If You See the Shot in Tarkov, Take it.

Let me paint you a picture; you have a weapon with some range. Could be a DMR, bolt-action, or even just an AR with a scope. You’re in a little perch, not being bothered by anyone. And then you see them; your target. Probably about 110 meters (about 360.89 ft) out. They’re moving along not a care in the world, and then they stop to loot something. You drag the reticle to their head. You line up the shot, but you hesitate for just a fraction of a second; just a couple frames in game. And then the person runs off and you missed your opportunity. It’s hard not to beat yourself up after messing up a relatively easy shot. But it’s okay, because my honest advice to get better at these situations is to just take the shot. Whatever happens after, you’ll figure it out. But seriously, take the shot.

I’m sure this has happened to everyone at least once while they were playing Tarkov. You wait and wait for that absolute perfect moment, and then for some reason, you just don’t take the shot. I can attest to this, especially with a bolt-action in my hand. I’m so worried that because a bolt-action is innately so slow with its follow-up shot, that if I miss the first one, there is a chance I won’t get another opportunity for a second one. Normally, patience is a virtue, especially when dealing with long range in Tarkov. But over the years, and especially recently, the game has sped up in terms of how fast people are able to spot enemies and react to someone far away with a well-placed shot. So, the time to be able to idly sit and wait for that perfect moment for someone to either stop moving or get into a position where their head is exposed enough to land a critical shot, is severely reduced. Reaction speeds across the board are wild now, so, what I have been trying to do more on my end, is to just take more shots at people when I have weapons that can do follow up shots. If it’s not a bolt-action, even if the shot isn’t super clean, I have been trying to just send rounds down towards people. And that is kind of my advice to anyone who struggles with the same mentality. Just take the shot. Don’t be afraid to miss and shoot another time. Again, if your weapon permits it, of course. Bolt-actions make this hard, but any other weapon is usually okay.

This is something that I still need to work on, but I felt compelled to bring this up because there might be someone who has the same mentality as I do when it comes to patience and trying to find the perfect opportunity to land a shot. And there are a lot of factors that go into whether I take just one shot, or fire multiple in rapid succession. Distance is obviously the first and main one. The further you are from your intended target, the more time you can give yourself to make the shot count. Because the odds that they will see you from a very far distance is much less than if you were next to them. If you’re much closer, then the situation is entirely different. Do they see you? Can you spot any high-level armor pieces they are wearing? Are they shooting at you first? These questions usually are in my head as I am dragging my scope across their body as they are running, and then from there, I try to take my shots. And that’s usually where my biggest issue lies.

Whenever I feel like I got the perfect shot at a close to medium distance from my opponent, I take it. And then I usually miss it. Okay no big deal I got another ready to go. And then I miss that one as well. And from there, it becomes a downward spiral of missing shot after shot until they spot me and return fire. Usually resulting in an instant head-eyes situation, ending that raid before it ever really got started. And those deaths are some of the hardest to swallow and reflect on. You know you messed up; you completely whiffed the kill shot and because you panicked instead of just staying calm and trusting yourself, you died for it. Every situation is certainly different from one another, but if you can’t trust yourself when things go from bad to worse, your confidence will waver, and you’ll be less inclined to attempt those kinds of kills. But it’s okay; it really isn’t a big deal if you mess up and die. That’s the cycle of Tarkov. What you need to do after you die, is reflect and figure out where you messed up. Was it the initial engagement? Was it your follow up shots? Did you panic when you didn’t hit your opponent? Or perhaps, was it just a simple issue of their game sense being off the charts, and you not having a real chance to retaliate back? Either way, I say take these losses as an opportunity to try and just fight back next time; don’t be afraid to use a lot of ammo. It’ll be dirty, the fights might get scrappy, but at least you might be able to walk away from them more often with loot in your bag and a smile on your face.

To anyone who struggles to take a shot at someone in Tarkov because they’re nervous they might miss or are afraid of the inevitable fight that will ensure, don’t be. Just take the shot. Whatever happens after is something you should be looking forward to. It’s just another aspect of the game that you can improve upon. And something like that alone is enough for me to get back into the game and try to have some fun and pick fights with other players. You may win some, you might lose some. You might instantly die because you picked the wrong house, fool. But either way, even if your gun is just on single and you send out some tap shots towards someone, that’s more than enough. Or you can just full auto spray into someone and just compensate for the recoil accordingly. Whatever feels best for you is what you should use, of course. But the moral of the story is, take the shot. You might surprise yourself. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video and be sure to subscribe for more videos about getting over anxiety when it comes to getting into PvP fights in Tarkov. I hope to see you in future ones.