The thirteen maps of Tarkov: how many players, how many enemies and where to go first
For a new player, choosing a map is a choice between "understood nothing" and "managed nothing". Let us go through it by the numbers: how many live players are on a map and how many enemy types. The table, in words Factory — 7–8 players, 2 enemy types. The smallest and fastest map. Ground Zero — 9–1
For a new player, choosing a map is a choice between "understood nothing" and "managed nothing". Let us go through it by the numbers: how many live players are on a map and how many enemy types.
The table, in words
**Factory** — 7–8 players, 2 enemy types. The smallest and fastest map.
**Streets of Tarkov** — 12–16 players, 3 types. The densest.
**The Labyrinth** — 5 players, 2 types.
**Terminal** — 1–5 players, 8 types.
**Icebreaker** — 1–3 players, 6 types.
How to read this
The player count is about the chance of meeting another human. The enemy-type count is about AI variety, not AI quantity.
That gives two different kinds of difficulty:
**Streets of Tarkov**: 16 players — you will be found. The danger is people.
**Terminal**: up to five players, but eight enemy types. The danger is AI.
Where a new player should go
Ground Zero — that is what it is for: one enemy type, few players, short routes. After that, Customs: it is ugly and old, but more early tasks hang on it than anywhere else, and it holds the keys that several tasks ask for at once.
Factory is good for learning to shoot: the map is tiny, the fight starts immediately, and the price of a mistake is a minute rather than half an hour.
Where not to go yet
**The Lab** — paid entry, harsh AI, expensive loot. The only people with nothing to lose there are the ones who already have everything.
**Streets of Tarkov** — a huge map with 16 players. Without knowing the exits it is a blind walk.
**Icebreaker** and **Terminal** — story maps; they appear as the story goes and are not meant for farming.
> The advice that saves the most: before your first run on a new map, open the interactive map on this site and look at where the exits are. Not the route, not the loot — the exits.