I haven't even been playing for a month Escape From Tarkov. I can't even consider myself a newbie when people with 100 and 200 hours still don't even have their seat belt on. It's been a long time since I felt so lost and useless in a video game. I have a lot to learn and not absorb everything as quickly as I consume Warhammer 40K lore. Another adventure that I have in parallel.
I usually play with friends and acquaintances, something that makes learning much easier. But I can't do it every time I play, not even half the time. That means that most of my experience is being solo. I knew it was going to be hard, but I never imagined it would be worse than Rainbow Six Siege, which I abandoned because it caused discomfort in my neck and shoulder area due to the tension I accumulated during the games.
Solo Trip to Escape From Tarkov Customs
I had two active missions that required SCAV kills in Customs and it was a problem because I had only memorized the Ground Zero map up to that point. And so far, things are as they are. I had accompanied my teammates in several games and had some idea of the path I should follow to get those kills. Extracting was a very different matter.
“I'm leaving with an SKS and 60 bullets, the normal vest that I have lying around here and the stupidest helmet I can find in the market. One way trip,” I thought while equipping my PMC. I didn't know (and I still don't know) about Customs extractions, but I didn't need it either. I only had to kill 3-4 SCAVs and then I could score a Steve Rogers with a grenade. Marvel fans will understand.
Click to see the original map
I remember that I appeared at one of the two spawn points next to Crack House (north, next to the river), following the map of reemr.se. “Where am I?” I thought. I had forgotten something: it didn't matter to extract, but I still had to locate myself and find my objective. Luckily I had vague and dubious memories of that place. “If I follow this road and get to the main street, I know where I am.”
I followed the road. I saw a white hut next to a bridge that sounded very familiar to me. I already knew where it was! I crossed the road, entered a small forest and continued along a wall, which I always left on my left. I had already traveled this route before with someone. I started hearing gunshots and finally saw my target through the trees: bedrooms.
Bedrooms, my own Vietnam in Tarkov
Dormitories is a very busy place of Customs. There is always a fight, whether you play PVP or PVE mode, as is my case. I approached the Dormitory 3 building from the north, as I do with my companions. I opened the door to the first floor and killed a turbo-equipped SCAV that was searching the interior. I heard footsteps behind me as I reloaded the SKS. Two SCAVs! I killed one quickly. I ran out of bullets in the magazine with the second one. I passed by him as I ran towards the south side of the building. Legs, torso and arms touched. I applied cures on the southern metal stairs.
I opened the door to the second floor with the SKS recharged. I went through each room. And here is the dilemma: up or down? I decided to go down to the first floor. I went down pointing the gun and saw something move when I took a quick look at the lobby: I shot a BEAR (PMC) and ran to the second floor to reload my gun. Bullet by bullet, so it took time. I returned to my initial position.
His companion was approaching the hall from the left. I stood my ground. I noticed that my right hand was shaking in real life and that my shoulder area was very tense, like when I played games. Rainbow Six Siege. My heart was going a mile an hour. He appeared shooting and we exchanged fire until I ran out of bullets in the magazine. He went into the concierge while coughing and I went up to the second floor. His right arm and leg were very sore. I applied healing, went down and killed the BEAR by shooting through the gaps in the ladder bars.
He didn't have any medicine and it wasn't like he had enough bullets either. I was very nervous. I have never had such an intense fight in Escape From Tarkov. I went down to the first floor to close all the doors and loot both the BEARs and the SCAVs. They were loaded to the teeth.
An SCAV entered through the north door of the first floor. I almost had a heart attack because I was checking the bodies. I exited the menu, turned around quickly, and unloaded an entire magazine from the hip SKS. I killed him without a single bullet hitting. I heard someone coming down the stairs while reloading the weapons he had stolen from the PMCs. “I'm dead,” I weighed. I peeked through the door of the concierge and unloaded almost half a drum magazine from my new AKM. He managed to hit me in the right arm before he died.
Walkthrough during my game in Customs
The right arm was black. Lucky that the corpses provided me with a couple of bandages and AFACs to last the rest of the game. I had not finished healing when I heard gunshots from the northern area. I quickly ran to the third floor and looked out the window. There was the crazy guy who almost killed me when I got to Dormitorios. I aimed the long sight of the AKM and fired a single bullet, which went straight to his head. He collapsed as if he had a sugar crash.
“I have to go. I can't die after this,” I thought as I walked down the stairs. I kept asking myself mentally: “What do I do?” I left through the south side of the building to minimize risks while I thought about what to do. It was as I approached the south wall that I remembered a previous game in which an acquaintance guided me to an extraction: “always keep the wall to your left,” he told me. I instantly remembered the entire journey.
I don't know how the hell I got it, but I did. I repeated the path and managed to reach extraction ZB-1011, located almost literally at the other end of the map. I escaped totally exhausted and devastated. There were SCAVs around the extraction. I don't know how I got in. I am aware that it is not the best game in the history of Escape From Tarkovbut it was my Vietnam. And yet, I want that hell to be repeated in Customs Bedrooms.
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