Escape from Tarkov is one of the most realistic FPS games in recent memory. A hard-as-nails that requires close equipment and inventory management. And because of that, players can find Tarkov a bit intimidating. In this guide, we will explore gun malfunctions and how to unjam guns in Escape from Tarkov.
How Do Guns Jam in Escape From Tarkov
The most important aspect of your inventory in Escape from Tarkov is the main weapon that you decide to take with you during raids. You have a lot of options. There are more than 60 weapons in the game many new ones are yet to come.
But, in such a realistic shooter, there’s always a catch. Weapons have durability and need cleaning after each raid. Otherwise “weapon malfunctions” will start to appear that will jam your gun. Not cleaning or fixing your weapon can decide between losing or winning.
Before we explain how to unjam your weapon, we need to look at the types of weapon malfunction that can occur during a raid.
Mechanical malfunctions
Mechanical malfunctions are events that happen if you don’t clean guns between raids. They occur based on chance and can potentially affect one or more technical parts of guns in Escape from Tarkov. Just like in real life, if you don’t properly clean your guns they can jam and break.
- Misfires – A misfire is the failure of a cartridge to fire when a player shoots.
- Failure to eject – After firing, the ejecting round is jammed by the bolt and is partially visible in the ejection port. The cause of this problem is the technical condition of the weapon.
- Failure to feed – After firing, the round gets stuck inside of the weapon. This problem is especially common for high-capacity and drum ammo. Other causes: cartridge characteristics, weapon overheating, and technical condition of the weapon.
- Jammed bolt – After firing, the bolt may be jammed. Jamming can happen in two ways: normal and hard. The only difference is how long it takes for you to fix the weapon after. The only cause of a jammed bolt is overheating of the weapon. Hard jamming occurs only at low values of the technical condition of the weapon (5% and below).
Overheating
Just like in real life, weapons heat up after each shot. The heating rate for each shot depends on the “heating-prone” parts of the weapon (receivers, muzzle devices, handguards, etc.).
When you stop using the weapon, it starts cooling down. The cooling rate also depends on the barrel and other parts of the weapon that are prone to overheating. (receivers, muzzle devices, handguards, etc.). This is why choosing the right attachments is so important.
Your only metric to determine your weapon’s “overheat” level is simply looking at it. There are four stages of overheating for the weapons from Escape from Tarkov, each coming with different side effects:
Slight overheating – The weapon is heating, but there is no reddening of the attachments. No obvious visual queues appear.
Effects: heating of the barrel, muzzle devices, and handguard is visible to enemies that use thermal scopes, heat haze from the barrel, and muzzle devices.
Medium overheating – The weapon is heated, and the reddening of the attachments becomes visible.
Effects: Accuracy of the weapon is decreased, malfunction chance is increased, wear is increased, and the weapon’s durability is reduced during firing.
Severe overheating – The weapon is very hot, and the attachments show obvious signs of overheating.
Effect: The weapon’s rate of fire is changed, slight chance of cooking off.
Maximum overheating – When a weapon reaches maximum overheating, a malfunction is guaranteed to occur.
How to Unjam Guns in Escape from Tarkov
At first, you will not know what part of the weapon malfunctioned. To see what happened you will need to inspect your weapon. You can do this by pressing “L”. You will also get a prompt to do so every time you have a malfunction.
After you have determined which part of the weapon has malfunctioned, a prompt will show up asking you to press “LShift + T” (by default) to fix the malfunction.
After playing some matches, gaining experience, and leveling up traders, you can unlock a skill called “Troubleshooting Elite”. This will allow you to skip the weapon inspection part and clean your weapon fast.
As you can see, Escape from Tarkov is a very detailed and brutal game, that takes realism to a whole new level. Even small concepts like weapons’ degrading become quite extensive. And for you to learn a bit more about it, here are a few more guides:
Escape From Tarkov: 7 Best Armor Pieces | Escape From Tarkov: 10 Best Weapons
