Ref Has Become an Insanely Powerful Trader in Tarkov

(Intro)

Ref has slowly become a very powerful trader within both EFT and Arena. The last time we had a new trader addition was all the way back in 2019; six years ago, with Jaeger. Man, time flies. But Ref is an interesting addition to the game. He doesn’t work in the conventional sense with buying and selling goods from you. He only deals with two currencies that work under the barter mechanic. GP coins which have been in the game for a long time, and are a nod to an older BSG game, Contract Wars, and Lega medals which can primarily be earned in Arena from completing weekly challenges. And what can you acquire with these two currencies from Ref is very powerful. Not at the start, but with a little effort in either game, you can quickly find yourself inundated with more options for weapon and equipment barters than some of the other regular traders. There are obvious reasons as to why his shop looks the way it does which we will get into a little bit later, but for now, let’s go over Ref in both game modes associated with Tarkov and explain how and why he might be one of the most powerful traders when you unlock all of his barter options.

(Ref in EFT and Arena)

Ref is an interesting mechanic in EFT. Like Jaeger, he doesn’t start unlocked right from level one. You need to do some quests at the beginning to then unlock the opportunity to begin working with him. By completing Easy Money – Part One from Skier, you will have access to his inventory, which again at level one, is only okay. A few decent weapons, some armors, a unique key and a key tool barter. The biggest problem you will have most likely is that you won’t have any GP coins at the start to trade with him for. Which is why the game heavily incentivizes you to go play Arena and earn GP coins there.

You can also complete daily and weekly challenges to help speed up the process of earning reputation with Ref to get to his higher loyalty levels. Which you’re going to want to do; while his inventory at level one isn’t anything special, even just getting him to level two, you will notice a sharp increase in the powerful gear he will sell you. He will also begin to sell you ammunition that can be difficult to get your hands on from the other vendors. And this cycle becomes cyclical; you work in Arena to make him better in EFT, and by doing so you will have more coins and medals to spend on him in EFT. So, by working on him in one game, he just gets better in both, even though in Arena his role isn’t as directly impactful. He simply just provides you the tools to become successful with him in EFT. And for a while, the catch was that you had to own and play Arena in order to really take advantage of all these new systems involving Ref. Because before a recent update, the quests he had in Tarkov, well they kind of sucked. Too annoying, too specific, and the rewards were just not worth it. But they have since been nerfed… buffed? They were made easier across the board. An example would be instead of having to get five PMC kills on Streets while using an AKS and wearing a PACA, now it’s just kill two PMCs on any map with any gun while wearing a PACA. Night and day difference. And this was for every single quest he provides. So, while I would say you need to play Arena to use him properly, you earn enough reputation and coins from EFT quests that it’s not necessary anymore.

(His barter values are stupid)

What makes him so problematic is how many GP coins he requires for most of his barters. I’m sure these numbers are simply placeholder and are subject to change at some point, but they are way too low for almost every single item he sells. Weapons, armor, ammo, attachments; it’s laughable how low some of these barter values are. Ten coins for a Vudu? I get it; you can only do it twice per reset, but man for how powerful that scope can be, it should be higher. And these weapons are fully modified. Yes, again, they are not meta weapons with the best attachments, but it’s a free gun you didn’t have to spend upwards of ten minutes building only to lose in the first eight seconds of a raid. The cases are another example of how much value you can get out of Ref if you work on him. He sells pretty much every case you would need to increase storage in your stash and to make organizing that much easier. One thing to note about some of the barters, is that the Lega medals can be tricky to get; in Arena they are only obtainable through weekly challenges which were recent made harder to complete. But the rest of the rewards on top of the medals can be quite lucrative. But seriously, a fully modified SIG Spear should be a little more than thirty-nine GP coins even if you need to get Ref to level four to use it. That gun is supposed to be super exclusive; only by getting to Lightkeeper can you have the chance of buying it. But now, just do Ref quests and you can use it. Very strange.

(Unlockable crates are dumb too)

What you can also unlock whilst playing arena are crates that can only be opened in EFT. These crates are, essentially, loot boxes that contain random items depending on the type of crate they are. There is one for money, weapons, attachments, barter items, and equipment. The contents inside them are completely random, and once you get one you transfer it over to EFT and unlock it using the workbench which has recently been made easier. These are only earned while playing Arena; and are used to benefit your EFT character. Once again, the process of playing these two modes together creates this circle of life; you play Arena, you earn money, coins and crates which can all be sent to EFT and you can take advantage of them there. And while for the most part the items can sometimes be a nothing burger that you end up just selling for money, sometimes you might get some powerful or rare items that can be tangibly useful to you. But at its core, it's all just free stuff, which goes against the inherit nature of EFT, of progression through struggle. Getting items for free always feels weird in the game, unless you are down bad then maybe a handout doesn’t hurt to get back on your feet. But the amount of free stuff you can get from just playing Arena is astounding.

(The reason and the counter)

For the most part, I understand what BSG is doing with Arena and with Ref; these are incentives for people to buy Arena if their version of EFT doesn’t come with it, try the game and progress in both versions. Because keep in mind, along with all the money and items and gear you can get, any experience you earn crosses over into both games. And while experience doesn’t mean much in Arena, it does mean a lot in EFT. But I can also see why some people would see Ref as not a big deal; first off, you need to play a second game other than EFT in order to progress, which takes time away from the main game. You need to play a lot of Arena to feel the effects carry over into Tarkov. It also takes a long time to get Ref to his final loyalty level. His reputation requirement is 1.2 which I imagine will change at go up at some point to make it even harder. And while I do understand the other side and see why they wouldn’t think of Ref as a big deal, imagine this.

The game wipes. But instead of jumping headfirst into Tarkov, you go into Arena. You play a bunch of games, get yourself some crates that are ready to be transferred, extra money and coins. Then you do the bare minimum to unlock Ref and everything you need to open his crates and now you have an influx of loot and items you may not have had if Arena wasn’t a thing. I understand I sound like I’m being overly dramatic with this, but to me, Ref is just the next installment of Tarkov power creep. But instead of just having access to it, it’s power you definitely need to work for. And that’s the massive trade off. But what makes that not sting so much is that Arena has become fun. Not like how it released and was basically a joke, but with tons of loadout options, modes of play and reasons to log on every day now with the battle pass. They are keeping this game mode alive, and I have to commend them on that. Instead of letting this project fall to the wayside when it wasn’t good, they dialed in and made it what players actually wanted. It's still not perfect, but we are miles ahead of where we started.

(Outro)

Ref has slowly become quite a powerful vendor once you have him leveled up and the funds to take advantage of his wares. The ability to pretty much buy a full kit ready to go to run it back in Tarkov for just GP coins is something that I still think is being taken for granted. Yes, the amount of work you need to really see the benefits of Ref is up there but combined with Arena daily/weekly and his quests in EFT being easier than ever, if you’re bored with the game right now, go ahead and work through his quests. They are easier than they’ve ever been, you get some gear from him, but most importantly, you are working towards getting him to level four which is where the fun really starts. Either way, Ref is strong in this game; no matter how you look at it. Will he see significant changes as time goes on? Who knows, but I am kind of banking on it. Because if he stays pretty much the way he is now, there will be problems with Ref down the road, I am sure of it. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on Ref as a trader, his interactions between both games, if you think he is too strong and be sure to subscribe for more videos about problematic additions that are there to directly get you to play other parts of a game that should’ve been 1.0 a long time ago. I hope to see you in future ones.