Escape From Tarkov: The Complete Guide to Lighthouse
The newest addition to Escape From Tarkov in patch 12.12 is Lighthouse - and this map is quickly becoming many players' favorite for its varied gameplay experiences. In this comprehensive guide, I'll cover everything you need to know to find success on Lighthouse raids.
Layout and Flow
Lighthouse features a unique vertical orientation, running north-south instead of the sideways layouts of previous maps. This gives callouts more intuitive directional names, with "north" and "south" actually matching compass directions!
The long map divides into distinct sections from north to south:
- Train Yard - Concentration of industrial loot and Scavs
- Includes warehouses, rail cars, machinery
- Loose loot focused on crafting materials
- Scav boss and guards have multiple spawn locations
- Water Treatment Plant - Insane high value loot guarded by Rogues
- multilple buildings with locked rooms and loose loot spawns
- Contains Rogue USEC bosses with mounted weapons
- Valuables like GPUs, virtexes, bitcoin
- Village - Medium value loose loot density with intelligence spawns
- Residential buildings with jackets and stashes
- Scav activity across whole area
- Coastal Cottages - Shoreline buildings and stashes
- Beach lordoution with pier
- World items, food, and quest items
- Chalets - Highest tier loot and PvP hotspot
- Two large luxury cottages with keys
- Cottages and small outbuildings to search
- Highest concentration of top tier item spawns
- South No Man's Land - Empty area leading to future expansion
In the south, we'll eventually access the Lighthouse island itself - but for now, mystery and an angry sniper await any who cross the bridge! As players explore north, expect action funneling towards the lucrative zones.
Spawn Locations
On the south end, spawns scatter along the beach and road. These players tend to push north to the Chalets or east to the village, with the beach spawns at a disadvantage. The south edges also allow long sight lines for opportunistic snipers.
In the middle, spawns fan out with good potential access to the Water Treatment Plant or Chalets. The northern four spawns become contested for the treatment plant or can reach the train yard first.
Regardless of spawn, expect movement towards the concentrated loot. Common rotations lead to collisions at the bridges or along the shoreline cottage fields.
Extracts
Extraction favors PMC extracts in the north and Scavs in the south. Key extracts include:
- Red Rebel - Mountain Pass between chalets
- Northern Checkpoint - Temporary northern UN Roadblock extract
- Path to Shoreline - Central extract seeing heavy traffic
Around Water Treatment, stick to the rocks to avoid pesky landmines! These dot the southwest approach and have caught many a greedy loot hound.
Loot Locations
Nearly all of Lighthouse sees inflated loot quality and density versus other maps. Prioritize searching these high yield areas:
- Chalets - Champion tier spawns with keys, especially the south
- multiplied rare loot spawns in all rooms
- keys provide consistent weapon cases, ammo cases
- Village - Great medium density of valuables
- favor intelligence folders, tech loot
- boss guard coats have rare keys
- Water Treatment - High risk from Rogues protecting insane loot
- rival loot density of Labs maps
- multiple buildings to search, including locked rooms
- bosses have labs tier weapon mods and ammo
The residential south chalet specifically rivals Labs for stash value, while the garage and marin car keys grant consistent jackpots. With smart play, a few chalet raids can earn you several survival runs worth of gear!
Rogue Camp Dangers
Guarding the Water Treatment plant, Rogue USEC AI offer new challenges and rewards. More accurate than Raiders, they wield devastating mounted guns and grenade launchers.
Their hostility depends on your BEAR or USEC status, but either way bringing the pain earns you labs-style loot. With 8-10 ground level and 2-3 roof Rogues, their gear and backpacks can fill a Tri-Zip to bursting.
Veteran players advise stealthy flanking approaches from the west to clear roof positions. Grenades also help considerably by suppressing or killing the deadly machine gun nests. Once you handle the altitude advantage, move between buildings clearing and looting methodically.
Conclusion
With insane loot density, new AI threats, and plenty of regions left unexplored, Lighthouse currently contends as Tarkov's most dynamic map. The future northern expansion and southern lighthouse also hint at even more replayability soon.
Whether you crave long range firefights, white-knuckle CQB versus Rogues, or just reliability filling your stash, Lighthouse is a must-try. Load up your best kit, study the guides, and see you by the docks, contractors!