How to report a bug (issue)? - Escape from Tarkov

To properly report a bug, it is important to provide all the information for developers to reproduce it.

To better report a bug within the game, try to explain as if you were explaining it to someone who never played the game. While some details may seem obvious for you, it is needed for us to have all the information to not jump to false conclusions.

It will be needed to have a clear description of what the issue is, how to reproduce it (if it can be reproduced), and illustrate it with images or a video. On top of it, the date and time of its occurrence as well as logs will be needed. When creating a new request, your session logs will be attached with the request:

When reporting a bug in the launcher, you will find reproduction steps to add to the report:

These steps are crucial to better understand what you did to make the bug happen. Even the most normal action can be important to mention here to reproduce it.

Example:
If you encountered a bug where your hands were stuck and you could not interact anymore, it is important to mention all the actions you did prior to the bug. Including actions like healing, opening the inventory, closing the inventory.

Adding an illustration showing the issue

An illustration is crucial to show the issue, to do so, you can use the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This will save a screenshot of your game to the “\Documents\Escape from Tarkov\Screenshots” folder at your computer. The name of this screenshot will include coordinates of the location where you took it on in the map. The image must be in a good quality, not too dark or in low resolution, to properly see the content.

If you couldn't upload the picture via the launcher, we recommend using Google Drive. You can upload an image by logging into your Google account. We recommend uploading it as “unlisted”, this will allow only the person with the link to access the image and no one else. This may be necessary if, for example, if you want to hide personal information or an exploit from being used by other players. Then share the link with us in a report. If "Restricted Access" is set, then we will not be able to see it, even if we have a link.

If the problem cannot be fully shown on the picture (screenshot), then please, try to create a video.

Users of Nvidia graphics cards can easily record video by using Nvidia's special software - GeForce Experience (using the "Record" or "Instant Replay" functions). And an Adrenaline for AMD GPU users.
The Instant Replay feature allows you to record up to 20 minutes of your recent gameplay. If an error occurs and you are not actively recording at the time, this allows you to save the video with the problem after it occurs.

To share the video, we highly recommend using YouTube/Google Drive. You can upload your videos by logging into YouTube or Google Drive with your Google account. We recommend to publish as “unlisted” access, this will allow access to the video only to the one who has the link, and no one else. This may be necessary if, for example, you want to hide personal information or an exploit from being used by other players. Share the link to the video in your report. If “Restricted access” is set, then we will not be able to watch the video, even if we have a direct link.

You can track your request and continue the correspondence at the support section on our site https://www.escapefromtarkov.com/support “My requests” button.
IMPORTANT: to look through your requests, you have to be logged in.

Examples of complete bug reports

Problem related to boss behavior

If the bug you wish to report relates to Killa attacking you as a scav when you had a good reputation with Fence, reporting it as shown here is not enough:
“Killa killed me even though I did not attack him”.

To make sure it is a bug, please provide all the information as if you were explaining it to someone who never played the game. In this case, the above report leads to the following questions :

Were you playing as a Scav?
Were you really killed by Killa or by something/someone else?
Did you really not attack the boss, for example, by accident with a grenade?
Did you have a good enough reputation with Fence?

As a result, a complete report of this problem would be:
“I was playing Scav in Interchange, and was attacked by the Scav boss Killa, although I never attacked him. My Fence reputation is 6.05. I didn't do anything to provoke him, didn't attack other Scavs."
Attached to this message, a video showing the full raid and the death screen and end raid statistics.

With it, we will be able to make sure it was indeed a bug, and not a possible intended consequence of the way this system works.

Problem where an airdrop became stuck in the air and could not be looted

Such a problem is tied to the map you encounter this issue on. For it, an image is enough. When taking a screenshot with Print Screen in the game, the image is saved in “\Documents\Escape from Tarkov\Screenshots” folder at your computer and has, as its name, the coordinates of the location it was taken at. As such, this image with its original name, clearly showing the airdrop being stuck, in full screen, during day time (not night time which would make it hard to see), is important. In the case below, it is obvious that the location is Customs, though in some cases, it may not be. As such, it is also important to mention that you had this issue on Customs.

A good description would be:
"During my raid on Customs, an Airdrop came and landed on a fence, high above the ground. As such, it was floating and I could not loot the airdrop."
The description is short but contains all the information. Then attach the image with the coordinates in its name.

Problems where the hands of the character are stuck and can not interact:

This is an example of a problem that can be caused by a large number of actions. Not only one action can lead to this result, which is why it is important for this problem to be reported, to be sure all the possible causes of this issue are known and some are not missed. To report such a problem, it will be important to provide the steps you did to reproduce it. In this case, a clear video showing not only the bug itself, but also all the steps you did before, will be needed. For example, possible ways to get to this bug include reloading, moving items in the inventory, using hand gestures or a combination of multiple of these actions.

A good example of description for this problem would be:
"I have experienced a bug where my hands would be stuck like shown in the video. Upon having it, I could not interact or do anything but run and open my inventory. I encountered this problem right after reloading my guns and opening my inventory. I have had this issue multiple times with the MDR 7.62x51 in particular."
And attach a video of this problem.

Problems where objects are disappearing at a certain distance (culling)

For optimization purposes, not all objects are rendered at once in the levels, though only objects that are out of your field of view are supposed to do so. Sometimes, it can happen that such objects disappear in your field of view, which is a bug. On the image below, for example, the walls inside the building are not rendering when they should, leaving the interior completely visible. In all cases, an image showing this issue will be needed. When taking the image with Print Screen in the game, the image will save in your documents folder with the coordinates of the location it was taken at. These coordinates will also be needed as well as the name of the location it was taken on, which is not included in the image (for example here, Customs). Such a problem must be reported through the launcher - game logs will be automatically attached to bug- report, including the settings that are necessary to study this problem. When sending a report through the site - please attach a screenshot of the graphics settings to the appeal, showing the parameters of overall visibility and texture quality that you have set.

A good example of description for this problem would be:
"On customs at the location shown on a screenshot, when scoping in on the third floor of the dorms across the windows, the walls and objects don’t render, allowing me to see across the building."

Visual problem:

To report a visual problem, we will need an image or a video if it can’t be captured on an image. The visual problem could be of various kinds, in this example, there are multiple texture and lighting problems. It can be hard to identify what is causing the problem, which is why we will need as much information on everything that is susceptible to cause this issue, such as :

A screenshot of your graphics and postfx settings in the game
An image or video showing this issue from multiple point of views (in different maps for example if it happens on all maps)
Does the issue happen in multiple graphics settings such as high, medium and low?

This information can highly help to identify the cause of this problem.

A good description of this issue would be:
"Whenever I start a raid and spawn on the map, my graphics and lights are glitched as shown in the image. I have this problem on all maps, both night and day time. I have encountered this problem since the last update of the game. Other players in my group don’t have this issue."

In this case, this issue was related to game files and graphic corruption, and was fixed after local verification on the computer.

Trading problems:

This error is an example of error that can happen when trying to trade. In this example, the transaction could not have been completed because an error occurred. To report such a problem, it is important to mention if you have an error message or not, and if you do, provide an image of it in full screen, also showing the level of your character, the trader’s reputation, money spent. etc. All this information is valuable to understand what the issue may be.

A good description of this problem would be:
"When trying to purchase an RSASS from Peacekeeper, I encountered this error message. The trade I tried to do was the one with the dogtags. Upon clicking “deal”, the error returned. I don’t experience this problem all the time, but I had it twice in the last 15 min. The error doesn’t force my game to close."
This description with the image is clear, it provides all the information such as what is the error, how often you have it, what you do to have it, when you have it, etc.

In this case, for example, this error was caused by a backend overload, it was fixed 15min after upon restarting the game.

Why are bug reports useful for developers

For us, complete bug reports like the ones shown above are highly appreciated, but also very much needed to be able to be understood and reproduced by developers, and as a result, fix the problem.

With all the information about a problem, developers spend less time looking for ways to reproduce a problem, identify how major it is and what is causing it, therefore, also spend less time fixing the problem. While it highly reduces the amount of time spent on a problem, it does not mean an issue that is easy to reproduce will be fixed fast as it also depends on how impactful it is on the game and how blocking it is to the experience.