I Tarkov Poorly

 I've reached Level 16 now, and have levelled up half my traders (Skier, Prapor, Therapist, Peacekeeper) to level 2, and have flea market access. Awesome. So now I can pretty much run any weapon I want, excepting the ones banned from the flea. That's nice too.  But there is a hitch: the ammo.  Most of the better ammos are locked behind top trader levels and are not available on the flea.  Leveling up my traders to Level 2 got me access to 9x18 Pst gzh and M856, and PP. What the hell am I supposed to do with that? There is a new weapon called the SAG, which is a 5.45 single shot carbine.  It has super low recoil and good ergo, much like an STM-9, but unlike the STM-9, it has the potential to use decent ammo, with rounds that can fly a fair distance.  With a little modification, the SAG becomes even better. It's responsive and zippy. A great little headshot machine. There are also some Prapor trades for BT ammo, so I started running the SAG with BT. Ran a num...

Last wipe I focused on questing and avoided scavving, preferring loot runs so as to optimize any experience gained, since scav XP does not count toward the PMC. It took me about 50 raids to reach level 15 last wipe. This wipe it took 81, plus a whole lot of scav raids.  In part because I did not really focus much on questing, and when I finally did I was already 20 raids in.  Looking forward to the new game that is Tarkov with the flea market. Not sure I'll do many quests after this. I never did complete the Punisher series, and that nags at me, but I just don't see it in the cards, especially if the next wipe were to come around Christmas time again. I may just try out some weapons and runs raids for fun.   I have a bunch of AKs in my stash. Maybe I should just sell them to Mechanic and buy something I really want. Not sure. But what does it matter? The important thing is that with the flea market, the game becomes simpler - now it's just a matter of garnering ruble...

While pursuing The Bunker Part 1, I killed a scav and he had picked up an assault rifle I had never seen before: an HK G36 5.56x45 .  His had a very short barrel - making it more like an SMG than an assault rifle. Seemed cool. There was a hiccup. I was level 12 and didn't have access to the flea market. I couldn't buy magazines for this weapon. The only mag I had was the one I found it with.  But beggars cannot be choosers, so I kitted out with it and went back to Reserve to pursue The Bunker Part 2. Right off spawn I encountered one of Gluhar's guards, he fired, I got off a quick spray, and then jumped down to one of the vehicle dugouts, breaking my leg. Healed my leg, evaded, repositioned, repacked my one sole magazine, and somehow managed to kill the guard. This in the first minutes of the raid. He had a Vityaz, but with no stock (?). I took it. I picked up the black bishop, black pawn and white pawn entrances to the bunker without truly descending into it. Then I scoote...

Tarkov wiped in June. I downloaded the update mid-July. As usual, haven't been playing it much.  This wipe I've decided to not blog every raid. Instead I'm just recording the stats into a spreadsheet.  I'll figure out later how to put that on the blog. Summary of Wipe 12.12.30 (So Far) Technically, this is my fifth wipe. Right off I decided I wasn't interested in grinding all those beginner quests again. Instead, I decided to just run around Customs and maybe Reserve and kill things and have fun.  Excepting a few short Woods raids to unlock Jaeger and the compass, that's what I did. It started out great.  I killed a couple PMCs, killed Reshala and some Zavodskys, and a whole lot of scavs.  My survival rate was floating around 50%, which is par for me. I was banking rubles, approaching 2 million. And, most importantly for me, I went 17 raids in a row without dying to an AI Scav.  Things were great. And then they weren't.  I started dying all the time, e...