The new Escape From Tarkov patch is finally here and of course, it brings with it a new wipe. There are a lot of changes to get your head around, and you’ll have to start figuring out how to play the early wipe meta once again after almost eight months of it being gone. Then as you start to advance a bit further into the wipe there’s a new boss to take down, a big expansion to Streets of Tarkov to explore and the random loot container spawn locations to figure out.
For both new players who are jumping into their first wipe and experienced veterans who have more hours than they would care to admit there’s a lot to learn and you’ll need all the help you can get to make sure you don’t lose all your starting gear. Fortunately, the tips below, some of which come from top Escape From Tarkov players will help you out once you are in the game.
New players need to learn maps first
If this is your first wipe or your first wipe in a while then the most important thing you can do is learn a few of the maps. You’ll need to know where the extraction points are, where the hot spots for fighting are and of course where to find the best loot.
“Map knowledge is the key,” says Triple G, a top Escape From Tarkov Twitch streamer. “Use the scav option for raids to learn maps, learn high traffic areas and just learn how the movement and guns work in Tarkov as it’s completely different to any other game. The key to extraction isn’t the route, it’s reacting to the sounds on the way and knowing if you are shot at where it could be from!”
You can sell all your scav loot at once
This may seem like a small change, but as a quality-of-life improvement, it might be one of the best the game has ever added. Previously after you finished a scav raid you would need to transfer everything you wanted to sell to your stash and then head to each trader to get rid of it. Now you can sell everything on your scav with one button, getting you a load of cash without spending ages micromanaging your inventory. It’s a change that will save you a lot of time and something you should start doing as soon as you have transferred all the good stuff to a safe place.
If you haven’t played in months, there has been a lot of tech improvements
The last wipe was bumpy, to say the least. For those of us who jump in at the start of a new wipe and drop out after a month or so, there was a lot to complain about as the last wipe hit its mid-stage. Cheaters seemed to be everywhere, internet connections could change fights and the game was not running particularly well, although it never really did. But late in the last wipe there were some big changes made that improved things a lot.
“I’d argue the biggest updates have actually already happened,” says Triple G. “Since the infamous wiggle video, the cheater situation has drastically improved. We used to see, as streamers, at least a cheater a day, whilst now it’s more like [one] a week, maybe two. The second update they made is more recent with improvements made to desync. As someone who plays with US players, I can tell you first hand it has improved a lot!”
Loadout presets allow you to get back in raids quicker
“I personally like the loadout presets the most, this will allow us to get back into the raids quickly and try and work on those tasks,” says Triple G when talking about one of the biggest features of the 0.13.5 update.
Now you can set up presets for your entire load out, so if you can get a hold of the gear you can be fully equipped with your full load out and ready to raid within a matter of seconds rather than spending ages toying with your inventory. Now this will likely benefit you more in the later stages of the wipe when the equipment you want is more readily available, but even now early in the wipe you can set up a couple of basic presets that will get you into the action quicker and maximize your raid efficiency.
The new boss, Kaban, will destroy you on the Streets Of Tarkov expansion
Kaban is the brand new boss in Escape From Tarkov and he can be found in the car repair shop in the newly expanded Streets of Tarkov map. Now given its early days in the wipe people haven’t easily figured out how to take him down just yet, but with his heavy machine guns and lack of mobility either some quick movement or some distance shooting seems to be the best way. If you get in mid-range with him then his ability to spray at you is not going to end well for you. So keep mobile, or out of sight, and you might be one of the first to take him down.
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