Playing Gray Zone Warfare for the first time? Well, there’s one weird trick that’s going to help if you’ve never tried an extraction shooter before. See, Gray Zone Warfare is a game about going into the world, hoovering up loot, and fleeing back to base to flog it all off to a trader. 

Starting Gray Zone Warfare for the first time, you’ll be greeted by the sight of a shiny new military contractor ready for war, but just like the first day of school, you’re actually laden down with a lot of stuff that you’ll barely need. So, do yourself a favour: empty your rucksack into your locker and be selective about what you bring. 

Simply hit 'tab' when you're in base camp to access your locker and drag your items across. Every player in Gray Zone Warfare also gets access to the 2×2 SafeLock container, with bigger containers available in the more expensive editions of the game. These containers retain anything in them when you die, so I recommend putting in 60 rounds of the higher quality bullets that you start with, plus the more important meds—a surgery kit and splints.

The medical system in Gray Zone Warfare is complex and features detailed ballistics designed to cause injury to each and every part of your body. However, all you really need to know is that you can bleed, break your bones, and injure your organs. Take enough injuries and you’ll be in pain—just like real life!

As long as you bring something to stop your bleeding and fix your broken bones and injured organs, you’ll be fine. For my first raid in the closed test ahead of launch I went into battle carrying all of my meds like a walking pharmacy, but I quickly discovered it left me with no room to grab loot. I scurried away, mission successful, with hardly anything to sell.

Similarly, I was carrying a sidearm and two magazines, but rarely had cause to use them until I ran out of ammunition, because the default loadout doesn’t include any additional ammo to reload guns on the fly. This is an important part of Gray Zone Warfare—particularly if you’re a serial reloader. You can safely stow the Glock and two magazines and instead just bring out a stack of bullets for your main gun.

You’ll also be carrying water and food, useful for a longer run around the jungle, but as your first mission usually involves hopping into a helicopter to visit a nearby town full to bursting with food and drink consumables, you can leave these at home, and give yourself some extra space for loot.

So, please, empty your rucksack before you deploy into your first battles of Gray Zone Warfare. This will ensure you’re not losing everything if you get unlucky and take a headshot, and leave you plenty of extra space to cram in other stuff. Equally, don’t feel too precious about what’s in there: dying and losing gear is part of the whole experience.