Skip to main content

The Level 2 Trader Blues

 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 number of Reserve runs with this thing. The results are disappointing. I trained hard offline to be able to pick up the headshots, but the BT ammo is just struggling. Any helmet seems to deflect it, with or without a face shield. And even armorless scavs seem to shrug off body hits. It's just taking too many shots to bring down a target.  So I sold the SAGs.


Next up: the Ash-12. The main advantage with this weapon is that all of its heavy hitting ammo is available on the flea market, including the very deadly PS12B.  I love this weapon, and have written a lot about it before.  But unlike last wipe, acquiring the ammo is problematic.  Last wipe I bought hundreds and hundreds of rounds of PS12B and never paid more than 2,000 rubles per round, which is already a LOT of money.  But this wipe, I'm lucky to get them for 2,700 rubles a round, and oftentimes the prices are near 6,000 each. This I cannot afford.  

So, I've got an Ash-12 and have been running it. But feeding it is not always feasible.


My latest attempt: the VPO-209. I have a soft place in my heart for this weapon, as it really helped me during wipe 12.10.  It was my go to weapon back when I was a low-level, and even after I reached the flea market at level 10 I kept using it.  Its base recoil is way too high to be practically usable. With heavy modification and a suppressor I can get it down to 130.  Ooof.  Still too high, and now it's awkward as well.  But I've been testing it offline with .366 TKM-AP, it seems to be doing ok.  The round isn't as deadly as PS12B, but it's usually deadly enough. More testing is warranted, but I'm hoping this can be my fallback when the Ash-12 isn't available. 

It the VPO-209 doesn't work out, then I'm not sure what's next. Maybe the SVD? Or the VSS?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Field of Fire of Emplaced Weapons at Lighthouse USEC Base, for BEARS

On the new Lighthouse map, the USEC rogues are very aggressive against BEARS and will sight on you out to 300 meters or more, and will fire on you far quicker than they will on a USEC PMC.  The fixed guns are particularly dangerous as they can kill you with a single hit when you might not even realize you are close to the base. I made a map with some fields of fire noted on it. There are two mounted machine guns on building 1 , two mounted machine guns and a grenade launcher on building 2 , and a single machine gun on building 3 .  Plus there is a mounted machine gun and grenade launcher on the southwest corner of the base (lower right on this map).  I have noted the general field of fire of each of these weapons on the map. Obviously, there is a lot of cover, so just because you are standing in a red zone on this map doesn't necessarily mean you can be seen and hit. BUT, if there is any sort of line of sight (including through trees, bushes, walls and vehicles) and you a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sucks to Be a Beginner

Tarkov is brutal, and it's especially brutal to beginners.    In the game you have some amount of money, which you can choose to spend on weaponry, ammunition, body armor, medicine. But as a beginner, even if you have money, your access to these things is extremely limited.  Many a levelled player will sagely intone to us noobs "It's not the gun, it's the ammunition."   "I never use anything less than M80."    Really?  You don't say! ... and fuck you. The only M80 ammo I've ever got close to was buried in my stomach right before I died.  And don't get me started on the weapons.  Even if I find some M80 ammunition, what will I run it in? An SA-58 ? A Vepr Hunter?  I can't buy those. As a beginner, what are my options? Besides a couple pistols, there are five that I can buy with cash:  Kedr PP-91 SMG, the Mosin bolt action rifle,  the SKS hunting rifle, the TOZ-106 shotgun, and the AKS-74U assault rifle.   Modding ...
2 comments
Read more

Raid 61 - Dumb Funny - Level 16

Practically nothing came back from insurance on my last two failed raids. I don't have any armorsets, but maybe I don't care. I just want to go to Reserve and see if I can kill some raiders.  I've been practicing keeping my weapon aimed at head height, instead of letting it slump down. This one little change makes a huge difference in my offline CQB fights against raiders.  Time to put this new skill to use.  Raid 61 Loadout: HK rifle that I've modded to have two sights: 4x Pilad scope and canted delta point dot sight, plus a flashlight.  Meds, ears, backpack, grenade. No armor. Spawned outside one of those vehicle bunkers on Reserve. I scooted out and began to move when I saw a wall where I was expecting barbed wire and realized that I didn't know where I was. Oh God - this is that far in the corner death trap spawn. Just then grenades began exploding. I hit the deck behind a bush, praying the grenade fire wouldn't get any closer.  Eventually the emplacement wa...
2 comments
Read more