Escape from Tarkov Guide Directory
Escape from Tarkov is at the heart of the extraction shooter sub-genre, offering players heart-pounding action amid a plethora of hardcore mechanics. That inevitably makes the game quite tricky for newcomers, providing arguably one of the steepest learning curves that you can find in a game right now.
Thankfully our comprehensive coverage of guides will guide you along the way, making those early hours far easier to handle and leading you along to Chad status in the end. From the game's meta weapons, ammo, and armour to any of the most complex quests - we've got you covered right here.
Beginner's Guide
What better place to start than right at the beginning? Starting out in Tarkov is by far the hardest place, so we've put together a number of helpful primers to guide you through the opening hours and many of the game's most important systems:
- 7 tips to know before playing
- Beginner's guide
- Factions explained
- Should you pick USEC or BEAR?
- New wipe tips
- Penetration explained
Map breakdowns
Getting to grips with the maps is the first thing you should do when playing Escape from Tarkov, and we've got some fantastic guides to help you out in that process:
Flea market & traders
Understanding the flea market and mastering the traders will make the early hours smoother too, and we've got a couple of guides to help demystify both marketplaces:
Hideout systems & items
Similarly, a lot of your items - especially in the early-wipe period - will be sourced from the Hideout, so mastering that and upgrading it fully is an essential part of progression:
- Best & most profitable crafts
- Bitcoin farm
- Fuel explained
- Hall of Fame
- Cultist Circle
- All Hideout items
Equipment tier lists
Once you've got to grips with the game though you'll want to know which equipment is worth using. We've curated lists for the best guns, ammo, armour, and more that are up to date with the latest patch and meta:
- Best ammo
- Best guns
- Best armour
- Best sights
- Loot tier list
- Melee weapons list
- Night vision goggles compared
- All new weapons
Weapon builds
Having the best weapons is one thing, but you'll also need to know how to set them up properly. Make sure to follow our build guides below to optimise your guns:
Quests
Most of your raids in Tarkov will be spent fulfilling quests, but many are confusing, obtuse, or challenging to complete. Get all of the tips and complete walkthroughs in our individual quest guides below:
- Anesthesia
- BP Depot
- Burning Rubber
- Checking
- Chemical Part 1
- Classified Technologies
- Corporate Secrets
- Delivery from the Past
- Disease History
- Drug Trafficking
- Energy Crisis
- Extortionist
- First in Line
- Grenadier
- Gunsmith Part 2
- Gunsmith Part 3
- Gunsmith Part 9
- Gunsmith Special Order
- Hot Delivery
- Introduction
- Letters
- Luxurious Life
- Out of Curiosity
- Pharmacist
- Saving the Mole
- Search Mission
- Seaside Vacation
- Shooting Cans
- Shortage
- Stray Dogs
- What's on the Flash Drive
Item locations
Looking for a particular item or key? We might have the guide for you, as we've covered some of the hard-to-find items needed for Hideout upgrades, quests, and more:
Best settings
Make sure that you've set up your game for maximum performance with our various settings-based guides:
Bosses
Stay on top of the challenging bosses in-game with these dedicated breakdowns:
Error messages
Nobody likes running into an error message, so find out if there is anything you can do when the most common ones crop up for you:
FAQs
As Escape from Tarkov is such a complex and confusing game, it's only natural that there will be plenty of questions asked by new and long-time players. We've done our best to answer the most popular ones below:
- What are the best games like Escape from Tarkov?
- Why is my compass not working?
- How to access Arena
- How to download
- How to extract
- How to switch sights
- How to play with friends
- What is the player count?
- Are there any promo codes?
- Steam Deck & controller support
- Twitch drops
- When is the next wipe?
- Is it coming to Xbox & PlayStation?
- What happened to Edge of Darkness?
This guide is a work in progress and will be continuously updated as the game evolves.