Customs is one of the main industrial areas of Tarkov. The industrial park is near the Factory and features a lot of important infrastructures, including fuel storage facilities, a freight train terminal, offices, dorms, and several unfinished structures.

This is an excellent map for beginner players to get some experience and get a good feel for how Tarkov works. There is also a fair amount of good loot in the central buildings and from the boss.

This guide will outline the different areas of interest, the boss, some popular loot spots, keys, and the available extraction points.

General layout

Customs is a beginner-friendly map that is a lot easier to learn than most of the others in Tarkov. This map is not suitable for snipers, there are numerous buildings, and the few decent sniping positions have little cover to use. Most battles will take place at mid to close range. The main buildings in the center of the map tend to attract a lot of players due to their loot and quest locations; this leaves the rest of the map pretty open for new players to explore and try to get their feet wet. Every Customs raid starts with a 35-minute time limit.

The map is divided into two sides, the Customs side to the west and the Boiler side to the east. A river bisects the map on the western end, separating the two sides of the map. There is also the main road running across the whole map from the northwesternmost point of the Customs side to the easternmost point of the Boiler side. Four bridges cross the river, a makeshift bridge on the northern side of the river, the main bridge just south of the makeshift bridge, and two land bridges south of the main bridge. There is loose loot all along the main bridge in the abandoned cars and buildings on either end. The main and makeshift bridges tend to be a bit busier than the land crossings, and some players do stake them out with a scoped rifle to take out anyone crossing them.

On the west side of the map are the rail stations, storage area, trailer park, and the customs warehouse, which is also called ‘Big Red.’ The rail stations are located at the northern and southern points of the map. The storage area is on the westernmost region of the map. The trailer park is to the south of the storage area, and the customs warehouse is right in the middle of the customs side of the map.

East of the river is the Boiler side of the map. The central area of the map contains the dorms to the north with the factory shacks and warehouse 17 to the south. Two sniper scavs commonly spawn in the factory and warehouse area. One will be on top of the tall distillation towers that are inaccessible to players, and the other will be on top of a construction site across from warehouse 17.

The easternmost region of the map is heavily wooded to the north with the gas station and the sub-station being the only significant man-made areas. To the south of the main road are a shipping yard, factory, and the old gas station.

Points of interest

Customs – Big Red

The Customs side of the map is a bustling area. Scavs and popular amongst players patrol the area. If you spawn on the Customs side of the map, do not run straight up the road. There are several spawn points along the road that other players will target, hoping for a quick kill, head to the storage area instead. The area is split between the trailer park, a storage area, and Big Red. The trailer park on the southern end has a bus. Once you enter the bus, you can find a key on one of the seats that unlocks East Wing 310 on Shoreline. The storage area has a lot of loose loot, including weapons, crates, and medicine like Salewa. A lot of players like to jump on the roof of the storage buildings and use a scoped weapon to hit other players roaming the area, particularly players roaming around Big Red.

East of the storage area is the main Customs area marked by the prominent warehouse called Big Red. There are two blue buildings on the far ends of the Big Red campus. These blue buildings can have some loose loot. Inside Big Red itself is some loose loot as well as a safe and a weapons crate. The room in the upper level of Big Red requires a key that can be found on scavs, filing cabinets, or on the flea market. The room on the upper level also has a key for Shoreline.

Construction

If you cross the river from the southern land bridge, you will come across the RUAF roadblock. If you go past the roadblock to the wall and hug it heading north, you will pass between a fence and a building. There are some bushes in this area with a dead scav. If you loot the scav, you can find the unknown key needed for a quest. You can also head in through the fence to get into construction, but that entrance isn’t recommended. If you go in through the fence, you will end up in a bottleneck that is often near a couple of scav patrol routes, use one of the other entrances to the site instead.

There are a few buildings worth noting in the construction site, but the main draw is combat. The construction site is heavily patrolled by scavs that can have some decent loot if you are willing to take on several of them. The areas between the buildings are easy chokepoints for both players and scavs, so be very careful when moving between them. It is tempting to use the construction sites scattered around the area as sniping or scouting positions. One of the buildings has a scav sniper that spawns on it, but ultimately sniping isn’t recommended in this area due to the lack of cover on these construction sites. A sniper may be able to get a few good shots off but will quickly be targeted by any scavs or players in the area.

On the western end of the construction site is warehouse 17. The warehouse is most notable as a scav extraction point and a good landmark. On the north end of the construction site are factory shacks that can have some loose loot in them. Across the main road to the north of construction is a bus terminal with a bunch of abandoned busses parked in it, but there isn’t a lot of loot in this area worth mentioning. Finally, on the south-east end of the site are a pair of inaccessible distillation towers where a scav sniper can spawn.

Gas Station

Just east of construction is a gas station. This station can have some good miscellaneous loot, including a med bag. Be sure to search the vehicles in and around the station as they can have some loose loot. There is a van near the gas pumps with its back doors open, and a key can be found that is used for a quest on Interchange.

Inside the gas station is a back hallway, you will need two keys to open the doors. The first will be a cabinet key, which is found on dead scavs and in drawers. The cabinet key will unlock the furthest door. Inside the cabinet is a safe. The second key needed is a storage key; it can be found on scavs or under the desk in the cabinet. The storage room in the gas station has a medbag and medcase.

The gas station also has four cash registers and a lot of good loose loot and medicine, but it is most notable as one of the spawn points for the boss of the map Reshala. There is a roadblock outside of the station that includes a bus. The bus can have a precious Goshan cash register key on one of its seats. The Goshan key is used for a quest and to unlock the cash registers in the Goshan store on interchange but can be sold for a lot of Rubles on the flea market.

To the northeast of the gas station is an electrical sub-station. The sub-station tends to have some medical loot and a weapon crate and magazines. Aside from the loot, the sub-station and the hills around it make for one of the better sniping positions on the map. The hills can be used to set up an ambush for Reshala and any other scavs in the area.

Dorms

This is probably the most popular area on the map. There are two buildings in the northernmost area of the map north of construction and the bust terminal. Each building has numerous unlockable rooms and features multiple levels. Several quests lead to the dorms, and there is plenty of loot to be found in the area. If you enter the dorms, come prepared for close-quarters combat and PVP with a little mid-range combat. Several of the dorm rooms are locked and require keys. The majority of the keys can be found on scavs or be purchased from the flea market.

To get into the two-story dorms, you can enter using the stairs to the second floor on the side of the building. There are boxes, including weapons crates in almost every room and a lot of loose loot throughout the building, but several of the rooms require keys. Several filing cabinets should be looted as they can have a lot of excellent loose loot inside. Even if the filing cabinets seem tedious, the loot inside can at least be sold if not in some way useful.

On the first floor, there is an old couch with a duffle bag that should be looted. There is a bathroom on the first floor with the door closed. Once you go in head to the showers on your right, there will be a dead body with the guard desk key in his hand. The guard desk key unlocks the room in the front of the building by the couch with the duffel bag. The guard room can have a weapon spawn, a weapon crate, and some ammo crates.

Outside of the dorms in the parking lot are a few cars that can be looted. There is a grenade crate in the trunk of the white sedan that should be looted. These grenades should be used if you plan on going after the boss. The boss can spawn in this area, and the grenades are great for herding his followers and alerting you to their position. You can also use the grenades to kill the boss and his followers if they are in the hallways by lobbing them through windows and into the hallways past the dorm rooms. You might not be able to kill all of them, but you may be able to kill one or two of the followers, which can be a bit nasty.

The three-story dorm isn’t too different from the two-story dorm. There is a ton of loose loot throughout the building that can be found in duffel bags, crates, boxes, jackets, and filing cabinets. On the roof is a weapon crate that can be looted. There are several locked doors throughout the building, but the keys can be found on dead scavs and in filing cabinets throughout the map. The locked rooms can have weapon crates, weapon safes, medbags, and a lot of other good loot that should not be passed up. If you happen to find a key, hold on to it. If it turns out to be a duplicate of one you already have, you can probably sell it on the flea market for a nice sum.

The most notable of all the rooms in the dorms area is the marked room on the top floor of the three-story dorms. The door is at the end of the hallway with a bunch of candles nearby and has a lot of white marks on the walls around it. This room has a circle on the floor like the one in Woods that can spawn any high-tier item available in the game. The key can be found in jackets or on dead scavs. This key is unique as it can only be used 25 times and is needed to get the Crash Axe item from Ragman.

To the east and west of the dorms are small campsites that should be looted if you get the chance. They can have some miscellaneous loot and duffel bags. Moving up to the dorms from the campsites can also let you get a good view of the buildings and any players or scavs nearby before entering the area.

Scav Checkpoint

East of the gas station and along the main road is the scav checkpoint. You need a key to get inside of the building, but the cars around the checkpoint can have some medicine and loose loot. This area is near a scav patrol and one of the sniper scavs. Occasionally Reshala and his followers will patrol this area. This area can be dangerous, but the medical loot will make it worth investigating. The checkpoint is also a good reference point on the map and a safe area for scav players.

Shipping Yard

The shipping yard is across the street to the south of the gas station and the scav checkpoint. This is a large area with several warehouses and bunkers to be explored. Both of the bunkers are on the southern end of the shipping yard and act as extraction points. The Warehouses have a lot of loose loot and some weapon crates but have several scavs patrolling the area. The region is also famous among players that have spawned on the Customs side of the map due to having several extraction points. Some players like to camp on railroad tracks or in bushes in the area to pick off other players headed to extraction points.

There are more warehouses on the eastern side of the shipping yard with loose loot and weapons crates, as well as a few keys. Two loot locations of note are a van and a railway car. In the western parking lot, there is a blue van. There are a couple of computers inside that can have flash drives. The flash drives are needed for a quest and can be sold for a fair amount of money on the flea market. South of the van is an abandoned train car with a side panel open, a duffle bag, and the key for dorm room 220 can spawn in the car.

Old Gas Station

This is the southernmost area of the map. It can be reached through the shipping yards by heading towards the southeast corner. This is a spawn location for scavs, and the AI can be very dangerous, but there is a lot of loot, making it worth raiding. When you first enter the area, this is a van to the right where scavs can spawn, dead ahead is a pile of tires next to some sandbags. There is a weapon crate near the sandbags that is work looting. Inside the old station is a vital loot point. Like the circle on Woods, there is an item spawn on top of the first table you see that can spawn almost any item in the game at random. If it is available, there is an extract downstairs. Outside of the gas station and past the blue fence to the west is some rubble with a concrete cylinder. A medbag can spawn inside the rubble that is worth picking up.

Scavs

The scavs on this map are pretty standard, with only a few notable exceptions. There are five scav snipers scattered along the southern and eastern sides of the map.

  • On the easternmost side of the map, there is a sniper across the main road in the wooded area just north of the extraction point on the eastern end of the road.There is another sniper near one of the areas the boss frequents. The sniper spawns just north of the fork in the road as part of the scav checkpoint on the eastern end of the map.Another sniper scav is in the shipping yard. The scav spawns on the roof of the eastern warehouse.Another scav sniper spawns on top of one of the two distillation towers on the southern side of the map. These towers are not accessible to players and can make this guy a bit of a pain if you get in range. The towers overlook some of the factory shacks south of the busses depot.The last sniper spawns on top of the construction site across from warehouse 17.

The sniper scavs are the only real problematic ones aside from the boss and his followers. The sniper scavs can be used to complete The Tarkov Shooter questline as they tend to be more numerous and spawn fairly frequently.

Boss

The boss for Customs is Reshala. He is mostly found around the Dorms or the New Gas Station but, on rare occasions, does venture to the Military Checkpoint and the tower just north of the New Gas Station. He has four heavily armed guards that follow him around. The guards typically carry modified AK’s with a variety of ammo. The guards are heavily armored with tier 2-6 vests and tier 3-5 helmets with visors. The guards are very aggressive and will try to rush you instead of taking cover. Reshala, on the other hand, will do the opposite. Typically he will stay well behind his guards and try to attack players while hidden from view. Reshala himself isn’t dangerous compared to some of the other bosses in the game; his followers are the main problem.

The best way to kill Reshala and his followers is to kill the boss first. Reshala typically doesn’t wear a lot of armor. He can be easily spotted because of the brown sweater he wears, which is a stark contrast to the rest of his followers. Kill him with a headshot or multiple chest shots. Once Reshala is out of the way, you can focus on the real danger his followers pose without having to worry about him tagging you from around a corner.

For the followers, you should carry grenades and wear tier 4 or better armor and a helmet with a visor. The followers are very aggressive, but they tend to stick close together. Better armor will help protect you when they rush you. Draw them into an enclosed space like inside the dorms. The layout of the dorms allows you to reposition and change levels very easily. As they begin to close in, you can use grenades to kill them fairly easily. Even if you don’t kill the followers with a grenade, you can still use it to flush them out of hiding places or herd them into a better position for you to fire on them. No matter what, don’t stop moving. The followers will continually try to close in on your position; if you end up getting cornered by them, there is only a slim chance of surviving. Be sure to watch your corners as you move to keep from getting surprised.

When Reshala and his followers are dead, loot them as quickly as possible and get out of the area. Customs is a popular map, and Reshala and his gang are part of a quest and have some excellent loot. A lot of players are going to go after him, and most will have no problem with sneaking up on you and killing you after you have already done the hard work for them. Grab what you want and get out, or you are probably going to get picked off by another player wanting to loot the boss.

Extraction Points

Extraction for this map is pretty unique but very straight forward. You have to extract from the side of the map opposite where you spawned. If you spawned on the Customs side of the map, you have to extract from the Boiler side and vice-versa.

  • Crossroads (ALL) – The crossroads extract is in the westernmost corner of the Customs side of the map northwest of the storage yard. The extraction point is pretty easy to spot. There is a large wall with the words “stop” and “untar go home” written on it in big white letters. The area around the wall is the extraction point.Old Gas Station (ALL) – This location is inside the old gas station in the southernmost area of the Boiler side of the map. The station can be reached from the southwest wall of the shipping yard. The extraction point for PMC players is inside the old gas station and down the stairs. The Scav extraction point is just a little further south of the station and on the other side of the blue fence. Scavs extract by the large red door on the railway. This extract is not always available. it is only available if there is a green flare giving off smoke in front of the station.RUAF Roadblock (ALL) -This extraction point is not always available. it is on the south end of the Boiler side of the map just east of the river across the southern land bridge. This extraction point is next to a green truck with the words “Welcome to Tarkov” painted in white on the side. Behind the truck is a tall wall with a spotlight on top. The wall is the extraction point but only if the light is on. If the light is not on, extraction is not available. This extraction point is currently bugged so it will appear to trigger but you will not actually be extracted when the timer hits zero. Check the light first before attempting to extract, don’t just assume it is available because the timer appears.Dorms Vehicle Exit (PMC) – This extraction point is behind the dorms and to the north. You will see a black van waiting inside the gate in the wall. You will need to pay 7000 Rubles to use the extract. Once you pay the driver there is a one-minute cooldown. Hide in the bushes nearby to keep from getting picked off during the long wait then move back to the car during the last 10-15 seconds to leave. This extraction point is single-use and can be used by up to four players at once making it a great extract for parties. Once it has been used it cannot be used again during that raid.Smuggler’s Boat (PMC) – This extraction point is on the northeasternmost bank of the river separating Customs from Boiler. It is north of the makeshift bridge on the Boiler side of the map. There is a fire giving off a lot of visible smoke and a small boat on the bank that can be used as the extract. This extraction point is not always available so look for smoke from the campfire if you are heading through the area. If there is not any smoke, the boat will not be there.Trailer Park (PMC) -Down the road from the crossroads extract and south of the storage yard is a trailer park. The trailer park extract is in the southwesternmost corner of the map. The extraction area is in some tall trees in the corner of the map.ZB-1011 (PMC) – This bunker is on the southeasternmost area of the map near the boilers where the Boiler side gets its name. It is at the end of the southernmost road on the map inside the shipping and boiler areas. It is to the east of a warehouse and slightly northeast of an inaccessible nuclear plant that is outside of the map.ZB-1012 (PMC) – This extract is a bunker inside the shipping yard. It is east of the entrance to the old gas station area close to a wall running down the middle of the shipping yards. This extract is not always available. Like the RUAF Roadblock there is a searchlight on top of the bunker that has to be on for the bunker to be available for use.Administration Gate (SCAV) – This extract is along the easternmost end of the main road running through the map. It is inside the boiler area wall directly north of the factory far corner extract. Factory Far Corner (SCAV) -This point is in the southeasternmost corner of the map in the boiler area. It is hard to miss this one, just head southeast until you find a toilet in the corner of the wall behind some trees.Factory Shacks (SCAV) – This point is in the construction area towards the northeast inside the wall across the street from the bus terminal. There are two shacks that look like shipping containers stacked on top of each other. They are close to a new construction site in the area. The extract is on the east side of the shacks.Military Base Checkpoint (SCAV) -This location is in the northeastern area of the map. The main road forks left at the scav checkpoint. Follow it north all the way to the northern border wall. The extract is a gate in the wall a little way past the actual military checkpoint.Old Road Gate (SCAV) – This extraction point is in the same location as a PMC extract. It is behind the dorms directly to the north. The extraction point is in the same gate as the black van that PMC players can use to extract but doesn’t cost anything to use.Passage between rocks (SCAV) – This location is north-east of the gas station and north of the electrical sub-station towards the northern border wall. Just to the west of the actual passage through the rocks is a large rock with a small stretch of fence spanning between it and another set of rocks. This small stretch of fence is the extract.Railroad to Military Base (SCAV) – This extraction point can be found north of the new gas station and northwest of the electrical sub-station. You can get to it from the shipping yard fairly easily by following the railroad from the bridge that runs across the main road. The railway leads north all the way to the extraction point. The extraction point is a train wreck inside a gate in the northern wall.Railroad to Tarkov (SCAV) -The extract is on the southern end of the Customs side of the map just west of the river. You can get to this extraction point by following the railway south to the southern wall. The extraction point is against the south fence near the train. There is an abandoned train that runs through the Customs side of the map, this extract is to the back of it. This same railway runs north to another Scav extraction point. If you are a scav player looking to extract on the Customs side, just follow the railroad and you will get to one before long.Railroad to Port (SCAV) -This extraction point is on the northeast end of Customs just west of the river. This is another high-traffic area with a lot of people passing through as they cross between sides of the map. There is an abandoned train running through the Customs side of the map. To use this extraction you need to head to the front of the train which is in the north. At the front of the train is a gate in the wall, the gate is the extraction point. The same railway that the train is on leads to another Scav extract to the south. If you need out fast just follow the rails to the end and you will get to an extract eventually.Scavs Checkpoint (SCAV) – This point is at the easternmost point of the main road running through the map. It is a roadblock just past the scav checkpoint with several UN vehicles parked near it. This area is covered by a couple of sniper scavs which can help protect it if you are friendly towards them or will take your head off if you have performed some scav-on-scav violence. Sniper Roadblock (SCAV) – This extraction point is in a high-traffic area so you should be very careful when moving to it. It is east of the river and against the northern wall on a road between two wooded areas. There are a few blue shipping containers stacked on top of each other and a tin shack leading up to the extraction point. The extract itself looks like a roadblock set into the northern wall.Trailer Park Workers’ Shack (SCAV) -This extract is on the southern end of the Customs side of the map. The shack is next to a bus in the trailer park with telephone wires running above it. The extraction point is close to the southern fence across from a blue shipping container.Warehouse 17 (SCAV) -This extraction point is in the construction area. This area has a lot of players moving through it so be careful. Warehouse 17 is in the western part of the area across from the construction site where the scav sniper spawns on the roof. The extract is easily spotted thanks to the building next to it. The building next to the extract is white brick with a big red angry ball graffitied on the southern side right next to the actual extraction point. The actual extraction point is a red overhead door with a lot of graffiti on it including PAC-MAN near the top.Warehouse 4 (SCAV) – Warehouse 4 is in the shipping yard south of the new gas station. The warehouse is on the west end of the shipping yard and inside the walls. The extraction point is the north wall of the warehouse.