Weapons of Tarkov

 

New and improved for 2021!
(last updated January 16th 2021)

 

 

So you just started playing, and wonder. What gun to get? What ammo is the best? What does each ammo even do? This can be a highly confusing situation for new players with 89 weapons and 130 different cartridges to choose from.

With this guide I hope to help you clear up some of the confusion.


The ever-growing weapon selection in EFT features:

• 8 assault carbines
• 25 assault rifles
• 7 bolt-action rifles
• 1 machinegun
• 6 marksman rifles
• 17 pistols
• 17 submachineguns
• 7 shotguns
• 1 grenade launcher

The basic traits of a weapon are the caliber it fires, and the firing mechanism, or the action. The caliber dictates the size and weight of a weapon. Heavier calibers that generate large amounts of gas pressure in the chamber require a heavier frame to withstand the pressure.

The action determines in simple terms, how the weapon loads the next round into the chamber. The game features bolt-action, pump-action, semi-automatic and fully automatic action.

• Bolt-action - The next round is loaded via operating the bolt handle.
• Pump-action - The next round is loaded via operating the pump. This is common in tube-magazine weapons.
• Semi-automatic - The recoil energy of the previous shot operates a mechanism in the weapon that moves a new round into the chamber. There are variants to this, pure recoil-operated vs gas-operated.
• Fully automatic - The recoil energy of the previous shot operates a mechanism in the weapon that moves a new round into the chamber. Unlike on semi-automatic, the process is automatic as long as the trigger remains pressed.

 

Things to keep in mind:

• The weight of the weapon indicates how hard it will recoil, relative to its caliber. If two weapons have the same caliber, the weapon with the higher weight will likely have lower recoil.
• The action determines how much fire you can put on target in a specific amount of time.

Pistols

Pistols are the smallest weapons, they fit into their own pistol slot.

• Compact Size 
• Pistols achieve compact dimensions by firing low velocity ammo and dispensing with complex fire control systems.
  

• Semi-Automatic
• Pistols are (with some exceptions) semi-automatic. They fire one shot per trigger press. Then the firing mechanism resets.

• Low-powered Ammo 
• The small size of pistols does not allow for high velocity ammo to be fired from it. The frame would not be able to withstand the forces acting on the weapon. 

•  Short barrel
• The short barrel limits the muzzle velocity.
  

What is a pistol good for?

• A pistol is a light weapon, often weighing a quarter or less of a SMG for the same caliber. This means there is more loot that can be carried before overweight debuffs affect the player.
• The small size makes it easier to fire in tight spaces, like leaning around doorframes  or when shooting while behind close cover.
• It is very fast to rise the sights to eye level. Faster target acquisition.

 

What is a pistol not good for?

• Weak ammo. The small size and light frame limits the power of the ammo that it can use.
• Low accuracy for distant shots. It will hit targets at 50 meters, however hitting the head becomes increasingly difficult. 
• Low muzzle velocity. The short barrel gives the round less time to accelerate in the barrel, leading to higher bullet drop and longer time to reach the target.

 

For a fully detailed guide on pistols, refer to our Pistol Guide.

(click me for the pistol guide!)

Submachineguns

The concept of submachineguns ('smg') dates back to World War 1. A more portable automatic weapon than machineguns, which were heavy and impractical to carry. World-War 2 was the first large conflict where smgs were issued in large quantities. 

 

 

Why use submachineguns?

Extends range of pistol ammo

The basic take-away for submachineguns: What a pistol can do at 30 meters, the submachinegun can do at 100 meters.

Superior to pistols
Shooting the same ammo as pistols, it can outrange them with higher muzzle velocity and accuracy.

Cheap automatic firepower
Smgs are the weapons with the highest rate of fire.

Low recoil 

Low-powered ammo + heavier mass than pistols = easy shooting and low recoil.

Versatility 

Automatic fire for close combat, and accurate (for the ammo used) long range shooting on semi.

For a fully detailed guide on SMGs, refer to our SMG guide.

Shotguns

Shotgun design

Shotguns are close range weapons with the main purpose of hunting or self-defense as their military use is limited. The primary ammo type is a shotgun shell that, instead of firing bullets out of a rifled barrel, fires a set of smaller pellets that disperse in flight and perforate a larger area when hitting the target. The damage output is devastating against unarmored targets but lacks armor penetration. Most shotguns are smoothbore weapons, that means their barrel does not have any rifling. Rifling makes the bullet spin to stabilize its flight and increase the range. Most shotguns do not have rifling. However there are still options to use a solid projectile out of it. This ammo is called a "slug".


A shotgun slug is a solid projectile that lacks the stabilizing spin of a rifle bullet and is therefore less capable of hitting distant targets. Slugs are heavy projectiles that have a large damage output. You can think of it as compressing the power of a shotgun shell into a solid slug to reach targets that are out of range of shell shot.

Barrel length

The spread of a shell depends on the length of the barrel. A shorter barrel has a larger spread. A longer barrel provides more time and distance for the pellets to accelerate forward and therefore withstand gravity and air resistance for longer.

Shotgun overview

Large Size
Shotguns chambered for 12gauge are large, bulky weapons. However modding them with shorter barrels can cut down the size.


High-Damage
The damage output of shotguns is very high, the highest among all weapon classes.

Practical uses of shotguns in EFT

Shotguns are devastating at close range. Unarmored targets won't survive a direct hit to the center of mass. Armored targets will suffer severe black limbs, and will end up retreating from the map if they survive getting hit.

Self-loading Rifles

Self-loading rifle design

The first wide use of self-loading rifles started in the 1930s. The aim was to overcome the limitations of bolt-action rifles by creating a mechanism that was self-loading, where the recoil pressure of the shot would actuate the mechanism to load the next round. These systems already existed for pistols and machine guns. Self-loading is not to be confused with semi-automatic. Self-loading is a weapon that can load the next round with recoil energy. This is not an indication of whether it can shoot semi-or fully automatic.

Self-loading rifles in EFT

Most weapons of this type in EFT fire intermediate or full size rifle calibers. They provide long range firepower and a higher rate of fire. This category can be divided into rifles, assault rifles and battle rifles.

 

Rifles

These are self-loading rifles firing intermediate calibers, such as the 7.62x39. Intermediate calibers were intended to reach out to 200-400meters, beyond what pistol calibers could reach. And below what full-size rifle calibers can reach. The idea was that a full-sized rifle caliber as the 7.62x54R is too powerful and too difficult to handle for combat below 400 meters, where something smaller would be adequate.

The most representative weapon of this mechanism in EFT is the SKS.

The SKS is a semi-automatic rifle/carbine chambered for 7.62x39. It is a relatively compact weapon and comes with a detachable 20-round box magazine.

Semi-automatic rifle overview

Long Range
The average intermediate and above caliber rifles (Anything 5.56 and larger) are very accurate and can easily hit a target at hundreds of meters.

Medium/High Penetration
The penetration is above pistol and shotgun calibers.

Assault Rifles 

Assault rifles are evolutionary the next step in the history of self-loading rifles. Their main addition was a fully automatic firemode. ARs diverged in caliber choice, some favoring lighter intermediate cartridges like the 5.56 or 5.45m and some heavier rifle calibers. Self-loading rifles that use full size rifle calibers are referred to "battle rifles" in EFT.

Assault rifles share the same functionality as semi-automatic rifles but with larger magazines, and the weapon layout being changed to support automatic fire better. The most famous design in EFT is the AKM.

The AKM is a select-fire assault rifle chambered for 7.62x39. Compared to the SKS its design features more SMG layout features, such as a pistol grip.

 

Assault rifle overview

Long Range
The average intermediate and above caliber rifles (Anything 5.56 and larger) are very accurate and can easily hit a target at hundreds of meters.

Medium/High Penetration
The penetration is above pistol and shotgun calibers.

Select-Fire
Assault rifles have the ability to switch to fully-automatic fire. The recoil is higher than on a submachinegun, so the applications for automatic fire are close range combat or long range suppressive fire.

Versatility
Assault rifles are the most versatile weapons in the game and have no real disadvantage other than high weight and large dimensions. The represent the most balanced choice between firepower, range  and portability.

Battle Rifles

Battle Rifles are assault rifles that have not diverged towards smaller calibers but instead went for full-sized rifle calibers. Their purpose in combat is to accurately hit targets at beyond what assault rifles can reach.

Battle rifle overview

Long Range
The average intermediate and above caliber rifles (Anything 5.56 and larger) are very accurate and can easily hit a target at hundreds of meters.

High Penetration
Battle rifle caliber combine hard hitting damage and high penetration.

Select-Fire
Some battle rifles have the ability to switch to fully-automatic fire. The recoil is very high so suppressive fire is of limited value.

Versatility
Battle rifles are larger caliber assault rifles, they lose some of their portability in exchange for more firepower.

The SA-58 is a copy of the FN-FAL rifle. It features select-fire and is chambered for 7.62x51.

Practical uses for rifles in EFT

Rifles, with their semi-automatic capability cover the area up to 600 meters, however without a scope the furthest a target can be virtually spotted is below 300 meters. Depending on the caliber, the effect on the target can range from small damage to outright kill on the first shot.

Bolt-Action Rifles

Bolt-action rifles design

These weapons have been the standard issue weapon for soldiers for the most of the first half of the 20th century. They feature full-sized rifle calibers and the mechanism to load the next round is operated by the shooter. This was limiting the rate of fire.

Bolt-action rifles overview

Bolt-Action
The weapon uses a manual bolt mechanism to cycle the next shot, which limits the rate of fire.

The mosin is a bolt-action rifle chambered for the7.62x54R. There are several variants for this weapon in EFT.







After this view on the weapon systems, let's take a look at ammo.

Ammo

Heavy Penetrators

In this chart we can quickly assess the capabilities of each caliber. If your target is heavily armored, picking calibers that are high penetration is the best choice. This means further up. If you want to apply damage to the target, it means to the right. Therefore, the hardest hitting calibers in the game are found in the top right. These are the heavy penetrators. Full-sized rifle calibers. Incidently, these are fired from large and heavy weapons, such as the SA-58 or Remington R700.

Note: The charts shows the caliber average of all the ammo available for it. Each caliber has specialized choices that are far away from the average. The 5.56, while being listed as 23.9 for average penetration, has its penetration maximum with the M995 at 53.

Specialized Armor Penetrators

These are the 4.6x30 and 9x39. They were designed for armor penetration. The first one is a very light bullet, it lacks hp damage. The second, the 9x39, is a very large bullet that delivers both armor penetration and hp damage. It was designed for subsonic combat, and its size and weight allow it to deliver more kinetic energy while flying slow.

Assault Rifle Calibers

These are the three standard calibers used in assault rifles and semi-automatic rifles. As you can  see in the graph, their average is dead center in the graph, means they are the best choice if you do not know what you will fight. They can reach most practical ingame distances with accuracy and power. Their only limitation is the large weapon systems needed to fire it.

Armor-Piercing Pistol

The 9x21 is a pistol caliber for high penetration and reasonably high HP damage. Weapons that use it are the SR-1 MP pistol. Its SP13 round has 30 penetration, which is more than 80% of assault rifle ammo types have. And its SP12 features 72 hp damage. This allows it to reach outside of standard pistol performance.

Standard Pistol Calibers

The standard pistol calibers offer easily managable recoil in pistols and SMGs but their penetration is limited to below what assault rifles can deliver. Even if used against armored enemies, they can be dangerous, if the target is saturated with a high volume of fire or with aimed shots to unprotected parts.

Soft High Caliber

The .366 is a russian caliber intended for hunting. It is 9.3mm in diameter, making it one of the largest rounds in the game. It flies relatively slow and delivers very hard hp damage with very limited penetration. This caliber is a ghetto sniper caliber that can ruin players with weak or no armor in one shot, because it will destroy any limb it hits.

Weapon Range

When considering the distance to the target, ammo and weapon choice influence the probability of hitting it. Pistols and shotguns have a natural advantage at close distances up to 30 meters. The shotgun will start losing out beyond that. Pistols start losing their grip on accuracy beyond 60 meters.


This is where the SMG can extend the reach of pistol ammo. Their longer barrels and heavier weight can reach much further beyond 60 meters. They will start getting accuracy problems beyond that, and this is where intermediate caliber weapons like semi-autos or assault rifles can still provide very accurate fire. Plus the disadvantage of lower fire rates compared to SMGS start fading, as fully automatic fire can only be accurately performed by well-stabilized heavier weapons.

Bolt-Action rifles are severely limited once they are pressured in close combat as low capacity and low firerate can be overwhelmed by smaller weapons.