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Starting a new extraction shooter is always a tricky moment. There’s so much to learn, so many crafting items to find, and new threats to face. It’s no different in Embark Studios’ latest hit either. This ARC Raiders beginners guide will give you some foundational tips and tricks to help you with the onboarding, learning what you should loot, what to recycle, and much more. What loot to keep & what to leave There are a lot of things to pick up in ARC Raiders and working out what to keep and what to leave behind can give you a headache. For your first couple of hours, just pick up everything and anything. You’ll be leveling up, completing quests, and gaining access to new areas of Speranza, so working out whether to keep a Spring or Battery isn’t a concern. One thing to keep in mind is that items have a rarity. The rarer the item, the more it is worth. Late game gear requires rare crafting resources, so while it’s worth picking up and holding onto these, you won’t be able to use them for a long time. Should you recycle items? You should not recycle items all willy-nilly. Some items might say “Can be recycled” but are actually used in upgrading your benches in the Workstation. An example is the Toaster. This says “Can be recycled into crafting materials” and it doesn’t say it’s used in making anything – so you might assume it’s safe to recycle. Wrong! You need three of them to upgrade the Crafting bench. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to recycling gear. You might need one thing for an upgrade or you might need its constituents to craft an item. But, a good rule of thumb is that it’s easier to find green rarity items, so recycling them is less worrisome than recycling a blue or even purple item. What the symbols mean Anything you pick up has a symbol that indicates what it is. Some things are weapons, others are ammo and throwables, while even more are crafting items. Learn these symbols to quickly access what you’re snatching. Wrench: Crafting material One Bullet: Heavy ammo for hard hitting Sniper-like weapons Two Shells: Shotguns Three Bullets: For Medium weapons like Assault Rifles Four Bullets: Used in Light weapons like SMGs and Pistols Plus: Related to healing or shield-recovery quick-use items Target: An explosive device you can place that is detonated either remotely or based on proximity Diamond: This is a trinket you can sell for coins. Not needed in crafting Upgrade your Stash You will fill up your Stash faster than you think. If you don’t want to go all Marie Kondo and sell everything you own, upgrade your stash using the Expand button. The cost increases at a near-exponential rate, so don’t expect this to be cheap. Upgrade it a few times and then start looking through your items and seeing what you can sell or recycle. Hey, listen! Sound is your friend in ARC Raiders (and also you’re enemy). Everything makes a sound, from players walking and ARC patrolling to caches indicating their presence and extraction points being activated. You need to be listening to your surroundings in order to survive. At the same time, you should try to limit your own sound output so players and ARC do not know you are nearby. Jogging is quieter than sprinting and walking is quieter still. Breaching doors and containers is extremely loud, with ARC Probes wailing like a banshee when you start prying them open. Try to do these louder actions when no ARC are around and when you’re fairly certain no players are aiming at your noggin. Swap shooting shoulders You can swap shooting shoulders in ARC Raiders. This is extremely important when fighting in tight spaces or around objects. You can do this by tapping X on PC or clicking the right stick on controller. Do this when you’re slinking through corridors and you’re rounding on a corner as it will keep your body closer to the wall, allowing you to get your gun around first. Roll after falling Roll as you hit the ground after falling to reduce the damage you take. Sometimes the only way to get out of a tight spot is to take a risky jump across a roof or down to the ground. Instead of slamming into the ground, you’ll perform a tactical roll and keep on trucking. You might take a bit of damage but it’s better than getting knocked out and having to crawl away. Talk to other players Not everyone will shoot you on sight. Sometimes other players just want to get in and get out with their quest or loot. If you see someone, don’t immediately shoot them, maybe use the in-game communication wheel to say hello or, better yet, use the proximity chat to speak to them. Read the Skill Tree There are a lot of skills and you will not unlock them all. So, you should take a few minutes to read through the skill tree to decide in which path you want to invest your skill points. You don’t need to do this right away, and it’s probably best to do it once you’ve played a few matches and have encountered a few different situations. With that said, here is some general guidance on what to unlock in the Skill Tree. The Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs in the Mobility branch is always a good option as having more stamina means you can get out of dodge much faster. Over in the Survival branch, the last node called Security Breach lets you unlock certain lockers, which often contain great loot. In Conditioning, Gentle Pressure and Proficient Pryer will help you breach doors faster and quieter. You can hit Level 75 in ARC Raiders, which means you get 75 Skill Points to spend. You can only get to the very end of two branches, so plan well. If you do mess up, don’t worry, as you can always complete the Expedition Project to send your raider off and start a new one. You’ll also get some sweet rewards. Quest progress is shared Quest progress is shared among your squad. If someone performs an action for a quest you need, it will count as you having done it. This includes things like activating panels, destroying ARC, and other things. This does not extend to items you must bring back to Speranza. So if you need Snitch Scanners, your mate picking one up won’t put it in your pocket – you need to carry it. You can extract even while downed When you run out of shields and health, you will drop down and crawl along the ground. You’re not out of the fight yet, so if you’re close to an extraction point, crawl into it and try to activate it (or steal a ride with someone else) – you’ll be whisked back home to safety and won’t lose anything. Do a Free Loadout run for loot When you click Play and confirm the map, select the Free Loadout tab at the top of the screen. You will get a basic shield, simple weapon, and a few healing items. You won’t get a safe pocket, but you will have 14 slots you can fill with stuff and then leave. This is a great option if you don’t want to waste your precious weapons and only want to go in, grab some crafting items or finish a quest objective, and then leave. Use the Free Loadout Augment to buy things from Lance If you extract when using a Free Loadout, you will get a Free Loadout Augment. Go to the Clinic and trade this Free Loadout Augment for one of the green Augments. This is a neat way to make some progress without spending any precious coins. Ping ARC to learn their names Ping an ARC enemy to hear their name. The ARC unit will also have its name labeled in the chat, letting you see what it’s called, which comes in handy when quests or Trials ask you to deal damage or destroy certain robots. Once you know their names, the next task will be to understand their weak points. Most flying ARC have weakpoints on their propellers. There is a lot to learn in ARC Raiders as a beginner. There are dozens of items, several dangerous ARC foes, and all kinds of mechanics to understand. Your best bet is to get a couple of friends together and just start playing. Don’t worry too much about spending skill points correctly or recycling the wrong gear: you’ll get more points and find more loot. We’ll update this piece with additional tips and tricks for new players, so stay tuned for more. You can find more in-depth guides for quests on our ARC Raiders page.
