The Pros and Cons of Late Game Tarkov

Tarkov has a lot of different ebbs and flows that circulate the game’s life cycle in regards to time since the last wipe. Everyone loves the early game; we all are reset back to level 1, with shitty weapons and ammo. Fights feel really organic and important because the early game tasks can be brutal if you aren’t able to get them accomplished in a timely manner. Hideout upgrades are costly both in rubles and materials; and you can only carry so many in your secured container, so losing those hurts just as much as a quest item. We can all agree that early game is fun and the real way BSG wants us to engage with Tarkov. They have put many different measures in to extend that late game feeling, and it has worked in spades. But, like everything, overtime we work our way out the early game and creep into the late game. Even though we are right around the 60-day mark for this wipe, we are seeing levels in the high 30’s for a decent chunk of players. Of course, not everyone is there, but every wipe it feels like we all learn and level up just a little faster, despite their efforts to slow us down. Just player efficiency I suppose. Either way, Late game Tarkov can and still is fun. Well, sometimes. Other times it’s just infuriating for one reason or another. But it’s not always bad all the time. So, I’d like to take today and explain some pros and cons that come with late game Tarkov. Everyone’s milage will vary with what they enjoy about players being a higher level and running around with more expensive and powerful gear. So, if you agree or disagree with any of my bullet points, please sound off in the comments. I’d like to hear the consensus of others who enjoy this game for their own reasons.

Starting with the pros, right off the bat, probably my personal favorite thing about late game Tarkov is weapon autonomy. And what I mean by this is, usually by the time I hit level 40, I have a solid number of rubles in my stash, which is primarily used to help facilitate creating a large variety of weapons with many different versions and variations. There is nothing more satisfying in any game that having the freedom to build a gun from scratch, that not only functions well, but looks badass. Some guns do this better than others, but having the freedom to build whatever I feel like and make it look like something from another game, or base it off a picture I see somewhere and create it as closely as possible to that reference image is awesome. Money doesn’t get in the way and having that autonomy to just build cool guns and see what happens with them is really special and important to me after I have worked my way through the tasks in the game. I feel as though that’s my reward for persevering through the tasks for maybe the 9th or 10th time in a row. I can run any class of weapons; rifle, SMG, bolt-action, whatever I feel like. I can run two guns if I feel like it! It’s genuinely awesome and probably how I have the most fun with the game later on, when everyone has roughly reached end game.

Once you enter the mid 40’s new and I suppose “interesting” would be the word I use, tasks begin to creep up for you to accomplish. These are technically “true end game” tasks, mainly because of their exuberant requirements for completion. But even still, these tasks can give you focus, if you’re someone who struggles to play Tarkov when you don’t have something to actively work towards. One example of a later game quest is Long Line; where you need to kill 30 PMCs inside the mall on Interchange. Simple, straightforward, but something to go and do on that map. I mean, I hate Interchange, but even still, that quest would get me to go to the map every now and again to mix it up. Otherwise, I wouldn’t set foot on the map. Now, if you’re someone who has decided to run the gauntlet and attempt for the Kappa container, then these later quests are mandatory, so you will wind up completing them one way or another. But if you are someone like me who has decided that they will never go for Kappa, these tasks can help breath life back into your game and some of the maps you might otherwise shy away from. At the end of the day, they may be challenging or time consuming, but again, they create purpose, which is a good thing. Because for a long time, Tarkov’s late game truly suffered because there wasn’t anything to do but fight other players. At least now, with these tasks along with daily and weekly’s, there is a reason to log into the game and see you can do for more experience and money. Yes, the latter can be completed after you reach level 5 and 15 respectively, but their difficulty increases as you level up, as well as their rewards for completion, which is nice. The scaling makes it feel like there aren’t for nothing. When you need over 100k experience to level up and they give a respectable amount later down the line.

By the end of Tarkov’s traditional cycle, your money situation will vary depending on how you play. For someone like myself who tries to not completely horde money, but keep enough so I don’t ever hit rock bottom, insurance will become less of a factor when you go into raids. And what I mean by this is, even the cost of insurance goes up with each loyalty level, as you accrue more money in your stash, even if you die and don’t get insurance back, it doesn’t hurt as much because you have a much larger buffer for when those situations creep up. Overall, my lack of caring when I die goes down as I level up. Now don’t get me wrong, it always sucks to die in Tarkov. And you’d think later on it would hurt more because I am going to be using more expensive gear and weapons, but for some reason it does the opposite. I kind of just shrug it off and move on to the next kit. The only exception is when you die immediately off spawn, but to be honest, I could go in with nothing but a hatchet and die off spawn and it would suck major ass. I think most people would agree with me here.

This next point is where people might disagree the most which is totally fine, but the focus on fighting other players becoming the driving force to go to certain maps is what probably keeps me going the most out of any of these points other than just building dope looking guns. When everyone is juiced out of their minds, it makes fights really interesting and exciting, even though people usually associate that level of gear with just getting head eyes really quickly. And yes, it happens, because we are playing Tarkov after all, but when everyone is looking for fights, it makes taking them on your terms that much more enticing. I prefer to play a long-range role, and do my best to control the engagements from a distance. So, when people are running around on Customs inside of Fortress or something like the new skeleton building, there is something so viscerally satisfying about knowing where people are going to move and rotate, and being one step ahead, ready to take the shot and take them out. Now, not every encounter goes that well, and that’s fine. As long as the fights you end up in are engaging and enticing enough to get your heart racing and adrenaline pumping for just a short period. Those are the highs I think we all want to experience time and time again.

Now, these are things that I personally enjoy about later Tarkov. And the next set of points I bring up will contradict some of these; because they are some of the downsides that come with Tarkov not wiping for a long period of time. Again, I know it’s going to be weird to hear some of these points that were just brought up positively now being discussed negatively, but to me, that’s kind of the ebb and flow of how this game works overtime. Not everything is strictly positive or negative. And it’s where I feel some of the more nuanced discussions can be had about Tarkov. We can acknowledge that something in the game can work in both directions. And that’s okay. And if you disagree? Even better.

I mentioned earlier that weapon variety is something I enjoy whole-heartedly in the game. And while I’m sure there are others who are just as enthusiastic about it to, some people see late game Tarkov as their opportunity to run the best and slot. And only the best in slot. Currently in the game that would arguably be the RD-704. It's kind of a monster. But people rush through the game to get to the point where they can run whatever is the best at the time. And not just in terms of the weapon; whatever armor/helmet, ammo, rig; all of it. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but to me personally, that takes away from what Tarkov is about. Which is the level of options and variety you have at your disposal. Some would also argue that survival is the number one reason for why they choose the best, and that is certainly true. Again, it’s nuanced. So, to each their own. But I see that as somewhat of a flaw.

Best in slot aside, what this also ends up doing is two-pronged; protection in general feels less valuable to wear, and sometimes fighting other players can become frustrating. That level 5 armor you fought for in a previous raid doesn’t feel very nice to wear when it gets pieced up by M61 or 762 BP. Sure, at the very least level 6 can actually tank some damage, but your helmet won’t do as much. Even altyn’s get shredded by these incredibly high-powered ammos. So, in general, you’ll find yourself asking why you even wear these expensive armors in the first place, if the first round that comes out of a gun kills you. When sometimes, it feels like the level 4 armored rig (the rat rig) is all you need to succeed. When everyone can kill you with a single shot, it can be annoying and disheartening to wear anything cool because it won’t do what you need it to. This isn’t going to be every single raid you go into, but when it happens for a days' worth of playing, it really does suck.

And the late game tasks can suck. A lot. Not all of them, but there are some highlights that people who have completed them wish they were different. Capturing Outposts is probably the best example of this; requiring you to kill 15 PMCs at very specific locations on three maps; fortress on Customs, the Pier at Shoreline, and the med camp on Woods. People HATE this quest because of how closed off you are from the rest of the map. It feels ridiculous to sit in part of a map and not being able to run around and get kills on your own merit. The pier is where I feel as though people have the most issues with. Fortress isn’t that bad, and the med camp is middle of the road. But there are other examples of blatantly bad quests, and this one is the highlight of those issues.

As much as people might not want to say it out loud, Tarkov’s gameplay has phases that will progress the longer the game goes without a wipe. Early game is fun, goofy, silly, and entertaining where everyone is trying to get their bearings and figure out how they want to tackle the wipe, middle game is, well, mid game; questing, decent gear, maybe something nice from a reward or stash from time to time, but nothing crazy. But end game is inevitable; we will get there eventually. And how you interact with the game at that point (or don’t, that’s honestly not a bad option either), is entirely up to you. If you’re enjoying it, great, keep playing and having fun. If you’re not, it might be time to take a break and come back closer to when a wipe is on the horizon (which right now isn’t looking to happen until the end of the year). But either way, Tarkov is unique in the sense that not many other games have this harsh of a tug and pull with its late game, and because of that, the conversations that can be had regarding it can be really interesting, so I’m curious what others think about late game as well.