Reinvestment into Your Tarkov Kit is Crucial to your Survival

Tarkov at the end of the day, is a numbers game for a lot of people, myself included. How much money you have, what things cost, is it worth it to upgrade your armor or weapon? We ask ourselves these questions a lot during our time in the game. And this is only magnified whenever the game wipes, and the rubles we spend matter more. But it’s not just about making a weapon good and cheap at the same time. Sometimes, it’s about building something that can be iterated upon raid after raid, and slowly, through some careful planning and money managing, can be built into an extremely powerful weapon only after a few raids. The idea of reinvesting back into your own kit has been talked about before, in fact, Deadly Slob several fantastic videos about this concept. But today, I wanted to talk about it once more; how my thought process is when I am able to survive multiple raids and make some money in the process. And just overall, what some of your buying habits should be when you go about trying to survive Tarkov, on a budget.

Initial weapon cost is obviously going to be a major contributing factor when looking for a weapon to choose from. And even after that, there are other factors that will influence the price of some weapons. Time of day, how far we are into a wipe, and more. But one weapon, after all these years, has stayed tried and true in terms of price, effectiveness, and ability to be reinvested back into to make it a deadly weapon: The ADAR. I recently made a couple shorts about this weapon, because I still think it is slept on. The ADAR can be bought off the flea for anywhere from 20-30k rubles. “But the durability is half, why would I want that?” You might ask. Well, Skier sells the ADAR lower receiver at level 1 for only 7k more rubles. Meaning once you buy the gun, and swap all the parts onto the new receiver, the gun is 100 durability and ready to be used. After getting the gun, the only part I add to it at the start, is the compact prism scope from skier level 2; obviously optical attachments are very subjective. So, if you have something else you prefer to use, feel free to swap it for whatever that is. But again, we are trying to work on a budget, which is why this scope is my go-to. A lot of people are not a fan of it, because the reticle is rather bulky, but honestly, I’ve used it for so long, I’ve come to really like it. Another alternative that I think will be very useful this wipe is the AUG A-1. Maybe it’s just me, but I see this weapon as becoming fairly common out in Tarkov for its sheer simplicity and ease of use. At Peacekeeper level 2, or around 50k on the flea, the built-in scope means you don’t need to put any parts on it at the start. Even if the scope is only 1.5x magnification, once you level up a little but more, you can actually swap the top rail of the A-1 with the more modular A-3 version and put whatever scope you like.

Either way, we have our weapon, now you choose armor that you either have laying around or can reliably purchase, which if you have Ragman level 2, there’s honestly only one option: the 6B3TM, also known as the rat-rig. There is honestly a conversation to be had about the existence of this armor and how it trivializes at least half of the level 4 options in the game, and how useless they really are. Now, because it is early game it sells out quickly, and while there are other level 4 options that Ragman has, to be blunt, the suck and are WAY too pricey for what they do. So, if you don’t mind rocking a level 3 armor, the 6B23 has been my alternate choice to pair with the ADAR, because usually, on a good day, these sell on the flea anywhere from 30-50k rubles. On top of that, the armor steel material means it repairs beautifully, even if it gets destroyed rather quickly in raid.

Helmets, that is kind of an easy one: use the SSH helmet. It’s cheap at 21k rubles, you have access to it from the moment you open the game, level 3 protection, and has a high ricochet chance. Obviously, if you find a good level 4 like a striker or TC helmet, insurance fraud whatever you are wearing, but again, like the rat-rig, there is an argument to be had that the SSH is one of the best helmets in the game.

Now, it’s one thing to be able to build a kit that may not be super expensive, but it’s another thing to know what you should invest in to make your kit better, should you manage to go in a survival streak. A lot of people will say different things in this regard, but for me, a suppressor is almost non-negotiable for someone who plays mainly solo in Tarkov. It just helps with concealment and makes you moving across the map a little tougher to pinpoint. In terms of which one you should pick, with single shot weapons like the ADAR or SAG AK, it doesn’t matter; just find one that’s the cheapest and go with that. Ergo, recoil and other stats matter less because you have much more control over how the weapon is going to handle when you shoot. After that, ammo is always a safe bet. Whether that’s just re-upping so you have more reserve and at the ready, or going from something like 56A1 to 55A1, better means you have a higher chance of killing anything that is put in front of you, potentially yielding an even longer survival streak. After that, if your armor is busted, consider upgrading that to something like an MMAC, or a level 5 if you have the barter and items for it. You most likely have found something in your raids and swapped already, but just something else to consider reinvesting back into.

At the end of the day, the longer you survive in Tarkov, the more money you hang onto. And the overall better time you will have. I mean, it’s kind of captain obvious, but I think it’s important to try and exhibit good spending habits in the game, and knowing what you should buy and for what price, will help you in the long run. The whole point of this idea of reinvestment is to spend as little of your own money as possible, and to use items you find in raid to serve as your surrogate spending money. This way, you tap into your own funds as little as possible, so when you do inevitably die, it doesn’t hurt as much because you went on a 3, 4, or even 5 plus raid streak and make a cool gun and kit, without going overboard on spending. This is all just one of the many ways to play Tarkov. It is not the only way, but for myself I find I really enjoy starting from a simple kit, and being able to build up overtime to something much more lethal and effective. It feels more rewarding and doesn’t hurt nearly as much when death finally strikes. If you have other ways of playing Tarkov that you enjoy, be sure to sound off in the comments, and if you enjoyed the video, like and subscribe for more videos about kits in Tarkov and how they can be build smarter and not harder. I hope to see you in future ones.