Tips and Tricks for ARC Raiders: Beginner and Advanced Guide

Summary of Essential Survival Tactics

The initial hours in the ARC are critical. Success hinges on resource allocation and mobility. Always remember: exploration is key, but evasion is often better than confrontation.

Recyclable items are needed for the workshop upgrades. Don’t recycle them just yet. Recycling items may give you what you need for a quest or an upgrade, but if you want money, it is better to sell the item than to recycle it.

Scrappy the Rooster only forages for materials when you are topside or in-game. Quest progress is shared within the group. Technically, you can have one player just finish the quests in the party.

Master Your Movement and Evasion

Effective evasion is often better than combat. Invest in skills that boost stamina regeneration and movement speed to quickly escape aggressive enemy patrols. Always keep an exit strategy in mind.

You can pull the extraction lever while downed. Keep Assorted Seeds. They are tradable currency with Celeste. ARC enemies don’t shoot downed Raiders, but you can still get hit by collateral damage.

You’ll most likely trade the seeds for Workshop upgrade materials, such as Synthesized Fuel. Apart from that, you can also trade for Magnets and Processors for your Mk 2s and Mk 3s crafts. Gun parts are also available, which is always great for upgrading your weapons.

Resource Prioritization

Avoid looting common scrap metal excessively. Focus on rare Blueprint components and specialized ARC materials. If inventory space is tight, use melee combat to conserve ammunition.

Weapons are upgradable outside of rarity. Track the resources of some of your most crafted items. If you craft Looting Mk 2s, track the resource in the Gear Bench crafting menu so you can get an icon that shows up to the resources or materials you need.

Flashlights can attract some of the ARC enemies. Turn them off whenever you can. Using free loadouts still gives you experience points to level up.

Team Strategy (If applicable)

Always coordinate extraction and large combat encounters. Solo play drastically increases risk.

Raider Hatches close automatically after a while, even if your team hasn’t extracted yet. Always craft consumables, equipment, and ammo before using Credits to buy. If you are saving materials for the Expedition, you can ignore this tip depending on your current needs.

Equip attachments when you find them. Sell them after the raid if you need the money. The rarity of an item doesn’t always mean they are more valuable. The best items to loot for money are usually Trinkets and epic and legendary items.

Advanced Tactics

Don’t underestimate throwables in PvP. Looting Mk. 2s give you an extra safe pocket. You can use Fabrics for healing. The Merge Stack button is a lifesaver QOL tool for your stash. When you automatically deposit items from your raid, some of them don’t stack automatically.

Arc Powercells are also usable for recharging shields. Remember to always repair your weapons and equipment. Free Loadout Augments can be exchanged for Mk. 1 equipment through Lance (Clinic).

If you are progressing, always loot exclusive ARC items from enemies. Snitch – Snitch Scanner, Tick – Tick Pod, Bastion – Bastion Cells, Hornet – Hornet Drivers, Wasp – Wasp Drivers, and more. These are needed for workshop upgrades.

Enemy Specific Tips

ARC Surveyors run away so fast. Try to stun them with mines to hold them down. Blueprints are consumables. Raiders use emotes to say they don’t want any trouble.

You can find blueprints that you have already learned. You can drop them to a teammate who needs them. You can dodge roll when an ARC Pop gets near you. They’ll just explode anyway, so save those bullets.

You can get free items from the Raider Deck, along with currencies. Try to finish the quests to gain Creds to progress your Raider Deck.

Snitches call in other ARCs from the sky when they see you. These ARC reinforcement automatically chases and shoot you. Shooting the rotors of the Hornet drone should destabilize their movement and also mess up their aim as it explodes.

Most ARC enemies have weak spots and are also weak/strong to certain ammo types. Fireballs are perfect circles, and Pops have a weird cylinder on the side. This difference is worth noting as Pops runs to raiders to explode, while Fireballs run to raiders and attack with their flamethrower.

Exploration Tips

ARC Probes call nearby ARCs when you try to breach them. ARC Probes have three separate searchable containers with mostly ARC loot inside.

If you zoom in even closer on the map, you’ll see smaller points of interest. Field Depots, Baron Husks, Supply Call Stations, and other points of interest only show up when you are near them or go past one of them.

Residential loot gives trinkets and keys, which are very valuable. You don’t have to commit your resources to the expedition (building the foundation) if you don’t have materials yet. You can throw materials on it if you want more space in your inventory, though.

Crafting Skills

In-Round crafting is one of the best skills in the game. It allows in-raid crafting, granting you access to more effective healing and shielding consumables, as well as tools and gadgets.

Always check your Refiner in the workshop. There are times when it’s better to refine materials than to sell them directly.

Source: This content is officially summarized and adapted from Prima Games.