How To Use the Compass - Escape From Tarkov Guide - IGN (2024)

The EYE MK.2 professional hand-held compass is a special item in Escape from Tarkov. It basically works like a real-life compass, indicating where the South and the North are from your position. This tool will come in handy when you’re lost in some of the game’s biggest maps.

However, before using this piece of equipment you need to unlock it. IGN’s guide will tell you how to do that, and also how to equip and use this item once it’s yours.

Quick links below:

• How To Unlock the Compass
• How To Use the Compass in Escape From Tarkov

How To Unlock the Compass

To unlock the compass, you’ll have to follow a series of steps. First, you need to complete a quest from the Mechanic. This mission is called “Introduction” and will become available after you play a couple of Raids in the game.

Once this Trader offers you the mission, accept it and join a Raid on the map Woods. Here you’ll need to find the camp built by another NPC that you have locked at the moment, called Jaeger. In that camp, you’ll have to find a message and then deliver it to the Mechanic — which means you need to survive the Raid with the message in your inventory.

You can complete this quest as a Scav or a PMC. You’ll be safer as a Scav, but you’ll have more time as a PMC.

The location of Jaeger’s camp is hinted at by the description of the task: “Look where the hunter would wait for his prey. Where the iron bird has fallen.” This is a reference to a destroyed plane in the area, which is located on the easter side of Woods, near the Plane Crash and Wooden Lookout Post locations.

If you need help finding this spot, please check Map Genies’ interactive map. You can hide all the icons and select “Locations” and “Quest Item.”

Once you’re near the rock formation called Wooden Lookout Post, you need to find a small wood camping surrounded by trees. Check the ground near it and you’ll find a note lying around. Pick it up and go right to your closest extraction point.

If you die, you’ll have to restart the quest from the beginning.

After completing a successful extraction, you should go to the Mechanic’s tasks menu and turn in the item. Complete the quest, and you’ll receive some rewards, including having Jaeger as a new Trader.

Check Jaeger’s store and he’ll sell you the EYE MK.2 professional hand-held compass for 203,506 Roubles. You might have to save some money for this item.

How To Use the Compass in Escape From Tarkov

Once you have acquired the compass, you first need to equip it. This item goes in one of the three Special Slots you have available. Drag the item to the square you want, press a number from 4 to 0 while pointing at the item to create a quick key for it, and you’re ready to use your new piece of equipment in a Raid.

Items in your Special Slots won’t be lost if you die. Bring your compass to every Raid!

To use your professional hand-held compass, press the number you assigned to it and you’ll see it in your left hand (your weapon will be still in your right hand). The compass will remain open even if you walk, but your character will close it as soon as you start sprinting.

This item will indicate where the North and where the South are. The red arrow indicates the former, while the green/white one indicates the latter. As you move in different directions, the arrows will also move with you.

This special piece of equipment is useful when you’re starting to play the game and have no idea where you’re standing on the map. By using an interactive map and the compass, you might have an easier time looking for your extraction points or points of interest. Simply follow the North or the South and register everything you see. With a bit (or much) luck, you’ll recognize a point of interest that will let you know where you are.

The compass isn’t a savior by any means, but it can help you with your learning process of the maps in Escape from Tarkov.