Your First Raid in Tarkov: A No-Nonsense Survival Guide

Your first goal in Escape from Tarkov is not to win. It's to survive. This isn't a battle royale where you fight to be the last one standing; it's a high-stakes survival shooter where the primary objective of any given match, or 'raid', is to enter a map, secure valuable loot, and get out alive at a designated extraction point. Death is not a respawn screen—it's a catastrophic loss of every piece of gear you brought with you. Forgetting this simple truth is the fastest way to go broke and burn out. The entire game loop revolves around managing this risk, accumulating a better arsenal, and completing quests for the game's traders. Everything else is secondary to the simple act of getting out alive.

01

PMC vs. Scav: Your Two Identitiestag

You have two ways to enter a raid, and understanding the difference is critical to your economic survival in Tarkov. You can play as your main character (PMC) or as a temporary scavenger (Scav).

Playing as Your PMCtag

Your PMC, or Private Military Contractor, is your persistent character. This is who you level up, who completes quests, and whose skills improve over time. When you play as your PMC, you choose your gear from your personal stash. This is a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Any loot you successfully extract is yours to keep, and any quest objectives you complete will count. However, if you die, you lose everything you brought in with you—your armor, weapons, meds, and backpack—unless it was insured or stored in your special Secure Container.

Playing as a Scavtag

Every so often, you can play as a Scav. Think of this as a free, no-risk loot run. You spawn into an ongoing raid at a random location with a completely random set of low-to-mid-tier gear. Your goal is the same: loot and extract. The crucial difference is that if you die as a Scav, you lose nothing from your main stash because you risked nothing. Any gear you successfully extract with is transferred to your main character's inventory. Player Scavs also spawn into a raid that's already in progress, not at the very beginning. Furthermore, the AI-controlled Scavs that populate the map are not hostile to you unless you shoot one of them first. This makes Scav runs an invaluable tool for learning maps, farming loot, and making money without any financial risk. Use your Scav run whenever the cooldown is over.

02

Your First True Mission: Learn to Extracttag

Before you worry about combat, you must master extraction. If you can't get out of the raid, any loot you've found is worthless. When you load into a map, you need to know where your potential extraction points are.

To see a list of your available extracts, double-tap the 'O' key. This will show a list in the top-right corner of your screen, along with the raid timer. Some of these extracts will have question marks ('???') next to them, which means they are conditional and may not be open. Others are always available. You absolutely must have a map open on a second monitor or your phone when you are learning. Search online for a map of your chosen location (Customs is a great starting point) and use it to navigate to these points.

Extraction points often have visual cues to signal they are active. For example, the 'ZB-1011' extract on Customs has a green flare and light on when it's open. An inactive extract will be dark and lifeless. You cannot simply leave from any point on the edge of the map. You must learn your specific extract locations. The best way to do this without risk is in an Offline Mode raid. From the main menu, you can select a map and check a box for 'Offline Mode', which lets you run around the map alone (or with AI bots enabled for practice) without any risk of losing your gear. Spend your first few hours in Tarkov exclusively in offline raids, just practicing running from your spawn to your extraction points.

03

Surviving the Basics: Health and Healingtag

Tarkov's health system is unforgiving. Your health is distributed across seven different body parts: head, thorax, stomach, two arms, and two legs. If your head or thorax reaches zero health, you die instantly. If any other limb is blacked out (reduced to zero), it can no longer be healed directly and any further damage to that limb is distributed across your entire body, which can kill you very quickly.

Your hotbar is your lifeline. You must bring medical supplies into every single raid. Here are the absolute basics you need to understand:

• General Health: An AI-2 'cheese' medkit or a Salewa FIRMS kit restores hit points to your limbs. You can right-click and select 'Heal' or drag it onto a specific body part in your health screen.
• Bleeding: You will suffer from light and heavy bleeds. A simple Bandage or an Army Bandage will stop a light bleed. A tourniquet, like an Esmarch or CAT, is required to stop a heavy bleed. Some advanced medical items like the Salewa can do both.
• Fractures: If you fall from a height or get shot in the legs, you can get a fracture, which will cause you to limp and make horrible noises. A Splint is required to fix this.
• Pain: When you are seriously injured, your character's vision will blur and they will be unable to sprint. Painkillers (like Analgin or Ibuprofen) temporarily remove these effects, allowing you to run to cover or push through a fight even while badly hurt. They do not heal you; they only mask the symptoms.

Keep your essential medical supplies in your Secure Container. This is a special box in your inventory where items are kept even if you die. While you can't hotkey items from your container, it guarantees you won't lose your life-saving meds raid after raid.

04

The Other 50% of the Game: Your Stashtag

Inventory management is a core part of the Tarkov experience. You will quickly accumulate a mountain of weapons, components, barter items, and junk. Mastering your stash is key to efficiency.

Essential Shortcutstag

Learning a few keybinds will save you an immense amount of time:

• Ctrl + Left-Click: Instantly moves an item from one inventory to another (e.g., from your Scav's backpack to your stash).
• Alt + Left-Click: Instantly equips an item to the appropriate character slot.
• Middle-Mouse Button: Pressing this while hovering over an unidentified item will 'Examine' it, revealing its properties and granting you a tiny bit of experience. Do this for everything you find.
• 'R' Key: Pressing this while dragging an item will rotate it, which is essential for playing 'Tetris' with your limited stash space.

Protecting Your Geartag

Aside from the Secure Container, your other main tool for mitigating loss is Insurance. Before a raid, you can pay one of the traders (Prapor or Therapist) a fee to insure your gear. If you die and another player does not loot your insured item from your body, you will get it back in a message a day or two later. Always insure your primary weapon and armor, especially as a new player. It won't always come back, but when it does, it's a massive relief.

Once you reach Level 15, you will unlock the Flea Market. This is a player-to-player auction house that completely changes the game's economy, allowing you to buy almost any item you need and sell your loot for its true market value. Reaching Level 15 should be your primary goal as a new player.

05

Final Taketag

Escape from Tarkov has one of the steepest learning curves in all of gaming. You will die. You will lose your favorite gun. You will get shot by someone you never saw. This is the core experience. Do not get attached to your gear—it is a consumable resource. Focus on learning one map inside and out, use your Scav runs to build your bank account, and treat every death as a lesson. Survive, adapt, and eventually, you'll be the one causing others to have a bad day.