Road To Vostok – Beginner’s Tips And Tricks Guide

Road to Vostok is a first-person single-player survival shooter game set in the post-apocalyptic border zone between Finland and Russia. In this game, there are three areas, and you start from Area 05. Your goal is to scavenge loot and progress toward the border zone and then into Vostok. For more information, you can head over to its Steam page.

As Road to Vostok can be difficult to navigate, you may need some proper guidance. It can also be quite overwhelming for a beginner, so before providing you with a full walkthrough, it is important to go over some tips and tricks that can help you on your journey in Road to Vostok.

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Choose The Standard Difficulty And Start In Summer

As you start the game, you will be given some options to choose from. You can select the difficulty setting and the season you want to play in. There are three difficulty settings: Standard, Darkness, and Ironman. Similarly, there are three seasons: Summer, Winter, and Dynamic.

I recommend choosing Standard as the difficulty and Summer as the season. In the Standard difficulty setting, you will get a random starting kit, and your spawn point will be a shelter. You will also start in neutral weather conditions, and your character will have full health.

However, do note that in Vostok, your death will be permanent, but that is something you can worry about later. Regarding the season, in almost every survival game, summer is easier to manage, while winter is usually harsh and unforgiving. So, make sure to go with beginner-friendly options first, and once you feel confident in your abilities, you can increase the challenge.

The Darkness difficulty is quite unforgiving, but if you really want to challenge yourself, you can try Ironman. However, do note that if you die in Ironman difficulty at any time or in any place, the death will be permanent. So, make sure to get familiar with the game before choosing that difficulty setting.

Be Smart With Storing Items

You may already know that if your character dies while exploring the world, you are going to lose everything you are carrying. So, if you find some valuable loot, you need to hurry back and store it in your cabin. That said, weapons are usually quite large, and they take up a lot of space, so placing them inside cabinets may not be the smartest choice.

Instead, you can simply place or throw the weapons on the table instead of storing them in cabinets. Since weapons take up a lot of space in storage, it is better to use cabinets for smaller and more important items. Even if you leave the weapons on the table, they will not disappear, so you do not need to worry about losing them.

Infinite Loot In This Game Is A Thing

If you have already played the game, you will know how important loot is. You need to scavenge most of the items you come across, and there are plenty of useful resources you can find. So, if you loot a town, return to your cabin, and store everything, you might think it is time to move on to the next location. While that approach makes sense, there is actually another option available to you.

When you exit the cabin after storing your loot, the entire town resets. This means that you can go back and loot the same area again. However, do note that the enemies will also respawn, so you will need to stay alert while doing this. Also, the loot may not always be randomized, so if there is a specific item you want more of, you can return to its location after resetting the town.

Learn The Trade System Early On

The trader in Road to Vostok can be found right next to your cabin in a red barn. One of the main tips we can give in Road To Vostok is that you should visit the trader early on, after you have gathered some useful items. The trader offers a variety of equipment, but you will need to exchange items of equal value in order to get what you want.

This is because there is no cash system in the game. You should pick up any ACOG sights and suppressors you find in the world, as traders value these items highly. Do not approach the trader with a weak inventory, as your main goal should be to acquire strong weapons through trading.

You should aim to get weapons like the Mk-18 and SVD. Also note that exiting your cabin resets the trader’s inventory, so if you want to trade for more items, you can simply go back inside and come out again to refresh his stock.

Another important thing to understand is that the trader can also assign tasks. Most of these tasks involve finding specific items and bringing them back. While they may sound simple, locating these items can sometimes be challenging and may require multiple runs.

Enter Vostok Only When It Is Raining Or There Is Fog

Entering Vostok is a challenge on its own. Since it is the final area in the game and a permadeath zone, you can lose your entire progress by being careless. You should never enter this area without proper planning.

The military presence in Vostok has very strong detection, and getting past them without preparation is extremely risky. If you succeed without a plan, it is likely due to luck rather than skill.

You should only enter Vostok when it is raining or when there is fog, as these conditions reduce military detection significantly. Also, make sure that the weather conditions occur between 10 am and 4 pm for the best chances of success. Even then, this does not make the task easy; it only lowers the risk slightly.

Vostok will always be there, but if your character dies, you will have to start your progress again, which can feel frustrating and time-consuming. Because of this, you need to have a clear plan before entering the most dangerous zone in the game. The first step is choosing the right time and weather conditions, and without that, your experience may become unnecessarily difficult and frustrating.

Stealth Is King

In this game, you should not fight enemies head-on, as that can be quite troublesome and risky. At some point, it will start to feel like the natural way to play the game is by moving stealthily and taking down enemies carefully. The AI in this game is not what you might expect, and it can punish careless behavior.

The game will punish you if you think you can simply defeat enemies by brute-forcing your way through. Normal enemies like bandits are not too difficult to handle, but the real challenge begins when you face the military units.

The military in this game is intelligent and has access to communication. If one of them spots you, they can alert the rest of their allies, and the situation can quickly turn into a game over. Also, if you openly shoot a military soldier, things can escalate very fast, as reinforcements may arrive before you even realize what is happening.

So, the best way to deal with military soldiers is through stealth. In case armored vehicles or patrol units are nearby, hiding inside buildings can be very helpful. Wait for the patrol units to move away before stepping out, as this might be the only way to survive. You do not even have to fight the military in many situations. Try to avoid them as much as possible, and you will significantly improve your chances of survival.

Meds Are Important

You need to pick up as many medical supplies as you can in the game, as they are somewhat rare to find. Always keep bandages with you, as bleeding can be extremely dangerous. You can lose a lot of health due to bleeding, so make sure to stop it immediately before it becomes fatal.

Also, make sure to check the cabinets inside bathrooms, as they often contain useful medical supplies. Once you have gathered enough, return to your shelter and store the important items. After that, you can reset the town and collect them again.

You should build up a solid stockpile of medical supplies in your shelter, as you may need them more often than you expect. That said, if you are playing stealthily and avoiding combat, you might not need as many meds. In that case, you can trade them with the trader for better loot, since medical items are quite valuable in trades.

Rifle With A Scope Is Necessary

One of our main tips in Road to Vostok is that you must have a rifle with a scope if you want to survive long-range encounters in this game. Without a scope, you will struggle to spot distant enemies, which can easily lead to your defeat. A scoped rifle also helps you plan your route and avoid dangerous areas by scouting ahead.

Similarly, you should always carry a shotgun for close-range combat. In close quarters, there are very few weapons that are as effective as a shotgun. If you aim properly, you will rarely lose a fight at close range while using one. So, make sure you have both types of weapons to handle long-range and close-range situations effectively.

Optimize The Key Binds

The default key binds are not always ideal and can feel confusing or uncomfortable. You should customize them according to your preferences. Use keys that feel natural to you, and take your time when setting them up, as assigning one key may interfere with another action.

You will need to reassign overlapping inputs carefully, so go through the process thoroughly. For example, you can move the left and right lean controls to your mouse buttons, which can make movement and combat feel much smoother. You can also experiment with different key setups to find what works best for you.

Another thing I highly recommend is changing the interaction key to F. In many games, F is the default key for interacting with objects, so it often becomes muscle memory for players. Switching to this key can make the experience feel more intuitive and comfortable.

Shelter Is Your Haven

Shelter is more than just a safe point for you. You may already be aware that your game is saved when you enter the shelter. However, it serves more purposes than that. When you are inside your shelter, you are completely safe from everything. No enemies can enter, and nothing can damage you while you are inside, unless you are already bleeding.

Inside the shelter, you can manage your storage and prepare your loadout. You can do all of this freely without having to worry about any threats. As soon as you leave the shelter, the entire world resets and every enemy respawns. You should remember this at all times, as it directly affects how you plan your runs and manage your risks.

Once you fully understand how the shelter works, your runs will become smoother, and your overall experience will gradually improve as you make fewer mistakes and plan more efficiently.

Don’t Compare This Game With Other First-Person Survival Shooters

You may notice some similarities with other games like Escape from Tarkov and Stalker 2, but Road to Vostok is fundamentally different. You are exploring the world and primarily playing against AI, but the AI in this game does not behave like it typically does in other survival shooters.

In this game, you are not given a specific set of objectives, and you do not have to deal with anomalies. Instead, you are given three regions to explore, with the final one being the most dangerous. You will be facing military forces that operate like a real military unit. They can communicate with each other, call for reinforcements, and detect you quickly if you are not careful.

So, while this may seem like one of the simpler tips, you shouldn’t compare Road to Vostok with other games. If you compare this game with others, you may end up feeling disappointed or struggle to understand its core mechanics. It is better to approach it on its own terms and adapt to how it is designed to be played.

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With that, the beginner’s tips and tricks guide concludes. If you are looking for walkthroughs on different games, check out the following pages:

• Into Indie Games Homepage
• The Occultist – Complete Walkthrough Hub
• Samson Complete Walkthrough Hub
• Crown Of Greed – Walkthrough Hub
• Grime II – Walkthrough Hub