5 of the best stims you're not using in Escape From Tarkov

Most players sort stims into two piles: the ones streamers use, and the ones that get dumped onto Therapist. That second pile is bigger than it should be. Not every stim is good, but there are some gems that go underutilized by most players, and it’s because they don’t read the fine print.

Here are five that get vendored far too often, and the specific moment each one earns its slot.

1. Adrenaline injector

the poor man’s Propital

The Adrenaline injector's in-game item screen: a red-and-grey syringe, with an effects panel listing removes pain and concussion for 60sec, +10 Endurance and Strength, -10 Stress Resistance, +4 health regeneration for 15sec, and delayed hydration and energy recovery penalties.

Everyone knows and loves the Propital injector, and for good reason. It’s probably the most-used stim in the game, and it has a neglected twin you haven’t been using.

Adrenaline is similar in as far as it gives health regen and grants the painkiller effect, but a lot of players see that it has the decrease in energy and hydration recovery and write it off, and that’s a mistake. Adrenaline grants a modest +4 health a second for 15s, which is no eTG, but it’s enough that it’ll save your limbs from blacking out due to bleeds in a pinch. The painkiller effect is granted for 65 seconds, which is less than a quarter of the 245 seconds that the Propital grants.

So, it’s a Propital that lasts only about a minute and saps your energy and hydration? Sounds poor on paper, but you have to remember: it’s less than half of the price of a Propital, allowing you to buy it and keep it in your pockets instead of hiding it in your injector case for fear of losing it. That half-second saved by being able to hit a hotkey instead of opening your inventory and fishing through your secure container can be the difference in a fight.

Use it: mid-fight when you inevitably forget to pre-med before, or immediately after to save limbs

2. 2A2-(b-TG) stimulant injector

a M.U.L.E. you can actually afford

The 2A2-(b-TG) stimulant injector's in-game item screen: a dark red syringe, with an effects panel listing +10 Attention and +10 Perception, a +15% weight limit and -0.1 hydration recovery, all for 900sec.

The M.U.L.E. is one of the most expensive stims in the game, and it also sells for a hefty price to traders and the Flea, but it actually has a pretty narrow use case.

The 50% weight limit increase is excellent when you’ve just wiped the entirety of Labs by yourself and you’re waddling to the extract with 5 minutes left, but that scenario is actually quite rare for the average player.

What’s exceedingly common is that raid where you have 40 or 50 kg of gear that prevents you from regenerating stamina, forces you to dolphin dive to prone every 20 seconds after a sprint. Especially early in the wipe/season.

The 2A2-(b-TG) addresses that directly. It’s cheap, gives you a 15% weight limit increase for 900 seconds, and only hits hydration recovery by -0.1. It’s the perfect pick-me-up to get you to the extract.

Use it: keep one in your injector case for late-raid when you’re headed to an extract slightly overweight.

3. SJ12 TGLabs combat stimulant injector

for those loooong raids

The SJ12 TGLabs combat stimulant injector's in-game item screen: a black syringe with a dark red cap, with an effects panel listing +0.1 energy and hydration recovery and +30 Perception for 600sec, -4 C° body temperature, and a delayed +6 C° spike for 300sec afterwards.

This is probably the least known-about stim in the game, at least in my experience playing in squads. I’ve truly lost count of the amount of times I’ve popped this to be met with “what’s that stim?”

The SJ12 is the perfect stim for anyone who forgets to eat and drink in raid. It comes with virtually no downsides and grants you +0.05/s energy recovery and +0.05/s hydration recovery. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re at zero and can’t find food or drink to save your life, this will do just that.

Those recovery numbers are just enough to keep your PMC above the exhaustion and dehydration thresholds, and it does so for 600 seconds. More than long enough to get yourself some food and drink. The debuff is it raises your body temp by 6 degrees for 300s after the effect wears off, which allegedly makes you easier to see on thermals. No idea if that’s true, and thermals are so rare that it really makes no difference.

Use it: when you’re starving and thirsting(?) to death. Has saved me more times than I can remember.

4. Perfotoran (Blue Blood) stimulant injector

A better Zagustin

The Perfotoran (Blue Blood) stimulant injector's in-game item screen: a blue syringe with an olive cap, with an effects panel listing stops and prevents bleedings, removes toxication and radiation exposure, antidote, +5 Metabolism and +1.5 health regeneration for 60sec, and delayed health and energy penalties.

Zagustin is an excellent injector for stopping any and all bleeds, but what if I told you there was an even better version that nobody uses?

The Perfotoran injector has the same bleed-stopping effect as the Zagustin for 60 seconds, and it also gives health regen at a rate of +1.5/s. The -1.1/s energy recovery debuff is a bit heavy, but if you have some sort of food on you, it’s a non-factor.

It also has an antidote effect for the cultist poison, which makes it a really clutch stim to carry for cultist hunting.

Use it: immediately after a fight to clear any bleeds.

5. Trimadol stimulant injector

It’s not an SJ6, but it’ll do

The Trimadol stimulant injector's in-game item screen: a grey syringe with a tan cap, with an effects panel listing removes pain and concussion, +10 Endurance, Strength, Attention and Stress Resistance, +10 max stamina and +3 stamina recovery for 180sec, and -0.5 energy and hydration recovery.

The SJ6 is one of the best stims in the game, giving +30 to max stamina and increases the recovery rate of stamina by +2/s. Its only problem is its price, usually hitting well above 100k.

Trimadol is the answer for those who want to up their strength and endurance with the help of an SJ6 but don’t want to pay SJ6 prices. Or you just want to get somewhere fast.

It grants +10 to Endurance, +10 to Strength, increases max stamina by +10, and increases the recovery rate by +3/s, which is actually better than the SJ6. While it does have the -0.5/s debuff to both energy and hydration, it’s usually quite cheap, and comes with the added benefit of being a painkiller for 185 seconds, which, in my opinion, makes it one of the most underrated stims in the entire game to pop at the start of a raid.

Use it: at the start of a raid to rush a spawn or point-of-interest

The part that applies to all five

Every stim in this game has a downside printed on it, and the numbers move between patches. Before you build a habit around any of these, open the item in your stash and read the effects panel — positives and negatives — for the version you’re actually playing. The advice above is about when to use these, and that logic holds regardless of what BSG does to the values. The values themselves you should check yourself.

Got a stim you think belongs on this list, or one you think I’m wrong about? Tell me: @sxmba_ on X, or in the Discord.