EFT Tutorial and Guide
THE TARKOV CENTRAL
Simultaneous Actions
Looting is an action you'll perform very often, and while doing it your inventory interface is open—meaning you can’t move, scan your surroundings, or shoot. This leaves you vulnerable and wastes time, but it’s crucial to know that you can perform other actions while looting.
To loot a container (dead body, backpack, crate, med bag, sports bag, etc.), you click, the inventory interface opens, and then you must wait as your character inspects the container’s contents, revealing each item one by one.
If there's only one item, looting is swift. But if there are multiple items, it can drag on for several seconds.
It is vital to know—and exploit—the fact that, simultaneously while your character inspects the container, you can perform other actions:
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Heal yourself
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Perform surgery
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Refill magazines with ammo
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Eat/Drink
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Reload your weapon
This way, you optimize your time by handling these crucial tasks upfront. Once you finish looting, you’ll be combat-ready and have saved a ton of time.
TIP: With the Attention skill maxed out, you have a 50% chance of revealing a container’s contents instantly. (But maxing out your skills takes a lot of time!)
More Details
While you wait for your character to finish inspecting the container you opened, you cannot right-click an item to open its menu and select an option—but you can double-click an item to use it.
This means you can double-click a bottle of water to drink it or a food item to eat it. Likewise, you can double-click a medkit, a bandage, a tourniquet, or a splint to heal yourself, stop bleeding, or treat a fracture.
In addition to double-clicking, you can click and hold the left mouse button to drag an object. For example, you can move items to organize your inventory or make room for what you’ll find in the container. Similarly, you can grab a stack of ammo and drag it onto an empty magazine to refill it simultaneously. And so on.
Other Actions You Can Perform Simultaneously
This isn’t strictly related to looting, but remember: there are other actions you can do simultaneously. It’s important to experiment and get comfortable with all these mechanics—they’ll save you time and let you get back to your mission or the fight.
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While refilling an empty magazine with ammo: You can also reload your weapon by right-clicking on the weapon and selecting “reload” or by right-clicking on another magazine (not the one you’re loading) and choosing “install.”
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While reloading your weapon: You can open your inventory and start other actions, such as refilling an empty magazine with ammo, eating, or drinking.
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While eating or drinking: You can open your inventory and move items around to organize them.
Instant Weapon Reload
It’s also very useful to know that under certain circumstances you can reload your weapon instantly:
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If you’re eating, drinking, healing any negative effect (including performing surgery with a surgical kit): Right-click your weapon and choose “reload” or right-click a magazine and choose “install”—and the reload will be instantaneous and animation-free.
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If you open your inventory and right-click your weapon and choose “reload” (or right-click a magazine and choose “install”) while holding another weapon (secondary weapon, pistol, or melee weapon). The same applies if you’re holding your primary weapon and perform “reload” on your secondary weapon or sidearm, or “install” on their respective magazines—they’ll reload instantly.
This trick can be a lifesaver during a hectic firefight when you’re running out of ammo. However, it requires you to keep a cool head and remember the trick on the fly, and a bit of practice. You need to be able to stop, open your inventory, right-click, and select the option, so it really depends on the situation and your speed.