• Guide

The best early guns in Escape from Tarkov

Here are the best early weapons for all aspiring Tarkov escapees.

Timo Reinecke

September 16, 2024 7:00 AM

Battlestate Games

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Getting into Escape from Tarkov can be a daunting task and it only gets more complicated when the right choice of headwear can make the difference between life and death. To help you through the confusion we’ve compiled the best weapons to start with.

Before we start

But before that, you need to know what to look out for and the general thought process behind these weapons. Escape from Tarkov is a game where you can spend half your net worth on a fully kitted-out gun and the heaviest armor you can find only to get one-tapped from behind. Wearing good gear will drastically increase your chances of survival but what you wear and what gun you're using is not as important as what you’re shooting at people.

Knowing your way around ammunition is one of the most important things in Escape from Tarkov. Many factors determine what makes good ammo, but penetration power and damage are the important ones. This is a lot to digest but luckily the community keeps and rigorously updates a chart that makes all this information more digestible.

If you want to go the extra mile and try to find something better we recommend the occasional visit to Reserve, Customs, and Interchange as a Scav, as many players tend to skip ammunition drops at a certain point.

Reserve has ammunition boxes scattered all around, especially around military vehicles, the tents in the center, the rooftops, and the cargo loading zone at the train station.

Interchange has some military loot scattered around the tents outside in the parking lot of the mall and much more in the garage below the shopping center.

On Custom you’ll find a lot of ammo around the construction zone in the center. The fortress, the big structure in the middle of the map, usually has ammunition spawn on the beds in the barracks and the second floor.

The best early guns in Tarkov

Here are a few weapons for you to start with:

An SKS and a dream

The SKS is an early powerhouse in Escape from Tarkov. You can buy it from Prapor for around 30,000 rubles and you can even get an extended 20 shot from Peacekeeper. You can then buy 7.62x39 mm SP ammo off Skier and you’ll have something pretty deadly for Scavs and low-level PMCs. What makes the SKS so great is that you can load it manually without changing magazines so you only have to put any extra bullets in your pockets. You should also bring a cheap pistol and a backup magazine with you just in case you need something for close quarters.

UZI/PP-91 Anklebiter

The UZI or the PP-91 are your go-to close-quarters combat options. Both these guns are dirt cheap, their ammunition might not be able to chew through most armor but they’re more than enough to get a kill. Especially on maps such as Factory, Customs, Streets, Ground Zero, and Reserve where you’re usually up close and personal. For ammo, the PM PST GZH bullets will do it for the PP-91 which can be bought from Prapor and the 9x19mm Green Tracer’s from Mechanic are a fantastic choice for the UZI. Make sure to aim for the legs or head and you’ll chew through PMCs in no time.

MP-133 Buckshooting

Once you’ve unlocked Jaeger after the An Introduction task from Mechanic, you’ll have access to lots of hunting utensils including shotguns and buckshot ammunition. The MP-133 is a bang for your buck monster on the close to mid-range and any Tarkov citizen has probably been sniped by one at some point in their career. If you plan to fight up and personal the 12/70 7mm buckshot will be your ammo of choice. In further distances (up to 100m) the 12/70 5.25mm buckshot will be much more effective.

Selfbuild AKS-74U with bells and whistles

Another cheap early gun is the trusty AKS-74U which is an early game menace at the mid-range. You can either buy one complete from Prapor for 25,000 rubles or build yourself for 23,000 rubles by getting all the parts from Mechanic and Prapor. To build it yourself you need to buy the following parts:

• AKS-47U from Mechanic
• AKS-47U 5.45x39 muzzle break (GP2 0-20) from Prapor
• AK bakelite pistol grip (6P4 Sb.9) from Prapor
• AKS-47U dust cover (6P26 Sb.7) from Prapor
• AKS-74U metal skeleton stock (6P26 Sb.5) from Prapor
• AKS-47U gas tube (SP26 Sb.1-2) from Mechanic
• AKS-74U Alfa Arms Goliaf handguard from Mechanic

Once you have the workshop unlocked, you can save the preset and rebuy all the necessary parts easily via the modding menu. The reason to build this one instead of buying a stock one is that you can add flashlights, sights, and a handgrip depending on how much money you want to spend. As for ammunition the 5.45x39mm US GS rounds from Prapor might be a bit more expensive but are also way more effective against weaker armor and stay deadly at further ranges.

For more on Escape from Tarkov, check out our explanation of the Hideout and things you should keep in mind as a beginner.

Timo Reinecke

Contributing Editor

Timo is an avid enjoyer of all things video games hailing from Germany. After being abandoned as a child on the Rolanberry Fields of Final Fantasy XI, he has since developed an undying love for the digital worlds of MMOs. But if you can't find him crafting up a storm in Final Fantasy XIV, you'll probably find him workshopping combos in action/fighting games or being extremely passionate about the latest mobile title.

Outside of gaming, Timo is usually skimming through the Criterion Collection or praying to whatever Eldritch horror that his latest favorite manga doesn't get damaged in shipping. You can find live reactions to all of that on X @ALahftel.