Customs is one of my favorite Escape from Tarkov maps. It’s a very easy map for a new player to learn, as the exit points are straight forward, and the action is funneled into a set of key areas. As such, it is easy for a player to predict where conflict will occur.

The high-value loot on Customs is found in the safes that are behind locked doors in the two-story and three-story dorms, as well as in the Customs building itself. In addition to the safes, the marked room in the three-story dorms is another high-value loot target. All of these rooms require keys, but when run repeatedly, they have the potential to net a player a lot of money, so it is well worth the investment to purchase them on the flea market. The keys you need are:

Room 214 and the Marked Room (314) are found in the three-story dorms. Room 105, 110, and 114 are found in the two-story dorms. The customs office key opens the Customs office, which is accessible from the big red customs building. The safes contain a variety of valuable loot, including Tarkov currency like rubles, dollars, euros, and bitcoin, as well as items like vases and statues that can be placed on the flea market for a great deal of money. The full loot table can be found here. The marked room has the highest value loot spawns, as it can spawn money cases, weapons cases, and key-tools.

Budget Weapons and Armor for Customs

The MP-153 Semi-Automatic shotgun is an excellent budget weapon for a customs run. There are two different MP-153 shotguns, so make sure you buy the right one. The semi-automatic variant allows you to fire almost as fast as you can click your mouse. You’ll want to use either the AP-20 ammo or the Flechette ammo. I prefer the AP-20 as it seems more reliable at range than the Flechette ammo. Flechette has a much higher armour penetration stat than AP-20, but your average player will not be wearing the class of armor where this will make that much of a difference. If you run into a very geared player with AP-20, aim for the legs as AP has high flesh damage. The ammo is much cheaper than most of the assault-rifle variants. I’ve seen AP-20 go as low as ₽424+ per bullet, but the price on the flea market can vary. If you see AP-20 listed for more than ₽700, run the Flechette ammo. Flechette typically runs for about ₽124+. Either of these bullets will take-down geared players and scavs with 2-3 rounds if you hit your shots. The ammo is also single slot, which means you don’t have to put it into a magazine, and you don’t have to take very much of it into a raid. I typically bring 60 slugs, and I keep a fair bit of that in my gamma container.

You can customize the shotgun however you like. This is my typical budget shotgun build in the weapons configurator:

And this is the more expensive build:

The most important modification is the 8 round chamber, which gives you a little wiggle room if you miss some shots or the enemy has better armor.

If you prefer an assault-rifle, an AKM with PS ammo is another alternative. There’s an excellent gun build guide by Virion, which has a tab for the best-in-class weapon modifications for each weapon variant, as well as a tab for budget builds.

For armor, the cheapest route is to buy one of the armored chest rigs like the 6B5-15 (flea market) or 6B3TM-01M (flea market or Level 2 Ragman) and an SSh-69 (level 1 Ragman). Once you have level 2 Ragman, you can buy a 6B3TM outright, or if you don’t have access to that vendor level, buy a damaged one (it’ll show something like 0/40 durability) on the flea market and repair it. This gives access to class 4 armor, which will increase your survival rate drastically.

Routes to Dorms from West to East

The Escape from Tarkov Wiki provides a detailed customs map. If you’re unfamiliar with the layout, you should keep it handy and learn the landmarks:

The blue arrows on the map above are player spawn points. The best spawns are the ones that are nearest to the dorms (the two buildings facings each other on the northern part of the map). The spawn closest to railroad to port (north-west) is an excellent spawn to rush the marked room, and the spawn closest to the road to military base (north-east) is another such location. Unfortunately, you won’t always get these spawns.

The spawns on either side of the map take you along a linear path from one end of the map to the other (east to west or west to east). For example, if you spawn close to the admin gate (east) or in the shipping yard (east), your extract will be Trailer Park, or Crossroads, with smugglers boat being a viable option if it is available. If you spawn in storage (west) or the big red customs building (west), your extract will be ZB-1011.

The easiest way to tell where you are on the map is by using each area’s unique landmarks. The most distinguishable building on the west side of the map is the big red customs building. If you can see the bridge from where you spawned or the big red customs building, you’re on the western side of the map:

If you spawn into game at one of the far western locations the red Customs Building is our first safe location:

Inside, there’s a stairwell with a locked door that leads to two secondary rooms (one that you have to breach to enter).

One of the rooms contains a set of computers you can loot for graphics cards and flash drives, and the other has a safe, jacket, and other miscellaneous loot. Be sure to check the desk of the room with the safe for a key. If it spawns, either keep it or sell it on the flea market as it is quite valuable. Once you’re done looting, head down and exit the door pictured above, head past the two paradigm trucks, and exit onto the road through the small door next to the blue metal building:

From here, follow the pathway listed in the railroad to port spawn below.

Railroad to Port Spawn

If you get the Railroad to Port Location, you have two options. You can rush for the stairwell on the northern side of the three-story dorms, or you can rush for the southern stairwell. Either are viable from this spawn, but I prefer the northern side as there is a thick growth of trees and shrubs that serve as a visual barrier to mask you from the approaching players that spawn on the opposite side of the map. Even if they reach the stairwell at the same time as you, you should hear them coming as they will need to push through the bushes to get to you, which generates a lot of noise. If you hear the tell-tale swoosh of a player traipsing through bushes, get ready to fight. The railroad to port (north-west) spawn looks like this:

Head away from the train, keeping the wall to your left and sprint as fast as you can towards the three-story dorms. You will have to cross the river at either the main bridge or at the smaller bridge that is deeper in the valley to the left of the main bridge.

From there, follow the wall to the three-story dorms. The second story door is the only unlocked door on the north side stairwell of the dorms. Both the 1st and 3d floor doors are locked. The dorms area is a high-traffic and high-loot area, so you are likely to encounter scavs, players, and player-scavs, both in the dorms buildings themselves and the surrounding wilderness.

The dorms v-exit/old road gate extract is along the wall next to the 3-story dorms. This extract only works if the SUV is parked by the gate. You’ll need to have ₽7000 to use the extract, but with the number of safes in both the two and three-story dorms, I typically find well in excess of ₽7000.

Once you open the door, room 214 will be on your right.

Open the door with the 214 key, loot the safe, and head upstairs towards the marked room. The marked room is at the end of the hallway with the chair that has lit candles on the seat.

Most of the loot is in the chalk circle on the floor:

Depending on your loot (if you get a weapons case or money case you should leave asap), you can either choose to head to the two-story dorms and loot the safes in there or try and exit via the parked SUV.

The Two-story dorm has three safes. All three are on the first floor. Rooms 110 and 114 are opposite of each other at the far end of the hallway to your left when you enter through the front door:

The safe in room 105 can only be accessed through the first-floor outer doorway on the southern side of the dorms:

Once you’re inside, the door is on the left:

There can be loose loot in some of these rooms, so you should do a quick scan around for anything that looks valuable. 114 also has a computer and a medbox that you can loot in addition to the safes.

Once you’ve looted all of these, head to the nearest available extract. If the SUV isn’t there, or you don’t have the ₽7000, you’ll have to head in the opposite direction of your spawn. For the railroad to port spawn, that’ll be ZB-1011 on the map. There are other extracts like ZB-1012 and Old Gas Station (only randomly available) that appear closer, but they’re not accessible unless you have the short-cut key, and the pathway from dorms past bus terminal, train bridge, and gas station is dangerous.

The safest way to exit three-story dorms is via the small hallway close to the marked room that leads out to the roof.

There’s a small barbed wire fence at the bottom that lets you jump off without breaking your legs. You’ll take a bit of damage, but this exit allows you to scan the surrounding trees for enemies. When you hit the top of the fence, your character will grunt, and the damage indicator in the top left will pop up. If that doesn’t happen, make certain to strafe left and right briefly until you hear the grunt and see the damage indicator. If you jump off the fence before your player grunts, you’ll break your legs.

There’s a grenade box in the trunk of the white car close to the fence, but it can be risky to loot it, especially if you have valuable gear. From here veer to the left, keep the concrete wall on your left and head into the woods. Be careful not to hit the trees or shrubs too much, as the sound can be heard from very far. Eventually, you’ll come to a gap in the wall.

Keep heading in the same direction, with the edge of the map to your left. After a few minutes of walking, you’ll hit a train.

Move past the left of the train and head up the hill. Keep going until you hit the dirt road:

Walk past the dirt road, keep the edge of the rock face ahead to your left, and move towards the break in the wall that will lead you to ZB-1011:

Walk past the mess of shipping containers and head through the break in the wall ahead. There’s a hidden loot cache in the corner along the left wall once you enter the gap:

The ZB-1011 bunker is just ahead past the second oil drum:

You can see the top of it peeking from the bushes:

Head for the front door, go down the stairs, and towards the extract at the big metal door.

The Eastern Side of Customs

The admin gate area on the far eastern side of customs features two distinct buildings near the spawn. The first is four circular drums:

The second is the factory buildings with two-smokestacks:

Next to the admin gate is another spawn called the shipping yard. It is easily identifiable by the big blue crane:

The shortest passage to customs from these two areas is the gatehouse found in the shipping yard. Both locations are connected via the road in the front or via the train tracks in the back. The gatehouse is found to the right of the white and green truck in the picture above. The shortcut requires the factory exit key. If you can’t afford the key, there’s a trick you can use to bypass the locked door:

For whatever reason, walking seems to be the best way to jump onto the porta-potties. When I try to make the jump while sprinting, I miss more often. The gatehouse looks like this:

Exit the gatehouse, or jump the barbed wire, turn left, head under the bridge, and veer right holding this direction:

The two-story dorm is just beyond those trees. Loot order and exit path can be found in the loot order and exit path section below.

Woods Spawn

If you spawn in the woods and you can see a pair of smokestacks or an industrial area, head in the opposite direction until you hit the edge of the map. From there, keep the edge to your right and follow the road to military base route below.

There’s also another woods spawn close to the sub-station area surrounded by a blue metal fence:

If you see this mini-compound, find the edge of the map, keep it on your right, and follow the road to military base route below.

Road to Military Base Spawn

If you spawn at the Road to military base, you have two choices. You can either rush for the marked room or play it safe and loot the two-story dorms first. The safest entry point for the three-story dorms is the northern stairwell. If Reshala spawns in the three-story dorms and you approach from the front or cross the parking lot area, his guards will kill you through the windows, so I prefer to enter through the side doors. Though, if you hear fighting inside the third story dorms, the front door may be the safest entrance, as fights typically take place on the second and third floors.

The road to military base spawn is on a hill overlooking a forest:

The train will be at your back.

Head in the opposite direction of the train, keeping the edge of the map to your right. You’ll come to a break in a concrete wall:

You can see the top of the two-story dorms in the picture above.

Eastern Spawn Loot Order and Exit Path

The safest building to loot from here is the two story dorm. I prefer to head for the safe in room 105 first, found through this entryway:

After that, head in through the front door, veer left, and loot rooms 110 and 114. Both are opposite of each other at the far end of the hallway:

Exit the two-story dorm from the doorway to the right of the stairwell on the second floor. Head towards the three-story dorms through the trees on the northern side of the dorm buildings.

The dorms v-exit/old road gate extract is along the wall next to the 3-story dorms. This extract only works if the SUV is parked by the gate. You’ll need to have ₽7000 to use the extract, but with the number of safes in both the two and three-story dorms, I typically find well in excess of ₽7000. It never hurts to carry an extra seven-thousand in your gamma container just in case you don’t find enough rubles to use extract, and you get lucky in the marked room and find a weapons case or money case.

Once you open the door, room 214 will be on your right.

Open the door with the 214 key and head upstairs towards the marked room. The marked room is at the end of the hallway with the chair that has lit candles on the seat.

Most of the loot is in the chalk circle on the floor:

Depending on your loot (if you get a weapons case or money case you should leave asap), you can either choose to head to the two-story dorms and loot the safes in there or try and exit via the parked SUV.

The safest way to exit three-story dorms is via the small hallway close to the marked room that leads out to the roof.

There’s a small barbed wire fence at the bottom that lets you jump off without breaking your legs. You’ll take a bit of damage, but this exit allows you to scan the surrounding trees for enemies. When you hit the top of the fence, your character will grunt, and the damage indicator in the top left will pop up. If that doesn’t happen, make certain to strafe left and right briefly until you hear the grunt and see the damage indicator. If you jump off the fence before your player grunts, you’ll break your legs.

If the SUV extract is not an option, you have three other available extracts. The nearest to the three-story dorms is the Smuggler’s Boat, but it is an optional extract and may not be there. The Smuggler’s boat is on the way to your other two main extracts, so it’s always worth it to check that location anyway.

Head away from the three-story dorms keeping the edge of the map to your right.

The smuggler’s boat is just past that hill down in the valley by the river:

As you can see, there’s no boat, but if it had been there, you would see smoke rising from a fire pit. If you see the boat, stand next to it until you see the extract timer.

The other two customs extracts for this side of the map are crossroads and trailer-park. I prefer the crossroads extract, as it is closer to this side of the map than trailer park. Head away from the smuggler’s boat, keeping the river to your right and cross the bridge.

Follow the road until you see a gate with the words STOP and untar go home written on it:

Your extract is by the front of the green army truck.

The trailer park extract is just to the left of this. You can get there by cutting through the customs yard. The extract is in the grass at the far edge of the map, but I typically do not use it unless someone is camping the crossroad extract.