Left Shoulder Shooting is Coming to Tarkov

What has been one piece of advice you’ve heard in your times playing Tarkov? Something that is universally said across the board because it is so powerful it can make or break fights depending on the situation. That is, to do your best in taking fights with a right-sided peek. What this means is approaching a wall, or whatever piece of cover is in front of you and leaning to your right, thus exposing the smallest amount of your body as possible. Which will help in keeping you alive. Anyone who has triple digit hours in the game usually says this to people who are newer and looking for ways to die a little less often. And while this advice is sound, I have always been under the notion that these situations can be avoided entirely by playing more from range whenever possible, Obviously, if you’re low level and don’t have access to any scopes or the flea to get scopes, that’s fair. But not allowing yourself to be put into those situations where a peek can make or break a fight is usually my preferred advice. But all of that is about to potentially change. Because BSG with the winter patch is adding the ability to quickly put your weapon against your left shoulder and shoot from an entirely new angle. This could remove Tarkov’s weirdest quirk of the game which is the advantage of being always on the right side. Now, with the ability to shoulder your weapon to the left, you will be able to take fights from more unconventional angles and approach the game with an entirely new lense to it. There are so many major changes coming to us in the winter patch, which is quickly approaching. And it’s hard to discern which one might have the greatest impact. But my hope is that this update is something people really take advantage of, instead of being one of those cool additions that kind of gets forgotten about, which has happened before in the past. So, if you’re excited about the new changes and the potential impact left shoulder shooting might have on the game, be sure to subscribe to the channel for more videos using these mechanics when they are added.

Left shoulder shooting is something the community at large has asked for years to be implemented into the game. It never really made sense that such a well-trained PMC wouldn’t be able to swap their weapon to the other side of their body should the situation call for it. And while I understand from a programming perspective how much of a nightmare this must’ve been to add into the game, from a gameplay perspective it just makes sense to be able to do it. And now we will be able to. What this opens for players is the ability to tackle fights from any angle, perspective, or direction with a greater degree of freedom. The feeling of always having to constantly focus your attention so that you peak other players from the right side was a muscle memory that took time to develop. But now, a brand-new muscle memory will need to be figured out.

The animation itself is exactly what people were hoping for. A quick and simple swap to the left shoulder. Now, the PMC doesn’t go through with it all the way, and switch their hand positions and everything else, but rather as explained by Nikita, it’s a quick and temporary way to get the benefits of peeking from the left, without exposing your entire body like we normally do in the game currently. To be honest, looking at the weapons from their left side is strange. We never saw that half of guns in Tarkov unless you inspected them. In raid, we’re so used to only seeing one half of it, but now we get to see the entire weapon. Even if it does look strange, I’m sure we will get used to it.

But now the bigger question that looms overhead is, what kinds of new angles are people going to be able to shoot safely from? And that’s a great question because now we get to look at Tarkov from a completely different lense. The game and meta of peeking safely has been figured out to a dangerously accurate degree. But now, well, the sky is the limit. Who knows what kinds of angles people are going to figure out with this newfound opportunity and ability to peek from the opposite side everyone says is so dominant.

My biggest concern with this addition is that people don’t use it. That’s it, really. This is something that can be game changing should enough people remember to interact with it at all. Because as awesome as this is, it’s one of those changes that can very quickly become forgotten or irrelevant because something else pops up that catches everyone’s attention. I know I will be making a conceded effort to really use and abuse this mechanic to see what it’s capable of. But I also know not everyone plays Tarkov that way. I am the weirdo that likes to use obtuse weapons, not min/max everything and try to play the game generally in unconventional ways. It’s just how I enjoy Tarkov personally after all these years. And again, I’m not saying it’s the right way, or the only way, the beauty of this game is how freeform it really is in terms of running your raids. And the ability to peek from the left side is just another way of expressing that.

Alongside left shoulder shooting, the new recoil system that has been iterated on for months now seemed to be in the game. And while it’s not final, the actual recoil of the weapons looked much more reasonable than what it is currently now for moderated modded weapons. There was something different about the weapon sway that was extremely unappealing to the eye. Half the time the PMC was shooting, the reticle for the red dot sight was off screen and not visible. So, there is something funky going on in that regard, that I fear might sneak its way into the game, but the actual recoil of the weapons looks better, which makes me happy. The best part about this is they have this recoil on the ETS servers for anyone who has access to them and can provide feedback. Which means they want to knock this out of the park. I wonder what the difference will be now for a weapon that barely has any parts on it, versus one that is best in slot. We will have to get our hands on it, and luckily for us, day one of the wipe will be the easiest time to figure it out because everyone will have stock guns. And if those perform well, I can only imagine what modified guns are going to feel like. But all these changes together in a single patch, means that weapons in Escape From Tarkov are going to feel the most different than they have ever felt. And while I am nervous about recoil and weapon sway, I am also very eager to get in there and just play with stuff to see how everything feels.

This entire winter patch is arguably one of the largest and game changing updates to Tarkov that we have ever received. It’s insane looking back at the roadmap BSG put out earlier this year and how almost everything we saw is coming in a single patch. I imagine there might be some day one wipe problems because it’s just that expansive of an update, with vaulting, updated armor hitboxes, and now the left shoulder swapping. Just these alone could warrant a wipe patch, but there is still more going on behind the scenes. All of this on TOP of Arena hopefully coming out very soon, and it’s a good time to be a Tarkov fan. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know in the comments down below what your thoughts are regarding left shoulder shooting, or anything that is coming with this winter update and be sure to subscribe for more videos about these changes when they get put into the game and what the consensus is across the community. I hope to see you in future ones.