Escape from Tarkov suffers from what many hardcore titles tend to have: an overwhelming number of keybindings that sometimes take some getting used to. At worst, misconfiguring hotkeys can cause players to freeze during critical moments in the game, leading to an unfortunate death in a fight you’d otherwise easily win.
To that end, here are the three best hotkey layouts for Escape from Tarkov to ensure you exit with your loot and life intact. Note that Escape from Tarkov offers four different types of strikes that can trigger actions:
- Press: Executes the command once the key is pressed.
- Double Click – Executes the linked command after registering two clicks, within a user-defined delay (up to a full second).
- Continuous: the action runs as long as the associated key is pressed.
- Release – Executes the bound action once a key is released.
Standard
- Positive
- Great if you play various FPS games including Escape From Tarkov.
- Easy to learn and master bindings.
- Quick setup time.
- Avoid the ALT key with Left Shift to keep your keystrokes organized.
- Negative
- Little finger exhaustion during long gaming sessions due to context switching.
Picture by Gamepur
Keyboard layout divided by function:
- Gray denotes movement keys.
- Green indicates context switch signals.
- Red indicates combat keys.
- Blue denotes personal keys for inventory management, etc.
This layout mostly mirrors the standard FPS keys. It is easily adaptable for multi-game players as it uses common controls for movement, reloads and such. An important note is that we removed the use of Left ALT due to the tendency to bind your fingers, replacing Left Shift while controlling execution with Shift.
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Advance
- Positive
- Ideal if your main FPS title is Escape From Tarkov.
- Increased grouping range available due to movement key bindings.
- Negative
- This requires relearning muscle memory.
- This can be confusing if you frequent other FPS titles.
- Little finger exhaustion during long gaming sessions due to context switching.
Picture by Gamepur
The advanced design listed here can be a double-edged sword. For one, there are many other keys available to bind without using context switches. However, this comes at a price, as players will still benefit from context switching, which can of course be picked up by the little finger depending on the size of the hand.
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
mouse change
- Positive
- Players maintain full movement and accuracy regardless of setting.
- Easy to learn with standardized commands.
- Negative
- It depends on the hardware options of the mouse.
Picture by Gamepur
Many modern gaming mice have additional buttons that can be pressed with the thumb; this layout takes full advantage of those buttons, assuming players have at least two extra buttons (Mouse3 and Mouse4). While hardware-dependent, this design allows players to retain all of their characters’ movement and precision regardless of the context of the situation.
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
Gamepur screenshot
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