Back at It - Raids 16-18 - Level 10

The winter holidays in Russia always extend well past the first week of January and BSG typically celebrates with Twitch drops and a prolonging of their Christmas events.  I had a bit of time and played on several different occasions, but due to both queues and super long raid matching times, I never succeeded in playing online. Instead I just played offline and began working at Lighthouse.   The Lighthouse map is super hard for BEAR players, and it's also harder offline than online (because there are more rogues).  It was fun.

I won't post anything more about it now. But I made a map of the fixed emplacement fields of fire and I might put up a video tutorial once I figure out the best way of killing these last roaming rogues. 

Last night I returned to regular raiding.   Goals: loot and weapons.  I still need a ton of basic things for my hideout (like measuring tape and toilet paper), as well as salewas, Jaeger food, and more.  But I also need a decent assault rifle. 

Raid 16 - The Tank

Destination: Woods

Loadout: ADAR with cheap Vimoz scope, class 4 rig, meds, ears.

Woods is usually a low-stress map for getting loot and avoiding combat. Plus, the only "do something" quest I have is to kill scavs on Woods for Shootout Picnic.    I spawned somewhere unfamiliar. Stumbled on a stash, looked up, and saw a red and white radio antenna sticking out of the hill in front of me. I'm near the scav bunker.  I headed up. It was empty. I started looting when I heard a scav run up. He caught sight of me and shouted. I sprinted across his field of view and took shelter next to some boxes. I leaned out and blasted him. He was not impressed. He fired back just as I returned to cover. He's got a full auto AKM. I leaned out and blasted him again. This ADAR is not feeling comfortable. One problem is that the scav is too close for me to use the 4x scope, and I have no alternate dot sight or laser on this. So I'm having to hip fire. Still, all thing told, I feel like I'm landing a lot of shots. Why is he still standing?  

I need to reposition - run behind this wall and take him from behind. But at that moment he swung out on me, pinning me in the corner. I fired, taking him right in the face and fired and fired and fired. He blasted me to the starting screen.

Time In Raid: 3 minutes 49 seconds

Exp: 82
Shots: 27, Hits: 11, Accuracy: 0.37, Damage to Body: 259, Damage to Armor: 269

Killed By: Gogi Almaznyy (AI Scav).  GG Gogi !!

Mistakes

• should have displaced earlier
• should have brought a pistol
• killed by a scav

Successes

• Great firing and dodging on my part.  11 out of 27 shots landed. Nice!!
• Kept the raid short.

Raid 17 - The Purple Backpack

With my ADAR gone, I'm not sure what weapon to use. Definitely not the Vityaz or the MP5 if I'm returning to Woods. I bought an SKS, put a PSO scope on it, and grabbed a pistol.

Destination: Woods
Loadout: SKS with PSO, Grach 9mm Pistol, meds, ears, Class 3 armor.

Spawned near a minefield.  A short walk took me to the other half of Scav Bunker.  I switched to my sidearm and entered the area, a scav ran up, I dropped him. He had an AKS-74U. I took it, though I've never liked this weapon.  Footsteps.  I stepped out of the bunker area and circled to a bush. Another scav ran up. I dropped him. Was that really a scav? I checked him  - no, it was a player with an SKS. Named BigRattata. I grabbed his dogtags and most of his loot.  More footsteps.  Again I backed up out of the area and took cover. A PMC with a purple backback strode in. He looked at the body, I switched to the AKS-74U and aimed down sight. I got my shot lined up just as he stood, and turned away from me.  I fired, emptying the magazine into his back.  Except maybe not? That damn AK jumped like crazy, and I swear I saw bullet impacts on every hard surface in front of me, but none on Mr. Purple Backpack.  

He swung and fired, just as I stepped back to cover. He winged me.  At first I thought it wasn't bad, but then I began gasping  - all systems red. Stomach and a leg blacked. Holy shit. I started backpedaling, popping a pain. The PMC didn't pursue hard, which saved my life. Once the painkiller hit, I started moving away, and then I cut down the slope of the hill, and across his potential field of fire. I heard him fire, but it didn't sound like it was at me.  I hid in the tall grass at the bottom of the slope and crawled into a bush. That sucking sound I'm making is going to give away my location. My fortune held - there was the sound of combat back up on the hill.  I used the distraction to do surgery on my stomach, and then my leg. I ate peas, I drank water. I waited.

My arm is still blacked, but I don't want to use my CMS kit any more  - I can't replace it.  I checked my extracts and Outskirts was the only practical choice. Well, maybe I can find a bit of loot between here and there. I headed out.  I circled round. I think I got confused to my location. I thought I was at the other scav bunker, but when I got up there I recognized the body as the first one I had dropped. Back to the scene of the crime. It was quiet. Should I try looting here, or move on?  Running footsteps. I switched to the pistol. Purple Backpack returned, he fired, I swung to cover. He fired one shot then "click". He needs to reload! I advanced around the cover - but I was too slow. I tried to lean/swing around a corner, but I stepped too far into the open. And Mr. Purple Backpack used his MP-7 to share with me his name on the death screen: Neopolitan.   GG Neopolitan !! That was fun.  

Time In Raid: 17 minutes, 23 seconds (most of it healing and cowering in a bush)

Exp: 1420

Shot: 57, Hit: 3, Accuracy: 0.05, Damage to Body: 111.   No damage to armor.

Kills: Denya Krysolov (AI Scav) and BigRattata (Level 15 BEAR).  GG BigRattata !

Killed By: Neopolitan .   Nice work Neopolitan!  

Mistakes

• returning to the scav bunker.  Though, I will confess, I was honestly surprised that Neopolitan was still hanging around. Our initial encounter couldn't have been much past minute 7 of the raid.  So ten minutes later he's still hanging around?  Is this a good place to kill scavs?
• switching weapons - lost my opportunity to kill Neopolitan when he was touching butts
• using the AKS-74U.  I have NEVER liked that weapon. 
• did not survive

Successes

• Killed a PMC
• It was fun

Raid 18 - Early Morning Looting

The insurance, the meds, the money dropped on the SKS - it's all adding up. I still have funds, but they are definitely heading in a negative direction. I need a loot run.  This wipe I've decided to try to avoid scavving, if I can, and instead try pistol loot runs.

Destination: Customs

Loadout: Grach 9mm Pistol, Rig, Backpack, ears.  No armor.

Spawned on the hill behind the power tower, made my way to military road extract and then to the military checkpoint. Just as I stepped into that conex at the map edge, I saw another player heading for the gap in the fence. How did he not see me? 

The conex and the surrounding area had been looted already. I waited, then made my own way to the gap.  The area seemed clear. Looted the stash then dropped into the cement depression. I caught sight of a head bobbing on the other side of one the big pipes, moving stealthily. Is that the same PMC I saw before?  I circled around the liquid storage tank the long way and entered the go-between very quietly. I peeked out the door - he was coming this way!  I waited, then just as he arrived at the door I leaned out and shot him in the head.  Scavs started shouting and firing further in the industrial area, but not at me. When I looted the body, I was surprised: it wasn't a PMC - it was a scav.  Hmm, that's odd. He never "chirped" at all. Was he not pursuing me?

I crossed the map, looting. A lot of the better places had already been looted.

Behind Old Gas there was a body - a scav. He had Class 2 armor and an AK-74M. Yes!! I took both.  I moved along behind the trains, ready to cross to the stronghold crackhouse area.  A player crossed the tracks, heading to Old Gas. He didn't see me. I fired and dropped him quick.  He had really terrible loot (mostly random weapon parts) BUT he had something that made my heart skip: a Ghzel Class 5 armor set. Score!!  It was beat up, but hadn't been repaired yet, so it's max durability was still high. Awesome.

I made my way to RUAF. There were two scavs there and a ton of bodies. I quickly took down one scav. No problem. But the other scav was tanking my rounds. What is up?  I ducked to cover, circled the building the long way around, came behind him, fired again, landed more shots and GRONK! weapon malfunction. Fuck. I retreated to cover. The scav, still alive, moved away.  In the last wipe you could just reload to fix any weapon malfunction, but this one you need to inspect the weapon and then fix it. What are the key presses for that? I switched to my pistol.  

Wait up there, cowboy. I really wanted to kill that last scav. I really wanted to touch all the butts here - but these aren't my kills. My bag and rig are full, I have this new armor and this AK-74M and extract is just a few steps to my left.  Discretion is the better part of valor, no? 

I extracted.

Time In Raid: 27 minutes, 7 seconds
Exp: 2191
Shots Fired: 69, Hits: 17, Accuracy: 0.19, Damage to body: 586, Damage to armor: 111
Kills: Hariton Pcohtalon (AI Scav), skksi (Level 15 USEC), Vadimka Shashlyndos (AI Scav).  Godspeed gentlemen.  Good luck in your next raid, skksi !

Mistakes

• not knowing how to deal with malfunctions

Successes

• survived
• scored class 5 armor
• reached Level 10

The AK-74M turned out to be in very bad shape and couldn't be effectively repaired. I ended up selling it. But 70,000 rubles later, the Ghzel has been restored to good condition. It may prove useful in my upcoming sojourns to Reserve.

Postscript

I will not bore you with any tale of any offline raid. But this tells a story on its own: