In the hardcore shooter Escape from Tarkov, players now hunt their teammates when they break an unwritten rule. MeinMMO explains what it’s about.
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore shooter that created its own genre with its gameplay: the extraction shooters or EFT-likes.
In this type of game, you spawn with your ideally fully equipped character on a map, collect heaps of loot, and head to a point where you exit the map. If you die before that, your collected loot, including the gear you carried, is gone.
If you want to see gameplay of Escape from Tarkov to get a better understanding of the gameplay mechanics, we include “the Battle for Concordia” here:
Why do Tarkov players hunt their teammates?
- Players in Escape from Tarkov have unwritten rules that they expect players to adhere to.
- When a rule is broken, some players choose the drastic measure of shooting their teammates.
- Reddit user PrimeErebus explains in the Tarkov subreddit that he has been playing frequently with strangers he found on a Tarkov Discord server in player searches.
- However, those players did not adhere to one of the unwritten rules, which is why PrimeErebus calls them “loot goblins” on reddit and claims to have “executed” them in-game (via reddit).
An unwritten rule
What does the unwritten rule state? As reddit user ass1434 formulated and received nearly 800 upvotes for, the unwritten rule that led to the death of teammates is:
- “What you kill, you keep.”
In practice, this rule means that the player who gets a kill on an opponent gets to loot the enemy first and keep the loot afterward. This rule is considered the “base rule” and is essentially the highest law in the streets of Tarkov.
The hunt for loot goblins
What are loot goblins? Tarkov players on reddit have their own term for players who loot an opponent first, even though they did not get the kill: loot goblin.
How do players hunt the loot goblins? Reddit user PrimeErebus says he positions himself calmly and shoots them 2-3 times in the head (via reddit). Another player states that he blows up loot goblins with grenades while they are in the process of looting (via reddit).
More unwritten rules in Tarkov
Are there more unwritten rules? Another user specifies the base rule a bit more on reddit and adds a list of unwritten rules in Escape from Tarkov with three more:
- “The person who takes the risk and gets the kill gets the loot first. Everyone else gets what is left.”
- Note: If it is uncertain who got the kill, the dog tag of the killed player decides who gets the kill and therefore the loot.
- “The person who unlocks a door/a safe with a key gets the loot inside first. Everyone else gets what is left.”
- “If you accidentally kill a teammate, you are obliged to deposit their gear in a bush or somewhere else so they can get it back.”
- Explanation: If another player finds and picks up the gear, the player does not get it back. However, if it is not found, he can retrieve it.
- If you run ahead and get killed by a player with no support, the other teammates are not obliged to push or attack if they don’t want to.
What do you think about the story? Can you understand that players shoot or blow up loot goblins, or do you think that whoever gets to the loot first can keep it regardless of the kill? Are you loot goblins yourselves? Feel free to tell us here on MeinMMO in the comments!
Another quirk of Tarkov players made headlines in June 2022 when the players of the hardcore shooter were happy that they finally lost all their progress
