A working Tor walkthrough for darknet markets
A no-fluff procedure for setting up Tor Browser correctly before your first visit to a market. Five minutes, end to end.
The default Tor Browser configuration is fine for casual clearnet browsing. It is not fine for darknet-market access. The security slider sits at Standard on install, which permits JavaScript, remote fonts, and WebGL. Each of these expands the browser's attack surface beyond what is required to load an onion-hosted storefront. Set the slider to Safest before your first market visit.
The installation step
Download Tor Browser from torproject.org directly. Verify the installer's GPG signature against the Tor Project's published key. The verification step takes about two minutes and is documented on the project's download page. Do not install Tor Browser from a third-party mirror; do not install a "Tor wrapper" extension someone posted on a forum; do not use a clearnet VPN as a substitute for Tor itself.
The configuration step
Open the browser. Click the shield icon in the top right. Three security profiles. Standard permits JavaScript, WebGL, and remote fonts. Safer disables JavaScript on HTTP sites, blocks remote fonts, disables some media auto-playback. Safest disables JavaScript by default on every site, disables WebGL, blocks remote fonts and icons globally. For darknet-market access, set the slider to Safest.
What works at Safest
Both Anubis and Nexus storefronts work fine. Browse, search, place an order, confirm receipt; all of this works without JavaScript. The captcha pages on either market sometimes need JavaScript to render the challenge correctly; if a captcha does not load, drop the slider to Safer for the captcha tab only and raise it back after the captcha clears.
Other habits worth adopting on day one
Do not install browser extensions on Tor Browser. Do not resize the window away from the default fingerprint-resistant size. Do not log into clearnet services in the same browser session as a darknet-market session. New Tor Circuit for this Site (in the menu) is the fastest way to retry when a circuit is congested.