into the game after having been itching to play it for the last month and it was a bittersweet start. I took my first AK and loaded up my armor and healing items and went to Customs, one of the biggest maps in the game. I walked into the game from my first spawn point without knowing where I was going or even really what I was supposed to do. I managed to survive for about five minutes before my first raid was unceremoniously cut short.

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One thing that you absolutely must do is to learn the maps. This is the first thing I should have done before playing. Thankfully Tarkov has an offline mode when you enter a raid. Offline mode will let you use everything you have currently and set the difficulty of the scavs you will be fighting all while restricting the loss of your gear. You will be free to kill the AI, loot to your heart’s content, and extract as you would in the normal version of the game. You will not keep any gear or experience earned in this mode, however. It is for training purposes only.

Learning Curve

Aside from learning the maps as a new player, you will also need to learn about the guns, the gear, the ammo, and all of the different ways you can set up your gear. To say there is a huge amount to learn would be an understatement. From learning scav patterns to camping spots to the maps themselves, where to extract and all of the weapon and gear details can be a bit overwhelming at first. Once you sit there for a couple of hours and just play though, you will start to become more comfortable with the game and your surroundings.

Each weapon has its uses and each type of ammo can do different things to different armor and gear. Learning the best type of ammo is a must and what gun you want to use all the time with that ammo will save you in a gunfight.

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Looting is another thing that will be difficult at first until you know what you are doing. The best practice is when you kill someone, wait a couple of seconds before going to their body if they are in the open. If you kill an AI, other ones will come to the noise to try and get you. If you kill a player, there could be teammates or yet more scavs coming to try to get you. Once it is clear, go prone next to the body to act like you are dead as well. Make sure you search all pockets, bags, and rigs. If the gear is better on the dead player, move as much of your stuff into the other player’s bags as you can. Discard your bad gear and then equip their gear onto you. This will save you tons of time while learning the system.

Modding your weapons is another skill that will save you in the game later down the road. You will learn how to remove parts from the guns and break them down and what parts are better than others. You will be able to discern which parts will give you less recoil and which will make your gun work better for you. I am still learning this process and so I will not go too much into this here.




Running a Raid

When you are all geared up and ready to go, head to the Escape from Tarkov main menu and enter into the main screen. You have two choices here: Scav or PMC. PMC is the main character that you create. Everything you take with him can be insured for a chance to get it back if you are killed and this is the only character that will gain experience to help you level up. Scav players are where you can load into a game as one of the characters already on the map and take them over. Weapons, armor, and everything else is random based on that guy.

Once you pick your character, you are free to choose your map and time of day you are going. The times are 12 hours apart normally and give you a chance to play between day and night. If you are not geared with night vision or thermal equipment pick a time that is during the day. While daytime games are easier for you, they are also easier for the AI and players alike. You will be an easier target. Once you get geared for night raids with thermal scopes and night vision goggles you will have an easier time against AI characters. They don’t lock on as easily at night because they can’t see you.

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Each map has spawn points for Scavs and players and they will be randomized most of the time for you. You need to be careful and move after you spawn so that you don’t get spawn camped. Likewise, there are set extraction points in the game and they change each raid unless you are on a small map like Factory or Interchange. The same thing can happen at these points as well, so beware of the campers. After you have gotten your fill of killing and loot head to the extraction point and collect your gear and experience points.

Final Thoughts

For a game that has been in beta for a few years, it has had time to get worked on. Some of the initial issues and bugs you have with a new game have been worked out. I play mainly PUBG and have over three thousand hours in the game because I love it. I picked up Tarkov last week and have only played about four hours of PUBG. I am now addicted to the looter/shooter aspect of this game. This is the first of many monthly articles to come. I hope you enjoyed this and we will see you next time.

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