You know the feeling. Your palms are sweating, your heart is thumping against your ribs, and you’re huddled in a dark corner of a shipping container while some guy with a shotty sprints past you screaming in Russian.
Delivery from the Past is arguably the first "brick wall" quest in Escape from Tarkov. Prapor wants you to grab a secure folder from a locked office in Customs and plant it in one of the most dangerous, high-traffic meat grinders in the game: Factory. It’s a two-part nightmare. If you die at any point during the second half, you’re back to square one. Literally. You have to go all the way back to Customs, get the folder again, and extract. It sucks.
Most players treat this like a standard raid. That’s why they fail.
The Customs Leg: Getting the Secure Folder
The first step takes you to the Customs map. You need the Tarcone Director’s Office key. Honestly, if you don't have this key yet, check the jackets in the dorms or just buy it off the Flea Market once you hit level 15. If you're early wipe and broke, you might have to scavenge or hope someone else already kicked the door down.
The folder is in the "Big Red" warehouse. This place is a deathtrap. It’s a massive, hollow building with limited exits, and everyone knows there’s loot and quest items inside.
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Once you’re in the office, look for the desk with the lamp. The Secure Folder 0031 is tucked away in a tiny gap under the desk. Grab it. Now, here is where people mess up: you have to extract alive. If you get "Run Through" status, it usually doesn't matter for this specific item, but you must survive the raid.
Don't sprint for the extraction immediately. Everyone is watching those crossroads. Wait. Take it slow. If you have to sit in a bush for ten minutes to let the "Chads" clear out, do it. Your sanity depends on it.
The Secret Quest Inventory (Don't Forget This)
This is the part that makes people want to uninstall. Escape from Tarkov has a separate "Quest Inventory." When you extract from Customs with that folder, it isn't in your backpack. It’s in a special out-of-raid stash.
You have to go to your character screen, click the "Tasks" tab, and look at your in-raid stash on the right. Transfer the folder to your off-raid stash if you aren't going to Factory immediately. If you leave it in your active quest inventory and go into a different raid to blow off steam and die, the folder is gone.
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I’ve seen grown men cry because they forgot to check their quest stash. Don't be that guy.
The Factory Nightmare: Planting the Folder
Now for the hard part. Delivery from the Past Tarkov requires you to go to Factory and find the "Night Vision" room, or the Break Room, located on the second floor of the warehouse area (near Gate 3).
You have to hold down the "Use" key (usually F) for 30 seconds.
Thirty seconds is an eternity in Factory. In thirty seconds, a Tagilla-wannabe can sprint across the entire map and put a slug in your ear.
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Strategy 1: The Night Raid
Go in at night. Most players in night Factory are either doing the same quest or are geared out with expensive NVGs and won't bother with a "timmy" crouching in a shack. It’s quieter. It’s spookier. It’s generally safer for questing.
Strategy 2: The Five-Man Wall
If you have friends, use them. Since Factory has a low player cap (usually 5 to 6 players), if you go in with a full squad of five people, you’ve effectively neutralized the PMC threat. You only have to worry about AI Scavs. This is the "coward's way" according to some, but in Tarkov, survival is the only metric that matters.
Common Misconceptions and Fail Conditions
People think they need to survive and extract in the same raid they plant the folder. You don't. Once that 30-second timer finishes and the folder is "placed," that sub-task is checked off forever. Even if you get head-eyes'd a second later, you don't have to go back to Customs.
However, the final part of the quest is to survive and extract from Factory. If you plant the folder and die, you just need to load back into a fresh Factory raid and extract successfully to finish the whole thing.
- You don't need a specific key for the Factory room. It’s always open.
- You cannot plant it as a Scav. Obviously.
- Don't go in naked. At least bring a Paca and a shotgun. "Tagged and Cursed" is a mechanic where AI Scavs will hunt you down if you have no gear. You don't want the whole map converging on you while you're trying to hide in a wooden shack.
Why This Quest Exists
Battlestate Games uses Delivery from the Past to teach you two things: map knowledge and the value of your life. It forces you to play differently. You aren't hunting for loot; you're a courier. It changes the psychology of the game.
It’s frustrating, sure. But finally seeing that "Task Complete" banner across the screen after four failed attempts? That’s the high that keeps people playing Tarkov for thousands of hours.
Actionable Next Steps
- Check your stash for the Tarcone Director’s Office key. If you don't have it, prioritize looting jackets in the Village on Shoreline or the Dorms on Customs.
- Clear your Quest Inventory. If you have the folder but aren't ready for Factory, move it to the "Off-raid" stash immediately to keep it safe.
- Insure a basic kit. Grab a SKS or a Mosin. You don't need a million-ruble loadout for Factory, just enough to kill a Scav and move fast.
- Practice the route in Offline Mode. If you don't know exactly where the metal stairs are in Factory, load in without bots and find the shack first.