The Current State of Tarkov’s Economy

Let’s get one thing square right off the bat: Tarkov’s economy will never be balanced. With the flea market simply existing in the game regardless of how it works, if players can buy and sell goods from one another, then the game’s entire economy can be boiled down to simple supply and demand. What do people want and how much are they willing to pay for it. Even with saying that however, I think it’s important to take a look at what Tarkov’s economy currently looks like, because this patch has had some major implications with how people accrue money in this game. No more found in raid flea, earning money in Arena, and being able to transfer it to the main game and vice versa, how players earn their income has been challenged completely. And to be brutally honest, it’s never been easier to earn money in this game. But why? What about the changes to arena make it so compelling for players to engage with it and then move funds over to normal Tarkov? Is the economy better or worse because of these changes? And will Tarkov ever nail this system down before or even after 1.0? Let’s answer all of these questions and more.

With patch 0.15, and Arena’s essential 2.0 version, combined these two updates were massive to how players can earn money in both games and move them as they see fit. If someone prefers the latter half of Tarkov wipes, where everyone has gear and are primarily engaging in PvP, then arena is a solid alternative to playing Tarkov. Cross-progression is a thing; you can play only arena or only Tarkov and after some time, your account level will update to match the new higher level in whatever mode you played last. With this change alone, players can choose which mode they would like to dedicate their time to, while knowing that if they ever fancy the other option, they don’t have to start over at level one again. While your soft skills are capped in arena at level thirty, your account level isn’t. So, what might be a viable strategy going forward, is to only play arena until you hit level fifteen and then jump over to Tarkov with the flea market fully unlocked. Yes, you still need to complete quests and the like to have better options at the traders, but being able to buy ammo off the flea with less than forty-two penetration and going onto Ground Zero for your first quests is a powerful option. What this has ultimately done, is essentially neuter the early game that a large group of players have come to enjoy. Because if someone doesn’t like it, they play arena, level up a bunch, dump money into Tarkov and then immediately buy powerful gear to increase their odds of survival. And while yes, getting to level fifteen only through Tarkov doesn’t take a ton of time, it’s certainly faster in arena. The exp gain is simply too consistent to even come close to Tarkov. A single ten-minute free-for-all game can yield easily two-six thousand experience depending on what place you get. Whereas a thirty-minute Tarkov raid depending on what you do, can give you less than one thousand experience if you don’t kill anything, and just extract. There is definitely an argument to be made about either lowering the general experience gain in arena, or, and I am more partial to this idea, increasing the amount of experience in general in Tarkov. Granted, it’s not hard to kill a single scav, inspect the body and then extract for a quick 1k, and by increasing experience gain in Tarkov it only accelerates the die-hard players even further. It’s a touchy subject that needs to be balanced delicately, or you run the risk of the entire house of cards falling on itself. There are so many angles and points you need to consider; and sadly, a lot of people tend to take these kinds of conversations at face value. Sure, it doesn’t need to be this deep and intricate; just play the game. That sentiment has plenty of validity behind it, but if we want Tarkov and now arena to be the best versions of themselves they can possibly be, we need to do our best to take as many scenarios into consideration when it comes to any sort of balance.

This wipe’s early game felt the shortest it’s ever been in a long time. I’m sure others would agree with this statement. Not even because of the cross-progression being added. It just felt like I was seeing people in the high thirties and forties less than forty-eight hours after the patch went live. People I guess were very eager to begin a new wipe. But arena being so much better to play and engage with didn’t help either. The consistent experience earnings, the faster than average games when compared to full Tarkov raids, it makes sense why people latched onto arena so much. Again, the game just being better to play with your own presets is a huge contributing factor, but after a day or two of playing it became painfully aware that the daily and weekly challenges combined with fast games made earning money and experience that much easier. Even if you can only send of 1.5 million rubles a day, that’s still a lot of change to throw around in the early game, where our options have never been more limited from the traders. So many items are now quest locked behind things people don’t want to do, and so once they get the flea they can just buy their way to success and the items they actually want to use. One way to mitigate this would be slightly nerf how much money and experience we earn in Arena. Now I know that sounds blasphemous, especially considering this is the first wipe where Arena feels playable without feeling like torture. But I'm not talking about gutting the rewards. Even something simple like a 10-12% reduction would suffice. They could even handle the amount you earn in Arena the same way they treat Tarkov daily and weekly challenges. At low levels, you don’t earn a lot but the challenges are easy to finish. But as you level up and the items you want become more expensive, you can ramp up how much you earn in arena. What this also means is that once you hit level forty-six, just like in Tarkov you can see a massive jump in how much you are earning. In Tarkov, dailies after level forty-six are giving you 50,000+ experience and hundreds of thousands of rubles. It can be the same for arena. This way the scaling feels more natural and like a gradual but steady curve instead of this huge front load of experience and money that can just be ported over to normal Tarkov. Again, a reminder, this is the first patch of Arena 2.0, and I’m sure BSG have looked at whatever data they’ve acquired and know that there needs to be some adjustments to how fast players can progress through the game. I just hope they don’t take an axe to it and nuke the rewards, especially considering they are now doing free-to-play weekends for arena to entice more players to try and maybe outright purchase it. Fingers crossed it isn’t a one step forward, but three steps back problem.

But with all this talk about economy and how to balance it, a question that is genuinely worth asking is, does it even matter? At the end of the day, Tarkov is a game about experiences that are so compelling for one reason or another that you feel inclined to tell your friends about it. It’s a game about using weapons accurately portrayed to the life counterparts and fighting both AI and other players. It’s about getting invested and engrossed in a world with lore and people that you either begin to care about or could do without. Who cares if the economy isn’t and might never be balanced? And to that I would say, you’re right. That question is completely valid; for how long Tarkov has been around for, if they can’t dial in it now, they might never be able to. And that’s okay. As long as the game is fun and we can enjoy it in our own ways. People will always level up faster than you. People will always have more money than you. People will always be better than you. But again, what matters is how you play and engage with the game. As long as you have exciting raids that get your heart pumping and tell stories to those around you, the game is doing its job. This doesn’t trivialize the conversation we’ve just had, but it’s a reminder that sometimes, even if we psychoanalyze a topic and break it down to many different layers and components, at the end of the day, we just have to take what we have and play it. Even if it isn’t perfect, or the most balanced or efficient.

Tarkov’s economy in patch 0.15 isn’t in the best state, and after looking at the reasons why it makes sense. So many factors coming together all at once to really change how Tarkov and now arena are being played and looked at by players. Granted, it’s been in worse states because of things like found in raid. But as an old fart who’s been playing since 2017, it’s difficult to capture moments that reflect how the game was back then without taking away features and mechanics players have come to know and love. Personally, I just want scarcity to be a thing. I hate to make comparisons but something like the early game of Stalker has always been so appealing. The “hobo phase” as it’s called, is imperative to making the curve of progression feel not only more natural, but also more rewarding. And Tarkov has struggled with that for a long time. Hopefully by the 1.0 release, we can get something closer to that with traders potentially being in the world, and having to spend more time finding what you want in the world instead of just buying it. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know your thoughts on the current state of Tarkov’s economy, how it could be adjusted for the better and be sure to subscribe for more videos about mechanics in Tarkov that will most likely never be either fully balanced or implemented all the way. I hope to see you in future ones.