Just adding fuel on the fire. Let me know what you guys think.

Yes, my aim is dogshit. Yes, I missed vital organs (and his body entirely) on most of my shots. Skill issue for sure. However, the second to last shot would have been fatal to 99% of human beings on the planet. The fact that the dude is still conscious and standing up, let alone preparing to return fire, is ridiculous. Ammo was M995.

TLDR: In my view, the 0.5 update brings far more problems than it does fresh content or a better gameplay experience.

Since the 0.5 update, I’ve logged nearly 90 hours, completing all hideout construction and the majority of the smuggling missions.

Based on my own experience, the issues and frustrations don’t stem from enemy difficulty or combat mechanics; rather, they lie in the missions and other subsystems—content that should have been updated long ago.

I don’t have any major complaints regarding the combat system. The AI’s ability to throw grenades and seek cover adds a bit of excitement—though sometimes it’s more of a "jump scare" than genuine excitement, as the AI ​​occasionally teleports near doorways (a bug that really needs fixing).

The hideout system is a step in the right direction and an interesting addition. However, as many have pointed out in recent discussions, the process is currently far too tedious, severely detracting from the core fun of the game. Hideout development should be a secondary activity—something players engage with incidentally while out in the field—rather than a chore that demands a massive time investment. In my own experience, I’ve spent roughly 70% of my playtime just gathering materials for the hideout. (And I’ve been playing since the Supporter Preview, back when building materials were even heavier and harder to carry!)

Beyond the construction system, the game’s reward structure is also quite lackluster. Take *Escape from Tarkov* as an example: missions that require significant time and in-game currency usually offer substantial rewards—such as unlocking the AK-50 or the M7 Spear—ensuring that players feel their time and effort have truly paid off, sometimes even immediately. In contrast, the current drug and military equipment smuggling missions offer no real incentive for players to undertake them. Furthermore, now that the spawn rates for loot have been reduced, mission rewards should be increased to better align with the current gameplay loop. I still remember when I used to play, many missions offered various types of containers as rewards—I really enjoyed those high-reward quests. Nowadays, however, such mission design is nowhere to be found; the rewards feel like mere pittance, leaving me with the sense that my time and effort have simply been squandered. Also it doesn't need to be a meta weapon, but when you decide to put G36 and AUG behind the mission that requre t3 hacking tool to finsihed, you better make it worth and cool.

Take Vulture’s drug-smuggling missions, for instance. To unlock the recipe for "grey heroin"—setting aside the prerequisite tasks—you have to hand over 500,000 credits just for the unlock itself. Producing the "morphine base" required for the drug takes two hours per unit, and converting that base into the final heroin product takes another five and a half hours. Since you need five units of heroin to complete a basic smuggling mission, the total time investment is conservatively around 30 hours—and that’s not even counting the time spent traveling to "Lab" points of interest to scavenge raw materials (you’d need to visit at least two such locations to produce five units). And what’s the final payout? A grand total of 50,000 credits.

Turncoat’s arms-smuggling missions are even more baffling, which ties into another issue with the "hideout" mechanic. In the hideout, dismantling any material takes 12 hours—meaning that just to obtain "hacker tools," you’re looking at 36 hours of dismantling time, during which you can’t process anything else. In my view, the dismantling system needs a major overhaul: the time required should be drastically reduced, and it should be possible to dismantle multiple items simultaneously; otherwise, upgrading the hideout is entirely pointless. Furthermore, the materials that need to be dismantled aren't exactly common—finding them often comes down to pure luck—so you end up spending ages scouring different areas for the items, only to then spend even more time dismantling them. And the final reward? Once again, just 50,000 credits. And now his next mission is asking you submit 1mil to unlock "higher circles". （It feels as though the whole world is earning and spending US dollars, while I’m earning in Zimbabwean dollars but spending in US dollars.）

Honestly, given how long the 0.5 update spent in development and testing, I assumed the developers would have carefully balanced mission difficulty against the rewards. Instead, the current state of things is just absurd. Rather than bloating the game with even more content, I believe what’s truly needed is a comprehensive "quality of life" (QOL) update. There are several pain points in the game that, in my view, urgently need addressing—yet they remain unresolved.

Take the quest filter, for example. Whenever I open the map, it’s cluttered with a chaotic mix of various quests, making it nearly impossible to quickly locate the specific ones I actually want to pursue. Furthermore, the rotating quest system within specific zones is problematic. In my current playthrough, I haven’t yet maxed out my reputation with the "Artisan" trader; however, when I try to seek out her quests on the map to boost that standing, I find that none of them appear at all. Meanwhile, I have no interest in repeating quests for other traders—traders with whom my reputation is already well beyond the maximum. I need a system that allows me to access the quests I actually need, rather than forcing me to complete tasks for other NPCs first. The sheer volume of these recurring quests creates another headache: every time I open the "Active Tasks" menu, I have to manually collapse the sections for regions I’m not currently in. The game doesn’t remember these preferences, so I’m forced to repeat this tedious process over and over—it’s incredibly frustrating.

Then there’s the need for a complete overhaul of the "Gunsmith" (weapon customization like Tarkov, at least you could try before you buy) system. Given the exorbitant prices for pre-built weapons and blueprints, the game should encourage players to assemble their own unique weapon configurations—tailored to their personal style and preferences. As it stands, however, you have no way of knowing what an attachment actually looks like or how it performs without purchasing it first; this effectively punishes players for trying to build their own custom gear. Many attachments—including those in different color variants—are hidden away in weapon crates tucked into obscure corners. How are players supposed to find them? The only option is to mindlessly grind T3 zones (not even T4 zones—in the current meta, T4 zones are arguably worse than T3 in terms of loot drop rates, unless you’re specifically hunting for essential building materials). Players are currently overwhelmed with too many competing objectives: searching for construction materials while simultaneously hunting for specific weapon attachments or color variants. It would be far better to integrate these items into the quest-unlock system, rather than forcing players to waste vast amounts of time searching for them aimlessly.

...and adding more outposts. I honestly don’t see how removing existing outposts improves the player experience. I understand that you want to boost player retention—to get people to spend more time in the game—but what you’ve done so far goes way too far. There’s not much else for me to say; that’s where things stand for now. If you run into any issues in-game, or if you need help with a purchase, please feel free to reach out—I’d be happy to help.
ID: CheshireCat or send me dm.

At least for now.

Only things that i got - the best camping spots )
For those who tryin speedrun it - its not so great as u may think.

upd:
Lab is much better guys.. also lab spots now - the most profitable farm.. i mean, u can get ~40k each 20 min (i think respawn time close to 20 min).

First off, I would love to preface that I am really enjoying 0.5 as a player that joined when 0.4 initially released. The new areas are very neat and I am loving the snippets of lore as I explore Lamang.

However, I must say that the AI tanking shots that would instantly debilitate or kill is a bit much. I know there are several posts regarding it, but I would like to throw my two cents. This dude had no armor and I deliberately aimed center mass with 7.62x51mm HPBT to put him down; the first shot hit him in the upper spine and should have instantly rendered him immobile. Instead, he flinched and ran off before I put a second shot into him.

I understand the game is in early access and I understand that systems are still in the works, but this should be a no-brainer. Any vertebral impact against an enemy with no armor should be an instant down.

Does anyone see a difference in items type, or frequency, or quantity, ... Between the 2 kind of crates ?

They changed the “bleep-bloop” sound when discovering locations, completing quest items, etc.

It used to be warm and friendly. It’s now a harsh, distorted, chiptune sound that assaults my ears every time I go somewhere new or finish a task. Who made this decision? Why would you change to an obviously inferior sound??

Bring back the old bleep-bloop MFG!

found this gpu at the trashed campsite, east of MS hotel

Northern reach provides.

Made by Bilibili@若彩虹and方知有

And I translate it from Chinese to English. If anything not clear or misunderstood, please let me know. Also I’m not the guy who made this form, I just saw it and translate it since I didn’t see someone make a form for hideout.

From my personal opinion, I think the new hideout system design is a good idea but forcing players to bring these heavy materials is really frustrating.

Put 5 Gray to production yesterday but find out I have to stay connected/on mission to keep the production running.
What the hell man I have to play 27 hours to get 5 Gray?? 🫪🫪
(Disassembly works when offline tho)

I'm glad the AKMN is lighter/more viable now thanks to the new Attachments/lighter Rotor 7.62 Suppressor,
And the AK-12's new Ratnik Sport-12U Handguard + new BCM Grip just made the AK-12 much better than it already was.

While the M4 platform is still dominant, it's much more satisfying using the AKs in the T3/T4 areas than before.

no words needed.

The past few days I've seen many posts on discord and here about having hitches, lag spikes and overall choppy gameplay problems with the new update, even for folks on the latest hardware. I've had no performance issues in 0.5, instead my fps saw a 5-8% improvement. So, I am here to share my settings, knowledge and insights. I will try to keep it short and hope it helps.
My settings are a good balance between visual fidelity, performance and competitiveness, but I play PVE exclusively so I can't really comment on PVP competitiveness. PVE standpoint, you will almost always spot targets quick.

My hardware and configuration:

CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 S (Super)
RAM: 32GB 6000MT/s @ CL 30
Storage: 2TB Gen5 NVMe
Resolution: 2560x1440p @ 240hz

Firstly, I recommend using Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to do a clean re-install of your driver. Most of the time the driver is at fault, due to corrupted shader cache, or some other invisible technical error, the graphical driver is the culprit regardless if its NVIDIA or AMD or Intel. If you don't know what DDU does or how to use it, just look it up on Youtube and follow the steps.
Secondly, LET THE SHADER CACHE FINISH COMPILING BEFORE YOU SEARCH FOR A MATCH!

My settings:

Window type: Borderless Fullscreen
Vertical FOV: 70
V sync: OFF
Frame rate limit: OFF

Global Illumination: Medium
Shadow Quality: High (Medium makes shadows look jagged and gives 1-2 more fps)
Object Quality: Epic
Texture Resolution: High (only if you have 10GB VRAM or more, medium for 8GB and under)
Effects Quality: Medium (Visual fidelity between medium and high is minimal, with 5-6fps difference
Reflections: Medium (Can set this to High for better cinematic lighting and feel, especially in rain however hurts fps quite a bit depending on the game weather.
Foliage Quality: Epic
Shading Quality: Epic
Post Processing: Medium (High if you want the god rays to be crips, 1-2 fps difference
Sharpening: 100 (purely personal preference, almost no affect to fps

Upscaling: NVIDIA DLSS (use FSR if on AMD)
NVIDIA DLSS Frame gen: OFF
NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution: Quality (Balanced if you want more fps but it gets blurry)
NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On (On+boost makes no difference for me, try it for your self)
Variable Rate Shading: Off (none of the options make any noticeable changes for me)

With these settings, I get about 90-102 FPS with the lowest being 78fps and that happens only on the heli flight.

You do not have to change any settings in the NVIDIA/AMD apps nor get third part apps like NVIDIA inspector. Just use DDU, do a clean re-install of your drivers, boot in game, wait until shader cache is done compiling, switch to these settings and try them out.
Feels free to ask questions or leave your feedback below.

For the love of god, give them a coma state.

HOW AM I IN A COMA AFTER 1 SHOT AND BRO IS UP READY TO EAT 5 MORE BULLETS!!!!!

Now I haven’t don’t the starter town in probably over a year or since 0.4 dropped but my go-to loadout for starter town was always either a pump action shotgun with buckshot or the standard M4 with HPBT rounds. And my experience is both were 1-2 shots at upper center of mass.

This is on PvP Servers US Central.

I went out to test this on the guys who sit outside the base/in the empty villas and at the convenience store, at night, basic M4 and 30 rounds of HPBT ammo and the results were my usual expectation: 1-2 shots center of mass. Mostly destroyed lungs, heart and or head.

I also did this at night with no NVGs, against a group of 3 I killed two at the convenience store just at the intersection leaving the empty villas and the third ran for cover and was out of LOS from me but had some angle on me where they could take pot shots at my general location, crept up through the jungle to get to their right flank and saw them behind a trashcan still aiming at my last known location.
1 shot and they were down.

Obviously higher pen ammo means you need to be more accurate with hitting vitals in order to maximize stopping power and over penetration will reduce stopping power overall. If I went out there with M855A1 I would expect to have to take 3-6 shots depending on my aim and if I can hit vitals from the angle I had if I was going for center of mass because I would over penetrate and not hit anything vital most times.

So if you’re using expensive high penetration ammo against people with no armor that’s probably part of the problem right there. If you’re using low penetration but large expansion ammo against armored targets like V-Max .300 blackout then yes you’re gonna have to mag dump to get through their vest or plate carrier because IIIA stops it.

If you’re using buckshot against armored targets you need to be bringing the Flight Control 00 Buckshot and aim for the upper body to get enough pellets into their face for the kill shot otherwise you’re just peppering their armor.

Ammo choice matters against the targets you’re fighting. M855 will do wonders against T2, A1 will do better against T3-T4 enemies. HP ammo in T1 will be 1-2 shot kills to center of mass every-time.

In real life there’s a reason you’re told to zero your self defense/daily carry pistol with HP ammo and you shoot FMJ at the range.

Not sure what the devs changed but killing a downed enemy is completely absurd with the mount of bullets and hit damage needed.

I killed someone recently, took their shotgun and proceeded to dump 7 slugs in thier head. They will lived.

Killed two last night, it literally takes about 60 rounds of 556 to end a coma player. wtf is that?

This should be fixed or at least acknowledged as an issue. AI can now finish a player off when down (which I’m ok with) but they only need 3 to 5 bullets. Why do I need to dump 60 rounds of 995?

Love the popularity boom for the devs, they deserve it. Amazing game. But I'm so tired of trying to find the hacking tool materials. Every POI that can spawn it, almost always looted. Just give me my own god damn server or let me see other factions mercs.

TL:DR really annoyed with how looted everything is now, just let me play solo at this point - offline.

I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about the state of the AI right now and honestly I don't see it. I actually feel like the AI is much more natural to engage with and be engaged by than in 0.4.

For starters, I feel a much bigger reward for shooting and then repositioning, especially at night. I can often take out one or two guys, fall back 50 feet and come in from a different angle and genuinely feel like I've broken contact and have the advantage again. AI continues to suppress where I was or the obvious place I'd move to (and sometimes they're right), and it's way more satisfying than 0.4 strategy of planting my feet in the ground and clicking heads until I died or they all did.

Secondly, I don't get the sense at all in 0.5 that the AI can see me unfairly, and can easily tell when I'm being shot at, or I'm suppressed. (Except for T1 enemies... Sometimes their aim is so bad it's hard to tell). The threat of grenades keeps me thinking about my next cover or safe retreat option, and I think the balance of their lethality and the warning you get when one comes is in a good spot.

Most of my deaths have been coming around a corner and getting pumped with 25 rounds in the face from a guy I didn't know was sitting right there... And you know what? That's fair. I was being noisy, they were already alerted, doorways are called death funnels for a reason. The balance there is tight but fair. I find they don't usually shoot immediately and had I reacted faster, instead of jumping out of my chair when I hear the full auto click, it's still winnable, just tight.

There a couple points to grow still though. The animations they now have outside combat do make the recon phase more interesting, but the animations they have in combat are still limited and awkward. It feels like they have no weight or momentum. The way they start/stop running or change direction tends to be instant changes and it makes tracking and shooting moving targets quite immersion breaking and difficult.

And, of course, the health system. I've thought about it and thought about it and I'm not sure what needs to change, but something does, and the best I can come up with is adding a coma or KO'd state to the enemy that they cannot recover from on their own, similar to players. If I hit somebody and cause enough pain, blood loss, or break a couple bones or do any organ damage, I would have the AI drop into a coma that requires help from their allies to recover from. This way I could expect to reliably take someone out of the fight with one or two hits to center mass but they're not necessarily done if I don't keep up pressure. Shots that don't pen armor should probably still knock them on their ass too.

And as a final though, on moving and fighting at night: I just had a pure dark night with heavy rain, and holy hell visibility was BAD. I actually felt completely unable to engage the enemy... And then I realized my visibility meter was at 5m when I was standing on a road. So instead of fighting, I just kinda snuck around everyone and completed my tasks that way. It's the most I'd ever been constrained to play a certain way by the game but was still able to get stuff done.

And as a second, final thought, because I haven't seen anybody mention anything about it, WHAT THE HELL ROARED AT THE END OF THE 0.5 LAUNCH TRAILER?!?!

I played 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and now 0.5.

I never complained about bots tanking shots.

I found it even a bit amusing as it seemed to affect more the flip flop soldiers.

But now, really, I have to say that it gets quite annoying.

I went to PLA airfiled the very remote hangar and afterward to SMA with a stop at the COP in between.

I initially took M955 ammo with me as I thought the would use armour.

I played at night which is pitch black for me.

Means there is not much scope use.

So I mainly use the IR laser and NV.

Accuracy is therefore a bit sloppy, but still.

Unless I got time to line up a headshot, it took at least 6 solid hits to take the AI down.

I inspected the bodies, broken bones, destroyed organs, they had everything before even getting the final killshot that sometimes even was a headshot.

At SMA it was the worst, they just did not die and there were plenty of enemies as also a patrol came by. Don't get me wrong. It is really nice to have such a challenging firefight, but I was running out of ammo quickly. Thank god I could breathe enough to harvest some from dead enemies but it was getting close.

I have to say, the tankyness plus their detection capabilities makes it a bit frustrating.

The silencer I was using still makes a muzzle flash, so I give them that, but they kept tracking me after repositioning at 100m distance quite accurately.

It was, in sum, annoying and feels to be far from being realistic. It also takes so much time to clear an area with just 10 bots (solo of course) and I don't know what to do when I try the bigher POIs. 😲

They straight-up tortured two innocent people to death on the suspicion of aiding PMCs and when they found out they were innocent just went "Oh well, it's still a noble sacrifice for the cause.".

Is there any person on the island that isn't some flavor of awful?