Hand on the Pump: Escape from Tarkov Weapons

Escape from Tarkov is a game that embraces realism to the greatest possible degree when it comes to weapons and many details about their features, the way they “behave” in combat situations and many ways they can be modded and individualized. It is probably safe to say that Escape from Tarkov Weapons have the richest and most realistic ballistic and upgrade system of any survival shooter out there today.

Endless Choices and Opportunities

If you ever played Escape from Tarkov for a longer period you must have encountered a decent number of weapons, not to mention the overwhelming amount of various attachments for them. Many new players were so lost that they would leave specific parts in their stash even though they could have very well used them; others have spent a lot of money on diverse attachments that were not bad per se, but were less suitable for the weapons they had and situations they wanted to use these weapons for. This can be a very costly game of trial and error that should be avoided if possible.

Escape from Tarkov is not only rich in weapons; it is also abundant in the many versions of the same weapon. If we consider only the beloved AK, the most spread type of assault rifles in the world today, we can find more than a dozen different versions of this weapon in the game. Of course, this is an extreme example, but be ready to cope with a multitude of different weapon types based on the same initial model, with many more being in the pipeline and coming to the game in near future.

The Escape from Tarkov weapons is divided into several classes: handguns, submachine guns, shotguns, assault rifles, battle rifles and sniper rifles. Not all of them from every category will be mentioned here, as some of them are less important or less effective than their most valued counterparts that will be listed in the rest of this article. Once again, it is important to state that the most effective weapon for you personally is the one that you use and like fighting with the most, regardless if the majority agrees with that or not.

Handguns

Glock 17

This is the gun designed by Austrian company Glock for their army needs, but it has achieved a very high degree of popularity among police as well as with civilians. As one of the more popular handguns in the game, this one can be purchased from the “Mechanic” trader in a wide variety of executions, including even the silenced version as well as the extended drum magazine version.

T33 Tokarev

T-33 is one of the handguns in the game that has long since reached legendary status. Designed for Russian army in 1930’s, this was a robust gun that could stand immense punishment, rough handling, and adverse weather conditions and still perform reliably. Currently probably one of the most powerful handguns in the game, and also one of the cheapest early game suppressed weapons.

Sig Sauer P226R

Designated as the standard service weapon of Navy Seals, this handgun also comes in a variety of types with different magazines capacities and other features. It’s very popular weapon with many military and police organizations throughout the world.

MP-443 Grach

Another reliable and sturdy Russian weapon of more modern date designed for the army. It can be found in several versions in this game.

Shotguns

Shotguns in this game are fairly regular in the hands of Scavs, and even if they are not necessarily the final choice you will want to have in your hands when nearing the exit of the map, they can still be quite useful in close combat quarters in many office buildings and factories.

Baikal MP-133

This is a pump action shotgun commonly used by scavengers. It comes with a six round magazine and the player can buy different sets of barrels and magazine tubes for it. The Baikal MP-153 version is a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun, also very popular with the scavengers.

Saiga 12K

The S12K is a semi-automatic 12gauge shotgun with 5 or 10 shot magazines that can wreak havoc on its target. It is also worth noting that this weapon can have a suppressor installed on it and has the best weapon type accuracy when equipped with proper attachments.

Remington 870

The final shotgun that should be added to this list is the Western equivalent of the MP-133 Baikal. The most interesting part concerning this weapon is the fact that the Remington 870 can be deployed as a short shotgun. The short-barreled version has a pistol grip and works excellently in close quarter combat.

Submachine Guns

Submachine guns in Escape from Tarkov are very decent weapons and you can find yourself using them all the way out through the end game and actually achieving quite good results with them.

Heckler & Koch MP5

This is yet another one of those legendary weapons that are very well known through countless movies where Special Forces and SWAT teams were part of. Designed and developed in Germany, this weapon has been produced throughout the world in more than 100 different types. The MP5 is one of the most widely used submachine guns in the world and accordingly comes in different variations and many possible attachments in Escape from Tarkov as well.

Sig-Sauer MPX

The Sig-Sauer MPX is the most versatile submachine gun out there and is capable of using the most attachments that are compared to its less-developed predecessor, theMP5.

Assault Rifles

Assault rifles are the main weapon staple around everything else revolves. These weapons are the most useful, most versatile ones that can be found in the game, so that is perfectly natural that they also come in largest numbers.

M4A1

The M4 is an iconic weapon, well known from many movies. This is the most customizable weapon in the entire game, capable of using an entire series of attachments. It was initially created as the shorter version of M16, one that could be used in close quarters in exceptional cases but ended as the most popular weapons of our time.

AK 47

AK 47 or Automatic Kalashnikov rifle is probably the most known automatic rifle in the world, as well as the most used one. In Escape from Tarkov, one can find more than a dozen versions of this weapon. It is so robust that one could actually throw it under a tank, pick it up after it was run over and actually fire it again as if nothing happened! Kalashnikov was never designed on its own to have many different attachments added to it, which is one of the main reasons why this game has seen so many different variants of the same weapon. Considering how many different types AK are available in the game, you can rest assured that you will be using some of them before long.

Battle Rifles and Sniper Rifles

Battle rifles and sniper rifles in Escape from Tarkov are marksmanship weapons, designed and focused to take out an enemy with a few shots as possible. Sadly, the snipers are still not at the place where they are supposed to be in this game, and you will find many people complaining about their inefficiency and little to no reason to use them instead of assault rifles.

SKS

The SKS is currently available in two variants in this game, the standard model plus the civilian hunting version. Both of these weapons are also used by scavengers in the game, sometimes fitted with a scope. This semi-automatic weapon is very popular with civilian hunters and comes with 20 shot magazines.

M1A

This weapon has been introduced as a kind of a bridge between the SKS and Remington RSASS. It is semi-automatic only as these weapons were mostly manufactured for the commercial market ever since the 1970s.

SV-98

This amazing sniper rifle was developed by Russian engineers as a magazine fed bolt action rifle, designed to engage at distances of up to 1000 m, although it has been able to produce solid results beyond that margin. In the game, it comes with a standard 10 round magazine, a bipod and no optics installed. Due to the fact that in Escape from Tarkov aren’t many huge open terrains where this weapon could develop its full potential people will usually fit only magnification scopes of x3 or x4 on it.

Remington R11 RSASS

This Remington sniper is, simply put, a beast! It’s a highly capable and adaptable rifle that can be equipped with dozens of attachments of all types, significantly changing the weapons performance and features. On the negative side, it is accordingly immensely expensive and hard to come by in the game.

The real beauty of all the Escape from Tarkov weapons lies in the fact that they are highly customizable, capable of severely changing their behavior and specific features through the use of proper attachments! The players have all the liberties they need to change the base weapon to their own preferences; equipping them with attachments they find to be the most helpful at any given time. Hopefully, the game will continue to add more new weapons and attachments as well as improve on the conditions of the existing weapon classes, since this is one of the main reasons that make Escape from Tarkov such an appealing survival shooter.

For more, check this out: Escape from Tarkov Best Settings for Optimal Frame Rate & Performance