Escape From Tarkov Early Wipe Start Guide

Hello Tarkov survivors, and welcome to the most complete Tarkov wipe guide, where we will talk about everything you need to know to have the most successful and stress-free early wipe start in the game. This guide is relevant to the most recent version of the game, patch 0.15, which means we’ll briefly mention the new map and starting quests. But let’s start at the beginning.

You might also want to read our other EFT articles:

• Escape from Tarkov Leveling Guide
• How to Make Money in Escape from Tarkov
• Escape from Tarkov Best Weapons

Escape from Tarkov wipe happens on the release of a massive content update, such as the latest one. The way the developers explained the need to have wipes is this - big content updates bring completely new and complex mechanics into the game. When new core mechanics are introduced or when they are reworked, things go badly when most players have reached the max level and have the best gear. Since the game is still in early development and requires thorough testing, it is essential that all players are on the same level of progress. 

Apart from the need for clear game testing, the more time is passed, the bigger the gap between experienced players and those players who struggle with the game. And no matter how realistic that is, a complete progress reset at least once a year makes it so that all players have to start from scratch, which levels the playing field. It is said by many in the community that the EFT wipe is the most exciting time in the game when all players are avoiding gunfights and are focused on survival and looting.

How To Survive Wipe’s Early Days

Let’s start with some general Tarkov early wipe tips and basics. In the early stages of a wipe, survival should be your primary goal. This shift in focus requires a different mindset compared to the later stages of the game. Instead of aggressively looting or seeking out combat, the emphasis should be on staying alive and securing essential items for your survival and progression.

• Strategic Raiding: Approach each raid with a survival-first mindset. This means carefully choosing your battles, avoiding unnecessary risks, and being willing to extract early if you've achieved your primary objective or secured valuable loot.
• Risk Assessment: Weigh the potential rewards of looting or engaging in combat against the risk of losing your gear. Remember, in the early wipe phase, even basic equipment is valuable.
• Long-Term Planning: Survival in the early wipe isn't just about making it through a single raid. It's about setting yourself up for success in subsequent raids. This means conserving resources, gradually building your stash, and focusing on quests that will unlock more opportunities and better gear.

By prioritizing survival over loot looting, you can ensure steady progress and avoid setbacks that come from losing gear in risky encounters. This approach will help you build a solid foundation for the rest of the wipe cycle. Successful extractions provide a 30% bonus to the XP you gained during the raid.

What To Do In the First Days After a Wipe?

You don’t know what is a wipe in Tarkov, but heard so much about it? As with any other wipe, you begin by creating your character, which only takes a few steps. Your next goal is to grab the starting quests. What’s new to this patch is the introduction of the map designed to hose new players. This map is called the Ground Zero, and it was added when Tarkov wipe happened. From now on, every starting quest will lead you to this map. So, here are the quests that you will pick up:

1. Burning Rubber: This quest requires you to take the car extract on Ground Zero. You need to head to the Police Checkpoint extract at the top middle of the map and use 5000 Rubles to take the car extract. This quest is given by Skier.
2. First In Line: Given by the Therapist, this quest involves finding the Emercom Station on Ground Zero and handing over some medicine items. The Emercom Station is near the Emercom Checkpoint extract in the bottom left of the map. You need to walk in the area for the sub-task completion and then hand in three found-in-raid medicine items.
3. Shooting Cans: The first task from Prapor, as mentioned earlier, requires you to kill five targets on the map (Scavs or PMCs) and locate the AGS grenade launcher and Utyos machine gun. The machine gun is on the second floor of the Empire building, and the grenade launcher is in the Capital building.
4. Saving The Mole: This quest requires more effort and involves the Terragroup building. You need to find the Science key from a dead Scav, then head upstairs in the Terragroup building to grab the data drive and extract.
5. Luxurious Life: After completing the above quests and another elsewhere, Prapor will give you the Luxurious Life quest on Ground Zero. This quest involves locating the liquor store on Ground Zero and obtaining specific items.

Most of these quests aren’t exactly difficult by Tarkov’s standards. However, you still have to find the right places on the map for the completion. Read more on how to complete these quests in our Ground Zero map guide. Moving on, let’s talk about why you want to be doing these quests rather than anything else. BLOG20

Escape From Tarkov Progression Priorities

Have you ever wondered why nobody is making the loot runs at the start of each wipe? Accumulating as much money as possible as early as possible seems like a good plan, but only if you’re a new player in Tarkov. In reality, looting this early is a big mistake. For this part of the Tarkov progression guide, let’s talk about the priorities.

This early on, you need to focus on leveling your character and upgrading your skills. And the only efficient way to increase your PMC’s level is to complete quests. Therefore, here’s your list of priorities for the first couple of days and weeks after the wipe

• Focus on quests - complete quests are super important this early for several reasons. First of all, they yield a lot of XP, which you need more than bullets and loot. Secondly, they give you real rewards like money, items, weapons, etc. Finally, you’ll be increasing your reputation with the traders, which will lead to unlocking a higher tier and richer assortment of wares on offer.
• Avoid Gunfights - as counterintuitive as it sounds, it’s best that you avoid fighting other players as much as possible. They won’t have any good loot anyway. Besides, the time it’ll take for you to patch yourself up will be enough for other players to come along and finish you off. The payoff is never worth it.
• Don’t loot everything - focus on quest items and the most essential loot, like keys and good medicine items. There’s no reason to clear of loot half of a map and then haul your over-encumbered butt to the extraction point. You won’t be able to carry a lot anyway because the starting gear doesn’t offer that many slots. Besides, when you carry too much, your character will have to take a breather every 4 steps because his stamina is not leveled up anyway.
• Have a plan before deploying - having a plan will make your life 10 times easier. Plan out an approximate route that you want to take. This will make it easier for you to leave once you have what you came for.
• Successful extraction over everything else - successful extractions are a major source of XP, and, as you know, to get one, you need to safely make it across the map and extract. This means that almost nothing else is important.

Keep your priorities straight even if they do not seem to align with your preferred playstyle. Once your PMC isn’t getting tired after 3 seconds of sprinting, then you can start doing raids on your own terms.

Hideout Management

Your Hideout is extremely important, and many players don’t realize how many things can be crafted for quests in there. Every single item you craft in there is considered “Found in raid,” which is a requirement for most quest objectives in the game. Plus, there’s a lot of meta ammunition that you will be able to craft before they become available for purchase from the traders.

On top of that, when you make something in the Hideout, your character gains XP for the crafting skill, which speeds up the crafting speed of all items, including the Bitcoins and other endgame items. Moreover, you get experience in the skill called “Hideout Management” which reduces the fuel, air, and water filter consumption rate. Here are some modules that you should focus on building early on:

To quickly summarise - don’t sleep on upgrading and expanding your Hideout. Its value is hard to underestimate. In a nutshell, when you’re just starting out, focus on making the generator, the med station for crafting meds and quest items, and the workbench for repairing and customizing your weapons, which then unlocks.

Efficient Inventory Management

Managing your stash is something that you’ll be doing probably more than 50% of the time that you play the game. If this is not your first wipe, then you already know this. No matter if you have the smallest stash that comes with the Standard Edition of the game or you have the biggest one if you bought the EOD edition, the loot hoarding will catch up to you sooner or later. Especially if you know what items will be useful to you later on, it will become difficult to throw them away, and eventually, you will run out of free space. Therefore, here are a few tips that will help you in the long run:

1. Buy the Locky Scav Junkbox ASAP - it will take 16 slots in your stash, but it offers 196 slots in return for all the “miscellaneous” items that you will bring from the raid. Its price is 1.1 million rubles, which is a big price tag, but it is so worth it, just like all the other containers.
2. Most bags and rigs give more space than they take - most bags and rigs will give you an extra 3-4 slots, so storing items inside these is more efficient than just keeping your items in the stash.
3. Don’t sell the containers you get as quest rewards - even though the containers have a ludicrous price tag, you’ll be better off by keeping them on you because there are many more ways to make money. But when you need a container, it will be difficult to snatch one off of the traders because they get sold out very quickly.

Some items are harder to find than others, and it might be your luck, and you will run into them sooner than needed. That’s when you’ll need the extra space.

Completing Daily and Weekly Quests

Daily and Weekly quests have been added not that long ago and they represent another method of acquiring XP. However, balancing between them and the main quests can be difficult, and you may even end up losing more resources and time on them than you think.

For the best balance and efficiency, try to combine your daily/weekly quests with your main quests. For example, if you have a few quests on Customs, and you get a daily to survive on Customs 3 times or kill 3 Scavs on Customs, that is perfect. But if, instead, you get a daily which requires you to Lighthouse to kill Scavs, just skip the quest because it won’t be worth your time to go and do that little task for ~4k experience. You’ll be better off working on your main quest as the experience gained will gradually get higher and higher.

The only exception to that rule would be if the repeatable quests have a reward that is something extremely rare or valuable, like a tank battery or a quest item, that would make it worth it to do this quest even if it's on another location from the main quest.

EFT Best Starting Builds

Making a workbench, as we mentioned previously, allows you to fully customize weapons and also create presets - custom builds which you will then be able to quickly buy parts of to make them without the need to search for each individual part. Now, let’s talk about the Ttarkov best early wipe guns and how to make them.

In order to pick the right weapon, you need to have a plan for a raid. Below, we’ll explain the build and what type of raid or playstyle it's best suited for. With that said, let’s get to the most effective weapon builds:

The SKS build is best when you’re not planning to fight players and try to stay away from densely populated areas. This is the best early build that will help you easily deal with Scavs and complete your quests. The AKSU build, on the other hand, is for those situations when you do encounter players. For example, that one early quest where you need to plant an item on the Factory map. This build is easy to make, and when coupled with the updated recoil system, this thing becomes a real menace.

Total Cost

Note: The total prices for the builds may be subject to change in the game. The prices for the ammunition are also listed for reference.

• SKS Build Total (with Micro H-2 Sight): 77,900 rub
• SKS Build Total (with PSO-1): Varies
• AKS-74U Build Total (without MRS): 46,300 rub
• AKS-74U Build Total (with MRS): 63,200 rub

Ammunition

The SKS ammo is the best in the game early on and you can buy a batch of 400 bullets before the trader has to restock. This is more than enough for this gun.

• Ammo for SKS: 7.62x39mm FMJ (Prapor LL1) - 91 rub/bullet
• Ammo for AKS-74U:
  
  • 5.45x39mm PS (Prapor LL1, after "Delivery from the past") - 109 rub/bullet
  • 5.45x39mm HP (Jaeger LL1) - 72 rub/bullet

The 5.45x39mm HP are available from the get-go, but they don’t penetrate any armor, so aim for the legs

Conclusion

This concludes our Escape from Tarkov beginner guide. EFT is a complex game with a lot of systems intertwined. It is extremely difficult to keep all of the moving parts in the game, and so much in EFT depends on luck. This is part of the appeal of the game, lots of players love it for how it challenges them.

With this guide, we tried to equip you with the right tools to make the early start as smooth of an experience as possible. The new map makes it a bit easier for new players to learn the ropes because it restricts access to anyone above level 20. At the same time, the map is rather small and there’s a lot of PvP going on as players are trying to learn its layout. With that said, just keep that plan for the next raid in your head, try not to go off course too often, and you’ll be all set for the long haul. Stay safe and stay frosty, survivors!

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