Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
With different ammo types, fire rates and effective ranges choosing the right weapon and attachments is a difficult task in EFT. This guide to Tarkov budget guns recommends weapons and attachments that are affordable but powerful for early wipe gameplay or budget loadouts and where to buy them.
These recommendations draw from the wealth of community resources and my own experience in PvE and PvP across 1,000+ raids.
Table of Contents:
– What Is An Effective Budget Gun?
– Best Early Wipe & Budget Guns
What Is An Effective Budget Gun?
These are the best budget gun factors:
- Base Stats: Base weapon statistics are important for cheap guns as this saves money on attachments. This includes ergonomics, recoil (for full auto) and accuracy values useful for budget builds and also some of the best guns for beginners.
- Ammo: Ammunition is critical to your weapon choice as you want an avaiable ammov with suitable combat power for Scavs or PMC.
- Weapon Availability and Price: Early wipe or low level builds are limited need to favour weapons that are readily available from low level traders or cheap on the Flea Market.
- Attachment and Magazine Availability: Similar to the weapon we need to ensure that critical attachments like a sight and large magazines are available to purchase at a reasonable cost.
Best Early Wipe & Budget Guns
The below Tarkov weapon recommendations include up to trader level 2 and cater to different playstyles with information on ammo type, availability and notes on optimising each weapon. To ensure these weapons stay budget friendly your attachments should focus on adding a sight of your preference first and you can incrementally add extra cost through other attachments as your budget dictates such as silencers or different grips for ergonomics.
| Weapon | Ammo Type | Availability | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 PP-19-01 “Vityaz” |
9×19 | Prapor Level 1 | A single fire and full auto weapon which players can easily obtain ammunition and 30 round magazines for. With low recoil this weapon is primarily for headshots that are effective against Scavs and PMCs.
The Axion Kobra EKP-8-02 reflex sight (Dovetail) also fits directly on this gun which is similarly readily available and an effective basic red dot sight. |
 Kalashnikov AKS-74U |
5.45×39 | Prapor & Mechanic Level 1 | The most basic of the AK variants you’ll find in Tarkov this small and short weapon is surprisingly effective with a sight attached and has no problem fighting indoors with the smaller barrel size. It’s also one of the cheaper options for silenced weapons early on if you want to stay silent. |
 Molot VPO-136 “Vepr-KM” |
7.62×39 | Skier Level 1 | One of the larger budget rifles the Vepr allows players to bring a little more firepower and comes with a 30 round magazine when purchased. The easiest way to add a sight for this weapon is to purchase the AK AKademia Bastion dust cover (also from Skier 2) that provides a top rail for most sights to go directly on the gun.
This is a single fire only rifle and in time players can upgrade to the AKM which has a number of similarities but also gives players the option of full auto fire mode. |
 PPSh-41 |
7.62×25 | Prapor Level 1 | An aggressive option compared to the other best budget options this is a gun that seeks to overwhelm enemies with sheer fire rate and magazine size. While the ammunition and modding opportunities are lacking your goal is to spray and pray when using this budget weapon. |
 Molot VPO-215 “Gornostay” |
.366 TKM | Jaeger Level 1 | An affordable bolt action sniper rifle which can be used alongside the Mosin for longer ranged maps like Woods where players want extra distance to attack Scavs safely and can be paired with a pistol for extra safety. |
 MP-153 |
12×70 | Jaeger Level 2 | Readily available from Scavs the shotgun is a simple but effective weapon for Scav hunting and with some luck on your pellets can still bring down a PMC. While I recommend the MP-153 here given its base statistics essentially any shotgun you have access to can serve as a budget weapon on maps that you can avoid long range combat. |
 UMP |
.45 ACP | Peacekeeper Level 2 | The UMP is another submachine gun option for players that you will want to focus on headshots given the ammunition will not be able to consistently penetrate player armour plates. With the in built rails it is easy for players to add a sight and foregrip depending on overall weapon budget. |
