Raid profit basics
Extraction shooters are economy games with guns attached. Five numbers decide whether you're rich or donating: kit cost, loot rate, extraction rate, insurance math, and break-even loot. Here's each one.
Quick answer
A raid is worth it when: (your extraction rate × loot per extract) + insurance recovery is greater than full kit cost. If you can't state those three numbers for your last 20 raids, you're gambling, not farming. The extraction profit calculator does this math for you.
The five numbers
- Kit cost. Everything you deploy with, ammo included. Price it with the loadout calculator — most players underestimate ammo by half.
- Loot per successful extract. Not your best raid — your average. Chasing one big score hides twenty -30k runs.
- Extraction rate. From your profile stats. This single number swings expected value more than any gun upgrade.
- Insurance recovery. Premium times chance your insured kit returns. It pays out on deaths too — that's the entire point.
- Break-even loot. The loot you must extract with, on average, before profit starts. Know it per kit.
Worked example
kit = 60k gear + 8k ammo + 6k meds + 4k insurance = 78k recovery = 70% × 68k insured = +47.6k (even on death) EV @ 55% rate = 0.55 × loot + 47.6k − 78k break-even = loot where EV = 0 ≈ 55k per extract
Read that again: at a 55% extraction rate you need ~55k average loot just to break even on a 78k kit. Either extract more, loot better, or run cheaper — the calculator tells you which lever matters.
Budget rules that actually help
- Match kit to lobby, not to ego. Mid-tier plates and 1-below ammo win most raids; premium ammo is for confirmed top-tier lobbies.
- Ammo ≤ ~35% of kit cost. Above that, you're over-tiered for what you'll meet — check the ammo chart.
- Insurance is a tool, not a tax. Insure expensive, recoverable gear; don't insure the meds you'll drink anyway.
- Quest items are worth more than their price. Add their "progress value" to loot when a run finishes an objective.
When to run cheap
New map rotation, new patch (meta unsettled), tilted after two deaths, or grinding low-risk objectives — those are scav-tier nights. The best farmers treat budget kits as a weapon: a 25k kit that extracts twice beats an 80k kit that extracts once.