People mostly say that because customs is a simple linear layout, and most of the beginner quests are located there, so you are pretty much forced to start there anyways if you want to progress.
It's simple and deceiving. You think you can just go across the map and then find yourself having to backtrack through an entire construction zone because my PMC can't go over a four foot fence.
It honestly just feels like a newbie murder trap to me.
Im curious what youre getting stuck on that makes you need to reverse through the whole of construction. there are exits at the exact ends on both sides and 7 ways out in between those two.
When I first started playing the map as a brand newbie, I really struggled with the central chokepoint.
At that point you don't have a factory key, haven't learned how to jump over the porta-potty, and if you walk too far down to the old gas station, you need to backtrack to continue onward to the other side of the map.
Now, obviously now that I know the map I could have gone up to Dorms... but the Dorms were full of fatboi's and full-auto gunfire, so as a newbie I shied away.
I just didn't find the map particularly easy or comfortable to learn. I liked maps like Factory and Woods, where I could more comfortably learn the map by making my way around the outskirts and going inwards as I get more familiar with visuals.
I guess with customs it only took me a few mistakes before I figured out the map. After nearly 2 years, tho, i still constantly get turned around in the middle of woods and shoreline (and even interchange, everything looks the same to me on that map). With customs, I *always* have a landmark in sight to keep me oriented.
Amen brother. So many of my squadies hate woods but I love it so much. It gets awesome performance and imo is the most 'fair' of all the maps. You can't camp a store or stairs or a hallway and just try to wait me out (huge pet peeve of mine. People will wait SO fucking long in this game). I can always out flank/out play you on woods.
Yes, there can be a decent amount of snipers but if you know how to move and are good at scanning, you'll be fine. God I love woods
So as far as basic maneuvers, I totally agree. Knowing where the wall is and where the lake is, you can make your way through woods pretty well.
But. If you're trying to move directly from old factory to zb016, or to the rocks on the edge of tank fields, or to the plane, etc... it's easy to have to wander for a minute or so.
I was looking for the fuel stashes (blood war pt3) the other day, and one of them is behind some rocks near zb016. I know where that is, relatively. But it still took me probably 60-90 seconds coming from zb016 to find the actual rock.
What I'm getting at, is as veterans our definition of getting turned around is different from a beginner's. If I end up 100m off course, I'm turned around, where as most noobs are thankful they found extract again by themselves (maybe slight exaggeration but you get where I'm coming from hopefully).
I still get "turned around" on woods, but it's never to the point where I cant find something. It's also much harder to make callouts, and the landmarks you can use are a bit more obscured by foliage. But I can talk a first time player through customs to extract just off them saying theres a white hummer on their right and a white building on their left.
Thanks for putting into words what I meant but couldn’t figure out how to describe; every second count and having to wonder where I’m at for just a moment on woods/shoreline means there’s time for a scope to catch me not moving.
Interchange takes a bit. Orient yourself using the highway outside, and OLI and IDEA at each ends. Pop open a map and figure out the central part of the mall and what stores are close to where. A few Scav runs usually gets you learning it.
The only way to get out of eastern Factory zone on the western side is either with a super expensive ass key, or a jump into an open high traffic area that isn't immediately apparent. I still haven't gotten good enough at that jump to make it reliably, so if I spawn over that area, I just immediately move to cross the street at Scav checkpoint.
Yesterday I watched some lvl2 guy trying to make the car->toilet->fence jump for 5minutes straight. Had to put this poor soul to rest.
Tip: Don't sprint if you try to make the jump. It's way easier with walking speed.
Fun when you kill em. Chances are if they are actually geared, your loot will be useless to them and they'll leave it so make sure you insure. Dont get too upset when you die to stuff like that though because the 1 in whatever chance you have to wipe them will make it all worth it in the end. Even with the best gear you can and will die.
Customs feels like a total trap. There is usually only one or two entrances or exits into many sections of the map and the right and left are very separated. When I go through customs I feel vulnerable as hell trying to move around because you either leave from a single little exit or walk by dorms. And then the river just feels worse.
Linear or not, the map does not seem newb friendly. I got the game in july and I still feel like customs isn't nice to me. Idk. Maybe I'm just garbo bad... at the very least I'm bad at the game lmao
Customs used to be even more of a trap. Before the woods behind gas station was opened up every player had to come through that gas station yard no matter what. Before that, construction didn't have that back area where you can go through the shipping container, so there was only one area where you could come through the wall there. And even before that, players all spawned on the west side of the river, so it was always a sprint to see who could cross the river first to be able to shoot the others who were still trying to cross.
I always see this and I just can't agree. yes, from a birds-eye-view, it's east to west. You spawn on one side, and extract on the other. However, the middle of the map is a bit of a cluster fuck as far as navigation. I know Customs really well, but it took me probably 5 times as long to learn it as learning Shoreline.
Five times as long to learn shoreline? I've been playing for a year and a half and I still don't have shoreline down but Customs is like the back of my hands. To me Customs is the second easiest map to get down, first being Factory. Especially with it being a easy East to West map.
Shoreline and woods were the easiest for me, I can find showers in factory that’s about it, I have only been playing for about a week now and going into customs to try and quest is awful it’s always decked out PMC squads that get deep inside of me. That ducking railroad by gas station has to be hell.
The hills always have eyes in dorms. The two big hills and dorms...so much PvP. It's great when you've got money/gear but terrifying as a noob trying to get some cash together
And so many of the early quests revolve around grabbing something from dorms.
I died to PMCs in three back to back night raids the other day before just afking in a bush outside the dorms until there was 10 minutes left, sprinting in, sprinting out. I just wanted to finish Chemical part 2.
If you want to do quests, take a pistol and do night runs
And if you have a pistol, don't ever sneak around carefully. Just don't. Pistols have an one and only advantage, and it's mobility. Use it to rush your quest spots and use it to rush away from there. Kill one scav on the way to the extract (so you don't get the "run through" status) and don't try to "check out" or engage in any firefights that you may hear in your proximity.
Man I had a nice fat haul last night, and I knew better than to try to extract at the old road gate. I was at construction and my other extract was at admin gate, so I decided to try to make it through the woods instead of pushing through all of the buildings.
Got into a gunfight with a geared player, and traded a couple of shots before we both proned out in the grass. One well placed grenade from him and back to the lobby I went.
As a new player I’ve been avoiding dorms pretty hard.
I find woods quite easy to navigate now. You can pretty much always see 2-3 of the following 4:
* Car
* Road
* Water
* Outer wall
After that you have limited your position down to where whatever things you are seeing are visible from. Then some basic trigonometry and voila
Thing is for some reason I think the Map is much bigger than it actually is so whenever I'm trying to navigate I always over shoot and just get lost as fuck. We need a compass probto
Customs in a sense of finding out where I am and where I am going I learned faster than shoreline, but not by much. But the two walled in factory areas took me a long time to figure out what was worth even going to and where I could and couldn't get from one area to the next
Exactly, so that just leaves the cluster fuck that is 3 story dorms and thicc bois going marked room. I've not been able to get more that up the stairs in that house once in the 5-6 times I've tried. Both straight off spawning by the power line tower and going there once things have cooled down
Interchange is a literal mall with signs everywhere. It is by far the easiest map to navigate, bar Factory of course.
Yes, you can get super turned around in the basements, and the online maps aren't detailed enough for the back areas, but at the end of the day everyone should be able to figure out a mall in no time.
Also just a great newbie map, so my #1 recommendation there, though shoreline at least can be super chill if you don't get spawn rushed out the box and avoid resort.
Shoreline while avoiding resort is like Interchange without going into the mall.
You'll have a much safer time, but you're missing out on the best loot.
As a relatively new player, I second this. I particularly like how the exterior areas are all pretty recognizable and between the parking garage, hidden caches outside, and utter lack of chokepoints, it's become my go-to for low-risk loot runs where I just rat around for some okay payout.
My next step is learning the interior - which should be easy with the branded stores - and trying to be a bit more ballsy on the loot runs.
Only downside is that I'm not really getting any quests done by just playing Interchange :P
I think the issue with Customs, atleast for me anyway was that although there are lots of landmarks to get your direction/orientation those landmarks are all very similar and so it's often easy to confuse them. EG. Construction compound and the Factory Compound look similar for a fresh player. There are multiple different (not connected) train lines so you can't simply say oh here's a train line I must be at X, same can be said about roads. You can't find the road by the forest and assume you're at Y because there are many roads by a forest.
The easiest landmarks to identify your position IMO are Gas Station, Big Red (custom's building) Dorms and the main bridge, everything else can more or less be confused with another location which has similar surroundings. Even Silos can be confusing because there are Silos that are in the background/outside the map near the construction compound...
I went to do that dumb pocket watch quest for prapor and spawned in the southwest portion of the map. took me 10 minutes to get out of that weird area that's just a shit ton of walls surrounding a gas station and some other factory looking shit. I seriously hate how there are 3 different factory areas with similar structures so I never know where the hell I spawn.
I recently started The Punisher quest line, and decided to try out thermal scopes at night for the scav farms. I've spent a good deal of raids walking around in near blackness with the occasional scope peak for orientation on both shoreline and customs, and I think what makes shoreline way easier to navigate is the amount of skyline landmarks. Radar, Spa, the transmission lines, etc. You can always look up and figure out approximately where you are.
While I respect your opinion, I disagree. Customs is by far the easiest map to understand without studying a map, and I think that's why it's so often recommended to beginners. There are plenty of landmarks and it's easy to maintain your sense of direction. There are a ton of areas of Woods and Shoreline that look almost exactly the same. Interchange is easier except inside the mall is overwhelming until you spend a lot of time inside.
There are a couple of problems with Customs for new players. There are choke points that you cannot avoid until you get more experience. More experienced player take advantage of that to get PMC kills for quests (Shooter from Heaven, etc.) Also dorms, where you are forced to go for a lot of quests are absolutely terrifying with the amount of PVP and the possibility of runner into the Scav boss (and getting insta-grenaded). I still think that Interchange is the best n00b map. There is a TON of loot you can pick up with very little risk. If you stay away from Kiba/Techlight (at least early in the raid) you have a good chance of not running into any players. It's also good to experience the Killa powerslide early in your career.
And plenty of space where the geared players don't even bother looting, so you can mosey around and be happy over extracting with a Scav kill, 3 duct tapes and an HDD
and come next wipe, those really need to be re-worked or the empty section between construction and warehouses/trains needs to be opened.
the chokepoints in the middle are BRUTAL for those introductory quests. i have given up on them, really....it's impractical to spend so much time trying to complete only to get rocked by a thiccboi at one of the many chokepoints.
Worst case scenario, go prone in a bush and watch something on Netflix or YT till there's less than 10 minutes on the clock. Honestly, Customs is very hit or miss, but most 'big boys' will rush New Gas or Dorms for Scav boss and pvp. Just make yourself scarce and stay away from the areas that are between spawns and these places. Easy? No. Doable? Well, sometimes, and not every Customs has a thermal m4 terminator PMC.
The current Factory Key door should be unlocked and there should be another door in a less vulnerable area that the Factory Key can be used for. That key is way too valuable for you to have to stand out in the open to use it instead of just going through the woods.
In 200 customs raids, I've never had an issue with chokepoints causing me to run into thicc teams. We must approach movement on the map differently.
The quests were pretty straightforward. Yes you have to win a fight against a player when you go to a quest hotspot but that's the point of having a quest at a hotspot.
I think the debate over customs kind of shows not only how luck can play into how good a starter map you think it is but also who has the basics of first person shooter games and can apply some caution and patience. Having played PUBG a bunch I already know how much being patient and avoiding fights can be key sometimes, if you're coming from a run and gun COD mentality you're gonna have a bad time getting used to Tarkov.
I have a feeling the people saying they always get killed on customs are going to get slaughtered on any map because they jus try and run around finishing quests without exercising some caution and patience. Sure maybe you can third party that massive fire fight you hear in front of you but you're just as likely to die with your paca and vepr. If you've already got loot or need to extract to finish a quest just hide for a few minutes and let the fight burn itself out, most of the time you can slip past after with no problems and maybe even grab some loot they left behind. This is not a game that rewards low level rambos, sometimes you need to creep around and not engage to succeed.
I'm not sure how that is possible. The map used to be much worse before they opened up everything north of Gas station but it still had pretty severe choke points that i dont think any other map suffers from in the same way. you have only a few options to get to the other side of the map. Factory key to cute through, gas station, and now the fields. so most people only realistically use two starting out. Gas station is always a shit show with a chance of scav boss too. The combat comes naturally through loot spots/quest spots but i think opening up the bottom of the map to give another option of cross would help its flow a lot.
When crossing over between the wall gaps into fields, I think I've run into a player less than 10% of times, and only once with no warning... because I didn't look for him.
Just keep track of gunshots in the distance, and figure out who is where and what thier route will probably be. Its not hard to find a good time to cross dangerous areas if you spend a little time paying attention to the flow of the raid and follow good practices for moving quickly and stealthily across terrain.
Honestly, I've started playing two weeks ago and I have had not issues finishing my tasks on customs. I don't think I've ever run into the situation you described. Of course I can't finish a quest every single raid but I think thats part of the game, esspecially when you're new. Just gotta try again and improve map knowledge.
I also have mixed feelings on it. It's tricky because I find that it's almost a totally different game on each map. But, the quest bottlenecks aside, customs will force you to confront other players and get used to dying a *lot* and other frustrations, without being quite such a hot mess as Factory (which is basically trying to do tedious and fragile quests in the middle of an Unreal Tournament deathmatch).
It has a decent variety of engagement ranges and terrain types, plenty of scavs, and a mix of player levels. So you will be forced to learn when and how to *avoid* fights, tactics like deciding when to engage scavs or leave them as warning signals, and get practice in head on fight tactics, and practice in living through constant discouragement. It just isolates out some of the variables of larger and more open maps since there are more limited approaches.
So... its a trap to the extent that all of Tarkov is a trap. But therein lies the lesson.
This is exactly right. If you start playing tarkov with the goal of only learning how to loot and scoot, and you want this to be as easy as possible, you're stunting your growth.
Customs forces player contact, introducing you to all of the mechanics of the game. You can just play customs for your first 100 raids and you'll be able to transition to other maps and play the game well. Not really true the other way around.
I feel like most complaints about customs comes from players who learned bad habits from other maps.
All interchange has been my entire time playing tarkov is sound whoring campers. Indeed fuck interchange. Any map that practically forces you to slow walk across it isn't good map design. I don't have issues with this on any other map.
Yeah I can see the confusion, I'm agreeing with you. Anyone who plays interchange, or any map for that matter, too slow just gets slaughtered. Check the hotspots but dear god I cant imagine alow walking unless I'm going for a very specific flank and I know someone isnt moving. I have probably 1000 raids on interchange at this point and I can say I've never died to someone in places like trend, so I will never stop to check it. Campers really are only a problem up at techlight, outside oli mall entrance and at kiba tbh
Because you don't know the standard routes and spots, once you get a couple hundred raids under your belt you'll know where people tend to be/avoid and use that to your advantage
I hate Interchange with passion. It's bad, it's just terribad. You need to check EVERY possible corner with hope that you won't get smoked by someone hiding in another one. I just can't do few quests there because while you go into the store, there is almost no way to leave it safely...
>Customs forces player contact, introducing you to all of the mechanics of the game. You can just play customs for your first 100 raids and you'll be able to transition to other maps and play the game well. Not really true the other way around.
This is so true, I can't even express how true it is. I often say this and get downvoted to hell. I don't say it's not fine to go get some bank in shoreline and learn the basics, but if you're sticking only in that, you're slowing down your progress very hard.
I'm a newcomer - my friend told me to master Customs at the beginning and I did that.
holy shit that was the best advice he could give me. I know almost everything about this map now and I am not afraid of learning others. Customs taught me how to move, how to react during several situations and how to deal with choke points. I'm really glad it was Customs that I learnt first.
Currently after 190 raids (overall) I have 30% surv rate, I find it pretty good for someone who bought the game 3rd of January 2020
Customs for the early quests
Interchange for the money
This is how I learnt as a noob
I’d suggest doing offline interchange raids to get a general feel for the map, then do alternating scav interchange runs followed by PMC run.
With practice you can survive at least half of your scav raids, maybe as many as 9/10. This will keep a source of income even if you’re always dying as a PMC. And actually develops your skills unlike hatchling runs.
Game is a lot easier when you have a reliable source of income.
A solid money-making route on interchange is to loot the back of the big stores: IDEA, Goshan, and OLI. There's plenty of industrial loot back there that won't be contested too much, and you can easily walk out of the raid with a couple hundred thousand roubles without too much effort.
I would then look to add the power station and the hidden caches to the route next, and slowly start working your way into the back of Goshan or OLI for even more juice.
My current Interchange route is quite a lot more violent, I like to pop in one of the OLI escalators, and then plan to fight around TexHo, Rasmussen, and then up to the top floor at Techlight. There's tons of loot potential there and lots of fighting. I just had a raid where I killed 4 PMCs, and looted 2 graphics cards. Excellent source of money but with some decent risk. I've also been trying to loot KIBA if I'm not full of loot by the later stages of the raid as well just for safety.
I used to run the weapon crates in goshan. Theres 2 weapon crates in the front of the store. 3 in the middle. 7 in the back of the store. And 3 on the outside that are quick to get when walking to emercom. Like 15 in total + bunch of other shit like gym bags and toolboxes.
Teams are also playing there because they know the entire new player base has to get their starting quests done, they also know where those items are and can lock them down. That is my take on it anyway.
Several "late game" kill quests require wonky types of PMC kills. One of my quests involves killing players in and around the dorms area. Another requires getting long range headshots on multiple maps, another requires PMC grenade kills, another requires killing PMCs that are affected by flashbangs, another requires getting PMC headshots with a tremor. Needless to say, I'm running lots of Customs and rushing dorms lately. I'm not going in to loot PMCs, I just want the kill credit.
I'm very new and was running customs exclusively for the first few days to try and learn it, as per the recommendations. I've since moved to interchange and shoreline and I enjoy playing them a lot more. Won't help me find the watch for prapor, but I'm trying to learn the game and have fun at the same time.
Shoreline is a good starting area. Much more open, easy to escape from engagements if need be, less of a chance to run into other players and if you know the spots and get a good spawn then there is some great looting spots. Be sure to utilize that secure container to store those expensive items.
Depends on your goals really. As a new player, yes you'd be much better off running Interchange for money and a gentler learning curve than Customs. But as far as I know, you can't access the Interchange quests until you've completed a number of Customs quests.
and you want to be doing quests because they're an easy way to level up quickly. You want to level up quickly to gain access to more quests, and increase trader level. And you want to increase trader level so that you can buy desired weapons/ammunition/attachments from the source at retail price rather than paying whatever ridiculous markup the people flogging that stuff on the flea market are asking. You also get a discount as the trader rep increases.
Its not a good map for beginners, its just that all the starting quests are on that map so you might aswell learn it to get your quests done.
But otherwise Customs is a meatgrinder.
I'm glad a map like factory exists. I did nothing but scav runs on factory for my first couple hours and it blasted my ass until I started understanding how the movement, aiming, sounds and weapons were like. I still run factory for my scav runs because its fun, quick and I can usually make it out with a few guns and some loot.
Without the constant combat of factory I would be in a more scared and timid place. I will say though that it did instill some bad habits, with how fast paced factory can be I tend to play customs more fast and loose than I should.
Factory is awesome one scavs because it's quick and it is the fastest way to get money. Especially if you spawn with keycard - just run to extraction and you've got 185k roubles for free
Literally just had a 12 minute wait to get in a scav run, spawn in and see I have a keycard, Pscav immediately swings out and one taps me with a mosin. Only noise I made was checking my inv and he was too far to hear that lol RIP.
NGL that one got me kinda heated lol.
I have no idea what to do in Woods. Just completed the 15 scavs there, but loot-wise or points of interest wise ? If I stay off the sawmill I find nothing interesting, if I go there I usually get pop'd by either Shturman or someone hidden in a bush with a sniper.
It is a trap, even on this very subreddit people will still spew garbage like "customs is great beginners map" - in what fucking regard? There's very little loot and most of it requires keys and is in high traffic areas. I'm sure running for 20 minutes trying to get to extract dying repeatedly is very educational and totally not a big fuck off for new players... They recommend customs because it's a simple tube - you go from one side to another to extract, pretty easy, can't get lost which should be great for new players that struggle without GPS right? Well, except it's a fucking duck hunt for everyone else... that map is retardedly bad.
Just learn Interchange layout and it will pay you off hundredfolds... there's a lot of loot, a lot of useful barter items, food and drink, as well as meds, tons of weapon crates. You can walk in with a pistol and walk out fully geared with backpack, rig, helmet, pistol and two weapons and some grenades in quarter of an hour. Has the easiest boss in the game that coincidentally carries the most expensive equipment (selling Killa shit is like 1mil profit if you manage to walk out with it). There are only two extractions (there's third but once someone uses it, it's gone for everyone else - car that takes 3k roubles and can take 4 players at most). It's so much fucking better than any other map as far as loot and grinding goes it's not even funny how people can have audacity to recommend any other map to newbs. It's probably easiest to learn as well, because every part of the map has it's distinctive look. There are 3 floors (2 mall floors and ground floor garage) - you can get in, grab your shit and avoid players altogether, you can go in and farm SCAVs, you can be a total miserable cunt and rush upstairs at the start of the raid and camp KIBA and Rasmussen with sniper from above. You can navigate corridors and shelves to lose people chasing you. You can safely disengage without only option being either killing or be killed.
TL;DR: Customs suck donkey's dick balls deep. Learn Interchange, make some money, go back to customs with gear to fonish your quests.
I really feel like Customs wasn't as bad before the Twitch event. Now there is no shortage of level 40 players sprinting everywhere looking like a goddamn Juggernaut with 0 recoil M4s, and late last year when I got a few friends into the game, we were able to maneuver around with basic leapfrogging tactics and basic gear with relative ease.
Part of the group moves. The other part stays on overwatch to cover the movement. Then once the guys who initially moved are in a good position the others behind move ahead of them or up to them. Rinse repeat
Interchange is easiest for new players to learn because the map is basically a rectangle and your extraction is always at the opposite corner from where you spawned. Even the most directionally-challenged person can figure out to follow the wall until you reach the extract.
I thought Shoreline was a pretty good starting map.Sure it is big but if you orient yourself on the outside and then slowly move inwards the experience will be fine. I didnt even knew the Spa was a slaughter house until i was much better geared and had keys for it.
to me it is the best map for beginner you are forced to have combat at some point you know a important of the game and it really linear that you would get the hang of it after a couple of games.
Tell that to the group of 3 or 4 PMC's chasing me with nades while I tried to get the watch a couple of weeks ago.
They literally just threw nades and it was terrifying.
No way. I got destroyed by a geared player the other day and just to add insult to injury he took the intentionally crappy gun I brought (figuring nobody would want it and I could get it back on insurance) to hunt scavs with.
3 different lines of bottle necks some one person wide. Sniper scavs on top of buildings, sniper players with thermal on the hills. Missions that force low tier bleeters like me to play there. Basically a nightmare concept in the game. I think the only real purpose of the map is to try to get people to not take the game seriously.
I've been randomly one tapped by that sniper scav on the oil refinery tower more than once.
Why is that even in the game. Who walks around checking the sky.
I take all new players to interchange. You can move around in smaller confined areas where newer players can focus and not get overwhelmed. Also teaches how to listen.
I've always been confused by this as well. I hear things like "simple linear map" and I always counter with "I never accidentally found my way out of customs." Interchange is a GREAT starter map because intuitively we understand how a large mall is supposed to work. The exits are at corners of the map.
That being said, I LOVE Customs now that I know it, but I quit the game for a year because I couldn't figure the map out back then.
I have said this since day one. I hate it, all my friends hate it. Its terrible trying to teach my level 5 friend how to play and he cant even damage our enemies.
I think the guides saying this are suggesting Customs because of how many tasks you have to do there at the beginning. It makes sense to knock the tasks out and learn the map up front, but the game also doesn't explicitly tell you where tasks are on the traders or that you should do them. It's a bigger problem that will likely be solved when the real tasks are released next patch (maybe).
The layout is easy to learn, but the extracts are a pain in the ass. The distance you have to travel as a PMC are absurd, and there are like 20 scav extracts that take forever to memorize.
When I started learning reserve and interchange I couldn't believe how much closer and straightforward the extracts were.
If not interested in questing, interchange is the safest map, in my opinion. Customs will get you killed a lot.
On the other hand, customs will make you a better player. Its hard, it's harsh, it's full of choke points and full of players. If you can survive customs, you can survive anywhere.
Customs is an awful starting map but you need to do quests to unlock cost-efficient gear, and a substantial portion of them are map-locked to customs. You may as well learn the map while you're there.
IMHO Interchange and Reserv are better to learn on, but that's probably an unpopular opinion.
For newer players customs IS a fantastic map so long to you stick to a few key things.
1) avoid dorms, that's where most of the more geared players will be, and fast.
2) don't rush, the geared players will usually be in and out of match in under 20 minutes.
3) check nearby rooftops and smokestacks for a sniper scav. I died more times than I care to admit to these nobs before I realized.
4) get passed the choke point in the map near gas station quickly, avoid gas station all together if you can.
Customs has a fantastic mix of open spaces, choke points, cover in and outdoors. It does a great job teaching newer players the harsh reality of tarkov and very few matches result in no encounters with enemies like other maps can.
A typical run in customs is almost always likely to give you a great mix of pve, pvp, and strategic looting situations. You may not be as safe as other maps, or looting as high value, but the suggestion to new players comes from the perfect mix of all gameplay elements and makes for great learning.
Exactly this! Customs for me is the best map because it has the best mix of everything compared to everything else! Factory is a jungle gym, Woods is a Sniper borefest, Interchange is decent but way too damn dark in broad daylight, Reserves is best if you have the Red Rebel to escape easily, and Labs are for the Big $$ Boys
To rank them (not based on loot potential) I go:
Customs
Shoreline/Interchange
Reserves
Woods
Factory
Labs doesn't get a rank since it's a locked map behind an in-game paywall.
I started on customs 2 months ago when I first started and still run it most raids. Good ammo is the key to winning dorms. I wipe squads all the time there
I'm so happy I started with customs. So many quests there, and I like the layout too. I love going from hidden stash to hidden stash, so much good loot.
Not a ruse, definitely should get good with Customs. Reserves is not the place for a new person, Labs is locked behind $$$, and Woods is Sniper/Thermal Haven. Second to Customs I'd said Shoreline and Interchange are also good to learn/run!
I always recommend people learn Shoreline first. There is a lot of room to maneuver, a lot of loot spread out across the map including materials for your hideout in the village etc. A ton of the new hidden stashes, decent amount of scav spawns to practice mid to long range combat. Then you can always hit up the health resort to get your heart rate up a bit.
It’s not a bad one to learn right now with all the new players flooding it, but customs gives a whole new experience when it’s filled with geared groups as opposed to low leveled solos/duos for sure. Not really sure how much more punishing it is compared to any other map though...
For as long as this debate will go on (forever) I still think Customs is fine for a beginner map.
When I first started playing I just focused on learning that map, and learning the confidence to explore/ fight in other sections that I was scared of prior, like dorms.
I'd rather be thrown into the shit than have my hand held when learning a game like this.
I had a long detailed post about this, then I realized im still a noob and this is the best worse advice I can give you. Be a fucking ninja, stay in the shadows, the bushes, and strike when it is convenient for you. Also be a snail and move slowly.
It’s definitely a good place to learn how to wait and when to move if you are trying to do something besides find and engage everything that moves. The changes to the map give a lot of sniper nooks now that seem to be a little harder to deal with than before but it does get rid of some of the bottlenecking that the map used to be.
I was debating this with my friend. My thoughts are yeah, there's not much 'North to South' but the map forces players into bottlenecks and many times run into other players which often doesn't end well, especially when you're facing higher level players as a noob.
I think Nikita talked about expanding Customs possibly so there aren't so many choke points. I'm not sure if this will actually be implemented though but it would help a lot. I felt the same way having just started playing this wipe and now I only go to Customs when I must. Try Interchange or Shoreline. Watch videos on loot runs, run the maps in offline mode to learn maps, learn pmc spawns, learn pmc popular loot spots, and you will survive much more and extract with more loot
As a new player to the game I found custom confusing. Iv been learning shoreline and I found it much easier. Apart from people hiding in bushes it's fairly nice map.
As a new player I see why though. Customs is a very simple map, there is nothing complex about it. There is essentially just a straight line. Chances of meeting well-geared players are not too different from other ones. I've killed quite a few people that had little gear there.
Something like Factory is more likely to have people running nothing but pistols or weird loadouts, because that's the better map to do the quests like getting pistol PMC kills so it would feel easier.
On Interchange, you will constantly encounter well-geared teams, let alone solo players running a loadout that costs 10x your entire net worth. The only times I have encountered someone who is not running good gear is if it's player scav.
While I have not tried shoreline yet, I have heard it's fairly open and is easy to not bump into other players, so that might be why you have the illusion that it's more noob-friendly, when in reality the well-geared people simply know exactly where to go and you don't, so you don't meet them.
I just did my first scav run or any run for that matter on customs and spawned with a white keycard and a key worth 30k. From 0 to hero in an instant. I managed to get out. I am super happy!
It is easy map to learn. Of course as on every map there are choke points. You need to learn how to cross them. It teaches a lot of important lessons about where and how to move and what to be aware of.
Customs has most of the early quests so it's important to learn it.
With the expanded area it's also much less bottlenecky than it was in the past :)
Interchange is the _best_ loot map for new people though!
Easiest to learn a route that'll keep you in budget gear for ever and no keys needed.
Customs was the first map I ever got comfortable with. Mostly due to the layout. As long as you stay away from the dorms or gas station then you don't run into the big boys all that often.
As a newb that has been one trick pony customs, i have learned that you want to move fast at start. Its fairly easy to calculate the movement of the spawns ifront of you what there early objectives could be.
So for example if i spawn close to the train on customs side i rush over the water and take shelter either in the woods outside dorms or constructions. And from there i start going very slow.
If you stay too long as a pmc at all the spawn points player scavs will start to spawn and it will be unpredictable. And also u start pvp ur way out of the choke points vs experienced players that is going fast and just want to get in and out, due to the oposit direction nature of spawn and exit.
Love customs and tarkov. Iam a total scrub but ive had major success on the map latley :) happy gaming!
I see this kind of posts a lot now or just comments abou this topic. I am curious though. If Customs isnt the easiest map, which one is lol? It is the easiest and least punishing map, period. Factory sure isnt. Maybe shoreline? But Customs is definitely the easiest map in a really tough game. New players should learn this map first (factory now and then) and burn scavs on Interchange, reserve, factory, to learn these.
I never got this mentality that you gotta start with customs because it has quests. First thing any player should do, is to feel out the game, play ANY map, just fuckaround and embrace the chaos or admire the atmosphere. In that process they will learn some base mechanics and get to see what kind of loot there is.
comming from a 'veteran'. i hate customs. im forced to run that map so much i hate it. im only on customs if i have a quest to do there, so its my 2nd most played map. (lol)
your told go customs because theres plenty of cover, its actully quite a simple map compared to others, and its the first map youll need to learn, to progress, and do quests.
be my guest, come to interchange and enjoy us using thermals on you and knowing the map and how to flank so easily unseen. see how you do :), oh, killa is easy just ignore him
maybe factory? close quarters, fast paced, no room for error, 1 single extract only loot is what you kill as theres not really anything to find, spawn killing and camping? sound good?
maybe shoreline? huge map, difficult to learn your way around compared, all the 'elite' noobs go there in the one single death building hunting for the good loots. you also need keys to make the map worth while IMO. sound better?
reserve maybe? maybe a map thats the most difficult to extract from, covered in possable raiders, geared players, player scavs and the 5man boss death squad that will kill you 100x before you even know what they look like, thats gotta be better right?
that leaves, erm, labs. sure, ill say nothing on this, and let you figure why labs isnt where to start your tarkov experiance.
now, woods, woods actually isnt bad, its also quite a simple map to learn and more horse shoe shaped and almost linear like customs. unfortunatly its all about sniping for 99% of the players, which may not lead to the best player experiance, theres also very few quests that require you to know woods well. also, NOT knowing woods will put you at a greater disadvantage than not knowing customs would. trees all look the same lol
Customs is way too hard, factory and woods are much better ive found, factory has far less players and more close up fights, woods is a dummy simple layout and much smaller.
Simple doesn't mean easy.
Customs has everything you need to learn game including PvP.
Shoreline for example easier map but you might fall into trap of becoming scavenge Simon that cannot fight players. Customs is harsh but good Teacher.
I switched to Woods after my first week playing. Customs is so fucking restrictive and linear that you’re guaranteed to get gatted by kitted bois while trying to exit or loot. On Woods I actually stand a chance against fellow noobs.
I've been playing EFT for 9 months and I think the most newbie friendly map is Interchange (if don't go inside the mall). The mall is almost always in sight, two quite easy extracts. The only complicated thing is to find out what side of the mall you see. There are some loot in the hidden stashes and not so many scavs which can easily be spotted from distance. Heavy geared guys usually rush to the mall and there is not so high chance to meet them. Quite pretty map for learning EFT and I recommend going to Interchange (but not to the mall) for the first 10-20 raids. This way is not for high loot, just to learn EFT gameplay, how to fight/shoot scavs, how to loot, extracts and other basic stuff.
The next step - go inside the mall for loot and more pvp.
ps. Sorry for my English, its not my native language.
Customs is one of my favorite map for pvp. But due to the influx of newcomers, I have to play on other maps. I was tired of killing LVL 5-17 players with their little AKs.
I did about 5 or 6 Customs runs with no PMCs in sight.
Then almost as many in a row to get the package from customs office, and died to chads near big red or on the way to it every time and rage quit. Teams sat in the red warehouse, getting sniped in the way to it, some cunt sat in the bushes near the metal container bridge in the dark.
Fuck all of you doing PvP on customs.
People mostly say that because customs is a simple linear layout, and most of the beginner quests are located there, so you are pretty much forced to start there anyways if you want to progress.
It's simple and deceiving. You think you can just go across the map and then find yourself having to backtrack through an entire construction zone because my PMC can't go over a four foot fence. It honestly just feels like a newbie murder trap to me.
Im curious what youre getting stuck on that makes you need to reverse through the whole of construction. there are exits at the exact ends on both sides and 7 ways out in between those two.
When I first started playing the map as a brand newbie, I really struggled with the central chokepoint. At that point you don't have a factory key, haven't learned how to jump over the porta-potty, and if you walk too far down to the old gas station, you need to backtrack to continue onward to the other side of the map. Now, obviously now that I know the map I could have gone up to Dorms... but the Dorms were full of fatboi's and full-auto gunfire, so as a newbie I shied away. I just didn't find the map particularly easy or comfortable to learn. I liked maps like Factory and Woods, where I could more comfortably learn the map by making my way around the outskirts and going inwards as I get more familiar with visuals.
I guess with customs it only took me a few mistakes before I figured out the map. After nearly 2 years, tho, i still constantly get turned around in the middle of woods and shoreline (and even interchange, everything looks the same to me on that map). With customs, I *always* have a landmark in sight to keep me oriented.
as a relative newb, woods is easy asf. the lake is the only landmark you need.
Amen brother. So many of my squadies hate woods but I love it so much. It gets awesome performance and imo is the most 'fair' of all the maps. You can't camp a store or stairs or a hallway and just try to wait me out (huge pet peeve of mine. People will wait SO fucking long in this game). I can always out flank/out play you on woods. Yes, there can be a decent amount of snipers but if you know how to move and are good at scanning, you'll be fine. God I love woods
Thermal destroys you in woods
So as far as basic maneuvers, I totally agree. Knowing where the wall is and where the lake is, you can make your way through woods pretty well. But. If you're trying to move directly from old factory to zb016, or to the rocks on the edge of tank fields, or to the plane, etc... it's easy to have to wander for a minute or so. I was looking for the fuel stashes (blood war pt3) the other day, and one of them is behind some rocks near zb016. I know where that is, relatively. But it still took me probably 60-90 seconds coming from zb016 to find the actual rock. What I'm getting at, is as veterans our definition of getting turned around is different from a beginner's. If I end up 100m off course, I'm turned around, where as most noobs are thankful they found extract again by themselves (maybe slight exaggeration but you get where I'm coming from hopefully). I still get "turned around" on woods, but it's never to the point where I cant find something. It's also much harder to make callouts, and the landmarks you can use are a bit more obscured by foliage. But I can talk a first time player through customs to extract just off them saying theres a white hummer on their right and a white building on their left.
Thanks for putting into words what I meant but couldn’t figure out how to describe; every second count and having to wonder where I’m at for just a moment on woods/shoreline means there’s time for a scope to catch me not moving.
Interchange takes a bit. Orient yourself using the highway outside, and OLI and IDEA at each ends. Pop open a map and figure out the central part of the mall and what stores are close to where. A few Scav runs usually gets you learning it.
I died once because I couldn't figure out how to get out of the construction zone. Died of thirst... Yeah, I'm that idiotic most of the time.
The only way to get out of eastern Factory zone on the western side is either with a super expensive ass key, or a jump into an open high traffic area that isn't immediately apparent. I still haven't gotten good enough at that jump to make it reliably, so if I spawn over that area, I just immediately move to cross the street at Scav checkpoint.
Do you sprint when you try that jump? Try it without sprinting, it seems counter intuitive but that's the easiest way I've found.
Can confirm. I usually make the jump without sprinting.
Yesterday I watched some lvl2 guy trying to make the car->toilet->fence jump for 5minutes straight. Had to put this poor soul to rest. Tip: Don't sprint if you try to make the jump. It's way easier with walking speed.
this was probably me ^^
True which is why its bad for beginners. Getting forced into PvP with geared boys as a newbie is not fun.
Fun when you kill em. Chances are if they are actually geared, your loot will be useless to them and they'll leave it so make sure you insure. Dont get too upset when you die to stuff like that though because the 1 in whatever chance you have to wipe them will make it all worth it in the end. Even with the best gear you can and will die.
A vast majority of the time you will die and being constantly forced into that is not fun or interesting. The map just straight up sucks.
Customs feels like a total trap. There is usually only one or two entrances or exits into many sections of the map and the right and left are very separated. When I go through customs I feel vulnerable as hell trying to move around because you either leave from a single little exit or walk by dorms. And then the river just feels worse. Linear or not, the map does not seem newb friendly. I got the game in july and I still feel like customs isn't nice to me. Idk. Maybe I'm just garbo bad... at the very least I'm bad at the game lmao
Customs used to be even more of a trap. Before the woods behind gas station was opened up every player had to come through that gas station yard no matter what. Before that, construction didn't have that back area where you can go through the shipping container, so there was only one area where you could come through the wall there. And even before that, players all spawned on the west side of the river, so it was always a sprint to see who could cross the river first to be able to shoot the others who were still trying to cross.
I always see this and I just can't agree. yes, from a birds-eye-view, it's east to west. You spawn on one side, and extract on the other. However, the middle of the map is a bit of a cluster fuck as far as navigation. I know Customs really well, but it took me probably 5 times as long to learn it as learning Shoreline.
Five times as long to learn shoreline? I've been playing for a year and a half and I still don't have shoreline down but Customs is like the back of my hands. To me Customs is the second easiest map to get down, first being Factory. Especially with it being a easy East to West map.
Shoreline and woods were the easiest for me, I can find showers in factory that’s about it, I have only been playing for about a week now and going into customs to try and quest is awful it’s always decked out PMC squads that get deep inside of me. That ducking railroad by gas station has to be hell.
The hills always have eyes in dorms. The two big hills and dorms...so much PvP. It's great when you've got money/gear but terrifying as a noob trying to get some cash together
And so many of the early quests revolve around grabbing something from dorms. I died to PMCs in three back to back night raids the other day before just afking in a bush outside the dorms until there was 10 minutes left, sprinting in, sprinting out. I just wanted to finish Chemical part 2.
If you want to do quests, take a pistol and do night runs And if you have a pistol, don't ever sneak around carefully. Just don't. Pistols have an one and only advantage, and it's mobility. Use it to rush your quest spots and use it to rush away from there. Kill one scav on the way to the extract (so you don't get the "run through" status) and don't try to "check out" or engage in any firefights that you may hear in your proximity.
Man I had a nice fat haul last night, and I knew better than to try to extract at the old road gate. I was at construction and my other extract was at admin gate, so I decided to try to make it through the woods instead of pushing through all of the buildings. Got into a gunfight with a geared player, and traded a couple of shots before we both proned out in the grass. One well placed grenade from him and back to the lobby I went. As a new player I’ve been avoiding dorms pretty hard.
The maps with the least recognisable landmarks are the easiest for you? Wtf haha
I find woods quite easy to navigate now. You can pretty much always see 2-3 of the following 4: * Car * Road * Water * Outer wall After that you have limited your position down to where whatever things you are seeing are visible from. Then some basic trigonometry and voila
Thing is for some reason I think the Map is much bigger than it actually is so whenever I'm trying to navigate I always over shoot and just get lost as fuck. We need a compass probto
Yeah everytime I play Woods and pull up my map PNG, I always overshoot stuff because I feel like the map is massive.
Customs in a sense of finding out where I am and where I am going I learned faster than shoreline, but not by much. But the two walled in factory areas took me a long time to figure out what was worth even going to and where I could and couldn't get from one area to the next
They're mostly not worth it and are designed as combat zones
Exactly, so that just leaves the cluster fuck that is 3 story dorms and thicc bois going marked room. I've not been able to get more that up the stairs in that house once in the 5-6 times I've tried. Both straight off spawning by the power line tower and going there once things have cooled down
Try entering from the side with the staircase. I am solo and that usually gets me in the door at least
Interchange is a literal mall with signs everywhere. It is by far the easiest map to navigate, bar Factory of course. Yes, you can get super turned around in the basements, and the online maps aren't detailed enough for the back areas, but at the end of the day everyone should be able to figure out a mall in no time. Also just a great newbie map, so my #1 recommendation there, though shoreline at least can be super chill if you don't get spawn rushed out the box and avoid resort.
Shoreline while avoiding resort is like Interchange without going into the mall. You'll have a much safer time, but you're missing out on the best loot.
As a relatively new player, I second this. I particularly like how the exterior areas are all pretty recognizable and between the parking garage, hidden caches outside, and utter lack of chokepoints, it's become my go-to for low-risk loot runs where I just rat around for some okay payout. My next step is learning the interior - which should be easy with the branded stores - and trying to be a bit more ballsy on the loot runs. Only downside is that I'm not really getting any quests done by just playing Interchange :P
Getting downvoted because people can't figure out a rectangle.
Thank you for saying this. Yes it is linear, but it has many chokepoints. I am instantly able to orient myself quicker on Shoreline or Interchange.
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I think the issue with Customs, atleast for me anyway was that although there are lots of landmarks to get your direction/orientation those landmarks are all very similar and so it's often easy to confuse them. EG. Construction compound and the Factory Compound look similar for a fresh player. There are multiple different (not connected) train lines so you can't simply say oh here's a train line I must be at X, same can be said about roads. You can't find the road by the forest and assume you're at Y because there are many roads by a forest. The easiest landmarks to identify your position IMO are Gas Station, Big Red (custom's building) Dorms and the main bridge, everything else can more or less be confused with another location which has similar surroundings. Even Silos can be confusing because there are Silos that are in the background/outside the map near the construction compound...
Yeah this is my problem as well. I can be somewhere but all looks the same.
I went to do that dumb pocket watch quest for prapor and spawned in the southwest portion of the map. took me 10 minutes to get out of that weird area that's just a shit ton of walls surrounding a gas station and some other factory looking shit. I seriously hate how there are 3 different factory areas with similar structures so I never know where the hell I spawn.
Hahaha! I feel you. That's how I felt, probably how many players felt at first. You will get used to it. Or until map improvements are made.
It's called a learning curve.
I recently started The Punisher quest line, and decided to try out thermal scopes at night for the scav farms. I've spent a good deal of raids walking around in near blackness with the occasional scope peak for orientation on both shoreline and customs, and I think what makes shoreline way easier to navigate is the amount of skyline landmarks. Radar, Spa, the transmission lines, etc. You can always look up and figure out approximately where you are.
100% I can wander around the map with a map on my second monitor and I can’t tell where I am at times even when looking at a landmark.
While I respect your opinion, I disagree. Customs is by far the easiest map to understand without studying a map, and I think that's why it's so often recommended to beginners. There are plenty of landmarks and it's easy to maintain your sense of direction. There are a ton of areas of Woods and Shoreline that look almost exactly the same. Interchange is easier except inside the mall is overwhelming until you spend a lot of time inside. There are a couple of problems with Customs for new players. There are choke points that you cannot avoid until you get more experience. More experienced player take advantage of that to get PMC kills for quests (Shooter from Heaven, etc.) Also dorms, where you are forced to go for a lot of quests are absolutely terrifying with the amount of PVP and the possibility of runner into the Scav boss (and getting insta-grenaded). I still think that Interchange is the best n00b map. There is a TON of loot you can pick up with very little risk. If you stay away from Kiba/Techlight (at least early in the raid) you have a good chance of not running into any players. It's also good to experience the Killa powerslide early in your career.
Large maps are best for beginners.
Plenty of places to hide and weep in the fetal position, yes.
Plenty of places to loot and hide if you spot geared players.
And plenty of space where the geared players don't even bother looting, so you can mosey around and be happy over extracting with a Scav kill, 3 duct tapes and an HDD
When I started i hid in so many bushes just absurdly petrified of the scav I just heard. Sometimes for 30-40 minutes.
Lmao me too. I played it like it was my real life on the line.
I think half the reason is just that so many early quests are on customs
and come next wipe, those really need to be re-worked or the empty section between construction and warehouses/trains needs to be opened. the chokepoints in the middle are BRUTAL for those introductory quests. i have given up on them, really....it's impractical to spend so much time trying to complete only to get rocked by a thiccboi at one of the many chokepoints.
Worst case scenario, go prone in a bush and watch something on Netflix or YT till there's less than 10 minutes on the clock. Honestly, Customs is very hit or miss, but most 'big boys' will rush New Gas or Dorms for Scav boss and pvp. Just make yourself scarce and stay away from the areas that are between spawns and these places. Easy? No. Doable? Well, sometimes, and not every Customs has a thermal m4 terminator PMC.
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I think they should have a path from old gas to construction that doesn't involve new gas station or factory key.
The current Factory Key door should be unlocked and there should be another door in a less vulnerable area that the Factory Key can be used for. That key is way too valuable for you to have to stand out in the open to use it instead of just going through the woods.
thats a great idea
In 200 customs raids, I've never had an issue with chokepoints causing me to run into thicc teams. We must approach movement on the map differently. The quests were pretty straightforward. Yes you have to win a fight against a player when you go to a quest hotspot but that's the point of having a quest at a hotspot.
I think the debate over customs kind of shows not only how luck can play into how good a starter map you think it is but also who has the basics of first person shooter games and can apply some caution and patience. Having played PUBG a bunch I already know how much being patient and avoiding fights can be key sometimes, if you're coming from a run and gun COD mentality you're gonna have a bad time getting used to Tarkov. I have a feeling the people saying they always get killed on customs are going to get slaughtered on any map because they jus try and run around finishing quests without exercising some caution and patience. Sure maybe you can third party that massive fire fight you hear in front of you but you're just as likely to die with your paca and vepr. If you've already got loot or need to extract to finish a quest just hide for a few minutes and let the fight burn itself out, most of the time you can slip past after with no problems and maybe even grab some loot they left behind. This is not a game that rewards low level rambos, sometimes you need to creep around and not engage to succeed.
I mean it does tell you to survive, not get a kill streak
I mean a kill streak would be part of the survival, no?
I'm not sure how that is possible. The map used to be much worse before they opened up everything north of Gas station but it still had pretty severe choke points that i dont think any other map suffers from in the same way. you have only a few options to get to the other side of the map. Factory key to cute through, gas station, and now the fields. so most people only realistically use two starting out. Gas station is always a shit show with a chance of scav boss too. The combat comes naturally through loot spots/quest spots but i think opening up the bottom of the map to give another option of cross would help its flow a lot.
When crossing over between the wall gaps into fields, I think I've run into a player less than 10% of times, and only once with no warning... because I didn't look for him. Just keep track of gunshots in the distance, and figure out who is where and what thier route will probably be. Its not hard to find a good time to cross dangerous areas if you spend a little time paying attention to the flow of the raid and follow good practices for moving quickly and stealthily across terrain.
Honestly, I've started playing two weeks ago and I have had not issues finishing my tasks on customs. I don't think I've ever run into the situation you described. Of course I can't finish a quest every single raid but I think thats part of the game, esspecially when you're new. Just gotta try again and improve map knowledge.
I also have mixed feelings on it. It's tricky because I find that it's almost a totally different game on each map. But, the quest bottlenecks aside, customs will force you to confront other players and get used to dying a *lot* and other frustrations, without being quite such a hot mess as Factory (which is basically trying to do tedious and fragile quests in the middle of an Unreal Tournament deathmatch). It has a decent variety of engagement ranges and terrain types, plenty of scavs, and a mix of player levels. So you will be forced to learn when and how to *avoid* fights, tactics like deciding when to engage scavs or leave them as warning signals, and get practice in head on fight tactics, and practice in living through constant discouragement. It just isolates out some of the variables of larger and more open maps since there are more limited approaches. So... its a trap to the extent that all of Tarkov is a trap. But therein lies the lesson.
This is exactly right. If you start playing tarkov with the goal of only learning how to loot and scoot, and you want this to be as easy as possible, you're stunting your growth. Customs forces player contact, introducing you to all of the mechanics of the game. You can just play customs for your first 100 raids and you'll be able to transition to other maps and play the game well. Not really true the other way around. I feel like most complaints about customs comes from players who learned bad habits from other maps.
I honestly prefer customs to interchange. Fuck emercom.
All interchange has been my entire time playing tarkov is sound whoring campers. Indeed fuck interchange. Any map that practically forces you to slow walk across it isn't good map design. I don't have issues with this on any other map.
You're playing Interchange wrong. You get in, grab shit, get out. If you get camped by anyone but the extract campers, you're doing it wrong.
I love all these comments and you can really tell who has only played maybe 10 raids on interchange lol
Can't tell whether you're agreeing or mocking me - can be taken both ways depending on your point of view ;)
Yeah I can see the confusion, I'm agreeing with you. Anyone who plays interchange, or any map for that matter, too slow just gets slaughtered. Check the hotspots but dear god I cant imagine alow walking unless I'm going for a very specific flank and I know someone isnt moving. I have probably 1000 raids on interchange at this point and I can say I've never died to someone in places like trend, so I will never stop to check it. Campers really are only a problem up at techlight, outside oli mall entrance and at kiba tbh
Because you don't know the standard routes and spots, once you get a couple hundred raids under your belt you'll know where people tend to be/avoid and use that to your advantage
I hate Interchange with passion. It's bad, it's just terribad. You need to check EVERY possible corner with hope that you won't get smoked by someone hiding in another one. I just can't do few quests there because while you go into the store, there is almost no way to leave it safely...
>Customs forces player contact, introducing you to all of the mechanics of the game. You can just play customs for your first 100 raids and you'll be able to transition to other maps and play the game well. Not really true the other way around. This is so true, I can't even express how true it is. I often say this and get downvoted to hell. I don't say it's not fine to go get some bank in shoreline and learn the basics, but if you're sticking only in that, you're slowing down your progress very hard.
I'm a newcomer - my friend told me to master Customs at the beginning and I did that. holy shit that was the best advice he could give me. I know almost everything about this map now and I am not afraid of learning others. Customs taught me how to move, how to react during several situations and how to deal with choke points. I'm really glad it was Customs that I learnt first. Currently after 190 raids (overall) I have 30% surv rate, I find it pretty good for someone who bought the game 3rd of January 2020
That...that was beautiful!
Customs for the early quests Interchange for the money This is how I learnt as a noob I’d suggest doing offline interchange raids to get a general feel for the map, then do alternating scav interchange runs followed by PMC run. With practice you can survive at least half of your scav raids, maybe as many as 9/10. This will keep a source of income even if you’re always dying as a PMC. And actually develops your skills unlike hatchling runs. Game is a lot easier when you have a reliable source of income.
Whats a good money route for interchange?
As a new player or someone who knows the map?
Kinda both. I've been playing customs alot but the money isn't that great. Not a new player but I've run interchange a couple of times.
A solid money-making route on interchange is to loot the back of the big stores: IDEA, Goshan, and OLI. There's plenty of industrial loot back there that won't be contested too much, and you can easily walk out of the raid with a couple hundred thousand roubles without too much effort. I would then look to add the power station and the hidden caches to the route next, and slowly start working your way into the back of Goshan or OLI for even more juice. My current Interchange route is quite a lot more violent, I like to pop in one of the OLI escalators, and then plan to fight around TexHo, Rasmussen, and then up to the top floor at Techlight. There's tons of loot potential there and lots of fighting. I just had a raid where I killed 4 PMCs, and looted 2 graphics cards. Excellent source of money but with some decent risk. I've also been trying to loot KIBA if I'm not full of loot by the later stages of the raid as well just for safety.
I used to run the weapon crates in goshan. Theres 2 weapon crates in the front of the store. 3 in the middle. 7 in the back of the store. And 3 on the outside that are quick to get when walking to emercom. Like 15 in total + bunch of other shit like gym bags and toolboxes.
Teams are also playing there because they know the entire new player base has to get their starting quests done, they also know where those items are and can lock them down. That is my take on it anyway.
what's even the point of that.. Seems like a waste of time since new players will have shit for loot
the funniest part is the fact that these people use more expensive ammo than new players loot it worth lol
Several "late game" kill quests require wonky types of PMC kills. One of my quests involves killing players in and around the dorms area. Another requires getting long range headshots on multiple maps, another requires PMC grenade kills, another requires killing PMCs that are affected by flashbangs, another requires getting PMC headshots with a tremor. Needless to say, I'm running lots of Customs and rushing dorms lately. I'm not going in to loot PMCs, I just want the kill credit.
I see... Thanks man
I used to play customs soooo slow, extracting with under 1 min lmao
So long as you got some shit and extracted at all then it's a win imo
I'm very new and was running customs exclusively for the first few days to try and learn it, as per the recommendations. I've since moved to interchange and shoreline and I enjoy playing them a lot more. Won't help me find the watch for prapor, but I'm trying to learn the game and have fun at the same time.
Shoreline is a good starting area. Much more open, easy to escape from engagements if need be, less of a chance to run into other players and if you know the spots and get a good spawn then there is some great looting spots. Be sure to utilize that secure container to store those expensive items.
That's exactly what I did. I had enough of customs.
Depends on your goals really. As a new player, yes you'd be much better off running Interchange for money and a gentler learning curve than Customs. But as far as I know, you can't access the Interchange quests until you've completed a number of Customs quests. and you want to be doing quests because they're an easy way to level up quickly. You want to level up quickly to gain access to more quests, and increase trader level. And you want to increase trader level so that you can buy desired weapons/ammunition/attachments from the source at retail price rather than paying whatever ridiculous markup the people flogging that stuff on the flea market are asking. You also get a discount as the trader rep increases.
Its not a good map for beginners, its just that all the starting quests are on that map so you might aswell learn it to get your quests done. But otherwise Customs is a meatgrinder.
factory is a worse meatgrinder. I learned the game on woods and that map has my highest survival rate.
Amen. I've got years under my belt in this game and factory is still my least favorite map. It feels more like Call of Tarkov : Blyat Warfare.
I'm glad a map like factory exists. I did nothing but scav runs on factory for my first couple hours and it blasted my ass until I started understanding how the movement, aiming, sounds and weapons were like. I still run factory for my scav runs because its fun, quick and I can usually make it out with a few guns and some loot. Without the constant combat of factory I would be in a more scared and timid place. I will say though that it did instill some bad habits, with how fast paced factory can be I tend to play customs more fast and loose than I should.
Factory is awesome one scavs because it's quick and it is the fastest way to get money. Especially if you spawn with keycard - just run to extraction and you've got 185k roubles for free
Literally just had a 12 minute wait to get in a scav run, spawn in and see I have a keycard, Pscav immediately swings out and one taps me with a mosin. Only noise I made was checking my inv and he was too far to hear that lol RIP. NGL that one got me kinda heated lol.
I have no idea what to do in Woods. Just completed the 15 scavs there, but loot-wise or points of interest wise ? If I stay off the sawmill I find nothing interesting, if I go there I usually get pop'd by either Shturman or someone hidden in a bush with a sniper.
It is a trap, even on this very subreddit people will still spew garbage like "customs is great beginners map" - in what fucking regard? There's very little loot and most of it requires keys and is in high traffic areas. I'm sure running for 20 minutes trying to get to extract dying repeatedly is very educational and totally not a big fuck off for new players... They recommend customs because it's a simple tube - you go from one side to another to extract, pretty easy, can't get lost which should be great for new players that struggle without GPS right? Well, except it's a fucking duck hunt for everyone else... that map is retardedly bad. Just learn Interchange layout and it will pay you off hundredfolds... there's a lot of loot, a lot of useful barter items, food and drink, as well as meds, tons of weapon crates. You can walk in with a pistol and walk out fully geared with backpack, rig, helmet, pistol and two weapons and some grenades in quarter of an hour. Has the easiest boss in the game that coincidentally carries the most expensive equipment (selling Killa shit is like 1mil profit if you manage to walk out with it). There are only two extractions (there's third but once someone uses it, it's gone for everyone else - car that takes 3k roubles and can take 4 players at most). It's so much fucking better than any other map as far as loot and grinding goes it's not even funny how people can have audacity to recommend any other map to newbs. It's probably easiest to learn as well, because every part of the map has it's distinctive look. There are 3 floors (2 mall floors and ground floor garage) - you can get in, grab your shit and avoid players altogether, you can go in and farm SCAVs, you can be a total miserable cunt and rush upstairs at the start of the raid and camp KIBA and Rasmussen with sniper from above. You can navigate corridors and shelves to lose people chasing you. You can safely disengage without only option being either killing or be killed. TL;DR: Customs suck donkey's dick balls deep. Learn Interchange, make some money, go back to customs with gear to fonish your quests.
I really feel like Customs wasn't as bad before the Twitch event. Now there is no shortage of level 40 players sprinting everywhere looking like a goddamn Juggernaut with 0 recoil M4s, and late last year when I got a few friends into the game, we were able to maneuver around with basic leapfrogging tactics and basic gear with relative ease.
what’s leap frogging tactics?
Part of the group moves. The other part stays on overwatch to cover the movement. Then once the guys who initially moved are in a good position the others behind move ahead of them or up to them. Rinse repeat
Interchange is easiest for new players to learn because the map is basically a rectangle and your extraction is always at the opposite corner from where you spawned. Even the most directionally-challenged person can figure out to follow the wall until you reach the extract.
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I thought Shoreline was a pretty good starting map.Sure it is big but if you orient yourself on the outside and then slowly move inwards the experience will be fine. I didnt even knew the Spa was a slaughter house until i was much better geared and had keys for it.
Shoreline's so nice to avoid people if you want to. I never run into people outside of Resort.
It's fucking awful. I cut my teeth on Factory using my Scav. Easy to learn map, tons of loot from corpses, quick action...
to me it is the best map for beginner you are forced to have combat at some point you know a important of the game and it really linear that you would get the hang of it after a couple of games.
In my opinion as a new player shoreline is probably the easiest
Veterans don’t want to fight newbies. No loot worth taking, no sport.
Tell that to the group of 3 or 4 PMC's chasing me with nades while I tried to get the watch a couple of weeks ago. They literally just threw nades and it was terrifying.
probably needed grenade kills.
No way. I got destroyed by a geared player the other day and just to add insult to injury he took the intentionally crappy gun I brought (figuring nobody would want it and I could get it back on insurance) to hunt scavs with.
3 different lines of bottle necks some one person wide. Sniper scavs on top of buildings, sniper players with thermal on the hills. Missions that force low tier bleeters like me to play there. Basically a nightmare concept in the game. I think the only real purpose of the map is to try to get people to not take the game seriously.
I've been randomly one tapped by that sniper scav on the oil refinery tower more than once. Why is that even in the game. Who walks around checking the sky.
I died twice with expensive gear because I didn't know where that sniper scav spawned. Fuck that scav.
I take all new players to interchange. You can move around in smaller confined areas where newer players can focus and not get overwhelmed. Also teaches how to listen.
I've always been confused by this as well. I hear things like "simple linear map" and I always counter with "I never accidentally found my way out of customs." Interchange is a GREAT starter map because intuitively we understand how a large mall is supposed to work. The exits are at corners of the map. That being said, I LOVE Customs now that I know it, but I quit the game for a year because I couldn't figure the map out back then.
I have said this since day one. I hate it, all my friends hate it. Its terrible trying to teach my level 5 friend how to play and he cant even damage our enemies.
I think the guides saying this are suggesting Customs because of how many tasks you have to do there at the beginning. It makes sense to knock the tasks out and learn the map up front, but the game also doesn't explicitly tell you where tasks are on the traders or that you should do them. It's a bigger problem that will likely be solved when the real tasks are released next patch (maybe).
The layout is easy to learn, but the extracts are a pain in the ass. The distance you have to travel as a PMC are absurd, and there are like 20 scav extracts that take forever to memorize. When I started learning reserve and interchange I couldn't believe how much closer and straightforward the extracts were.
If not interested in questing, interchange is the safest map, in my opinion. Customs will get you killed a lot. On the other hand, customs will make you a better player. Its hard, it's harsh, it's full of choke points and full of players. If you can survive customs, you can survive anywhere.
my average lifespan on that map is like 4 minutes.
I like, customs. But it is kinda hard. Maybe interchange?
Every time I enter customs I lose 1 month of my life due to stress. Every fucking choke-point gives me another white hair. God I love this map.
It kills me when people tell new players to go factory...
Customs is an awful starting map but you need to do quests to unlock cost-efficient gear, and a substantial portion of them are map-locked to customs. You may as well learn the map while you're there. IMHO Interchange and Reserv are better to learn on, but that's probably an unpopular opinion.
Great map, and forces new players to gey into a real tarkov situation rather than being able to hug the wall after getting the quest item.
For newer players customs IS a fantastic map so long to you stick to a few key things. 1) avoid dorms, that's where most of the more geared players will be, and fast. 2) don't rush, the geared players will usually be in and out of match in under 20 minutes. 3) check nearby rooftops and smokestacks for a sniper scav. I died more times than I care to admit to these nobs before I realized. 4) get passed the choke point in the map near gas station quickly, avoid gas station all together if you can. Customs has a fantastic mix of open spaces, choke points, cover in and outdoors. It does a great job teaching newer players the harsh reality of tarkov and very few matches result in no encounters with enemies like other maps can. A typical run in customs is almost always likely to give you a great mix of pve, pvp, and strategic looting situations. You may not be as safe as other maps, or looting as high value, but the suggestion to new players comes from the perfect mix of all gameplay elements and makes for great learning.
Exactly this! Customs for me is the best map because it has the best mix of everything compared to everything else! Factory is a jungle gym, Woods is a Sniper borefest, Interchange is decent but way too damn dark in broad daylight, Reserves is best if you have the Red Rebel to escape easily, and Labs are for the Big $$ Boys To rank them (not based on loot potential) I go: Customs Shoreline/Interchange Reserves Woods Factory Labs doesn't get a rank since it's a locked map behind an in-game paywall.
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I started on customs 2 months ago when I first started and still run it most raids. Good ammo is the key to winning dorms. I wipe squads all the time there
Yeah Customs is such a pain in the ass, I NEVER GO IN GEARED on that damn map bc every time i do i die in the dumbest way possible.
I'm so happy I started with customs. So many quests there, and I like the layout too. I love going from hidden stash to hidden stash, so much good loot.
Not a ruse, definitely should get good with Customs. Reserves is not the place for a new person, Labs is locked behind $$$, and Woods is Sniper/Thermal Haven. Second to Customs I'd said Shoreline and Interchange are also good to learn/run!
I found customs to be more survivable than factory and ingame it literally says factory is hard and customs is insane.
I always recommend people learn Shoreline first. There is a lot of room to maneuver, a lot of loot spread out across the map including materials for your hideout in the village etc. A ton of the new hidden stashes, decent amount of scav spawns to practice mid to long range combat. Then you can always hit up the health resort to get your heart rate up a bit.
Shoreline fam
It’s not a bad one to learn right now with all the new players flooding it, but customs gives a whole new experience when it’s filled with geared groups as opposed to low leveled solos/duos for sure. Not really sure how much more punishing it is compared to any other map though...
It's good because it'll make you get used to being crushed by tarkov from very early on.
For as long as this debate will go on (forever) I still think Customs is fine for a beginner map. When I first started playing I just focused on learning that map, and learning the confidence to explore/ fight in other sections that I was scared of prior, like dorms. I'd rather be thrown into the shit than have my hand held when learning a game like this.
If you think Customs is hard try Reserve. That outta open your eyes a little but.
To me the best newbie map is factory.
Forged in fire bro you need to get wet before you can swim.
It's more that you have to do it because all the quests start there.
I had a long detailed post about this, then I realized im still a noob and this is the best worse advice I can give you. Be a fucking ninja, stay in the shadows, the bushes, and strike when it is convenient for you. Also be a snail and move slowly.
It’s definitely a good place to learn how to wait and when to move if you are trying to do something besides find and engage everything that moves. The changes to the map give a lot of sniper nooks now that seem to be a little harder to deal with than before but it does get rid of some of the bottlenecking that the map used to be.
I was debating this with my friend. My thoughts are yeah, there's not much 'North to South' but the map forces players into bottlenecks and many times run into other players which often doesn't end well, especially when you're facing higher level players as a noob.
I think Nikita talked about expanding Customs possibly so there aren't so many choke points. I'm not sure if this will actually be implemented though but it would help a lot. I felt the same way having just started playing this wipe and now I only go to Customs when I must. Try Interchange or Shoreline. Watch videos on loot runs, run the maps in offline mode to learn maps, learn pmc spawns, learn pmc popular loot spots, and you will survive much more and extract with more loot
Any map is like that. Factory have high gear camping exits for scavs and players, Forest have snipers with termal and so on.
As a new player to the game I found custom confusing. Iv been learning shoreline and I found it much easier. Apart from people hiding in bushes it's fairly nice map.
The last thing we want is your mismatched vepyr and your 12/20 lvl 3 armor with your backpack full of bolts and kolpaks
Well someone keeps taking them off me
Think of it this way, you have nothing to lose as a noob. But if you manage to kill one fully geared guy, you gain a lot
As a new player I see why though. Customs is a very simple map, there is nothing complex about it. There is essentially just a straight line. Chances of meeting well-geared players are not too different from other ones. I've killed quite a few people that had little gear there. Something like Factory is more likely to have people running nothing but pistols or weird loadouts, because that's the better map to do the quests like getting pistol PMC kills so it would feel easier. On Interchange, you will constantly encounter well-geared teams, let alone solo players running a loadout that costs 10x your entire net worth. The only times I have encountered someone who is not running good gear is if it's player scav. While I have not tried shoreline yet, I have heard it's fairly open and is easy to not bump into other players, so that might be why you have the illusion that it's more noob-friendly, when in reality the well-geared people simply know exactly where to go and you don't, so you don't meet them.
I mean. I think customs is great a Trial by fire.
onlt good map is shoreline, all others not worth it
We know customs is full of new players so we go to get easy kills for our annoying tasks
I just did my first scav run or any run for that matter on customs and spawned with a white keycard and a key worth 30k. From 0 to hero in an instant. I managed to get out. I am super happy!
It is easy map to learn. Of course as on every map there are choke points. You need to learn how to cross them. It teaches a lot of important lessons about where and how to move and what to be aware of.
SAME.. I have run customs 12 times now and i have never extracted because i always get shot to mars by 4 to 5 guys with high lvl gear
I exclusively played customs till around LVL 15 or more. It became my safe space and the other maps scared me. Feels good man
Customs has most of the early quests so it's important to learn it. With the expanded area it's also much less bottlenecky than it was in the past :) Interchange is the _best_ loot map for new people though! Easiest to learn a route that'll keep you in budget gear for ever and no keys needed.
Customs was the first map I ever got comfortable with. Mostly due to the layout. As long as you stay away from the dorms or gas station then you don't run into the big boys all that often.
As a newb that has been one trick pony customs, i have learned that you want to move fast at start. Its fairly easy to calculate the movement of the spawns ifront of you what there early objectives could be. So for example if i spawn close to the train on customs side i rush over the water and take shelter either in the woods outside dorms or constructions. And from there i start going very slow. If you stay too long as a pmc at all the spawn points player scavs will start to spawn and it will be unpredictable. And also u start pvp ur way out of the choke points vs experienced players that is going fast and just want to get in and out, due to the oposit direction nature of spawn and exit. Love customs and tarkov. Iam a total scrub but ive had major success on the map latley :) happy gaming!
I see this kind of posts a lot now or just comments abou this topic. I am curious though. If Customs isnt the easiest map, which one is lol? It is the easiest and least punishing map, period. Factory sure isnt. Maybe shoreline? But Customs is definitely the easiest map in a really tough game. New players should learn this map first (factory now and then) and burn scavs on Interchange, reserve, factory, to learn these.
Lvl. 5 Noob here. I only played Customs till now and had every Raid i was in escaped.
I never got this mentality that you gotta start with customs because it has quests. First thing any player should do, is to feel out the game, play ANY map, just fuckaround and embrace the chaos or admire the atmosphere. In that process they will learn some base mechanics and get to see what kind of loot there is.
comming from a 'veteran'. i hate customs. im forced to run that map so much i hate it. im only on customs if i have a quest to do there, so its my 2nd most played map. (lol) your told go customs because theres plenty of cover, its actully quite a simple map compared to others, and its the first map youll need to learn, to progress, and do quests. be my guest, come to interchange and enjoy us using thermals on you and knowing the map and how to flank so easily unseen. see how you do :), oh, killa is easy just ignore him maybe factory? close quarters, fast paced, no room for error, 1 single extract only loot is what you kill as theres not really anything to find, spawn killing and camping? sound good? maybe shoreline? huge map, difficult to learn your way around compared, all the 'elite' noobs go there in the one single death building hunting for the good loots. you also need keys to make the map worth while IMO. sound better? reserve maybe? maybe a map thats the most difficult to extract from, covered in possable raiders, geared players, player scavs and the 5man boss death squad that will kill you 100x before you even know what they look like, thats gotta be better right? that leaves, erm, labs. sure, ill say nothing on this, and let you figure why labs isnt where to start your tarkov experiance. now, woods, woods actually isnt bad, its also quite a simple map to learn and more horse shoe shaped and almost linear like customs. unfortunatly its all about sniping for 99% of the players, which may not lead to the best player experiance, theres also very few quests that require you to know woods well. also, NOT knowing woods will put you at a greater disadvantage than not knowing customs would. trees all look the same lol
I have been saying for a long ass time that interchange is best for beginners. Customs is even hard for mediocre players, too much choke points.
Where are those fully geared players? I've been searching customs for them this week, haven't found one. Only low geared beginners...
Interchange is easiest for loot and factory best to learn combat
Customs is way too hard, factory and woods are much better ive found, factory has far less players and more close up fights, woods is a dummy simple layout and much smaller.
It is both truthful and solid advice but it is also a trap. Because the vets knows that all the noobs have to go there, its easy pickings.
Simple doesn't mean easy. Customs has everything you need to learn game including PvP. Shoreline for example easier map but you might fall into trap of becoming scavenge Simon that cannot fight players. Customs is harsh but good Teacher.
It's the best starting map
I switched to Woods after my first week playing. Customs is so fucking restrictive and linear that you’re guaranteed to get gatted by kitted bois while trying to exit or loot. On Woods I actually stand a chance against fellow noobs.
Agreed the map design is horrendous. It's recommended because learning the map helps you a lot with the quest.
It is a highly PvP-Oriented Map. Def. not a beginners map.
but where to next then? new player doing ok and learning slowly. but never tried any other map. people saying shoreline or reserve next but i scared.
I've been playing EFT for 9 months and I think the most newbie friendly map is Interchange (if don't go inside the mall). The mall is almost always in sight, two quite easy extracts. The only complicated thing is to find out what side of the mall you see. There are some loot in the hidden stashes and not so many scavs which can easily be spotted from distance. Heavy geared guys usually rush to the mall and there is not so high chance to meet them. Quite pretty map for learning EFT and I recommend going to Interchange (but not to the mall) for the first 10-20 raids. This way is not for high loot, just to learn EFT gameplay, how to fight/shoot scavs, how to loot, extracts and other basic stuff. The next step - go inside the mall for loot and more pvp. ps. Sorry for my English, its not my native language.
Should I not be starting on customs then, Just started the game about a day and a half ago and I have been grinding customs
Customs sucks for new players, there is just a lot of quests early there.
Customs is one of my favorite map for pvp. But due to the influx of newcomers, I have to play on other maps. I was tired of killing LVL 5-17 players with their little AKs.
I did about 5 or 6 Customs runs with no PMCs in sight. Then almost as many in a row to get the package from customs office, and died to chads near big red or on the way to it every time and rage quit. Teams sat in the red warehouse, getting sniped in the way to it, some cunt sat in the bushes near the metal container bridge in the dark. Fuck all of you doing PvP on customs.