What is Escape From Tarkov? – Escape from Tarkov Guide

According to its About page, Escape from Tarkov is a “hardcore and realistic online first-person action RPG simulator with MMO features and a story-driven walkthrough.” It’s a shooter with persistent character inventory and loadouts, a base-building feature, and tough-as-nails gameplay. Despite having not officially released yet, the game has gained a significant online presence thanks to YouTuber and influencer endorsements, which has many new players diving in to the game.

Despite the preemptive popularity of the game, it’s not immediately apparent what exactly it is. Yes, it’s a first-person shooter, but developer Battlestate Games’ description includes a lot of jargon that reads like nonsense if you’re simply trying to glean the basic gameplay loop. In this guide, we’ll explain what exactly Escape From Tarkov is, and hopefully reveal why is has so many people talking.

What’s a Tarkov?

Escape From Tarkov takes place in the fictional Norvinsk region between Russia and Europe. Ongoing armed conflict has caused mass evacuation of the city of Tarkov, and as a player your aim is escape with as much loot as possible without dying.

The core gameplay loop of Escape From Tarkov takes place in matches that Battlestate calls “raids.” In any given raid, the primary goal is to escape the map. A close second, though, is to gather as much loot as possible. Each map is a large, complex environment with many buildings to explore, with piles and piles of loot to find. You’ll want to collect the best gear you can and make your way to one of the map’s exit points. If you die, though, you’ll lose everything on your body.

Each map is populated by a bunch of AI soldiers called SCAVS. Killing a SCAV gives you access to their precious gear. Early on in your Escape From Tarkov career, this is most likely to be your primary method of earning new equipment. There’s a twist, though: SCAVS will sometimes be player-controlled enemies rather than AI-controlled.

Outside of raids, you have a persistent inventory of everything you manage to loot. This is where you’ll keep your most precious belongings, like keys to hidden areas, ammo, rare weapons, and more. You can also take specialty containers into raids, which serve as a sort of insurance against losing it.

Emphasis on “Realistic”

Beyond the push-your-luck elements of simply participating in raids, Tarkov features some downright hardcore gameplay mechanics. Battlestate’s description of “realistic” is very apt here. In-game, you’ll need to monitor your character’s hunger, thirst, endurance, and relative health. The are many different kinds of medicine in Tarkov, each of which assists with a different aspect of your character’s well-being. Additionally, you can break your character’s limbs, which will negatively affect your running speed or steady aim.

There are lots of other elements to keep in mind as well, such as your gear’s condition, bullet physics, various character actions like leaning and stance transitions, and a lot more. There isn’t much in the way of a heads up display in Tarkov, either. In fact, you’ll have to manually check your gun’s stock of ammunition, it’s tendency to jam, and more.

Economics, Baby!

Escape From Tarkov features a fully player-driven economy. It surrounds the in-game auction house, an MMO-style marketplace where players can post gear for sale. Play the market right and you’ll find yourself swimming in riches. Be careful of what you buy, though—you need to be aware of an item’s condition to be sure that you’re not being swindled. Just like the shooting mechanics, the auction house is truly unforgiving.

And that’s a general rundown on what Escape From Tarkov is! Did this get you interested in the game? Let us know in the comments section!

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A big Escape From Tarkov update just wiped your characters, soz

You’d have thought people would have escaped from Tarkov by now, but they’re still at it. Escape From Tarkov is a brutal, sandbox-ey shooter about scavenging for loot in a warzone where everyone has better guns than you – except for right now! A big update to the current early access build has brought a load of changes, but one of the most significant parts is the character wipe. Tarkov’s central appeal lies in looting, and now (not for the first time) all your loot has gone. My friends say they’re happy about this, and I still do not understand them.

I suppose I do, really. The goal in each round of Tarkov is to enter a big map and leave with more gear than you came in with, and that loop never clicked with me. I imagine I would find losing all my hard-earned loot galling, but the internet’s “Fiyenyaa” tells me: “It’s fine, it makes for a level playing playing field to start off with and building up from nothing again is part of the fun for me. The only bad part is having to re-do some of the incredibly bad quests.”

The internet’s Fiyenyaa might be pleased to know that those quests have been twiddled with. Developer’s Battlestate Games say they’ve “simplified Jaeger’s quests”, as well as changing various other old quests and adding new rewards. Quests in Tarkov are pretty barebones – they have you going to a specific place, or searching for a specific gun, or just killing NPCs or players. They give you XP, and levelling up makes you better at an intimidating array of specific things.

There’s loads else that’s new. You can now lean while prone, the NPC AI and positional audio have both been souped up, and lots of tweaks have been made to the “found in raid” status on items. That’s significant, not only because it changes which gear satisfies quest conditions, but also because you can now only sell gear that you’ve found on a raid. My pal Alex tells me that “this makes it harder for market traders to flip items and control supply” on the player-driven flea market. They’ve also added captcha security, which the devs say you’ll need to wade through “if there are suspicious actions at the flea market and in the trade”. Even Fiy acknowledges this sounds annoying.

I didn’t get on with Tarkov, but Craig Pearson had a grand time hunting down toilet paper.

My friends who watch Tarkov-heads on Twitch tell me these wipes come around twice a year, and Battlestate do ’em to both give veteran players something new to do, and so they can test new systems out with players who aren’t already loaded.

There’s plenty I haven’t mentioned, so do check out the patch notes.

Tarkov is still in beta, and buying in now will set you back £35. You’ll need to grab it from Battlestate’s website.