Escape From Tarkov “The Ticket” Story Chapter Guide

Prapor's Lighthouse camp, the RFID card, all four ending routes, and the Terminal escape.

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The Ticket turns your investigation in Escape from Tarkov into a route out of the city. It follows Falling Skies, and the armored case from that chapter determines how much work you need to do before the ending choices open up.

Decide which ending you want before rushing through Mr. Kerman’s conversations. Refusing his first offer, refusing to investigate TerraGroup later, and stopping the evidence hand-ins are three different decisions. They do not lead to the same outcome.

Choose your ending before committing

Ending	The decisive choice	Final access item
Savior	Accept Kerman’s help, agree to investigate TerraGroup, and continue gathering major evidence.	Reprogrammed RFID keycard with Mr. Kerman’s hash codes, plus the Alpha-1 evidence container.
Debtor	Accept Kerman’s help and his evidence job, but refuse further major evidence after handing over two pieces.	RFID keycard with unknown name from Lightkeeper.
Survivor	Refuse Kerman’s initial offer to help activate the card and work with Prapor instead.	Prapor’s letter for the port checkpoint.
Fallen	Accept Kerman’s help initially, then refuse his later request to investigate TerraGroup.	Reprogrammed RFID keycard with Prapor’s hash codes.

These choices can close other ending routes. Finish the conversation you intend to choose, rather than selecting a refusal just to clear a dialogue option.

Start The Ticket through the Intelligence Center

Build Intelligence Center level 1 in your Hideout, then contact Mr. Kerman through its laptop. Wait for him to contact you again, speak to Prapor through the trader menu, and return to Kerman.

The first response can take several hours. Once the conversations move forward, your next step depends on what you did with the armored case during Falling Skies.

Find Prapor’s camp on Lighthouse

Separate Lighthouse mainland and island maps locating Prapor's camp, Lightkeeper's tower and the D4 stash building. — Prapor’s people are at the southern mainland camp if the armored case went to Prapor. The separate island panel locates Lightkeeper’s tower and the D4 second-floor stash used by the Debtor route; these are different stages, not 3 destinations required for every ending.

This section applies if you gave the armored case to Prapor. If you kept it, move on to opening the case.

Go to the southern end of Lighthouse and look for Prapor’s camp on the mainland hill near the road approaching the lighthouse island. The camp is on the mainland side. You do not need to cross Lightkeeper’s guarded bridge just to investigate it.

Walk into the camp to register the location, then search for the Note from Prapor’s men. Check the medical boxes and the supply crate. These are two possible positions for the clue, so finding the camp alone is not enough.

Recover the note and return to Kerman through the Intelligence Center laptop. This is the camp-and-clue stage that appears before the Lightkeeper part of the case recovery.

Get the case back through Lightkeeper

Interchange exterior map showing the western ULTRA flare-signal area and eastern Gnezdo, with a separate first-floor Carousel evidence panel. — The amber area identifies the western ULTRA frontage used for the conditional yellow-flare signal, not a case pickup spot. The separate teal locations identify optional minor Savior evidence at Gnezdo and Carousel; their highlights are regional and room-area locators, not surveyed trigger boundaries or exact item positions.

You need legitimate access to Lightkeeper. Use an encoded Digital secure DSP radio transmitter for the island crossing and maintain your good standing with him. Do not treat the island’s bridge or Zryachiy as an ordinary combat encounter.

Speak to Lightkeeper and collect three TerraGroup “Blue Folders” materials. Found in Raid status is not required for this handover.
Bring the three folders to Lightkeeper.
On Interchange, launch a yellow signal flare in front of ULTRA’s main entrance.
Eliminate 15 targets on Interchange in one raid. Extracting before reaching the required kills resets this sequence, including the flare step.
Return to Lightkeeper. Leave a special-item slot empty so you can receive the armored case.

Open the armored case

Separate Labs floors with 3 jammer alternatives, Kruglov's office and optional Savior evidence areas. — Find 1 jammer at any J1-J3 alternative across the 2 floors. Kruglov’s R22 office contains the master pass. Lecture R16 also holds optional A.P tapes; M1 is the first-level western prefab interactions document, and M2 is the second-level Dark Offices cargo fax. Optional Savior evidence is separate from the common case-opening steps.

Ask Mechanic for help, then go to The Lab for an Experimental signal jammer. Check the desks in the glass laboratory inside the containment block, the round table in the second-level recreation area, and the lecture hall desks below the kitchen area.

Bring the jammer back and use the unlocked Workbench level 1 recipe to open the armored case. After the craft finishes, right-click the case and unpack it. You receive Kruglov’s RFID keycard and the RFID card manual. Read the manual in your Handbook before returning to Kerman.

You now reach the first major branch. Refusing Kerman’s offer sends you toward Survivor. Accepting it keeps Savior, Debtor, and Fallen available and leads into the activation work below.

Activate Kruglov’s RFID keycard

Klimova 14A, a narrow building east of Kamchatskaya and south of Klimov Street, highlighted for the encryption-device step. — Elektronik’s apartment is in the slim Klimova 14A building east of Kamchatskaya Street and just south of Klimov Street. The RFID encryption-device pickup requires the earlier story progression and Elektronik’s key. The highlight locates the building, not an exact indoor coffee table, doorway or floor.

Follow this section if you accepted Kerman’s offer. The Survivor route uses Prapor’s separate arrangements instead.

Collect the laboratory master pass. In The Lab, search the safe inside Kruglov’s office in R22. Bring a TerraGroup Labs keycard (Black) with at least two uses for the office and safe.
Progress the search for an encryption device. This search is scripted to fail after you accumulate at least 30 minutes survived in The Lab. It is not an instruction to keep searching the same rooms indefinitely. Kerman then directs you back to Mechanic.
Wait for Mechanic’s contact. Speak to him and allow time for his response. The next payment is 40 Physical Bitcoins, handed over together. They do not need Found in Raid status.
Get Elektronik’s key. Use it at Elektronik’s apartment in Klimova 14A on Streets of Tarkov. Search under the living-room coffee table for the RFID keycard encryption device. It will not appear before you reach this objective.
Craft the activated card. At Intelligence Center level 1, use the unlocked recipe with Kruglov’s card, a Blank RFID keycard, the master pass, and the encryption device. Keep the required power running during the craft.

After extracting with a quest item, move it into your off-raid quest inventory when you do not need to carry it into the next raid. Do not risk the master pass or encryption device on unrelated runs.

Take the Activated Kruglov’s RFID keycard to the Terminal intercom on Shoreline and swipe it for the story objective. This is not your final admission to Terminal. Return to Kerman for the conversation about finding evidence against TerraGroup.

Savior route

Accept the evidence investigation and continue past the choice offered after your first two major hand-ins. Build Intelligence Center level 3 so you can deliver the evidence to Kerman.

Collect eight major evidence items

Separate Factory Tunnels storage-room map and ground-floor transport-log vicinity east of the vats. — Factory’s underground TerraGroup storage room holds the major Savior fuel-catalyst report and the separate Debtor topographic document. Its east-facing door uses the storage-room keycard. The separate ground-floor panel locates the optional minor transport log’s vicinity, east of the vat bank and west of Med Tent Gate. These are room and area locators, not exact item or furnishing positions.

There are nine major pieces available, and you need eight. Preserve the evidence while progressing through the other story chapters.

Evidence	Where to obtain it
Audio tape with incriminating evidence	During Accidental Witness, search the flower bed at Kozlov’s hideout on Shoreline.
Agent network deployment report	During Batya, check the red crate inside Lightkeeper’s locked area on Lighthouse.
Item #1156 specification	During Blue Fire, open the Rus Post car’s trunk outside the Streets of Tarkov post office with the Rus Post car key.
Icebreaker archive data	Help Mechanic decode the hard drives during Boreas, then collect the mail reward.
Labyrinth facility research report	During The Labyrinth, search the Shoreline coast beside the pier approach, at the pillar near the evacuation pipe.
Document mentioning the Warden	During The Unheard, search the desk in the TerraGroup corporate apartment on Streets. You need the corporate apartment key and the reprogrammed green apartment keycard.
Fuel catalyst test report	During The Unheard, search Factory’s TerraGroup storage room with its keycard. Check the safe and shelving inside.
ARRS system specifications	Collect the in-game mail after completing They Are Already Here.
Transcript of conversation with Ms. A.	Search the bedroom safe in the Cardinal apartment on Streets. Bring the Cardinal apartment key and a TerraGroup Labs keycard (Black) for the safe interaction.

Separate maps identifying Kozlov's hideout, the Chairman's house and the shoreline west of the pier approach. — Kozlov’s hideout tape and the research report on the shore west of the landward pier approach are major evidence. The plane crew transcript at the separate Chairman’s house is optional minor evidence. Highlights locate the houses and shore vicinity, not exact flowerbed, mattress or pillar positions.

Customs industrial-district map highlighting the small bunkhouse between Crack House and Boiler Building. — The letter from Reshala’s bunkhouse is optional minor Savior evidence. The small bunkhouse is between Crack House and Boiler Building, beside Fort; it is not the Boiler Building director’s office.

Separate Icebreaker deck panels locating C-3, cabin 18 and C-1 for optional Savior evidence. — Optional minor evidence is on 3 separate decks: the scientist’s audio tape in C-3 on level 1, the sailor’s diary in cabin 18 on level 4, and the access log near C-1’s door on level 7. Highlights are room-area locators, not surveyed room footprints or exact item positions.

Ryabina camp on Woods west of the road and south of the power line, marked for optional Savior evidence. — The optional Voevoda hostage evacuation report is at Ryabina camp on Woods, west of the road and south of the power line. The highlight locates the camp, not the precise report position.

Separate north-up Lighthouse panels locating the western freight-yard warehouse and village house for optional evidence. — Optional minor Savior evidence includes the directive document at the western freight-yard warehouse and Cult victim audio tape #2 at the separate village house inside the river fork. Both panels are north-up exterior building locators; they do not mark exact indoor items or show adjacent districts.

Do not confirm that all evidence is delivered if you still want to submit the optional minor evidence. The optional collection contains 36 pieces and rewards an achievement, but its hand-ins close after you confirm the major evidence. The minor collection is not a substitute for the eight major pieces.

Complete Fence’s assignments

Separate maps locating Woods' western Friendship Bridge and Reserve's northeastern Scav Lands co-op extract. — Fence’s PvP co-op tasks use Friendship Bridge on Woods and Scav Lands on Reserve. Each requires a PMC and Scav together. The rings locate the extract vicinities, not exact trigger boundaries.

After confirming the major evidence, collect the Secure container Alpha-1 with TerraGroup evidence and wait for Kerman’s contact. Fence takes over the next assignments.

Reach at least 4.0 Fence reputation and maintain the required standing while completing his work.
PvP. Use Friendship Bridge on Woods and Scav Lands on Reserve for the co-op extractions. Do not kill Scavs or the Goons while completing the relevant assignments.
PvE. Instead of those co-op objectives, eliminate five PMCs on Interchange in one raid without killing Scavs, then do the corresponding five-PMC objective on Shoreline.
Reach 0.4 standing with the BTR Driver through his questline, including The Price of Independence.

Do not complete Choose Your Friends Wisely if you are pursuing Savior. That choice can fail the BTR requirement and close the route.

Return to Fence when his assignments are complete and collect the flash drive with Kerman’s hash codes. Build Solar Power level 1, then craft the Reprogrammed RFID keycard with Mr. Kerman’s hash codes.

For the final trip, bring both that card and the Alpha-1 evidence container in your quest inventory. The activated card from the earlier test is not the final access card.

Debtor route

Accept Kerman’s activation help and agree to investigate TerraGroup. After handing over two major evidence items, refuse to provide more when he offers the next choice. Continuing the evidence hunt keeps you on a different route.

Ask the traders about leaving Tarkov and speak to Lightkeeper last. His work has four main parts.

Compile five topographic documents

Blue and Black Chalet document alternatives east of Lighthouse's coastal road, with north pointing left. — The Lighthouse topographic document can appear at either chalet estate. Blue Chalet is north of Black Chalet, and both are inland from the coastal road. Find 1 document, not 2 required pickups. North points left; highlights identify estate regions, not exact floors or item positions.

Three Woods SUV document alternatives at the USEC camp, checkpoint and sawmill, with regional landmarks. — The Nature Reserve topographic document can appear at 1 of these 3 black SUV locations on Woods: the USEC camp, checkpoint or sawmill. The panels locate the vehicle vicinities; collect the document once, not at all 3 alternatives.

Recover the documents from the following maps, then use the Intelligence Center recipe to make the Military flash drive with topographic intel.

Lighthouse. Search the black and blue chalets. Possible positions include the black chalet’s basement chair or bedroom and the blue chalet’s bedrooms.
Factory. Search the TerraGroup storage room. Its keycard is required; check the shelves behind the door and the table.
Ground Zero. Search the TerraGroup science office with the science office key, including the desks, overturned shelving, and the area behind the printer.
Customs. Search the company director’s room in the boiler building. Bring the Company director’s room key.
Woods. Check the black SUVs at the USEC checkpoint, sawmill, and USEC camp.

Ground Zero's main TerraGroup science building east of Skyside and ASAP, with the separate garage left unhighlighted. — Search the main TerraGroup science building, not its separate garage, using the science office key. The document has 4 possible positions inside the office, but only 1 document is needed. This map identifies the exterior building rather than exact indoor furniture or item coordinates.

Deliver the crafted drive to Lightkeeper. Dying with it before the delivery means crafting another one.

Customs map highlighting the twin-chimney boiler building between Fort and Warehouse 17 for The Ticket's topographic intel. — Customs topographic intel is in the boiler building’s director’s office. Bring the Company director’s room key and check the shelf, furniture beside the desk, or desk for one document.

Finish the kills, dogtags, and amulets

Two separate Streets panels locating Chekannaya 13's eastern elbow and the northern factory's south-projecting marked-room bay, both required for Debtor. — Debtor requires 1 amulet from each marked room, not a choice between them. The Mysterious room is at Chekannaya 13’s eastern L-elbow; the northern abandoned-factory room is in the south-projecting bay beside its eastern spine. Bring the separate marked key for each destination. Highlights locate building parts, not exact floors, doors or item positions.

Four separate Reserve panels locating BK and VO surface buildings, the PKPM underground amulet room and the separate PKPTS cargo room. — Debtor requires all 3 Reserve amulets from RB-BK, RB-VO and RB-PKPM. The Fallen case uses the separate RB-PKPTS room. The upper panels locate surface buildings; the lower panels locate underground room areas. RB-BK is deliberately building-only because the available floor references conflict. No connecting route or exact item position is implied.

Customs dorm-compound map highlighting the three-story building containing room 314. — The Customs amulet is in room 314 on the third floor of the three-story dorms. The outline identifies the building, not the room’s exact roof position.

Eliminate 30 PMCs on Woods and bring 100 PMC dogtags to Lightkeeper. The dogtags do not need Found in Raid status.

Next, collect the six distinct quest amulets from these marked rooms.

Dorm room 314 on Customs.
The Abandoned factory marked-key room on Streets of Tarkov.
The Mysterious room marked-key room on Streets of Tarkov.
RB-VO on Reserve.
RB-PKPM on Reserve.
RB-BK on Reserve.

These are the separate quest amulets, not six interchangeable purchases. Carry each one to the Lighthouse island stash room and complete its stash objective. Bring the Lighthouse island stash key for access to the room.

Report back to Lightkeeper after all six are stashed. He gives you the RFID keycard with unknown name for the Terminal approach.

Survivor route

Labs second-level map showing 3 Reports alternatives and 3 distinct Finances alternatives. — The Survivor route needs 1 Reports folder and 1 Finances folder. Each has 3 alternative areas on Labs’ second level. F1 marks the R23-adjacent vicinity, not an exact desk or room footprint.

Separate Labs floor maps showing the Staff and Developments folder alternative areas. — Find 1 Staff folder and 1 Developments folder from their respective 3 alternatives. Staff can appear in first-level O11 or second-level R22/Y21; Developments can appear in first-level Lecture R16 or the residential unit, or the second-level Manager conference area.

Refuse Kerman’s initial activation offer after opening the case. Take the card to the Terminal intercom for the unsuccessful entry attempt, then return to Prapor for his arrangement.

The payment depends on your earlier Falling Skies choice.

300,000,000 Roubles if you gave Prapor the armored case.
500,000,000 Roubles if you kept it.

If you kept the case, you also need to finish Prapor’s timed assignments in order, within 72 hours.

Recover the Reports, Staff, Developments, and Finances evidence folders from The Lab and craft the SSD with TerraGroup evidence at Intelligence Center level 1.
Eliminate 50 targets on Streets of Tarkov. These kills can be spread across raids.
Eliminate four PMCs in one raid.

For the folders, check the G21 office near Cargo Elevator for Reports, the Parking Gates control room for Staff, the lecture hall for Developments, and the server-room desk for Finances. Each folder also has alternative spawn positions, so an empty spot does not mean the entire objective has failed.

Missing the deadline adds a Secure container Kappa handover. Do not start the timed work assuming you can ignore its timer without a significant cost.

Report to Prapor when the required work is finished and collect Prapor’s letter for the port checkpoint. This letter is your final access document, not a replacement RFID card.

Fallen route

Accept Kerman’s initial help and complete the card activation, but refuse his later request to find evidence against TerraGroup. Speak to Prapor afterward.

If you kept the case during Falling Skies, Prapor first requires the following handovers.

50 military or advanced electronic items.
A Secure container Theta, Epsilon, or Kappa.
40 weapon and armor repair kits.

Giving Prapor the case earlier skips this extra set of demands. Both versions of the route then require the Case with dangerous cargo and 1,000,000 Dollars.

Find the dangerous cargo in the RB-PKPTS key room on Reserve. Check the shelving and the chair inside, recover the case, and deliver it to Prapor. Gather the full Dollar payment for the separate cash handover.

After Prapor’s response, collect his updated hash codes. Build Solar Power level 1 and craft the Reprogrammed RFID keycard with Prapor’s hash codes for Terminal.

Enter Terminal from Shoreline

Shoreline's coastal approach south of Road to Customs, with the Terminal entrance intercom vicinity highlighted. — The port-garrison intercom is at the small entrance-building vicinity on the northern approach to Terminal in southeastern Shoreline, south of Road to Customs. Return with the access item from your ending route between 21:00 and 06:00 in-game time. This is an entrance locator, not a map of Terminal’s internal docks or an exact keypad footprint.

Once your ending route has produced its final access item, return to the port-garrison intercom in southeastern Shoreline between 21:00 and 06:00 in-game time.

Use the appropriate final RFID card for Savior, Debtor, or Fallen. For Survivor, carry Prapor’s letter and use the intercom’s call interaction. Wait for the guard to authorize your approach.

For Savior, the Alpha-1 evidence container must also be in your quest inventory. Leaving it in the off-raid quest storage will prevent that route’s transit.

Follow the left road toward the transit area after receiving permission. Stay inside the permitted approach, let your weapon lower, and do not draw it again. Moving beyond the barriers without authorization or threatening the garrison can get you killed.

Recover your equipment inside Terminal

Terminal arrival district with 4 alternative Armory-key locations, the MS keycard pickup building and the Admin service reader. — The 4 numbered Armory-key locations are alternatives for 1 key. A identifies the MS/Seaport Terminal keycard pickup building; B identifies its separate service-passage reader at Admin/D3. North points right on this map. Markers identify the relevant body, table and building vicinities rather than a surveyed indoor route.

The security check takes your equipment before the final raid begins. Find an Armory key on the way to the armory. Check the dead RUAF soldiers near the starting building and along the route, plus the table inside the armory building.

Unlock the armory and recover your equipment from a locker. On the Savior route, also retrieve the Alpha-1 evidence container from the desk under the window. Be ready for Black Division operatives as you leave the armory area.

Open the service passage and fuel-depot gate

Go to the MS seaport-terminal building west of the armory. Find the Black Division keycard in the weapon box on a tipped-over ATM inside. Clear the operatives guarding the building before searching it.

Continue to the D3 administration building and swipe that card at the service-passage reader. The corridor gives you a route into the loading area, but enemies can still push into it.

The next metal gate can be forced open with Elite Strength or help from another player. Otherwise, find an SZ-1 explosive charge in the surrounding area and use it to open the gate.

Restore power and drain the pumping station

Repair the required electrical panels to restore power to the pumping station. A solo player has one panel to repair near the fuel-depot end of the route. Groups may need up to five panels.

Use a Toolset for a reliable repair. Bare-handed attempts can fail and damage your arms. After the metal gate, check the concrete barrier in front of the BRDM or the barrels near the fuel pumps for a Toolset.

With power restored, press the pumping-station button to drain the water. Search the safe inside the station afterward for the Pier door key.

Reach the pier and escape

Three distinct Terminal approaches through lower containers, the central road and upper quay, converging at the same marked Pier door. — The lower container route, central road and upper quay are 3 alternative approaches to the same Pier door, not steps to follow in order. The upper quay joins the central-road route at the left waterfront corner; the lower container route joins the final approach farther down. North points right. Lines show corridor choices, not guaranteed safe paths, exact trigger boundaries or a boat position.

Use the loading-yard routes to reach the pier door. The eastern route is longer and can avoid the boss position, while the central and waterside approaches have their own exposed fights. None of them removes the Black Division threat before the pier.

Opening the pier door starts a three-minute evacuation countdown. Get through the final operatives and reach the Zubr Boat extraction before the window closes. Do not use the remaining overall raid time as your deadline once that door is open.

Your ending cinematic follows a successful escape. After dying or extracting from Terminal, your character returns to its pre-Terminal state apart from the consumed access item, so another attempt needs another valid entry item.

Main ending rewards

Each ending awards its own achievement, dogtag, armband, and visual customizations. The larger reward packages differ as well.

Savior. 200,000 Dollars in PvP or 40,000 in PvE, alongside cases, equipment, and the For Humanity cosmetics.
Debtor. 120,000 Euros in PvP or 30,000 in PvE, alongside cases, equipment, and the Lighthouse cosmetics.
Survivor. The Survivor achievement and its associated cosmetics.
Fallen. 10,000,000 Roubles in PvP or 3,000,000 in PvE, a Money case, and its ending cosmetics.

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore and realistic online first-person action RPG/Simulator with MMO features and story-driven walkthrough.

Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Tactical
Platforms PC (Microsoft Windows)
Perspective First person
Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
Release November 15, 2025
Publisher Battlestate Games