The G36 in Tarkov is Finally Usable! (And it's Good)

For anyone that has an OG COD background, playing 4, WaW, and the likes, this gun has been used in hand for probably a long time. The G36 is very iconic gun and to have it added in Tarkov, at the time was a big deal. One of these weapons I grew up using in other shooting games that is maybe a little unusual in terms of its design, was now in a very prominent and popular shooting game. However, this was met with disappointment because when the gun initially launched, it was met with a lot of question marks. Why was the gun so cumbersome to use? Why is the recoil egregious? And for a long time, it stayed that way, and the community lamented over the seemingly untimely death of the gun. It never got the chance to be even remotely usable and fun for people. The community gave it a try, deemed it unfit to run unless you wanted to be a free gear delivery service to your assailant, and that was it for a while. Until recently, where the guns got better. Some more than others.

And the G36 was one of the few lucky weapons to get a lot of love from these changes. All forms of recoil got reduced so now the gun is actually steady when shooting, and also having less camera recoil helps too so no more shooting up to the sky either. I believe it also got a small ergo buff, so it doesn’t take 3 seconds to ADS with a suppressor. And yeah, overall, it just feels better to both use and shoot.

There’s technically two ways of running the gun: the long-barreled version, and the short version. I opted to use the short version because I usually prefer when I don’t have to worry about the gun getting jammed up against walls and terrain, which in turn might screw me over and get me killed. And the recoil differences between each didn’t feel significant enough to warrant using the long boy in exchange for that little extra recoil reduction. Ergo to me is really important, especially as someone who has to play with v-sync on to not get horrendous screen tearing, my ads speeds are compromised because of that as well. SO, any extra ergo I can get, even if it means the gun is a little less accurate, I’ll take you know? Here’s the build I ended up going with. Nothing crazy, meta, or best in slot, but it looks good, feels good, and is very serviceable which is all you can really ask for.

But I suppose this begs the question of, how and maybe why did the G36 release with really poor recoil? In all honesty, and I can’t speak for anyone except myself, I would rather a weapon in Tarkov be released maybe too strong, rather it be really poor. Because at least that way, if the gun is strong, it can be dialed back somewhat to be brought in line with other weapons within the same class. Whereas, if the gun comes out, it’s hyped up, looks sick, has great animations, but it sucks to use, it’s less likely to receive any changes that might help its overall performance, because no one is consistently using it. It might get left in the dust and then if that happens, a gun a lot of people were anticipating and really excited for never gets the adjustments it needs to be better. People get the requirements needed to unlock it, give it a try, find out it’s terrible and then never use it again after that one time. Unless you’re into the really bad weapons, which hey, more power to you honestly, most people will shy away from the guns that are just unworkable in any capacity. At least, that’s what it feels like happens with weapon balance in Tarkov, and honestly a lot of other shooters as well. I mean if we look back at a game like COD black ops 2, that games weapons were incredibly balanced. Everything was viable, fun to use, and there were countless ways of running each weapon. Some better than others, obviously, and some guns were much more popular than the rest (MSMC, AN-94, Peackeeper, Ballista), but every single gun in that game was able to effectively take someone out if it needed to. And I think that’s one of the reasons why BLOPS 2 is so heralded as such an iconic COD game. There wasn’t just one way of playing it; variety was sincerely the spice of life for that game. Also, the pick 10 system was perfect in that game, but I digress. And I think, very slowly, we are getting there with Tarkov. All these gun and ammo changes, are shaking things up. You want the good stuff? You will have to work for it now, instead of just being able to buy it. Granted, things in general all only getting more expensive in the game and that’s definitely another conversation for another time, but in terms of how the game feels in a moment-to-moment perspective, we’re getting there one step at a time.

But yeah, G36 feels really good now. Be sure to give it a try for yourself and see how it performs. Obviously, better ammo will help with the milage of the gun, like any other, but I’m glad that it can actually perform now, when compared to its other 556 counterparts. Even though the changes weren’t directly associated to the gun itself, I’m just glad it was brought along for the ride. Let me know in the comments if you’ve used this gun since the recoil changes, and be sure to subscribe for more videos on guns that actually work now. I hope to see you in future ones.