Tarkov Meds, Stims and Barter Items Glossary

By Treesz · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Escape from Tarkov has hundreds of loot items, and many of them do more than one job. A painkiller can also be a barter input, a pack of sugar is food and a moonshine ingredient, and a handheld console can be traded up to a Physical Bitcoin. This glossary explains the medical items, stims and barter items players ask about most often: what each one does, how big it is, where it spawns, and which quests, hideout crafts and trader barters use it.

The facts apply to the full release line of the game, from Escape from Tarkov 1.0 (15 November 2025) up to update 1.3.0.0 (29 October 2026), which was the live version on 1 November 2026. Season 1 "KORD BREACH" runs alongside normal PvP from 3 August to 7 December 2026, and some rules differ there, as noted below. Trader stock, barters and crafts can change with any patch, so treat the recipes as the current state, not a permanent rule.

Item	Category	Size	Main use
Vaseline balm	Medical (balm)	1x1	Removes Pain, 3 uses
Zagustin	Injector (stim)	1x1	Stops all bleeding for 180 s
Pack of sugar	Food	1x1	Energy, moonshine craft, Jaeger barter
Virtex processor	Electronics	1x1	Quests, Intelligence Center crafts
Tetriz	Electronics	1x2	Mechanic barters, Bitcoin trade
Prokill medallion	Valuable	1x1	Weapon and gear barters

Medical items and stims

Vaseline balm

Vaseline balm ("Vaseline" in your inventory) is a painkiller balm. It removes the Pain status and adds On Painkillers, which stops the shaking and visual effects that fractures and destroyed limbs cause. It does not stop bleeding, fix fractures or restore HP, so it hides the symptoms while the injury stays until you treat it.

Stat	Value
Size and weight	1x1, 0.016 kg
Uses	3 per jar
Use time	6 s
Painkiller duration	300 s in game data on tarkov.dev; the official wiki infobox lists 350 s
Side effect	Energy -9 and Hydration -9 per use

Where it spawns: medbags, medcases, sport bags, 6x2 weapon boxes, ground caches, buried barrel caches, medical supply crates and jackets. No trader sells it for cash in current data.

How to make it: the Medstation level 2 turns 3 Soap, 2 Schaman shampoo and 1 Pile of meds into 2 Vaseline balms in 55 minutes. Barter use: Therapist at loyalty level 3 takes 2 Vaseline balms, 2 Augmentin pills, 2 Surv12 kits and 3 Piles of meds for the LBT-2670 Slim Field Med Pack.

Compared with Analgin painkillers (4 uses, 3 s to apply, 80 s of effect), Vaseline lasts much longer but takes twice as long to apply, so use it behind cover, not mid-fight.

Zagustin hemostatic drug injector

Zagustin is a military hemostatic injector. It stops light and heavy bleeding and prevents new bleeds for the length of its effect, which makes it a backup for long raids or for when you have no tourniquet or medkit with bleed treatment left. It is temporary, not a cure: the bleed protection lasts 180 seconds.

Stat	Value
Size and weight	1x1, 0.05 kg
Use time	2 s
Buff (1 s delay, 180 s)	Stops and prevents light and heavy bleeding, Vitality +20
Debuffs	Metabolism -5 for 180 s; after 170 s, hand tremor and hydration recovery -1.4/s for 40 s
Extra	Causes Fresh Wound only when it treats a heavy bleed

The dehydration at the end is the price to plan for: carry a drink. Zagustin is sold by Therapist at loyalty level 4. It spawns in medbags, sport bags, 6x2 weapon boxes, ground caches and buried barrel caches, and The Lab has several fixed spots, including the Med Hut on the first level.

Crafts: the Medstation level 3 makes 1 Zagustin from a Silicone tube, a CALOK-B applicator, a Grizzly medical kit and 2 Piles of meds in 1 h 52 min. Two Zagustin, a Morphine injector, 2 cans of Max Energy and 2 Piles of meds become a M.U.L.E. stimulant at Medstation level 2 (1 h 31 min 40 s) after Therapist's task Decontamination Service.

Other meds worth knowing

Augmentin: antibiotic pills (1x1, 5 s, 1 use) that remove Pain for about 150 seconds and raise Immunity for 300 seconds, at the cost of a little hydration. Therapist sells them at loyalty level 4. Full entry: Augmentin in Tarkov.
Propital: a 2-second regenerative injector that heals 1 HP per second for 300 seconds and removes Pain, followed by 30 seconds of hand tremor and tunnel vision. The quest Get a Foothold needs 30 of them. See Propital usage.
Golden Star balm: a 5-use balm (7 s) that removes Pain, concussion and radiation exposure, but costs 19 Energy per use. At Medstation level 3, one balm, Ibuprofen and 2 Piles of meds craft 4 Propital. More in Golden Star balm.
CMS surgical kit: a 2x1 kit with 3 uses that takes 16 seconds and restores one destroyed limb to 1 HP, leaving that limb at 25 to 45% of its maximum HP for the rest of the raid. It cannot repair a destroyed head or thorax. Details: CMS kit.

Provisions and household items

Pack of sugar

A pack of sugar ("Sugar") is a food item that many players treat only as barter material, but it does affect your character. Eating it gives +70 Energy, costs 45 Hydration and adds Intellect +1 for 300 seconds. It is 1x1, weighs 0.5 kg and takes 9 seconds to eat.

Where it spawns: buried barrel caches, dead Scavs, ground caches, ration supply crates, sport bags and plastic suitcases. It can also be bought through barters: Jaeger at loyalty level 2 trades 5 Emelya rye croutons for a pack, and Therapist at loyalty level 4 trades 6 Piles of meds for one.

What uses it:

Booze generator level 1: 1 Canister with purified water and 2 Packs of sugar make a Bottle of Fierce Hatchling moonshine in 3 h 3 min 20 s. Moonshine is accepted as payment for the Scav Case and is needed for the quest Provocation.
Nutrition unit level 2: Pack of milk plus sugar makes 3 cans of condensed milk; 2 Alyonka chocolate bars make 1 pack of sugar.
Nutrition unit level 3: sugar is one input in the 12-hour craft for 20 cans of Hot Rod energy drink.
Jaeger loyalty level 3: 10 Packs of sugar and 6 Aquamari water bottles are the barter for the FLIR RS-32 thermal scope.

Sodium, dry fuel and cigarettes

Pack of sodium bicarbonate ("Sodium", 1x1, 0.5 kg): 5 are needed for Nutrition unit level 3. Therapist at loyalty level 2 trades one for an IFAK. Read more in Sodium in Tarkov.
Dry fuel ("DFuel", 1x1, 0.1 kg): solid fuel tablets, not generator fuel. 5 are needed for Heating level 2, and Interchange store shelves such as OLI, IDEA and Goshan are common spots. See DFuel uses.
Strike Cigarettes ("Strike", 1x1): the quest Bad Habit asks for 15 found-in-raid packs of Strike, Malboro or Wilston, and Mechanic at loyalty level 1 trades one pack for a P226 wooden grip. More in Strike cigarettes.

Electronics

Virtex programmable processor

The Virtex programmable processor ("Virtex") is a military processor and one of the more valuable electronics in the game. It is 1x1 and weighs 0.3 kg. It is not a hideout upgrade item in current data; its value comes from quests, barters and Intelligence Center crafts.

Quests: 1 is needed for From Hand to Hand, and 5 found in raid are needed for Special Equipment.

Where it spawns: sport bags, dead Scavs, 6x6 weapon boxes, ground caches and buried barrel caches. Fixed spots include the assembly line pedestals in The Lab's main working area, several Reserve marked rooms and the White King building, and many spots on Lighthouse, including the Water Treatment Plant and the Merin car trunk.

Barters:

Peacekeeper loyalty level 2: 3 Virtex with 6-STEN-140-M batteries, 3 thermal modules and 5 military cables for the Secure container Beta.
Mechanic loyalty level 3, after Semiconductor Crisis: 2 Virtex and 4 UHF RFID readers for an AK-104.

Crafts: Intelligence Center level 2 makes a Virtex from electronic components, wires, 2 military circuit boards, 2 PC CPUs and capacitors in 23 hours. Level 3 turns a Virtex (as a tool), 2 Secure Flash drives and 2 topographic survey maps into a Military flash drive in 10 hours, and two 25-hour crafts use 2 Virtex each for the Green and Red Labs keycards.

Tetriz portable game console

Tetriz is a handheld game console and a classic Mechanic barter item. Note the size: it takes 1x2 slots, not 1x1, and weighs 0.13 kg. You can hold only 10 in your raid inventory at once.

Barters:

Trader	Cost	Reward
Mechanic LL1	1 Tetriz	20x1mm toy gun
Mechanic LL2	2 Tetriz + 2 GreenBat lithium batteries	Physical Bitcoin

Where it spawns: drawers, sport bags, dead Scavs, common fund stashes, ground caches, buried barrel caches and jackets. Interchange electronics stores (Techno, Rasmussen, IDEA), Reserve server shelves and the RB-AK room, Shoreline resort rooms and Customs (new gas station, Big Red) all have known spots. It is a reward from Shipping Delay - Part 2 and can come out of the Cultist Circle when a Physical Bitcoin is sacrificed. It is not an input for any normal hideout craft, so older advice to save it for crafting is out of date.

Valuables and currency

Chain with Prokill medallion

The Chain with Prokill medallion ("Prokill") is a valuable with no use other than trading. It is 1x1, weighs 0.1 kg, and only 10 can be held in a raid inventory. The name comes from Contract Wars and Hired Ops, earlier games by Battlestate's sister studio Absolutsoft, where the Prokill was a 20-kill streak award.

Where it spawns: safes, sport bags, dead Scavs, plastic suitcases, common fund stashes, ground caches and buried barrel caches. Named spots include the Customs marked room, the Interchange Saferoom, the Shoreline resort (west wing 301, east wing 310, the marked room in east wing 321), the Woods marked circle and the Lighthouse Merin car trunk.

Barters it unlocks:

Trader	Cost	Reward
Mechanic LL2	2 Prokill	Colt M4A1
Mechanic LL4 (after Goals and Means)	1 Prokill	AS VAL MOD.4
Prapor LL4 (after Special Order)	1 Prokill	TKPD 9.3x64 carbine
Ragman LL4	1 Prokill	SSO Attack 2 raid backpack
Skier LL4 (after Silent Caliber)	2 Prokill + other items	M-2 Tactical Sword

Physical Bitcoin, GP coins and streamer items

Physical Bitcoin ("0.2BTC", 1x1): cannot be listed on the Flea Market, and the official wiki reports that its trader value follows the real Bitcoin price. The quests Old Patterns and Profit Retention ask for 15 each, and the Bitcoin farm produces one every 83 h 20 min with a single graphics card. See Physical Bitcoin.
GP coin (1x1, stacks to 100): the currency Ref accepts, usually together with Lega Medals; for example 1 Lega Medal and 100 GP buy Shatun's hideout key at Ref loyalty level 1. You can bring only 10 into a raid. More in GP coin trading.
Streamer items: souvenirs named after content creators, needed for Fence's quest Collector, which asks for 44 found-in-raid items and rewards the Secure container Kappa. New ones arrived in 1.0.1.0 (24 December 2025), 1.0.5.0 (25 May 2026) and 1.1.0.0 (3 August 2026). Full list: streamer items.

Update 1.3.0.0 changed the pickup colliders of certain Currency and Valuables items so they are easier to find and grab in raid.

Tips

Check the item's tooltip before you sell: it shows quests and hideout upgrades that still need it. Sugar, Virtex and Tetriz all feed crafts or barters worth more than a quick trader sale.
Pair a painkiller with real treatment. Vaseline or Golden Star make a broken leg playable, but a splint or medkit fixes it.
After a Zagustin, drink within about three minutes; the hydration drain starts at 170 seconds.
Keep the 10-per-raid limit in mind for Tetriz, Prokill, Physical Bitcoin and GP coins when you plan a loot run.
In Season 1, hideout crafts take half the time and hideout zones do not need found-in-raid items, so the Vaseline and moonshine crafts above finish twice as fast there.

Guides and services

For healing priorities in a fight, read our Tarkov medical guide. To decide what to keep and what to sell, see how to make more money in Tarkov, and for quest item lists, the Tarkov quests guide. If you need a carry through The Lab, where Zagustin, Propital and Virtex have fixed spawns, there is a Labs raid service, and Tarkov roubles are also available.

FAQ

Does Vaseline stop bleeding in Tarkov?

No. Vaseline balm only removes Pain and adds the On Painkillers status. For bleeds use a bandage, a tourniquet, a medkit that treats bleeding, or Zagustin for temporary cover.

How long does Zagustin last?

Its bleed protection lasts 180 seconds and starts after a 1-second delay. During that time it stops existing bleeds and prevents new ones. After 170 seconds it adds 40 seconds of hand tremor and dehydration.

Can you craft Vaseline or Zagustin?

Yes. Vaseline comes from the Medstation level 2 (3 Soap, 2 Schaman shampoo, 1 Pile of meds, 2 balms in 55 minutes). Zagustin comes from the Medstation level 3 in 1 h 52 min.

Should I sell Tetriz or keep it?

That depends on your Mechanic level. At loyalty level 2, two Tetriz and two GreenBat batteries buy a Physical Bitcoin, which is often worth more than selling the consoles. Tetriz is not needed for any regular hideout craft.

Is the Prokill medallion used in quests?

No quest asks for the Prokill by name in current data. It only counts toward generic tasks such as Building Foundations, which wants any 50 items sold to each of three traders. Its real value is in barters, such as an M4A1 from Mechanic at loyalty level 2 or an AS VAL MOD.4 at loyalty level 4.

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