Night Vision is better than ever in Tarkov

Night raids are something honestly kind of special in Tarkov. There aren’t a lot of first-person shooters out there, that focus mainly on gameplay and shooting guns, and can simultaneously be a horror game at the same time. It’s funny, because a ton of people I know, myself included call Tarkov an unintentional horror game. Which is true! This game has many different kinds of moments where you will get scared for one reason or another. But most of them, will occur during the nighttime and night raids. Or, at the very least, areas that are way too dark for you to reasonably see anything in front of you, unless you have some form of illumination. I advocated a while ago that we need to engage with night raids more often in Tarkov; it’s a chance to play the game in a completely different style and pace. I love doing night factory raids; going in with nothing but a light armor and pistol and just killing some scavs for some time. I don’t normally wear NVG’s because of Factory’s expansion brought a lot more lights into the map so they’re not as necessary, but they can be still useful if you shoot out all the lights. Of course, the NODs are more useful on the outdoors maps. There are four different types of night vision you can purchase or find in the world.

Now, before we go any further, I should probably mention that Night vision as a whole got some changes recently, and has made all the options even better than they were before. In addition to improving the quality of night vision, they also added proper infrared lasers and flashlights into the game. So, if you thought Tarkov was cool and immersive before, try some NODs with an infrared laser. It’ll blow your mind with how cool it is.

Back to the NODs, the AN/PVS-14 scope provides a very clear and crisp picture. The only downside to this option is that it’s a monocular option; meaning your FOV is going to be very shallow on the sides. You’d think because you can barely see around yourself this option would be cheap, but from the vendors it’s over 100k rubles, which kind of sucks. But I suppose the price is somewhat justified because of how clear the sight picture is. Either way, before the update this option was probably the clearest and easiest to actually spot enemies with. And it’s only gotten better. Even if it’s a marginal improvement, it’s better than them getting worse, you know?

The PNV-10T goggles are probably the option you see the most out in the world of Tarkov. They are pretty cheap around, 32k rubles, unlocked reasonably early (Skier level 2), and provide a solid picture in terms of visibility. Their FOV is roughly twice that of the monocular, which makes them feel better to use in general, even though you could make an argument that the mono goggle has a clearer picture that the PNV’s. Still, these NVG’s can get the job done and then some. Just make sure you get the two components that attach to the goggles, and an appropriate helmet to boot. One is sold from Skier as well, and the other is from Peacekeeper.

A couple of things to keep in mind before we continue, when you do decide to run any of the NVG options, some scopes will provide some level of difficulties while you use them. For example, using the Burris scope, combined with the PNV goggles makes using the scope fairly difficult, because the ring on the scope is so thick, that it’s lit up considerably. Scanning areas becomes somewhat of a challenge when the scope is basically screaming at you with how bright it is. Another thing to remember is that for some reason, and this goes for any NODs in the game right now, and this was present before they got adjusted, is that for some reason, it can be a very clear and bright night sky, but when you aim down a scope it gets all hazy and hard to see. Not exactly sure why that happens and whether or not it’s intentional. But for me, that’s the main issues if it is one, holding night raids back from being a premier way of playing Tarkov.

Flashlights work well at night, especially since they also got adjusted as well, so they illuminate more of the area around the light instead of just right in front of you. But there’s something so cool about NODs in Tarkov, that no other game has been able to achieve, with the exception of Modern Warfare 2019. They actually did a really awesome job not only in the campaign and in multiplayer, but Tarkov edges them out because of the available options for NODs. Either way, just some things to keep in mind if you decide to run any kind of night raids with goggles.

Back to the goggles, we got two options left. The Amrasight N-15 goggles, have the same visual depth as the PNV’s, but the two main differences are that the goggles attach to a specific head mount and not a helmet, and the second being the noticeably different color that the NODs function on. Instead of the usual greens that we’re all used to from other games and movies, these come in a shade of blue. Comparing the two side by side, there isn’t much of a difference in terms of visual clarity, so which option you go for I suppose depends on the price of the NODs in question. The blue NODs can be cheaper if you look at the right time, but they are usually within the same ruble range of one another. Whichever you go for, they will function fairly similarly, it’ll just depend on what you prefer to look at. Lots of green, or lots of blue.

And the final pair of NODs available should be no surprise to anyone who has played Tarkov: the GPNVG-18 goggles. Or, as the community has aptly named them; the quad NODs. These are the most expensive pair of NODs you can get your hands on. Over $1800 USD from Peacekeeper. Or, if you’d like to barter for them, you there are two options. A hatchling moonshine, or nine level 25 or higher bear dog tags. The moonshine is probably the best way to get your hands on a pair of quad NODs, because moonshine can be both crafted and found in the world wherever alcohol spawns. These things are hard to come by, and for good reason. They offer the largest FOV when using them and have the best visual clarity out of all the NVGs in the game. They are awesome, and obviously are my go-to pair of NODs for the late game of Tarkov. Granted, because they are so expensive and the items needed to barter for them are not super common, I don’t use them often. But when I can, I will; the FOV is just so nice to have. Being able to actually see what’s to your immediate left and right is something you kind of take for granted in Tarkov, until you can’t. But the quad NODs are the best; there’s no arguing about that. Technically, there is one more pair of head gear you can wear in the game, and while they are not night vision, it’s worth just talking about them briefly. But unless the game is about to wipe, you most likely won’t see anyone use them.

The T-7 thermal goggles. These are exactly what they sound like; a pair of goggles that act is a full screen thermal scope. An extremely powerful piece of kit in Tarkov, and that is reflected in its price point. Over 17 million rubles to run a pair of T-7's; Yeah, so at the very least I certainly won’t be using them anytime soon. Either way, I have used them in the past. And they are as strong as you’re probably imagining right now, if you’ve never used them. The one catch is that NO scope in the game works while you have the thermals toggled on. You have to use iron sights of some kind in order to see what you’re aiming at. Which is another balancing point for them. If you can’t use any kind of magnified optics or even red dots, and you have to rely on just irons and your own vision, it takes their level of lethality down just a tad. Granted, you could just use them to spot white out in front of you, turn them off and then shoot at whatever you’re looking at with a scope. A bold strategy, because should you die, that is one payday and a half for your assailant. I know these aren’t NVGs, but it made sense to give the T-7's an honorable mention, since we’re talking about headwear.

Night vision and night raids in Tarkov are still somewhat underutilized. I’m curious if one day we might have to play through the night as if it was a real day/night cycle, like DayZ or any other survival game. It would certainly be an interesting change to be forced into unfamiliar and potentially uncomfortable situations in the game. Hey, Tarkov has always been about being able to adapt on the fly, and this kind of change would be no different. And I’m honestly not against it. I’ve always felt we as the players should have to engage more with the night and the challenges it provides. Either way, there is night vision in this game for a reason; and after the most recent wipe, NVGs are better than they have ever been before. Give them a try and see what happens, you might have some awesome moments you won’t get in any other game.