How To Fight Squads As A Solo Player - Escape From Tarkov PVP Tips 

Do you run into a lot of squads when you play solo?

Here's my experience... * see squad of 3 * lay prone behind cover * shoot at one * miss * < squad noises > < grenade > < 60 rounders > < death > * back in the hideout: "well... that was stupid"

Heres how you fight a squade: 1. Find a squade 2. Fight and kill one of them 3. The rest of them seem to disapiar into the void 4. Spend 20 muinites looking for them before looting 5. Begin looting, get corpse camped, and DIE

whenever i play solo, unless im 95% sure that i killed all members of a squad, ill just yeet. Maybe ill give it a few mins, reposition and give a few more mins and hope that thier teammate have my patience level. If i feel good about the situation, ill ditch my own stuff somewhere and ninjaloot a corpse or two, if i succeed: Great, if not: i lost nothing. but if i dont feel good about it, ill just leave the loot there for someone else to get tapped by their last teammate. Great video as always Jesse, Informative, through and professionally made! Bonus info: @ 09:00 you talk about having a little bit of time before they react, i have (on multiple occations actually) successfully migled with a squad before killing one or two of them and just yeet for my life. the thought of their discord going crazy with "STOP SHOOTING" "ITS ME YOU IDIOT" and all the likes, and the slow realization that they didnt get teamkilled, is worth EVERY ruble i would have made from looting them!

HUGE emphasis on getting the first kill and repositioning. As a solo player, being able to reposition yourself to consistently get the drop on an enemy squad is your biggest asset. Never stay in one location for too long because it gives the enemy squad time to lock you down and flush you out with nades or superior positioning. As soon as the enemy can pinpoint your location and lock in on where you are, you need to be somewhere else.

That nade at 9:30 though 😂 10/10

First rule of Tarkov: always expect one more enemy teammate.

I've found when engaging squads, it's really effective to stay extremely mobile. Way more mobile than you would when you were with any size of team. When possible, lead with a grenade and run suppressed. Throw the grenade, and start shooting while it's in the air, as it explodes, shift to a new piece of cover. This often times tricks them into thinking there's more than one of you. If you happen to have 2 different weapons on you, firing at them with the other one, even if it's just a trash gun off a Scav, will also help give them the idea that there are multiple of you. This will usually make them less aggressive and give you more time to move and position. They will pretty much always still hear your shots even when you're suppressed, but a suppressor is often the difference between, "Hey there's somebody behind THOSE trees." and "There's somebody behind THAT tree." As soon as a squad pins you down, realizes you're by yourself, and gets the movement advantage on you, you're fucked.

The first time I ever saw a 5-squad, they were going down the road toward gas station on customs. I shat myself and hid in a shack. To my surprise, they never saw me.

This is my first true wipe, and I got kappa about 2 weeks ago. I stand by these tips and have learned them myself. Every word has truth

Yes, i do. I find always squads. But.. I dont find a boss even in offline mode

I use the tried and trusted method of waiting around a corner and getting the jump on one of them and then sprint away zig zagging and occasonally turn around and mag dumping all while screaming and having a panic attack.

I'm watching you for a while now and all the vids are very professional I am surprised that the channel is only 32k subs. There is a bright future ahead of you sir!

Here's an awesome tutorial, head eyes

12:44 That concept is the historical origin of the cliche of ninjas cloning themselves btw! One or more ninja would attack from multiple angles and places to make it seem like there were more people than there actually are.

I run into snipers more than squads at this point

I thought this was gonna be a GL 40 tutorial

Dude I love your videos, you seem like such a chill guy, you always give good tips an I can’t wait to see you have 1mil subs dude!

I have only been successful against a duo and a trio. Each time I managed to reduce their numbers quickly. The trio, I got really lucky. I managed to 1 tap one and spray the second guy down quick, then proned out and moved and waited on third guy to come into view. Once I knew where third was I headshot him while he was searching for me. Lately though, I can kill one and ill be really slow about looting the body but their duo partners are extremely patient nowadays lol

Great video with useful information! I play duos most of the time but I’m so much more successful when I’m solo. My friend is the most defensive player in all of Tarkov because he’s so afraid to lose his gear. He would hold an angle for 40mins and much rather go MIA than getting killed by another player. So be aware of players like him as well, they’re the ones I fear most in this game because I can’t see nor hear them and if I’m running up to the angle they’re holding I die 99% of the time without firing a single bullet.

Don't be scared to make noise during repositioning, I know I gotta do that, but I always freeze up in the moment worrying about it. Thank you for analyzing why I should still be repositioning, helped me reinforced the idea and get over that fear.

Kazam, you are seriously a) inspirational b) charismatic and pragmatic c) have a good notion for the subtle notions of the game and the emotions that come up and why they are often tactically misleading. You da best.

I agree very strongly with taking at least a couple grenades during solo raids. Your number one priority as a solo player fighting a squad should be to create as much chaos as possible to rob them of their primary advantage by making it difficult to communicate and coordinate a push against you. Grenades are basically purpose built for that exact goal, nothing causes panic like an unexpected grenade landing in the middle of a squad.

How to fight squads as solo player: 1) Run away End of the tutorial Edit: lol I never expected to be the most liked comment

Couldn't agree with ammo choice more. I'm exclusively solo player. I learned that mistake just last night. Ran FMJ SX, had the jump on a juiced two man in labs, three times. Three golden opportunities to drop them both. Two of the three encounters I hit and run, the third I faced and died. Stats showed 1000 damage with 670 damage absorbed. Both would have been dead had I loaded APSX! Good video. Thanks.

Thanks a ton Jesse, I've went from getting STOMPED EVERY RAID to kicking ass (Solo) after watching a majority of your videos and putting what I learned into my Raids. I almost gave up on this game, but now it's my go to PC game!

I see a squad, I avoid them

Always spend the money on good ammo and always use a silencer if you’re going solo. A loud shot will “show” where you’re at to more people than you’ll ever be able to take, and as you attract more fights and even win, you make more noise. Don’t make noise

Bro I love how you spoke about subscribing. I usually hate it but you came across so sincere! Love the content man.

All these tips are great tbh. The biggest thing I think I can add is, if you have the oppurtunity, take your time with the first shot. Its way more important to get the squad in a situation where you can guarantee at least one kill (if not more) before they even know whats going on than anything else.

Dude! i totally won a 2v1 last night on customs after watching this. actively trying to reset my position and whatnot really worked nicely. ...I still bled out on top of one of their bodies, but that's a W in my book.

Great insight. Thanks. As a new player, gave me hope, I'm just a solo guy as don't know anybody to play with. Thanks

The never underestimate how long a squad member will hold the bodies is so fucking on point. I play solo and every single time I kill everyone in a squad they absolutely never move.

Man, you're awesome! I really like your way to explain thinks! Greetings from Germany buddy :)

As someone who solos labs consistently I can tell you fighting in the basement is your best friend. Bring boys and high cap mags and funnel them as much as possible. Spawn raiders as well use them to your advantage and let them come to you. Kind of excited to test out the flash shotgun shells in those tunnels lol

Great tips. After a couple thousand hours, I think you offer great advice.

Tip for newer players with not so great ammo in in a 1v2 or 1v3 in an open field - if there is a hill around you and you see them first run to it, take shots off it and flank from the side, if you can dump a mag into some je in the open, don’t even need headshots, 1 will drop and you’ll be surprised how many people will run away if their teammate is down - if not just try out position them

As goes for 1vX situations in siege, force 1v1's and constantly reposition

shotguns are perfect for running good gear but not being afraid to lose it (and you usually get shotguns back even if they take some mods from it). flechette/ap20 destroys level 5 in 1-2 shots

One of my favourite things to do is to snipe at a squad then run circles around them shooting at them from different angles slowly taking them down one by one. I love how confused they get when you constantly attack them from different places.

M61. MDR with 2x. Very good and precise shot placement. Gotta be lucky and smart with positioning. You must land a head shot on the first target. Instill fear and confusion. 2nd guy will be easy, preferrably close to the first down. Hopefully 3rd guy is the last one. Good chance to take out the 3rd if you quickly took out the first two. 4th and 5th are very dangerous and have a good chance successfuly locating you returning fire. Change position if viable. Move to a place you can again control the fight and repeat initial steps. Map knowledge is key to this formula for me.

great vid man. I run into squads in every raid. I've learned to try to get a full picture of the scenario before firing the first shot. Seems to pay off more times than not.

It also helps as a solo to prefire pushing squads. Like if you know their about to push shoot before they have the change to react.

for me, i always try to sneak near em and then confuse em by throwing a nade etc., cuz people usually suck at communication and dont bother with armbands , otherwise i just try to be aggressive otherwise they get more line of sights than me and flank me or i just wont notice em

While moving (for example on Shoreline) keep in your head the hotspots/sniperspots etc. that are ahead of you, so if you are about to/ already engaging a squad, they may go to those spots to flank you/ overwatch and prevent your flanks- so if you predict their spots, you may jump on them even if they were supposed to grab you (ofc if your gun allows for proper elimination of such target). In maps like this, remember that bushes are not only enemy, but sometimes greatest friend... imagine being in squad and being in front of a whole bunch of bushes or... a bushline cutting the map in half- you know that your enemy is in bush and has suppressor, but you don't know where exactly- so simply put such dude in bushes may have a great idea where u are at, while you are simply praying to look at exact spot where he will peek again... Same goes for Woods, Shoreline etc.- if you manage to get such concealment, even getting 1-2 out of 3-5 man squad will seriously make them wonder if they should fall back (also this creates the illusion of fighting more than just 1 man ;) )

Squads really kinda ruin my experience sometimes, but i almost never play with other people because almost everyone thinks eft is too much to invest time in:’)

Another great video Jesse! You're the king when it come to laying out info in an easy to digest way. Keep it up

Patience, without hesitation. This wins fights. Its also called determination. And dont half ass shit. If you commit to some move it has to be unexpected, blunt and effective. And dont turn around half way. If you die you die. Then so be it.

Imagine being good enough at tarkov to even think you can take on more than one guy..

simple , stay in the shadows , dont move , close your eyes and think of your happy place

newer player, started like last month. i get jumped by groups often, and can usually only take out one. pain.

for me I play solo exclusively. The friends that got me into Tarkov have put it behind them for the time being. Running into squads is almost always a bummer. I have to work so hard to get the two guys I see and just die to the third, fourth, or fifth *facepalm*. It's frustrating.

How to fight squads: there's always one more ;)

My container is always full solo or not. Typically I just got a CMS/Alu Splint or surv12 then ibuprofen, ifak, keytool, ammo

Can you do a video on sound ? I think I’m pretty intermediate at tarkov I’m not trash but im not extremely good but I seem to have a huge problem with sound I can’t really tell where footsteps are going or are approaching and what direction they are going. I also can’t tell where gunshots come from, like gunshots in the distance or when I’m getting shot from an unknown location.

hide in a bush and wait for the squad to go away, then hide all your gear in a hidden spot and after that leave the raid if you die they wont be able to take your stuff.

I've killed a 5man before with a DVL suppressed as a solo. They had no idea

I hide, I play solo, I suck an I loot dead people 😏

The "fill your container" advice is really good and insightful, great advice especially if you look for PvP great video jesse, I hit that mf sub button like a Scav on HotRot

The grenade tip is something I had to learn to do cuz there been multiple times I could have throw a grenade and won but I didn't have any so I'll pack like 4 with me then get one shot and be like damn why I bring so them So I started to only take 2 it's not a lot but if a situation arises that I need them I have them and not losing a lot in one go

What if you only have the alpha container? Can't really put much in there.

I usually run into solos but when i run into a 2+ i usually have no time to react other than shoot

Afraid to expose a soloplayer life hack i've found, ill keep it simple: Smoke arent useless! And the turnout can be quite entertaining, as people encounter them so rarely that they lose the ability to think.

I treat all armor the same all lvl 1. With the rounds the juiced up guys have 2 tap a lot of them

If they are going to keep Squads and Solo players in the same lobbies they should add skill based matchmaking, I love SBMM it's so fulfilling to get better and better as a player and fight players who are also getting better and better sometimes I absolutely destroy players in tarkov and I just feel bad for them and don't always loot their stuff, how could they know I am a sweaty FPS climber, it's just not fair. I'd love an option to select FFA lobbies, there are more than enough players to have both FFA lobbies, squad only lobbies and normal tarkov lobbies. I don't see why people get so upset about players wanting to seperate Squads and Solo players. It doesn't have to be a full change, they just need to add a FFA option to all maps and Squad only, it wouldn't affect anything. Doesn't matter though because they are adding an offline mode to the game supposedly when the game fully releases so if theres no FFA option I probably will just be playing competitive shooters more and playing tarkov not as much, I'm a heavy PVP focused player so I shoot everyone I see I'm not the type of guy to just hide in a bush and say ah that's a squad probably should leave it, I play shooters for pvp, I want a competitive standard in tarkov, I want to be able to play Squad vs squads because that would be absolutely thrilling but I also want Free For All no squads/co-op allowed, there is nothing wrong with this request and I'm sure many people would agree that wanting Squad vs Squads lobbies and FFA lobbies is completely reasonable unless you're one of those players who solely plays as a squad to farm solo PMC's or farm bosses and do quests without having much threat from other players. I'm sure when the offline mode they are supposedly making will allow you to focus on story/quests/lore but that's fucking ages away, honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nikita and the team just take the money they got and just run. lol Basically if Nikita doesn't add FFA mode or squad vs squads to this game, once my brother get's Escape from tarkov and I duo with him you are all going to be absolutely fucked because we will farm the living shit out of you, I can almost 1v4 a squad with a third party solo sniping at me, I've completed doom on ultra-nightmare and the DLC, don't know if my brother has but he's grandmaster in overwatch, I was close to champion in R6 siege and we both got to apex predator in apex legends and we have so many wins as duo with our randoms being bad or leaving the game so we 2v3 easily, so you better pray they add FFA because we will show you as much mercy as you showed me and the other solo players, infact solo players are better than any squad-only players, period. Whenever you flank and kill a solo player just remember, he or she fucked your mum and nothing you can ever do will change that. You don't believe me? Next time you kill a solo player, check the dogtags, go and ask your parents "Did (dogtags ID) fuck you, mum/dad?" The answer will be yes and that you are their son/daughter. I notice a lot of tarkov youtubers (except lvndmark) have really bad aim and movement but at the same time their opponents seem to be really bad, I assume this must be because it's NA server? Well don't feel too bad, EU does have some of the best FPS teams in gaming history, it's in our blood I guess. You have to be an absolute laser beam like me to survive on EU, we definitely have an issue with cheaters though, NA definitely doesn't cheat that much clearly LOL or at least it ain't aimbot that's for damn sure!

Spam the nades, works sometimes

Thanks for the tips !

My container is filled to the brim... docs and cms kit

Luck. Luck determines a lot with a squad fight. Especially 3 plus players where the first bit of luck is YOU seeing them first. After that keeping a respectful distance and waiting for the opening you need to knock maybe one or 2. After that any competent players should know where you are by now. Rotate, rotate rotate...always be aware of the 3rd or 4th party that might get involved. I'm absolutely no power player but I find being in places near but not on hot spots really helps. Customs is a great place to practice this sort of thing, you can be close to a lot of hot spots to react to any confusion in a squad some of the best is near new construction when squads get into a scrap with scav boss. Getting those little early picks while they are fighting reshala and gang makes for a great distraction. Always be thinking in their shoes..where are they going, what's likely to be ahead of them that you can anticipate and use to your advantage. Again though.....a lot of the time it's all down to good spawns and luck.

it wont let me put an IFAK in my quick slots why?????

Great tips!

me and my scrub bois run 3's and get dropped by single thicc bois on the regular

Got a sub from me bud, your cool and seen you around the community with veritas and geeks!

So you say I need good ammo but also I'm proficient with last wipe I wiped a 4 man with a meta ak 74 with only bp they all had slicks and altyns. learning the positioning is good taking on 1 by one

what increase of squads? are you just saying that there seems to be more players grouping or what?

Any other recently started solos like myself out here trying group up? Struggle is real..

I am so sick of killing 3/4 or 2/3 and then dying to the last guy. It has gotten really bad with big squads. I honestly think that they should make servers for "solo+duo" and "Squads" (Solo vs Duo is fine. But "3 vs 1" or "4 vs 1" is just unfair.)

I feel so sorry for blade0109. Not good enough for jesse to keep his tag :L

No.... I run into the whole server

I call grenades "relocators". Seriously. They relocate the enemy and their 3 seconds of distraction is your moment to pivot and attack.

Is the mosin still relevant with lps gzh. I have not played in months

Also STOP using Flashlights and Lazers because they give your position away. I only use them to bait players my last known position while I flank them and never have it on when I am rushing or attacking.

Nice subbed

I always carry a grizzly in my gamma haha

Tip #1 always have a painkiller on

Half the time I get into a squad fight, I kill 2 or 3, AND THEN THE LAST GUY KILLS ME!

Extra visor in the container.

@jessekazam What your FOV?

Cassanta

It’s been frustrating how no solo players I kill are even a little bit geared. Idk why this is, maybe they don’t wanna go in without someone to ditch their stuff because of gear fear, or maybe they’re just trying to run random quests. one of these days I’ll kill a solo chad

Grenades, grenades, grenades! Bring grenades lol.

i see one person headshot them and then get jumpscared by 3 others and die

node

I run into teams way more than rats or solos. Maybe something here will help lol

I always happen to luckily kill everyone, then there's that one guy...

If you wanna play tarkov let me know! I’m trying to build a discord server with some homies !

not to much any more mostly duos some times trios not realy sqaud

I just had two little girls follow me around night time resort for 15 mins while I took my time looting everything. I could hear them creepin the entire raid. Second raid same thing with a solo guy. What kind of play style is that. I guess some people aren't confident enough to take a gunfight unless they can shoot you in the back. Idk why people are so afraid to die especially this late in wipe. You are never going to improve your game by crouch walking for 30 mins and looting scraps🤔

they need solo queue

As a solo player squads are all you run into. If theres five theres six