Exploring usability improvements for a deeply complex extraction shooter

Overview

Escape from Tarkov is a deeply complex extraction shooter built around inventory management, weapon customization, economy systems, and high-consequence gameplay. This exploration looked at how clearer UX patterns and information hierarchy could improve usability while preserving the game’s hardcore identity.

Goals

1.Reduce reliance on third-party tools: surface the stats players were alt-tabbing to wikis and spreadsheets for, directly in the UI.
2.Preserve the hardcore identity: improve clarity without simplifying the systems that make Tarkov Tarkov.
3.Fix specific friction points: tooltips that hide the very data they exist to explain, previews that show too little to decide on.
4.Design within the real system: explore changes that could plausibly ship inside Escape from Tarkov's actual UI, not a wholesale redesign.

The Problem

Heavy memorization demands, offloaded to notebooks and spreadsheets
Reliance on third-party wikis just to make a basic loadout decision
Trial-and-error learning, with real, consequence-heavy stakes
Dense menus that bury the stats that actually matter
UI elements that sometimes work against the information they’re meant to surface

Problem to solve

The opportunity was in improving how information surfaces, not in oversimplifying the underlying systems.

Strategy & Execution

Two areas carried the clearest, most specific friction: ammunition stats, where the numbers that decide a fight are hard to compare quickly, and scopes, where a purchase decision often came down to a single small thumbnail.

An in-game ammo examine screen where the penetration tooltip overlaps the armor damage and fragmentation stats next to it

Ammunition Stats You Can Actually Compare

Critical stats like penetration, armor damage, and fragmentation chance were often hard to compare at a glance. Here, the tooltip meant to explain penetration ends up covering the two stats next to it, exactly the kind of friction that sends a player to a spreadsheet instead.

Three color-coded explorations of the armor-penetration table, using color instead of a hover state to show tier effectiveness

Letting Color Replace the Tooltip

Three explorations for surfacing that same tier-by-tier penetration data through color instead of a hover state, so the numbers that matter most are visible immediately, not hidden behind a tooltip.

“Hardcore systems still benefit from clarity and hierarchy.”

An in-game scope examine screen showing only a single small reticle thumbnail

A Single Thumbnail Isn't Enough

Some scopes showed nothing more than a small reticle thumbnail tucked in the corner, not much to judge a purchase by when the alternative was checking a wiki first.

An in-game scope examine screen showing two reticle previews side by side for direct comparison

Comparing Reticles Before You Commit

Other scopes already did this better, letting a player compare reticle options side by side before installing. The idea explored here was making that pattern consistent everywhere, not just on the scopes that happened to support it.

Outcome

Expert Users Want Efficiency, Not Simplicity

Tarkov players optimize for speed and precision. Removing depth would cost more goodwill than any friction it fixed.

Density Needs Discipline

Surfacing more stats only helps if hierarchy makes clear which one matters most right now.

Hide the System, Not the Information

A tooltip meant to clarify a stat should never cover the stats next to it. Small overlaps like that push players toward third-party tools.

Clarity and Complexity Can Coexist

Strong UX preserved the hardcore identity while cutting the friction that had nothing to do with the game itself.