If you already have a Battlestate games account DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU ALREADY LINKED YOUR STEAM ACCOUNT ON THE WEBSITE otherwise it creates an account linked to your steam automatically and locks you out of linking your accounts.

♥♥♥♥ me for not knowing this beforehand I guess.

Grab a hammer or something hammer shaped and slam it on your nuts as hard as you can. Congratulations you know what its like to play escape from tarkov without spending $50.

TLDR: Don't buy this game on Steam - or if you do, make a BSG account first and link your steam account immediately. Or just stick to buying from BSG directly. Or just don't buy it at all! Hundreds if not thousands of Steam players cannot play the game anymore or have had their character erased completely.

Here is why i say don't buy it.
1. I own tarkov only through Steam.
2. Apparently, the Steam launcher makes a temp user (tarkovcitizen). When you launch the game you need to have a BSG account. The BSG website even says you need a BSG account to play through Steam (See FAQ page: Do I need a Battlestate Games account if I’m buying the game on Steam for the first time? Answer: Yes. To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you will need to link a Battlestate Games account to your Steam account. All progress will be stored on the Battlestate Games profile which is linked to Steam.) Notice how the question asks if you need an account while the answer says you need to link an account?? Already suss.
3. So once I launched the game for the first time I created and logged into my BSG account since the game forces you to log into a BSG account. I have been playing as ManiacMoose for a month in the game itself. Presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG!
4. When I would play the game through Steam launcher, the launcher would show the TarkovCitizen temp user in the top right corner, however my user would appear in game as ManiacMoose. Again, presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG!
5. If i went through the steam launcher that said TarkovCitizen to my website profile it would bring me to ManiacMoose. Again, presumptively, this means that my BSG account and steam account are linked. WRONG!
6. I got to the BSG website to claim my gift and twitch rewards but the site said ManiacMoose did not own the game even though for a month I was playing as ManiacMoose.
7. So that it would register I did own the game (and so I could get the twitch drops and new years gift), I went to link my Steam account to ManiacMoose and it told me i couldn't bc there was already an account associated with my Steam account and to log in with Steam.
8. I logged out of ManiacMoose and into the BSG website with Steam which brought me to creating a new account. I couldn't add my steam account to ManiacMoose, the account the game forced me to make on initial launch.
9. So I did as the site directed and I made a new account with Steam on the BSG website and the TarkovCitizen account showed up. claimed my gifts and drops. great fantastic.
10. I tried to launch the game and made it to the black and white image screen before it crashed with "it appears the game terminated with an error."
11. I tried all the fixed and eventually resulted to uninstalling the game. I had to do this five times before it would launch. Each time i pulled up the launcher after reinstalled, it said TarkovCitizen, as it has since i started playing a month ago - nothing new. Then it would crash during launch
12. I finally got the game to launch on the fifth install and it loads me in as a brand new account.

83.6 hours of play GONE.

Not only this but I joined the discord community to see what happened to my account and if others have experienced this and I was met with RUDE AS HECK moderators who wanted me to shut up because they couldn't fix account problems. Made it clear from the start of my convo I wasn't asking them to fix it I was looking for a what happened to my ♥♥♥♥ and they answered that it is INTENDED to be deleted. Like if you log in with your steam account to the BSG site the devs made it to INTENTIONALLY DELETE ALL PROGRESS on your steam account to sync to the BSG site. How does that make any sense when I own the game through steam!? Not only that but the moderators were advising people to link their steam to BSG without telling them HEY FYI MAY DELETE ALL YOUR PROGRESS.

Then I was blamed for not linking my account before playing when it doesn't tell you to do that anywhere!! Maybe it did as a banner three months ago. I'm sorry but I can't time travel. So hey devs maybe at that as a big splash screen for Steam players??? Maybe don't force players to create a BSG account before they play and then not actually link their Steam account to it?? Maybe make it so linking the accounts DOESN'T ERASE EVERYTHING ON EITHER ACCOUNT. If I have the game on Steam - I don't want to use a BSG account!!