Learn what to do in your first raid through our Escape From Tarkov Beginner’s Guide!
Jumping into Tarkov for the first time can feel like diving in the ocean without a clue about how to swim. I still remember my first few Tarkov raids and they were awful. Getting killed seconds into a raid, losing all your gear, scrambling through my keyboard desperate to unjam my gun. It was brutal
Most beginners get completely overwhelmed with the boatload of information and steep-as-heck learning curve that the game welcomes you with. Other beginner guides aren’t really helpful because they just throw too much knowledge at new players who can’t even comprehend this stuff.
In this EFT beginner’s guide, I’ll share what I learned with 3 years of EFT experience to make your first Tarkov hours more manageable in the simplest and most beginner-friendly way I can.
If it’s your first time playing this game and you’re looking for an easy-to-understand Escape From Tarkov Beginner’s Guide that will ease you into EFT, this is for you.
What is Escape From Tarkov?
Escape From Tarkov is an online extraction shooter where you participate in raids (matches) to take as much loot as you can without dying. In Tarkov, you can kill other players and AI-controlled NPCs and take their items as well.
These raids take place in various locations and your only goal is to scavenge and survive. Dying means losing everything you worked so hard to collect.
Unlike Battle Royales, there is no winner or last man/team standing in Tarkov. If you survive, you take your loot with you.
You do these raids again and again to level up and progress your account.
Also Read:
- How Armor Works in Escape From Tarkov: Discover These 4 Crucial Stats
- How to Survive Raids in Escape From Tarkov – 8 Essential Tips
Extraction Points
You now have an EFT account, you jumped straight into a raid. Now, you’re just roaming aimlessly across a map without a clue on where to go. Tarkov doesn’t do a lot of hand-holding for players.
The first thing you need to do is locate an extraction point. Extraction points are specific areas in the map where you can escape from a raid. Every map has multiple extraction points. To find them, double-click “O” and a list will appear.
Take note of the timer because when this runs out while you haven’t extracted yet, you will lose all your gear and loot.
The goal is to loot as much as possible, and/or kill players and NPCs while making your way to the extraction point before the timer runs out.
When I first started, I just rushed into extraction points, scared of losing all my loot. But that’s what you will be heading for if you just enter extraction points carelessly.
These are high-traffic areas where players camp to kill unsuspecting noobs. Approach extraction points with caution and with a plan.
Also Read:
- How Armor Works in Escape From Tarkov: Discover These 4 Crucial Stats
- How to Survive Raids in Escape From Tarkov – 8 Essential Tips
EFT Controls & Essential Keys for Beginners
Tarkov is one of the games with the hardest and most complicated controls. But you don’t need to master all of them at once. Here are the most essential controls you will need in all of your raids.
Movement & Navigation:
- W, A, S, D – Move: The basics
- Shift (Hold) – Sprint: This creates more noise and makes you more noticeable.
- Ctrl: Slow walk: Makes you less noticeable and produces less noise.
- Ctrl + Scroll Wheel – Change Stance (Crouch Height): Allows you to adjust your crouch height for better cover.
- C (Press) – Crouch: Standard crouch.
- X (Press) – Prone: Makes you harder to detect. You’ll use this a ton.
- Alt + A/D – Lean Left/Right: Leaning around corners is critical for peeking without exposing your entire body.
Combat Controls:
- Left Mouse Button – Fire
- Right Mouse Button (Hold) – Aim Down Sights:
- V – Melee Attack:
- R – Reload: If you double-tap R, it will do a quick reload, dropping the current magazine on the ground (you can pick it up later). Good for intense and tight skirmishes.
- Alt + T – Check Magazine: This gives you a rough estimate of how much ammo is left in your magazine. I suggest you remap this to a more natural keybind for quicker access.
Inventory:
- Tab – Open Inventory: Opens your Inventory, where you can manage gear, health, and loot.
- Ctrl + Left Click – Quick Equip/Move Item: Instantly moves items to/from your stash, backpack, or equipped slots.
- Middle Mouse Button – Examine Item: If you find an item you haven’t seen before, use this to check its details. I suggest using this frequently to learn more about different items and gain a little bit of exp.
Hotkeys:
1,2,3,4,5,6, etc.: Weapons and Healing: This lets you quickly switch to a weapon or healing item. You can assign stuff to your hotkeys for easy access.
Important Misc Controls:
O – Check remaining raid time
O (Double Tap) – Check Extraction Points
M – Map: Works if you have a physical map in your inventory
N – Toggle Night Vision
Tarkov’s steep learning curve is hugely attributed to its complicated mechanics and a boatload of key bindings to remember. But with these basic and essential controls, you should be able to get through your first dozen raids without checking settings every other minute.
Manage Your Inventory
Your stash and gear are displayed in your inventory. If you’re a beginner this will look like a jumbled mess. The easy fix here is to click the auto-sort button.
EFT’s inventory works like Tetris. Press R while moving an item to rotate it and make full use of the space in your inventory. You can unload magazines or fold stocks to make your gun take up less storage and fit into a space.
If you want to quickly move items to/from your stash, backpack, or equipped slots just remember Ctrl+Left-click.
StealthCore’s ESP cheat will let you see opponents and loots through walls and pinpoint their location. Go check it out.
Your stash is your primary storage but it can be expanded through certain items. Backpacks, for example, can be stuffed with all sorts of items. So when you find one, make sure you transfer other items into it.
An ammo case lets you store all kinds of bullets while occupying only 4 squares in your stash. You can also put items in your tactical rigs. For more info on how armor works in Escape from Tarkov, check out our guide.
Your stash capacity can be upgraded in your main character’s hideout.
Hydration and Energy
Just like most survival games, you also need to take care of your physiological needs in EFT. Thankfully, it’s simple. All you have to worry about as a beginner is keeping your hydration and energy levels in top shape.
To restore your hydration, you can drink any beverage. Meanwhile, eating food will restore your energy levels. Pretty self-explanatory stuff but very essential.
Being dehydrated will cause you to take damage over time and having low energy levels will cause you to be sluggish and immobile.
Healing
Since your main priority in EFT is to survive, this Escape from Tarkov Beginner’s guide wouldn’t be complete without discussing healing.
If you’re used to magic bandages and medkits in other games that heal all sorts of injuries and restore HP like a miracle, you’re in for a tough ride in Tarkov.
Your limbs also have individual health points. Each body part and injury type also requires different kinds of healing items. Let’s discuss the essentials.
First off, medkits. Medkits restore raw HP and can be dragged into a specific body part to restore that limb’s HP.
Your body parts can also bleed which causes damage over time and drains your energy. But this can be fixed by using bandages for light bleeding and tourniquets for heavy bleeding.
Splints are used for fractured bones. If left untreated, these fractures will hinder your combat and weapon use, looting, and overall interaction with your surroundings.
Lastly, painkillers. These come in handy during skirmishes because it allows you to move and see like normal no matter the damage and injuries you are currently sustaining.
Learning what, how, and when to use these medicine items can literally be the line between life and death in EFT.
Scavs Vs. PMCs
Now that you know the most basic gameplay elements, it’s time you learn about different characters in the game.
Your main PMC is your main character. By playing as your PMC, you can bring in weapons, armor, and gear from your own stash.
On the other hand, a Scav is a random character that you can use during raids. This means you’ll be getting random gear and you’ll be dropped in an already active raid to fill the space.
PMCs are all players-controlled while Scavs are mostly AI. If you play as a Scav, AI-controlled scavs won’t attack you in raids unless you hit them first. But be careful because might run into a player-controlled scav. The uncertainty makes the raids more high-stakes.
Since Scavs are given random gear, you can add these to your stash after a successful extraction. So check your Scav’s gear and if it’s already good, don’t hesitate to extract as early as possible and bring home free items.
Scavs are literally free loot characters. So make sure you use them when they’re not on cooldown.
Roubles
Roubles are the primary in-game currency in Escape from Tarkov. You use Roubles to buy, sell, and trade items. Acquiring Roubles is essential in building your account and progressing in EFT.
Roubles can buy you weapons, medicine items, and armor to prepare you for raids. You can also use it to upgrade your stash for more storage, buy valuable items from other players in the Flea Market upgrade your hideout, and much more.
You can obtain Roubles through various methods, but the primary one is looting. By looting high-value items in areas such as Shoreline, Interchange, and Resere, you can get tons of Roubles. As long as you extract successfully.
Don’t forget to take quests from traders before hopping into a raid. This will give you tons of Roubles and exp.
You can also buy and sell for profit in the Flea Market or trade your items for more valuable ones.
That’s why using scavs is so important. It literally gives you the chance of getting more loot and Roubles without risking your main character.
Sound
Sound is almost as important as vision in this game. That’s why I strongly recommend playing EFT with a headset. The difference is night and day when you have immersive sound as it helps you with awareness and positioning dramatically.
Knowing where the sound came from can be the difference between taking down your opponents or being snuck up from behind and losing all your loot without even putting up a fight.
When you engage in combat and fire shots, your gunshots will be heard in the surrounding area and players will be attracted to your location. Make sure you don’t stay there too long after a fight and looting your opponent.
On the other hand, you can also use sounds to your advantage. Listen to gunshots and footsteps to be more aware of your surroundings and to avoid potential threats or take down unsuspecting enemies.
Again, a headset is a must if you want to survive more raids.
Conclusion
That’s it for now for our Escape From Tarkov Beginner’s guide. Now you know what to do on your first raid. It’s time to try out what the game has to offer and gain some experience yourself. With these basics, you can now jump into Tarkov, ready to learn and survive.
Note that this guide only scratches the surface. So be ready to die a lot and discover new things. In the end, that’s what makes Tarkov thrilling.
If you want to be more prepared before your first few raids, you can hop into a Map in offline mode by clicking Next instead of Ready.
This will let you practice your mechanics and familiarize yourself with the maps without the risk of losing anything.
