The Topographic Survey Maps is quite a rare drop and can be annoying to find. Even with the Flea Market unlocked, you might find yourself strapped for cash since it can be too expensive during the early wipe.
Even if the drop rate is low, you can still increase your chances if you know where to get the Topographic Survey Maps in Escape from Tarkov.
You can immediately plan out your routes and find the best locations to find the Topographic Survey Maps at the start of a raid. The drop rates can be completely random, so there is a little bit of luck involved.
What are the Topographic Survey Maps Used For?
Topographic Survey Maps are extremely hard to look for, and it is quite an important item. This map is used for constructing your level 1 Intelligence Center.
The buffs you get from Intelligence Center, like the Scav cooldown reduction and the quest money reward boost, are all worth it.
The Intelligence Center has one of the best buffs you can get from a hideout, but the costs are always expensive.
Almost every part of your hideout is connected to your Intelligence Center, and you will need to set up other hideout upgrades like the Nutrition Center, Security, Medstation, and others.
Make sure to get the other hard-to-get items in the early wipe like the Can of White Salt, Bottle of OLOLO Multivitamins, Bulbex, Folder with Intelligence, and other rare items.
Topographic Map Barters
Peacekeeper Level 2
- 2x Topographic Maps – Interceptor OTV Body Armor (early wipe class 4 body armor)
Peacekeeper Level 3
4x Diary, 4x Slim Diary, and x1 Topographic Map – Intelligence Folder
Topographic Survey Maps Location
Topographic Survey Maps are rare, but the locations are all simple to remember. You can get them from safes, drawers; some intelligence spawns, jackets, and other generic loot boxes.
The drop rates are low because there are so many things that can actually drop inside these jackets, drawers, and safes.
Safes usually have better and rarer loot, but they are rare to find. The easiest one is probably in Customs if you have the Tarcone’s Director Key since you can do a lot of early tasks while you are farming.
You can also get one from dead scav bodies, dead scavs, and playing as a Scav and spawning with the Topographic Survey Map right off the bat.
Best Strategy to Farm Topographic Survey Maps
The best strategy to get a Topographic Survey Maps is forcing yourself to loot drawers and jackets. In the early wipe, these might not be your main priority, but they will heavily benefit you in the future if you do so.
Why? Farming these drawers, safes, and jackets can get you the keys you need to get for specific quests during your progression or other hideout items.
You can get important dorm room keys in Customs like 214, 203, 220, 303, and a lot of other keys from other maps as well.
You can also get a few technical items needed for your hideout while looting these areas.
The best way to strategize is to find your quests and check which items to go for and which tasks to finish. Since this is early in the wipe, I would assume your quests or tasks are in Factory, Customs, Woods, and Interchange.
In Factory and Woods, the items you can farm here are limited and inefficient. Only go here if you have to finish a quest or task.
When you are looking for items like the Topographic Survey Maps while needing found in raid items like PCBs, T-Plugs, Spark Plugs, Cowboy Hats, and other generic items, you can go to Interchange.
In Interchange, always try to loot National (next to Brutal Shop) and go for the 16 drawers. Loot the two jackets inside as well, and you will have a decent chance of finding the Topographic Survey Map if you do this every raid.
The reason why Interchange is good is that you can also go to other areas scattered across the map. The Power Station has five jackets, four drawers, and a couple of toolboxes to loot, and you can even spawn here.
Voyage and Mantis have a lot of jackets combined, too, and are also next to National. You can also get a lot of tech items if you go to the other stores like Techlight, Texho, German, and Rasmussen.
For military items and other tech items, you might as well go to Reserve and Lighthouse for the best loot.
In Customs, you can go to the eight drawers in Crackhouse and check for the Folder with Intelligence spawn as well. You can also loot the jackets on the first floor as well as the dead body next to the door.
The Customs map is good for more random items since hidden stashes are easy to get, and you can get other item-specific quests done here, like getting the cigarettes, nuts, bolts, and other hideout items.
