I Tarkov Poorly

I need about 1500 Exp to make Level 11.  Maybe it's time to get back to questing.  Besides, "find snacks for the Jaeger", one of my quests is Operation Aquarius.  Ostensibly, this is a cool quest because it sends me into Dorms, which is one of those places I never venture. And it should be easy - hop in, hop out, extract. Piece of cake, right?  I bet most people can do it on the first try, but for me, I'll generously allot three raids to the attempt. Destination: Room 206 of two level dorms on Customs. Goal: Complete Operation Aquarius in three attempts or less. Progress I am useless Raid 64 Loadout: MP-9 SMG with dot sight,  laser,  and three 30 round magazines of Pst gzh.  Press armor (48K), ears, meds, one grenade.  Key to 206 in secure container along with CMS kit and IFAK. I "salted" that first magazine with some few rounds of AP 6.3. But I can't buy that from any dealer and it costs 1.2K rubles per round on the flea. So every third or fourth...

When Elvira told me there was a shortage of medical supplies, and salewas specifically, she was not joking. As I took care of business for Prapor and others, I was constantly on the lookout for them. Checking bodies of operatives, abandoned Emercom camps and staging areas, any place there might be medical supplies.  I went over to the Ultra mall - I remember Emercom had set up a staging area outside it during the evacuation of Tarkov. There were abandoned ambulances but no salewas. I even ventured into the mall, which is the demesne of that psychopath who calls himself "Killa" and cleared out a little dispensary that used to be there.  But not a single salewa did I find. It occurred to me, I could probably just make one. My hideout isn't exactly a medical grade environment, but having been the victim of gunshots, I can tell you that "Is it sterile?" is never an immediate concern  (unlike "Am I going to die?"). The empty red wrappers with their white on...

This raid went so poorly that I'm reluctant to even post about it.  Destination: Shoreline Goals: avoid players kill some scavs survive and extract Raid 63 - From Here the Only Direction is Up, Right? All my gear from two raids ago came back on insurance. Yay.  So my loadout is identical. Loadout: Two weapons. Scoped and suppressed VPO-209 with one 30 round magazine of .366 TKM AP and one of .366 TKM FMJ.  MP5 with spare mags of noob ammo. Korund Class 5 armor, ears, meds, food and drink. Shattered mask. Forgot to grab a grenade. Before spawning in I was vaguely hoping to spawn near Road to Customs again, so I could make another run like my previous raid, to see if I could tackle it better this time.  But, instead I spawned behind the resort, near the South Fence Passage, with extracts at Pier Boat or Tunnel. I took concealment in a bush and checked to make sure my SMG was set to autofire and the VPO-209 scope was ranged to 100 meters.  Allright, I'm ready, now ...

With the spark plug I was able to build the generator in my hideout, and with that I was able to craft Salewas, and with those, I finished the Shortage Therapist quest. And with the experience from that I graduated to Level 10.  Finally!   I sold off a bunch of these medical supplies I had been gathering on the flea market, and bought myself some .366 TKM AP ammo. That stuff is nearly 700 rubles a round!! Whelp! That's like 10x what I had expected.  I'm not sure I like being Level 10. Now when I Tarkov poorly I have no one to blame but myself.  Before, like a teenager who hasn't moved out of the house yet, I could always blame the system that denied me access to my every desire.  Raid 62 Destination: Shoreline The goals today are much like yesterday:  avoid players kill scavs survive and extract Loadout: Two weapons.  Suppressed scoped VPO-209 with one magazine of .366 TKM AP and one magazine of .366 TKM FMJ.  And a Kedr with several magazine...

I only need a bit over 2000 Exp to make level 10.  Countless Scav raids on Interchange each hitting four or five med spawns have garnered me enough meds to open my own pharmacy, but not a single Salewa.  But that's ok. I can push over 2000 simply by killing a bunch of scavs and surviving. Destination: Shoreline (my current favorite map) Goals: kill scavs avoid players survive achieve Level 10 Progress:  Tantalizingly Close Raid 61 Loadout: Two weapons. MP5 with dot sight and suppressed VPO-209 with basic Pilad 4x scope. The combo I call the "noob VSS".  My new Korund Class 5 armor, ears, and my trusty "Shattered" Halloween mask. Rig, magazines aplenty with noob level ammo, T-bag backpack, meds, one grenade, water and can of herring.  Container has splint, IFAK, and CMS surgical kit.   Spawned along the "new" west wall, not too far from Road to Customs extract.  Made sure scope was ranged right (100 meters), and MP5 set to autofire and then headed ...

New VSS  I almost bought a VSS from Fence yesterday. I really liked that weapon back when I briefly had one during my Woods purgatory.  It was listed for 80K. Without thinking, I went to purchase, but it had already been sold.  This was lucky for me. I can't buy the ammo or the magazines required for that weapon. I clearly wasn't thinking straight. So I decided to build my own.  Here is my recipe for a DYI VSS for people who don't have access to the flea market: VPO-209 (buy from Fence for ~40K, or, more easily, get from Scavs) Rotor 43 Suppressor (Skier for 28.7K ) Submachine gun of your choice (Kedr from Prapor for 15K, Kurz from Peacekeeper for 186 U$D, sometimes Fence has suppressed SMGs) That's it!  Now, instead of clicking 'B' to change between auto-fire and single fire, you just switch weapons!  To round it out, you might want a scope: Bastion AK dustcover (Skier 6.3K) 25mm Rings (Jaeger 1.7K) Pilad 4x Scope (Jaeger 15K) If you buy each of those from...

Not having access to the flea market is making things needlessly hard. I can't finish the Gunsmith quest until I get the recoil of my MP-133 down, which I guess means I need a muzzle brake...which I can't buy from any trader. Nice. Maybe I can hang a rock on the end of the shotgun to reduce the vertical recoil, but then it probably won't pass on the ergo. I notice there have been some changes to the traders.  For example, Fence was offering overpriced AKMs.  Finally!  That's great for us who don't have access to the flea. And I still need Salewas to finish the first Therapist quest. Or a spark-plug so I can build a generator in the hideout and then craft them with the medstation.  But I haven't found either. I've been doing lots of scav raids on Interchange, but no luck. Making rubles, but not finding these quest items. Actually, I _did_ find a Salewa on a scav run, once. But there was a big fire-fight going on at the closer extract, so I tried the other, ma...

I seem to be unable to find salewas or a spark-plug. I guess I also need to find some of that cheap white body armor. And croutons. Seems uninspiring.  I guess I'll hunt scavs and loot and see what happens. Also, I've been practicing offline with the M4.  The stock one is difficult to use. Maybe I'll take out these ADARs on real raids.  Destination: Customs Goals: find shit kill scavs practice using ADAR  survive Progress: pathetic Raid 53 Loadout: ADAR 2-15 with three 30 round magazines of M855. Kirasa Class 3 armor. Ears. Meds. Rig, T-Bag backpack.  Splint and CMC Medkit in secure container. Insurance: 19K Spawned above river, across from smugglers.  Crossed little junky bridge and then crossed road.  My destination is crackhouse.  Heard some fighting down near RUAF checkpoint. Hmmm, that's the way I'm planning to go.  Walked down that direction, but not moving slowly carefully enough. Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me, spun around but l...

USEC was such bullshit. The recipe was simple: a serving of "ask no questions" combat vets mixed with a fat dollop of  corporate double-speak. It made money and covered asses.  Win win. As I've mentioned before, USEC didn't have the usual officer ranks. Instead of Lieutenants, Captains, Colonels, we had Managers, Directors and Vice Presidents. And instead of Warrant Officers and Sergeants we had Team Leads. And we had teams because, I kid you not, "there is no 'I' in 'Team'". "There's no 'I' in 'squad'", I pointed out to the drone giving us the mandatory bullshit corporate presentation. "There's no 'I' in 'division' neither" chimed in Jerry. "There's two 'I's in 'division'", corrected the drone. "Actually there's three 'I's in 'division'", I corrected. You get the idea. Where was I?  The helicopter .  So after the helicopter...

All my outstanding quests are just "find shit" quests. I need Salewas, white body armor, food for Jaeger.  If I could find a spark-plug then I could craft Salewas. I've been hitting Oli hard in Scav raids, making money, but not finding what I need.  In offline practice, I see that the crackhouse has quite a few med things, especially Salewas. I normally dislike going in buildings, but if I catch a good spawn, I'll hit it.  Goals: head to crackhouse and find Salewas (or spark plug, so I can craft them).   survive Destination: Customs Raid 51 Loadout: Suppressed VPO-209 with .366 TKM FMJ.  A great ammo against scavs, but probably not great for PMCs unless I can eke out a headshot or leg meta (which I'm not good at).  Crappy class 2 armor, ears, meds. T-Bag backpack.  CMC Medkit, splint, and extra ammo in container. Insurance: 5K (mostly previously insured) I spawned across the river, at the trailer park end. Excellent!  That's a great spawn for...

I made level 9 in the raids with om3ga . He advised me that until I hit Level 10 I shouldn't worry too much about seeking out PVP action. I will need better armor, better weapons, and that means getting to the flea market should be my focus, which, in turn, means completing quests. Destination: Customs Goal: Find Salewas and/or a spark plug (so I can build a generator and then craft Salewas).   Raid 49 Loadout: OP-SKS with suppressor, dot-sight, one 20-round magazine of BP and two of PS. Kirasa class 3 armor, rig, ears, meds, one grenade. In container: CMC medkit, 60 rounds BP. I spawned outside in the liquid containment section, near the small tanks.  I headed for the building near there, since it has good loot, going slow and keeping my head down, because a player might spawn in that building. I was in the depression between the tanks.   I hadn't reached the berm when I heard a player on the cement walkway between my location and the building.  I waited f...

One of the readers of this blog was struck by my struggling and ineptitude and took pity on me. He offered to help, to go on some raids together.  My first thought was "I have a reader!"  and my second was "Awesome!".  Because of time-zone and other challenges it took a bit to arrange, but finally om3ga and I ventured into customs as a duo. Destination: Customs Goal: Help cornflake-cperk not suck, and have fun. Progress: It was a lot of fun. Raid 47 Loadout: SKS-OP with dot-sight and suppressor.  Three 20-round magazines, two of BP, one of PS. Ears, Kirasa (class 3 armor), MBSS backpack, meds, two grenades.  Red armband to prevent team kill. One of the first things I learned before we even got in the raid is to get the 100 ruble eyecup for the cobra sight and to bring a bigger backpack. He was concerned that my backpack was too small. I prefer the smaller ones (T-bags and slings) because big packs make it hard to hide in bushes, and oftentimes I just take a big...

I had that dream again last night. I guess it's more of a memory - remembering that moment when I was standing on the tarmac at the Tarkov airport, lost, and about to make the dumbest decision of my life.  If I had a time machine and could use it only once, that's where I'd go, no question about it. It was the same day as the big banana. I bet a lot of people wish they could time machine back to that day, assuming they are still alive. When your job has you handling secrets and classified info, you begin to view information itself differently. Information becomes an obligation, a responsibility, a liability. Secrets are a hassle, and knowing more just means more work.  I can't speak for CIA agents and folk like that, but for me, handling classified material in the military, it didn't take long to develop an anti-curiosity. I don't know, and I don't wanna know.  So between that and the isolated habits I acquired in Sudan, my world had shrunk to what I could t...