Every six months or so, Escape from Tarkov undergoes a ‘wipe’, a global reset that level the playing field for everyone on the platform. It’s also the time when Tarkov becomes more popular than ever, with hundreds of thousands of players flooding the game to get their early wipe tasks completed all over again.
In this guide, I’m walking you through the best Escape from Tarkov starter tips that you can use to get ahead of the competition at the start of the wipe. If you’re a new Tarkov player looking for the best tricks and tips possible, look no further than this guide.
Best Tarkov Starter Tips for a New Wipe
Whether you’re a first-time Tarkov player or a veteran in need of a refresh, here are the best Tarkov tips you can use to get a foothold in the wipe as early as possible.
Run Your Gear
When the wipe hits, don’t be afraid to run those T4 rigs and vests – everyone else will be relying on their PACA vests (if they’re USEC) because they don’t want to risk losing the good stuff, so you’ll be going in with an advantage. If you do lose your T4 vest, you’ll just have to work harder to make it back, soldier.
Similarly, if you open a cache or a box and find a T5 – or by some miracle, a T6 – then don’t be afraid to run that, either. It’ll make you hugely more resilient than the rest of the players running around.
Understand the Mechanics
In recent years, Escape from Tarkov has undergone several major changes that have brought about new mechanics. For instance, in 0.12.12.0, ‘inertia’ was added, giving players more weight and making them slower. These days, players are utilising movement mechanics like mantling and vaulting, and in the latest update, 0.16.0.0, new recoil-based changes have been implemented.
From new ways to use hotkeys to bipods that can drastically improve your accuracy at long range, Tarkov has had several new mechanics hit the platform in the last few updates. If you’re coming in from a hiatus, you might be left confused by some of them, so take the time to understand what has changed.
If you’re a new player, make sure you devote time to understanding how some core elements of Tarkov work:
- Healing
- Inventory management
- Insurance
- Weapons and ammunition
Shopping List
Escape from Tarkov is a looter-shooter for some, with many players darting around the map eager to secure the most high-value items. There are many things that you’ll want to start collecting early on to help bolster those early-game tasks, including:
- Salewa medkits
- Morphine injectors
- Gas analysers
- Flash drives
- Module 3M body armor
- TOZ-106 shotgun
- Small ‘Tushonka’
- Toolsets
Additionally, there are several items you’ll want to keep an eye open for as you traverse the many maps of Tarkov. They’ll be hugely helpful in getting the earliest parts of your Hideout constructed:
- Leatherman Multitool
- M-Tape
- Car battery
- Awl
- Lightbulbs
- Corrugated hose
- Screws
- Nails
- Medical tools
It’s worth using a resource like Tarkov Dev to learn the maps and to pinpoint where these items spawn.
Prioritise
Prioritisation is key in Escape from Tarkov.
Should you run towards the gunfire and potentially scoop some kills, or live to fight another day by running in the opposite direction? Should you take that loot and risk being heavy as hell, or leave it and hope to find some lighter goodies?
At the start of the wipe, you don’t want to loot everything. Use a resource like Tarkov Market to identify what’s selling and what’s worth the most to help with inventory management. If you have the opportunity, you should always be extracting with every slot filled, but you won’t always have the luxury of leaving with a full backpack.
This new Tarkov wipe guide is centred around prioritisation when you think about it:
- Prioritise high-value, necessary loot such as quest items and Hideout components
- Prioritise quest completion over gunfights
- Prioritise your route before loading onto a map
- Prioritise one-time quests over daily or weekly tasks
Get Busy Tasking
One of the best Escape from Tarkov starter tips is to start grinding tasks as early as possible. By doing this, you’ll get a leg up on your opponents and start earning massive chunks of XP. Within a few raids, you’ll have the Flea Market unlocked – which is massively important and a key part of this early wipe start guide.
To that end, you’ll be heading to Ground Zero, the newest Tarkov map, to complete five tasks:
- Burning Rubber
- First in Line
- Shooting Cans
- Saving the Mole
- Luxurious Life (unlocks after some pre-requisites)
Ground Zero is effectively a starter map, and it offers a small-form, rapid introduction to Escape from Tarkov. If you’re a new Tarkov player, it’s where you’ll get your first taste of combat and exploration.
If you’re sneaky or talented, you can get these tasks completed in one raid. It’ll mean you’ll leave your first Tarkov raid with thousands of XP points, and you’ll go on to unlock some great early-wipe gains. It’ll be a nice confidence booster for the road ahead, too.
Build Up
The Hideout is hugely important in Escape from Tarkov. It offers many benefits, such as item crafting, skill growth, and boosts that you’ll come to rely on later in the game. It’s a good idea and one of the best Tarkov tips to get started building your Hideout as soon as possible.
The shopping list I’ve detailed above gives you some idea of where to start, but you’ll need a lot of resources to make the most of your Hideout. Keep an eye open for the things you need to get the biggest boosts and benefits from your Hideout as you play.
Some of the key constructs you’ll want to focus on in the Tarkov Hideout are:
- Workbench (weapon customisation)
- Medstation (health regen and med crafting)
- Intelligence Center (money gain boost)
- Library (experience gain boost)
Before you get to some of these, you’ll need to work on everything from power to security, and from lighting to home comforts like a rest area and food production systems. By the end of a Tarkov wipe, you’ll have a Hideout that’s worthy of the most accomplished PMC.
Stash Management
In Escape from Tarkov, successful stash management is key to your financial success, especially if you’re a standard user with the default stash size. This is where you’ll keep the spoils of your raids, along with weapons, ammunition, healing items, food, and everything else you find or craft in Tarkov.
Here’s a solid new wipe Tarkov tip: Buy the Lucky Scav Junkbox as soon as possible. Once you’ve got the 1.1 million rubles needed, acquire the box to stash a stunning amount of quest, Hideout, and miscellaneous items that you’ll bring back from your raids. It’ll stop your stash from getting overwhelmed in the first days after the wipe.
Remember to also:
- ‘Backpack stack’, putting backpacks inside of each other to increase storage space
- Strip guns, removing their magazines and grips to make them only one line deep. If it’s a cheap weapon, you can scrap or sell the magazines, putting on new ones later for just a few rubles
Make Gains
When you start playing after a wipe, one of the best Tarkov tips is to sell everything you don’t need very early on. This will reward you with plenty of easy cash right off the bat.
For instance, the Edge of Darkness and The Unheard Edition pre-order bonuses include a lot that you might not want or need, such as baseball caps, one-use healing items, alcohol, certain weapons, cheap attachments, and some crafting components. If you don’t think you’ll need them, you’re probably right, and once you start getting better stuff in the wild, there’s no point hanging on.
For instance, if you find one ‘CALOK’ hemostatic dressing, you’ll use that over a CAT or an Esmarch tourniquet as it has three uses before it’s gone. That’s the same for an AI-2 medkit, which will quickly be replaced by IFAK, AFAK, Salewa, and Grizzly medkits.
If you find a Grizzly, you’ll be soaring – that can heal heavy bleeds, light bleeds, injured limbs, concussions, and broken bones.
Running Guns
The best early-game guns in Escape from Tarkov can be the difference between winning and losing a fight. Early on, the starting weapons after a wipe will be everywhere, and you’ll typically see people using:
- SKS
- AKS-74U
- M4A1
- Mosin
They’re cheap, easy to maintain, and the ammunition for them will be everywhere at the start of wipe, on account of many other people using them. As I mentioned above, you shouldn’t be afraid to run better equipment than everyone else – it’ll give you an edge in the early days.
Also, make sure you’re using the right weapons for each Tarkov map. If you’re going onto Woods, you’ll want a rifle, a marksman rifle, or a sniper rifle. If you’re running through Customs or Factory, you’ll be better off with a high-ergo assault rifle or an SMG.
When it comes to loading into a raid, make sure you’re insuring your gear with Prapor rather than Therapist, but don’t feel the need to waste money insuring very low-level equipment.
Preparation is Everything
If you’re new to Tarkov and you’re looking for the best tips for your first wipe, you’ll ideally want to have a second monitor – or a tablet, or something similar. Having a second screen is huge in Escape from Tarkov, as it lets you have maps, market screens, and quest guides to help you out.
Tarkov is not an easy game, and it’s designed to be unwelcoming and a little awkward at times. That’s why it’s a good idea to use a second screen when you play.
Here are the best sites to use when playing Tarkov:
- Tarkov.dev (maps, item guides, profit trackers, loot tiers)
- Tarkov Market (Flea Market tracker)
- Wiki Ballistics (Ammo stats)
- Wiki Quests (quest guides)
- Map Genie (interactive maps)
- Tarkov Changes (patch notes)
If you’re brand new in Tarkov, it’s a good idea to either invest in PvE access or play ‘offline’ games against bots. This will allow you to learn the maps. Don’t make a habit of playing against bots, though. You’ll gain nothing but a little game knowledge – combat experience is everything and you’ll only get that against real players.
Buddy Up
It’s a good idea to play Escape from Tarkov with other people. Having that extra set of eyes and ears – and an extra gun – can be pivotal to your success in the game. Plus, there will be people to cover you when you complete certain tasks, and they’ll be able to ‘hide your gear’ when you die and they stay alive.
With that in mind, plenty of Tarkov groups exist on social media platforms, and there are many Discord servers live that offer buddy-up opportunities. Most of the biggest Tarkov streamers have Discord servers that you can lean on to find Tarkov players to play with.
If you want to find Tarkov players to run with, try some of these servers:
Run Your Scavs
This is a divisive Tarkov starter tip as not many people agree with it, but it’s a solid recommendation to run your Scav character. In Escape from Tarkov, you can play as a temporary ‘Scav’ or your persistent PMC character. Playing as a Scav will see you assigned a one-shot build that you can take on any map – except Labs.
When you play as a Scav, you can’t complete tasks and your PMC character won’t grow, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to seek out task items and equipment without worrying about losing your equipment or incurring a loss on your PMC character.
If you’re on a PMC losing streak, consider running a Scav to change the pacing a bit. Scavs spawn later in the raid, so the bulk of the action should have passed and only a few PMCs will be running around, giving you the opportunity to scoop up leftover loot and the remnants of fights.
Quick Settings
Here are some quick settings changes you should make when you start playing Tarkov:
- ‘Autohide’ Quick Slots to increase visibility
- ‘Always Shown’ Stamina and Stance icons
- ‘Always Shown’ Health Condition
- ‘Polychrome’ Health Color Scheme, making it easier to see what’s injured
- ‘Head Bobbing’ set to 0.2, as low as possible
- ‘FOV’ should be between 66 – 70
- ‘Malfunction Notifications’ On
That’s the full breakdown of the best Escape from Tarkov starter tips. I hope this helps you get started in your first wipe – or your first wipe back. Have fun out there!
For more Tarkov guides, learn how map-to-map travel works
