Tilted in Tarkov - Raids 22-26, Level 11

Funds are getting low, no good weapons in stash.  Need some rubles.

Raid 22 - Pincered

Destination: Customs
Loadout: pistol and rig and backpack and meds. No armor.

Spawned behind military checkpoint - made my way to the loot rich industrial section. As I entered through the gap in the wall saw a scav standing in the road, but not close. I made the mistake of shooting at him.  He didn't fire back, but I got his attention. I looped around the liquid storage container and cut back through the go-between, hoping to finish him and closer range and a more protected angle. No sign of him.

Went to the next go-between - there was a scav on the other side. Fired at him, but my shots missed. Don't take him head on. I backed out and prepared to once again loop around the long way. But as I went the first scav was there. I ducked behind some pipes. The pistol is not feeling good. I was firing on him, landing shots, but not bringing him down. I used the pipes to protect myself from him. Until the second scav unloaded his AK-74 into my back. He must have advanced through the go-between - I didn't even hear him.

Time In Raid: 5 minutes, 11 seconds
Exp: 118
Shots fired: 17, Hits: 2, Accuracy: 0.12, Damage to body: 113
Killed By: Givi Korol (AI Scav)

Mistakes

• engaging that first scav with a pistol and too long a range.  
• letting myself get pincered 
• died to an AI Scav (again)
• did not survive

Successes

• used the pipes effectively
• the maneuvering was overall smart, even if it didn't work out.

Raid 23 - Success

Another pistol run. I'll skip the blow-by-blow. I successfully killed one scav with a pistol, fired on another with an MP5 and extracted with loot.  Quiet otherwise

Time In Raid: 25 minutes, 57 seconds
Exp: 1406
Shots fired: 22, Hits: 3, Accuracy: 0.14, Damage to Body: 111, Damage to Armor: 18
Kills: Vovchik Palach (AI Scav).  Godspeed Vovchik!

Successes

• Survived
• Made Level 11

Raid 24 - The Bunker, Part 2.1

Now that I'm Level 11, the "Part 2" of The Bunker quest is available to me.  I put on my last armor set and picked up my one remaining Vityaz and headed to Reserve.

Loadout: Class 4 armor, Vityaz with flashlight/laser combination and a dot sight, ears, meds, backpack food and drink.

Spawned near trains. Made my way to White Bishop.  My energy and hydration are low from the last Customs raid, so in the basement of White Bishop I stopped and had a little snack. Footsteps approaching - I switched off my light and waited. I have a good position - covering the open doorframe from and angle that's hard to check, and a closed door behind me. There are two med-spawns in this room, so it's likely my visitor will be coming.  Except he didn't. After a minute I realized he must have been upstairs, though the sound was exactly like he was down here with me.

I continued.  Descended the ramp to the water, light off. Automatic weapon fire broke out over near the King antechamber. I crossed the door frame and took up a position where I could right lean out to cover the hallway. It was clear.  And quiet.  I turned on my light and stood to advance - ready to run and jump over the water when I heard footsteps in the water to my left. Fuck - wish I'd heard those before I started moving with the light.  I turned off the light and right leaned to look down the water.  BAM - a blast of autofire, the first shot of which took off my head.

Time In Raid: 6 minutes, 47 seconds

Killed By: BigTittyBBWLVR with 5.45x39mm BP to the head.  GG BigTittyBBWLVR 

Mistakes

• Once my position was given up I probably should not have tried peeking.  Jumping across the water would be a death sentence, The best play was to have gone back up and descended again via one of the other buildings.  

Successes

• when I was camping the med room, I was stone still. No shuffling, no ADS noise. 

Raid 25 - Scavs On Point

I need rubles, weapons, armor.  Should I run the Bunker with just a pistol?  I'll try another Customs loot run.

Destination: Customs
Loadout: Pistol, backpack, rig, meds, ears.

Spawned in the industrial region. Entered the building with the collapsed roof. I went upstairs and started looting. Even though I was crouching and creeping, a scav caught sight of me through the glass block windows and shouted and started firing on me.  Woah! This is new.

Too dangerous - I left that room and want to loot the toolbox on the catwalk. More scav shouting from outside.  Just as I finished with the toolbox, three scavs entered the building. Two from the north and one from the south.  This is the worst possible position - I'm trapped up here with no cover. I shot at one, causing him to run. I ran. The other two fired and neither missed.

Time In Raid: 2 minutes, 13 seconds
Exp: 40

Mistakes

• I really don't know the right play here. Jump off the catwalk to cover?  

Successes

• learned something about the scavs

Raid 26 - Desperation

Destination: Customs

Loadout: pistol, backpack, meds, rig, ears

Spawned across from the Customs house.   Sat in a bush for a minute, then headed out. Got loot. Crossed the river via the low path that approaches the RUAF extract.  Up at the RUAF extract were two scavs, who started firing on me. I used the cover of the vehicles very well, circled the buildings and took them both down with the pistol.  They each had an ADAR. I took both.  And one of them had a Class 4 armor. Took that too. Awesome. 

I was on my way to the construction zone when I heard the sound of combat over on the far side of it, someone with a beefy full auto weapon. What's the play here?  I'm here for loot, not combat. I've got loot and things I need. Let's play it safe. So instead of going into construction where I might encounter the player, I went around it outside the wall to the road.  Just as I reached the big rock someone began firing on me from the hillside across the road.  And then more fire from somewhere near the bridge. And more fire from down near the bus depot. I was weaving like crazy, trying to find a safe place behind rocks, cars - but it was too hot. I ran back, weaving, shots on my heels, and pushed through the bushes into the construction zone, gasping for air.  What just happened?

I need to be careful - there may be a hostile PMC here. Someone in the conex shipping container. It was a scav - I dodged to cover, and fired and dodged and fired and dodged and fired. Finally he died. Scavs were shouting all around me. I scrambled and became a killing machine. I killed four scavs in that area, but they kept coming. I jumped over a fence and ran towards stronghold. More scavs shouted from near elbow. Am I tagged and cursed?  

I ran to stronghold. It was empty. I could breathe.  I looted the area and checked my extracts. ZB-1012 is the closest - I headed out. It occurred to me that the PMC I had heard at construction must have been killed - he probably had good gear - should I go find it? And face the scav swarm again? No thanks.

I took the opportunity to peek Old Gas from the train tracks. There was a lone scav there. I shot him in the head. He repositioned and fired on me. I ducked to cover.   I should cross over and use the right lean. But I was lazy - I just peeked over the edge again and he killed me.

Time In Raid: 25 minutes, 55 seconds
Exp: 2634
I somehow forgot to screenshot my stats.

Kills: Fyodor Klim, Leva Borobyaninov, Ashot Protokol, Anfim Krysa, Gogi Samarskiy, Zurab Vetka
Killed By: Sergey Letyoha 

Mistakes

• laziness

Successes

• great firing and maneuvering
• killed 6 scavs
• this raid was a lot of fun, though it stings to have lost out on the loot, weapons and armor I had gathered

PostScript

I've been forced to run scav runs.  The loot runs as a PMC are great, especially for opportunities to get XP. But they are expensive.

• 24K - backpack
• 13K - ears
• 10K - bank robber rig
• 12K - meds
• 20K - food and drink (if needed)
• 10K - insurance

So that's 70K-90K rubles and does not include the pistol, magazines and ammo, which would add another 15K.   Insurance returns can help soften the costs, but lately I've been having bad luck with insurance.

The scav runs give you at least 50K in equipment, often more, plus they remove the need for food and drink.  On the flip side, they are boring, give no real XP, and take real world time.  At this juncture, I'm going to run some scav runs to try and regain liquidity, but I'll drop them as soon as I can.