Few games are as difficult or devoted to gritty realism as Escape From Tarkov is. Stuck in a city caught in a war between various factions your job is to somehow escape this nightmare. But to do so you’ll need to gather supplies, take out players gunning for you, bandage and splint any injuries you sustain, and avoid death at all costs because it strips you of supplies.
If you’re just starting out or you’re having a hard time getting into this great underrated game here are some tips that will take you from constantly losing your stuff to a pro in no time.
10 Take More Painkillers Than You Need
It can be tempting in this game to go in with the bare essentials to avoid losing too many of your items, but you should absolutely break this rule when it comes to Painkillers. When your body parts start going black Painkillers are a quick way to negate the side effects temporarily. Having the ability to run or stop coughing is crucial to survival.
Sure they might be expensive in the beginning and it’s a pain to loot for more, but you’ll want them when you run out of medkits and bandages and parts start going black.
9 Scavs Loot, PMCs Survive
This is something a lot of players struggle with but is vitally important to your success. When in a raid as a Scav your goal is to loot items. When playing as your main character or PMC you’re goal is to survive and achieve the objective.
Too many players will blitz a raid and avoid valuable looting opportunities or their main character will get blasted as they try to loot. You obviously need to do a bit of looting as a PMC to survive, but if you spend too much time farming you raise the odds of dying and lose all your stuff anyway. Loot as a Scav, survive as a PMC.
8 Wear Headphones And Raise The Volume
Sound is incredibly important in this game as it can let you know where other players are and making too much noise will alert other players to your presence. Put a decent pair of headphones on and turn the volume up so you can hear what’s going on around you.
You’ll be surprised how much noise you actually make and it's likely the reason you are dying so often. You’ll also find it’s much easier to get the drop on people when you don’t have to physically see them to know where they’re at.
7 Quiet Down
Hitting this point home again there are a lot of things that make noise in the game. Broken glass, opening doors, even walking too quickly will result in loud footsteps for anyone to hear and zero in on your location.
The name of the game is aggressive stealth. Slow down and watch your step so you aren’t making unnecessary noise, but don’t spend the round moving at a snail’s pace either. Just be more mindful about the noise you’re making and you’ll deny enemies a valuable advantage.
6 Use Noise As Bait
It’s also important to use your noise to your advantage, if you know someone is stalking you then you can flush them out by making certain sounds. Many players will wait for their target to start looting or rifling through safes, this is because they’re distracted and this lack of awareness makes it easier to get the drop on them and get a successful kill.
Take advantage of this by rattling a safe or filing cabinet around a little before training your sights on the doorway. You’ll catch your opponent by surprise and turn the tables on them getting an easy kill.
5 Think Tactically
This tip is huge for improving your skill and giving you a significant advantage over many players in multiplayer, think tactically. Escape From Tarkov isn’t like other games where you can run and gun, blasting other players on your way to victory. It’s about stealth, strategy, patience, and cunning.
If you see someone don’t just start pulling the trigger, think about how you can get the drop on them, make sure you’re behind good cover, maybe even get an angle that leaves you covered and exposes them better. While this is a first person shooter it’s more of a tactical shooter and you’ll live longer if you treat it as such.
4 Close The Door Behind You
This simple tip is too important not to mention here. Whenever you use a door, close it behind you. There are no open doors in this game unless a player opens them. So leaving the door open behind you will let someone know that you’re around and they need to be cautious.
It’s also a good warning system if you’re about to start looting and know you’re going to be distracted. Having that simple sound of a door opening can give you enough warning to respond quickly enough. Granted the doors don’t always make sound given certain bugs in the game right now, but it’ll save your life enough times to make it worth it.
3 Max Out Metabolism
Metabolism is a valuable skill that often gets overlooked by players. Having a high metabolism slows the rate at which your character forgets physical abilities, improves how effective food and drink are, and slows down how quickly you become hungry and thirsty.
In addition to being extremely valuable it’s also incredibly easy to raise, just start munching whatever food you find and guzzle down drinks. It may seem wasteful, but the rewards will more than make up for it.
2 Don’t Die With Grenades On You
Really this applies to any valuable or useful item, but grenades seem to be the most common. The reason you bring along grenades is to throw them at the enemy, so do that.
Sure you don’t want to be stuck in a position where you need a grenade and don’t have one, but that isn’t nearly as bad as dying with four grenades on you. Chances are you’ll lose your stuff from a headshot anyway so you might as well use them to your advantage while you can.
1 Pigs Get Fed, Hogs Get Slaughtered
The final pro tip is a big one that if followed will keep you alive more often than those who ignore it, don’t be greedy. It’s tempting when you down an enemy loaded with modified gear and a backpack full of meds to immediately run up and start looting.
Take a moment and study your surroundings, many players will often wait for firefights to play out before taking down the survivor while they're busy rifling through loot. It’s better to go without and live than get a bullet to the head because you couldn’t pass up that modified FORT Redut-T5 body armor.