OK we’re flying through these now, here’s part 3 of our Tarkov guide where we’ll focus on the Economy, the Flea Market and a bit on Traders. The first and second parts of this uber guide can be found here and here.

This will be a nice short one as the essentials are easy to cover. So let’s jump in.

The Economy, Traders and Missions

Any items you find or loot in the raid can be sold for profit. Until level ten you only have access to the Traders and each will give you a better price for certain items, so always shop around. Some items will let you modify different guns, some are consumables and some are used to upgrade the Hideout. Others are just there to give you money.

Now there have been a number of changes to the way the game’s economy works but by the by there’s only a few things you need to actually be aware of.

Any item that’s found in-raid will have a special ‘found in raid’ status (which manifests as a little white tick in the bottom right of the item’s icon). If you die the item loses this status, even if it were in your secure container. If you kill a player and take something off them that they brought in it doesn’t have this status either; only items spawned by the game on that raid will carry the tag.

This is important as you can only sell items on the Flea Market (the in-game player auction that is available at level 10) that have the ‘found in raid’ status. This was a big change in the recent wipe and has drastically slowed down how quickly people make money and has ‘gated’ a couple of missions behind trader levels.

As such early on I’d advise keeping everything you find and only sell weapons, gear and bags. That said you obviously need to make money, so if that is not possible you should be on a particular lookout for Tushonka (canned meat), USB Flash Drives, Morphine, Salwehla’s (red medkits), White body armour, MP133 shotguns and any cigarettes you find. There are a number of missions that require these items and you can really get stuck on them if you don’t collect these items from the start.

When it does come to selling, if it’s found in raid always check the flea market first selling there if it’s valuable (say over 15k). You’ll make much more money and you’ll be surprised at just how valuable things can be. Often these are tied to missions and the price fluctuates as the bulk of players come to, and then pass that mission (savvy players make a fortune manipulating this knowledge), but you’re usually going to make much more money on the flea market.

If it’s not found in raid then you’re going to want to sell to traders in this order. Jaeger (if you have access), Therapist, Mechanic, Prapor. You will find that stripping weapons down to their component parts can sometimes make you more money and that some traders require certain amounts of money to be spent with them to increase your standing. Take this into account when choosing who to sell to. So again, don’t be afraid to shop around.

Traders also provide missions, many of them being hidden behind standing or level prerequisites, but the missions are by far the quickest way to level, make money, and get gear. You should proritise missions and try to clump them together as often you can complete multiple missions on one raid on the same map. ‘Stacking’ your missions this way will greatly increase the speed at which you level and progress, so consider it carefully. 

It is possible to level up while making some serious money by completing these missions and any items you receive as a reward will have the ‘found in raid’ tag, so AGAIN don’t forget to check them on the flea market.

You have other options as well; it’s possible to make money just making items and trading on the flea market. Many specific, hard to find (in raid) items can be made in the hideout for example, and some can sell for LOTS of money.

It IS worth though trying to identify what’s needed for you to level the hideout and keep an eye on them as having a collection of Nuts/Bolts, bulbs, nails and corrugated hoses, will simplify things for you in the long run when it comes to upgrading things yourself. It will be up to you and your current situation to decide whether you take advantage of the high-prices for some loot in the early-raid or keep them for your own upgrades. There’s no right answer here and I oscillate between selling everything and keeping stuff all dependent on my bank balance, and I wager you will too.

Suffice to say, a bit of time spent exploring your loot, the flea market and the hideout  can make you serious money which will greatly increase your ability to field good gear in a raid. So do it!

Finally, there are a number of excellent trades you can make with the traders (natch), for really good gear later-on. Identify some of the items you like the look of and if you start ‘collecting’ for them early it will make it less painful later-on. For example I started collecting paracords from the start of this wipe and then only had to buy 1 more to trade for the Siic case (a highly valuable key/money/card storage item) saving me a significant amount of money and vastly increasing my looting efficiency in-raid. This kind of strategy is worth considering. It can be a little daunting at first, but a little research and experimentation and it’ll all click. I promise.

And that’s it!

Told you it was a short one. Part 4, on your load-out is here.

Remember, if you want to see me play Tarkov, or have questions you want to ask me live, then come drop by when I stream at Twitch.Tv/Spats1e