What is Escape from Tarkov Berserk Mode

In Escape from Tarkov, sustaining a number of shots can maim you, thus slowing you down. It’s not unfair or even hard; it’s just a game mechanic that’s meant to mimic the fact that people are too damaged or in too much pain, if not outright dead after a few shots. The Berserk ability, however, lets players get around that limitation.

Not Cutting Any Slack

True to its Eastern European game development roots, Escape from Tarkov, compared to other shooters, has a more “realistic” approach to the genre. That means aside from your stamina, you also need to keep a keen eye on your thirst and hunger levels.  It’s also unforgivable as hell that players lose all the items they’re carrying during online play. You can get around this mechanic in offline mode, but you won’t earn items–which you can put up for Escape from Tarkov trading later on–through that.

Like what has previously been mentioned, a reflection of that cruel and grounded-in-realism Russian game design philosophy is the fact that getting some gunshot wounds will leave you bleeding or maimed, reducing your movement speed to a limp until you use Escape from Tarkov items for recovery—such as bandages—and pop a few painkillers.

Thankfully, despite the grittiness and difficulty that the game has, it has some progression elements that give players a wide plethora of abilities. Some of them even make players more resistant to some of these elements. A good example of that is the article’s namesake: Berserk mode.

Obtaining this skill, however, can take a good deal of time due to the game’s skill leveling system. Unlike other games where you just pump a certain amount of points for a prerequisite skill until the skill you want is unlocked, Escape from Tarkov will require you to level up an entire branch. And to do that, you’ll have to actually do something related to the branch.

Managing Your Stress

There are five kinds of skills in Escape from Tarkov: Physical, Mental, Combat, Practical, and Special. For Physical skills, there are seven: Endurance, Health, Immunity, Metabolism, Strength, Vitality, and Stress Resistance. Berserk is under Stress Resistance and is the ability you receive once the skill reaches Elite level–that means level 51.

Stress Resistance gains experience every time you sustain damage. However, we wouldn’t advise letting yourself get shot. After all, this is a hardcore survival-shooter where you drop your items when you die. Instead, you can do other things such as letting your legs be blacked out, using painkillers and running around until you’re low on health, then you heal–rinse and repeat. As an additional, you can even do this while dehydrated to level up your Stress Resistance even faster.

Building Up Tolerance

Other than the Berserk mode, there are other perks you can gain from leveling up your Stress Resistance. The higher this skill is, the lesser your chances are of getting pain shock. It’s a rather problematic condition, as it not only blurs your vision but also makes your breathing loud & laborious, causing you to be easily heard by enemy players. At the Elite level, the chance of getting Pain Shock is halved.

Another advantage of high-Stress Resistance is that you’re less likely to have oscillation tremors, which is a condition where your character’s hand becomes too shaky and therefore unable to shoot properly. It’s really problematic to have when you’re in a life-or-death situation that you can only get out of by taking out your pursuer, so investing in Stress Resistance is definitely a good idea.

To say that Escape from Tarkov is tough is an understatement. And it doesn’t go soft. Instead, it makes sure that you roll along with its hard punches.