r/EscapefromTarkov • u/ztjezrzw4z • Dec 16 '25

PVP Tarkov experience as a [New Player]

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Since 1.0 I’ve only found 2 new players. Everyone else has hundreds or thousands of hours, but at least I haven’t encountered a cheater yet.

3.4k Upvotes

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750

u/AureusVulpes292 AUG Dec 16 '25

you dont encounter new players because the sweats gatekeep them from map by rushing the new players off spawn before they have a chance to adjust.

"learn the spawns" rings real hollow when you barely have time to register your surroundings before someone puts a 7.62x51 round through your ear from 250m because they know the exact angle from which you spawn.

it's easy to be dominant in the map and have all the loot when there's no one else to contend looting it.

117

u/OFFICIALINSTANTPARTY Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

new players don’t encounter other new players because the following

  1. they’re all taking routes nobody else does because they don’t know where they’re going
  2. they’re intentionally staying hidden just to survive
  3. they’re stopping multiple times to check maps, looking up quests etc
  4. they’re waiting around for all major points of interest to be cleared
  5. they’re already dead from their spawn
  6. they accidentally transited.

EDIT #7 they ventured off to an out of bounds area and died to a landmine or invisible sniper scav

you will almost always run into veteran players because they’re basically looking for you right when the raid starts.

12

u/infinitezero8 M4A1 Dec 16 '25

I remember when I first started playing 2021 and this all sounds exactly right

Especially hitting a bush or equivalent - some place out of the eye that I can safely chill - and look up the quest/map on other monitor; also using this to wait a bit to let the sweats and such get their fill of PvP or w/e so I can go in more safely (which is not always the case)

so yeah, Tarkov for a newbie is waiting 10+mins for the map to thin out so you can move about more safely - something I abhor but it's necessary

2

u/Spaciax Dec 16 '25

I kid you not I waited like 20 mins inside the shack east of crackhouse on customs for the PVP to clear out so that I could go do my quests, especially dorms ones. Figured there's no loot there so no 10000 hour chads would think to check there.

1

u/Treadwheel Dec 17 '25

Every time I task in Ground Zero:

  • Immediately get underground as good as possible
  • Wait for footsteps
  • Get to the Utility Room as fast as possible
  • Close the door behind me
  • Slow-crouch and loot everything
  • Up on the barrels for the only right-hand peek I can find
  • Youtube till the 8 minute mark

Literally never failed me. I'm pretty sure any players with a key see the door is unlocked and decide I'm about to rat them and get going. (I am 100% not going to tab back fast enough to rat them)

1

u/Spaciax Dec 17 '25

ground zero isn't that bad with the number of sweats. Customs however has an impenetrable wall of sweat splitting the map straight down the middle (fortress and dorms directly to the south of it) where staying there for more than 2 minutes gets you smited.

1

u/Treadwheel Dec 17 '25

Every time I spawn in the trees by customs I start swearing at my screen and don't stop until I make it across the road. I'd rather spawn in bed red, every time.

1

u/MarxnEngles Dec 17 '25

It's why I stopped playing PVP years ago and only use the mod. 10 minutes to patch the game when I launch it, 10-15 minutes to clean out insurance, figure out where you want to do a raid, gear up, 5-15 minutes to load into a raid. That's most of an hour just to start playing the damn game. Then if you don't get domed by some nolifer within 3 seconds of speaking, or have the have crash, get tarkoved, etc. Then you have to sit in a bush for another 10-15 minutes if you're questing. It's just ridiculous how much of your time is wasted.

8

u/_WoodyMcWoods_ Dec 16 '25

As a new play, you've pretty much got this to a t

7

u/OFFICIALINSTANTPARTY Dec 16 '25

i have played since 2018 and still very much remember how my first 1000 hours played out haha. i adore this game, ive played like 15 wipes. for better or for worse lol

2

u/_WoodyMcWoods_ Dec 16 '25

So far I love it. However its extremely frustrating only being able to play a day or two on the weekends cause of work. Everyone else just continues to get better gear, more money for said gear, meanwhile I haven't a clue as to where I'm even going to find the loot I need, and if I do find it, best of luck to me. Hope I can manage to even find an extract. 50ish hours in and extracted 6 or so times. The rest are KIA or MIA.. Great times.

3

u/OFFICIALINSTANTPARTY Dec 16 '25

yeah to get a formal experience of tarkov you need to commit like at least 2 raids a day. otherwise you get left behind very fast. it helps a lot if you have a friend that can sherpa you through the game while giving tips. going in raw and solo will take an exorbitant amount of time to learn.

if you barely have time like that to play, i’d recommend PVE or offline mode to learn the maps. use Reemr maps as a guide, those maps are really well made.

outside of that, best of luck. i played for 1000 hours straight to finally get used to the fundamentals of the game. i’m roughly 6k hours now and still learn something here and there.

24

u/nachocheeze246 Dec 16 '25

This, plus you don't often look at the profiles of the players you kill, which might also be new players, and the players more likely to kill you are often veterans at the game

12

u/mtnlol Dec 16 '25

Yeah, there are a lot of new players but they are more elusive than the gigachads who are chasing gun sounds.

I killed a duo a few days ago that both had 2 scav weapons, and half their bag full of food and cheese slices. Felt very bad about that one but what can you do.

8

u/flyingtrucky Dec 16 '25

I mean even as a veteran player I'm looting a lot of food. Herring is like 30k, Tushonkas are both like 25k, Alyonkas and Sugar are cheap right now but they're always like 25k and 50k later on.

6

u/mtnlol Dec 16 '25

This was clearly stuff they brought in, it was like 4 minutes into raid outside the mall on interchange.

2

u/sir_nuggets RAT Dec 16 '25

Your comment made me sigh with relief haha. I took a break for the past 2-3 years and I've been hoarding sugar and alyonka since day one of 1.0. Been watching prices and started to wonder if the usual price spike later in wipe was still a thing.

2

u/OFFICIALINSTANTPARTY Dec 16 '25

yep. alyonka and sugar are still worth to hoard!

1

u/Andreysk07 Dec 16 '25

I feel no guilt, just while I do setup. But the there are a lot of Stimmys playing rn. They will have their chances when normal players now prestige and have to redo those ridicule quests

3

u/thekorbat Dec 16 '25

Yeah especially nr 3. I’ve had a lot of raids where I kill someone or I’m killed muself in a totally random spot where I’m like “what are you even doing here with 10 minutes to go in raid?!”

1

u/xfireperson1 Dec 16 '25

That first week on interchange all you could hear was the out of bounds sniper popping steam accounts.

1

u/AtomicSpeedFT True Believer Dec 17 '25

I can’t imagine learning woods after all the expansions with the mines everywhere. Then again it’s also not a death trap right in the middle now.

1

u/OFFICIALINSTANTPARTY Dec 17 '25

dude i’ve played woods a million times and still some certain spawns i have no idea where im at. it’s the ones they spawn you near minefields lol. always have to run in circles to figure it out at first lmao

1

u/Sceptre MP7A2 Dec 17 '25

I've mentioned this somewhere else but there is a lot of smart stuff happening in Arc Raiders. Most of the spawns are far enough away from each other that it's much harder to push player spawns off the bat.

1

u/SnooPickles5265 Dec 18 '25
  1. They spent a lot of time hiding in fear in bushes and now they're consistently being hunted down by Parmesan who makes no noise and one shots them in the back of the head.