Vendors are a huge part of any RPG. They can be a source of items, currency, and story quests. This trend holds mostly true in Battlestate Games’ FPS. To get the most out of the merchants you come across, here’s how to increase Trader loyalty levels in Escape from Tarkov.
What is Trader Loyalty Level in Escape from Tarkov?
Trader Loyalty is basically a different version of a reputation system from other RPGs. Each Trader has a Loyalty value beneath their portrait and next to your player portrait. To increase Trader Loyalty, you must complete Tasks for them. In many cases, Task Loyalty points are specific to that merchant. If you complete a Task for Prapor, you won’t see the Therapist’s value move at all.
The Fastest Way to Increase Trader Loyalty
The fastest way to increase most Trader Loyalty in Tarkov is to complete as many tasks for them as you can. That includes any Daily and Weekly Tasks they offer you. Most don’t award more than .01-.03 Loyalty, so reaching the next threshold can take a while.
How Trader Tasks Work
There are also a few wrinkles to consider. Some Tasks can come from more than one Trader, and completing them for one might make the other unhappy. One early Task you get from Skier called Stirrup, reduces your Therapist and Prapor Loyalty by .05 and .02, respectively.
A later-game quest called The Huntsman Path — Sadist costs you -.1 Loyalty from Jaeger if you instead complete a Task called Colleagues — Part 3 for Therapist. Choosing one will fail the other, but siding with Therapist always rewards a TerraGroup Labs Keycard (Black), which goes for about 4 million rubles on the Flea Market. Siding with Jaeger only reduces Therapist’s Loyalty by .02, but the rewards aren’t as good. In this case, and some others, you’ll need to weigh which means more to you: potential monetary gain or progression loss.
You can also lose small amounts of Loyalty if you replace Daily and Weekly Tasks. Many dailies and weeklies only have a ruble cost to replace, but the more you turn down, the higher that price, and the more likely a Loyalty hit, becomes.
How Fence Loyalty and Scav Karma Works
Lastly, there’s Fence Loyalty, primarily built around a mechanic called Scav Karma. Your Scav is a separate character with random, lower-quality gear that has no bearing on your main character’s progression. They can load into any map and will do so 5-15 minutes after the raid starts.
The better your Loyalty score with Fence, the better the random gear your Scav spawns with, and the shorter it takes for your Scav to come off cooldown. Putting other Scav cooldown reductions aside, going from 0.00 to 3.00 Fence Loyalty cuts more than five minutes off your Scav timer, letting you head back in risk-free once again.
How to Earn Fence Loyalty
You earn Fence Loyalty in several ways:
- Using a car extract as a PMC. This improves your Scav karma by +.4 for the first time, with diminishing returns afterward. If you rotate which maps you take the car on, the bonus doesn’t degrade nearly as fast.
- Using a co-op extract as either a Scav or PMC. This improves your Scav karma by +.25, with diminishing returns afterward.
- Extracting your Scav. This improves your Scav karma by +.01.
- Complete Scav Tasks from Fence. These improve your Scav karma by +.01-.04.
- Helping Scavs, Scav Bosses, or guards. This improves your Scav karma by .01-.05, depending on the NPC assisted.
- Killing a PMC who’s killed at least one Scav. This improves your Scav karma by .02 or .03 if they’ve killed at least two Scavs.
- Kill a traitor Scav (one that’s harmed other Scav NPCs in any way). This improves your Scav karma by +.03.
How to Lose Fence Reputation
You can also lose Fence reputation by attacking enemy Scavs, Scav bosses, their guards, or other player Scavs. The Fence Loyalty penalty ranges from .03 for killing an AI Scav to .2 for killing a Scav boss. Furthermore, if you reach max Fence Loyalty and Scav karma (6+ on the Fence Trader screen), then kill or harm any Scav in the game, your karma immediately drops to 5.9. It doesn’t matter how high your Fence Loyalty was. You will drop to 5.9 for turning traitor against your fellow Scavs.
What do You Get for Increasing Trader Loyalty?
Each Trader (except Fence) has four Loyalty ranks. Every new rank unlocks more and better gear in that Trader’s inventory. Rank 4 offers almost every endgame option you could want on a gun or your kit. Some are technically cheaper on the Flea Market, but reaching max-level Traders makes getting to PvP — the real Tarkov endgame — much easier and less expensive.
The catch, as before, is Fence. Fence only has two ranks, and they operate differently from other Traders. At Level 1, you have a limited selection of items sold to Fence by other players and Scavs at frankly exorbitant prices. The higher your Scav karma and Fence Loyalty get, the lower these prices become, and the more Fence will pay for items.
At Rank 2 Fence, you gain access to a second vendor screen that has a flat 30% discount on all items and offers a much wider and high-quality selection of items. You won’t find the pick of the litter in this new tab, unfortunately, but can be a good place for buying the occasional mostly-full healing item, weapon in fair shape, or other cheaper alternatives.
That’s how to increase Trader loyalty in Escape from Tarkov. For more tips and tricks, check out our articles on how to level up fast, the best way to complete tasks, and more in our guides hub.
