Escape From Tarkov Trading Guide (leveling & Flea Market) (2024)

Most important thing about Escape from Tarkov isn’t the combat, the looting, running into raids or getting kills. The most important thing in the game is making massive bank from trading and bartering so that you can afford more gear to get even more bank.

So you should familiarize yourself with the traders, the flea market, and how you can get the most cash from both the traders, and other players.

We can start with each trader starting from our good comrade Prapor.

Escape From Tarkov Trader guide

Prapor

Praporis our dealer of anything and almost everything involving the linesof trustworthy Russian firearms. He sells ammunition for all kinds ofweapons here, from 5.45×39 to 7.62x54R. Anything you want that mightbe a Russian model, you can find from him. At loyalty level 1, youwon’t get much of a selection, as you will find with all traders inthis game.

Prapor serves as the easiest way to get something strong enough to maybe put down a few scavs and even a PMC. When you first start the game you should take a look at his Tasks, the first of which is just a simple fetch and kill quest.

He buys just about anything, but he won’t give you the most value. You should still sell some things to him, as it contributes to the three prerequisites for leveling up his loyalty level, the other two involving leveling your PMC and completing quests for him.

Allin all, if you’re looking to buy up an AK and mod it out tosomething that can drop some fools in dorms then Prapor is your guy.Next up is his associate, Therapist.

Therapist

The first time you jump into a raid, you might bring a mosin withextra magazines. First off that’s not how mosins work, and secondyou’re probably going to be looking at a death screen in a fewminutes because another player saw you hiding and dropped you with asingle shot through your chest. When you return to your menu you’llsee that your health has dropped to 30% of the max, and a pop up willappear when you try to go into another raid that tells you that youshould heal up before diving in to lose another mosin. That’s whereTherapist comes in. She sells all kinds of medical equipment, and afew snacks here and there to fill your energy and hydration levels.

Once again, from the get go you should grab her task, as she andPrapor are the only quests you can accept at the start of the game.The cheapest way to heal yourself from a death in raid is to just buythree of those little slices of kraft cheese you can see, the AI-2medkits. You should also bring some splits, bandages and painkillersinto raid, in case you have the pleasure of running into thosedebuffs. Having some on hand will save you a lot of grief, andTherapist is the one you will always come running back to for thathealing. If you want to make bank off of junk, your best bet will beto come straight to her and just throw everything on the table. Shebuys junk, bartering items, medical equipment, and food for the bestprice out of the traders. Sometimes selling to her is even betterthan selling to the flea market, as the flea market automaticallytakes a fee for putting up items.

Asyou level Therapist up, she’ll sell more medical equipment and alsooffer trades or sell item cases, scav junkboxes, medical boxes, andthe amazing T H I C C item case. One of these T H I C C cases isequivalent to your entire inventory if you’ve got the basic editionof Escape from Tarkov, and it only takes up 15 slots in yourinventory. But you don’t have to worry about that now, because youprobably aren’t going to be getting one of those for a long, longtime. So instead of worrying let’s just move onto the next trader,Fence.

Fence

Fence doesn’t do much, but he buys absolutely everything. The onlyissue is that he buys items for a fraction of what they’re actuallyworth. If you ever need to just get rid of some broken down armor,and you can’t sell it to someone else, then Fence is your best betto just get rid of it and getting a bit of value back, but it’s notworth buying or selling much of anything to him, as everything hesells is marked up something like 200% from trader value.

The only other thing he brings for you is a single quest, after youcomplete every single quest in the game, save for a few exceptions.The quest requires to find a number of rare spawn items in raid, andat the end of it he gives you what is currently the largest securecontainer in the game, having 3×4 slots. But you’ve got a long wayto go, so let’s just move on.

Skier

Next on the list is our resident suspicious character, if you don’tcount Fence that is. Skier sells various gear mods for your weapons,such as foregrips, suppressors and optics. As you level him up he’llalso sell a few more weapons, and the much sought after REAP-IRthermal scope will become available from a barter trade.

While he doesn’t sell much of anything else, he does give you themost value for body armor and weapon attachments, so if you find agun in raid that you don’t want to use, you should firstdisassemble it and go to skier to sell the parts for the most valueas possible. The rest of the pieces of the gun can be sold to theMechanic, who I’ll come back to later. Once you max out his loyaltylevel, you can purchase or trade for weapon cases from him, butthey’re quite expensive.

Skier’s first quest unlocks at level 5, so until then just keep onplaying the game until you can get started with him. His quests arenecessary to unlock the quest line for the next of our traders.Peacekeeper.

Peacekeeper

If for some reason you actually know about the lore of this game,then the UN probably comes up a few times in it. Peacekeeper is ourUN correspondent, and everything that you sell to him or buy from himwill be through USD. Like his buddy Skier, he sells all kinds ofmodifications and optics for weapons, but everything he sells mostlyonly works for firearms from western manufacturers, such as the M4and the HK416.

As mentioned before, his quest line is unlocked through one ofSkier’s quests, and you’ll want to do this as Peacekeeper sellsone of the best helmets in the game at Loyalty 4, the Airframe. Thequickest way to get a bunch of USD is to just buy them for 119roubles, or you can sell data drives to him instead of other tradersfor a few hundred bucks. If you’re looking to use a weaponchambered in 5.56, or .308, you go straight to him.

Asa final note, if you have the basic edition of EFT, Peacekeeper isthe source of one of the possible upgrades of your secure container,if you don’t just purchase an upgrade to a different edition of thegame. Now, we move to our third person who sells weapon mods, theMechanic.

Mechanic

Once you disassemble a weapon and sell everything that you can fromthe parts to Skier, the next step is to come to the Mechanic and sellthe rest. He buys the guns themselves, and does so at a much betterprice than Prapor does. He sells more modifications, and also offersone of the easiest ways to level up your PMC, through the Gunsmithquest line. This however is unlocked at PMC level 10, so you stillhave to do some work yourself. Once you start making it out of raidswith better loot, you’ll find yourself going between Skier,Mechanic, and Therapist to sell whatever you find. Skier forattachments, Mechanic for the rest, and Therapist for medical andjunk items or barter items.

Youshouldn’t have any trouble leveling Mechanic as you can get most ofyour Rep from the Gunsmith quests, but he has the highest PMC levelrequirement to increase his loyalty levels, so just keep on goinglike usual. Next up is our cool and chill dude, Ragman.

Ragman

If you want to lower your chances of dying in a single shot, theobvious thing is to wear armor and a helmet. Sometimes this won’tsave you, but it’s still better than nothing. Ragman is the traderof helmets, armor, tactical rigs and armbands if you need them foridentification purposes in a group. Many of the items you get fromhim will be from barter trades up until you max out his loyaltylevel, but the SSh-68 helmet will save you in the early game.Generally you should look to use class 3 or 4 armor, which you canget at his second loyalty level.

You may notice that his first level up doesn’t require any Rep,only PMC level 15 and trading 1 million roubles with him. This maytake a while, but it’s worth the money sink. He buys body armor,helmets, tactical rigs and some barter items for a lower price thanSkier or Therapist, but usually the difference isn’t that great ifyou just need to level him up.

Ragman’squest line is centered around the map Interchange, a close quartersand one of the more dangerous maps to run into with lower gear. Ifyou go in though, you might find a good amount of valuable junk andbarter items within the mall. He is also currently the only traderwho has a Service tab that you can access, and he sells you cool newthreads for your PMC. Once you get deeper into the game, a certainquest unlocks in which you have to kill the Scav boss of Interchange,Killa, 100 times. Doing so will grant you the ability to buy atracksuit, to look like a true Russian.

Finallywe move onto the only unlockable character in the game, Jaeger.

Jaeger

Jaeger is unlocked through a questline from the Mechanic, in whichyou need to find a hunting stand somewhere in the map Woods, andbring the Mechanic a note from Jaeger. Once you complete the questyou get to speak to Jaeger, who has probably one of the hardest questlines in the game. Jaeger sells shotguns and rifles, reflecting hisname. He does also have a few attachments in his inventory, mainlyriflescopes and even the REAP-IR from a barter trade, and he evenallows you to get CMS and Survival kits, the only ways to fix yourlimbs that have lost all their HP in raid.

At loyalty 3 you are able to trade for the Red Rebel Ice pick, andthe S I C C case, both of which are long, expensive yet goodinvestments. The S I C C case is a container you can place insideyour secure container that will hold money, keys and dog tags with a25 slot inventory. The Red Rebel is the only melee weapon in the gamethat has another use besides being a melee weapon, as it is requiredalong with a Paracord for an extract on Woods and Reserve. The onlycaveat being that you cannot wear body armor when you extract.

Jaeger’squest line requires you to perfect your long range sniping. His firstquests require you to place items in Woods and to kill scavs withcertain constraints. Get used to running in and dying with just amosin on you if you do his quests.

Leveling Traders in Escape from Tarkov

AsI’ve mentioned a few times, you need to increase your Rep, spendmoney and level your PMC to increase the loyalty levels of yourtraders. Everything you do will contribute to leveling your traders,and some are easier than others, but leveling them all is worth thetime. At the top right of each trader menu, you’ll see your currentlevel, rep, and the amount of money you have traded with them. Thelevel is self-explanatory, as you get exp from basically everythingyou do in the game.

Offhandedly I mentioned that you can sell or buy items from traders to contribute to the amount of money you need to trade in order to level traders. An easy way to do so is to buy something from them and sell it back to them. You might lose some money in the process, but if you really want to just get it done fast then this is your best bet. Reputation on the other hand can be easy or hard.

If you looked at the different editions of the game, you may have noticed that you can get certain benefits for paying more for the game, such as higher starting rep for traders. Having the most expensive edition gives you a default 0.20 rep on all traders, enough to level some of them to their second and third loyalty levels with a few quests.

If you aren’t feeling like spending more money though, you’llhave to go through their quest lines to level them up. As mentioned,you get more of their inventory unlocked as you level, and sometimesthe quests that you do for them will unlock items you can buy ortrade for as well, so either way you should do as many quests as youcan.

Flea Market in Escape From Tarkov

At PMC level 15 you unlock the option to use the Flea Market, where you can buy and sell items with other players. Sometimes an item may be worth more on the flea market than what you can sell it for to traders, based on how valuable or important it may be to other players.

Things such as bolts and screw nuts can be sold to Therapist for 750 roubles, but since it is used to craft items in the hideout, and also to upgrade parts of the hideout, you can sell them on the flea market for around 10k roubles instead. If you are unsure of the worth of an item you get out of a raid, it is usually worth looking at the flea market.

Just don’t forget to filter out barter trades, as usually those trades are rip offs. Prices on the flea market tends to fluctuate from patch to patch, so keep an eye on prices here to turn a profit. Be careful though, as putting an item on the market requires a fee taken from your inventory, and some items while being worth a lot on the flea market, may require you to put down a large amount to list it on the market.

Andwith that, you should have a good grasp of the basics of trading andselling, and you can make some massive bank. Just don’t forget,this is Tarkov, and you can lose your money in an instant. Just don’tget discouraged, as you can always make it back. And if you getlucky, you might even make even more.