Escape From Tarkov can be a difficult taste to acquire, but if you learn the ropes a bit, the game will soon grow on you. Escape From Tarkov is one of the most “serious” shooters around, and it can be intimidating for anyone playing to get into the game—especially when it’s their first time. Set in a world full of players on the hunt for Tarkov items and kills, the hardcore title can be unforgiving to those that don’t learn the ropes quickly enough. Upon booting the game, you’ll see a warning that states that you’ll die. A lot. It’s easy to scoff at it if you consider yourself a pro gamer in first-person shooters, but watch out. Lest you quickly get humbled by some Scavs. To say that deaths come hard and fast is an understatement. But if you learn the basics before diving straight into EFT, you’ll at least be able to increase your odds of surviving to live another day.
General Overview of Escape From Tarkov
The first thing to do when playing Escape From Tarkov for the first time is to know what it actually is. You can’t fully prepare for what’s to come ahead if you don’t know what you’re about to deal with, after all. Escape From Tarkov—or EFT for short—is a multiplayer FPS set in various maps.
The goal is for you to enter missions (also called Raids), but you must acquire barter items, weapons, currency, and ammunition from the Tarkov market before you do. As you enter a Raid, you’ll have to make it out alive while killing Scavs and other players. You’ll also need to look for materials you can return to your base. You can play as a Private Military Company (PMC) soldier for the USEC or BEAR factions. We’ve mentioned the Scavs before, but they’re essentially the other resident NPCs and players you can find in Tarkov. The NPC Scavs are not a large threat by any means; they usually follow the basic route of walking, stopping, looking around for a bit, and then walking in another direction.
The first thing to do when playing Escape From Tarkov for the first time is to know what it actually is. You can’t fully prepare for what’s to come ahead if you don’t know what you’re about to deal with, after all. Escape From Tarkov—or EFT for short—is a multiplayer FPS set in various maps.
As for the gameplay, EFT has a lot of RPG elements going for it. You can fight alone or with friends during Raids. You’ll have to survive the Raid and get to one of your extraction points before the time runs out. Sound simple, eh? Well, it does on paper, but it’s far more convoluted. You can lose all your equipment when you die—yes, you heard that right. It’s possible to lose everything you’ve accumulated in your inventory by using it, going into Raids, and dying.
Train Offline Before Anything Else
It’s understandable to go into the online fray, especially considering the possibility of losing your hard-earned weapons and items. As such, we highly advise you to train with bots offline. It is a great way to learn essential gameplay mechanics. You can also use it to practice other stuff, such as your accuracy when firing certain weapons. It makes zero sense to start a game without knowledge and immediately go online. This lack of experience will result in frequent deaths and loss of equipment, leading to many frustrating moments. In offline mode, you can’t obtain items; this mode is merely for honing your skills. You have to learn how to shoot with precision, find extraction points, and move around the map. It’s worth checking out all the maps, but just for consistency’s sake, it’s better to focus on learning one map in detail at a time.
Playing As A Scav Vs. As A PMC
As we’ve said, Scavs can be NPCs or actual players. Before you play EFT online, you can choose between a Scav and a PMC character. Choosing your PMC character means that you’ll be using your hero that has the selected equipment you’ve slotted in. There are a lot of risks involved in playing as a PMC since if you die, you’ll lose all your loot. If you start a game as a Scav, you’ll enter the Raid with random equipment that the game will give you. Playing as a Scav offers the advantage of not losing any items if you die. This way, you can try out the gameplay without worrying about anything. Then, once you’re confident enough, you can start another Raid as a PMC.
Note that when playing as a Scav, there’s a cooldown penalty if you die. You’ll have to wait for 20 minutes to join another Raid. Perhaps the most significant thing about playing as a Scav is that if you manage to escape from the map, you’ll be able to keep all the items you’ve looted. And even if you do die, you won’t lose anything from your inventory. Overall, playing as a Scav is one of the ways where you can practice while getting equipment to develop your PMC character.
As we’ve said, Scavs can be NPCs or actual players. Before you play EFT online, you can choose between a Scav and a PMC character. Choosing your PMC character means that you’ll be using your hero that has the selected equipment you’ve slotted in.
Don’t Be Afraid
You should now be prepared for your upcoming ventures using your Tarkov account. Always remember: don’t be afraid to go out there. Don’t be too afraid of getting killed, as it happens even to the best of us. Escape From Tarkov is a hard-as-nails game, but if you take your time with it, the experience and thrill of being able to extract successfully are rewarding.
