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I'm just going to come out and say it like I've said it at least fifty times in the past ten days — Arc Raiders is the best extraction shooter ever, and it made me a believer in the genre again. The PvPvE madness in the game, along with the dangerously addictive gameplay loop, has been battling my sleeping hours and winning gloriously, too. Not only is Arc Raiders the top-selling game on Steam right now, but it's also one of the top five most played, so if you're one of the newbies just getting to Topside, there are plenty of things you need to learn. I'm not going to go down the whole "ten things you need to do" route, but the one thing in Arc Raiders that will help you go a long way is the same as the world outside the computer screen — money. Knocked out and lost all your loot? You won't be able to craft a lot of things before your first week of looting, so you'll have to buy them off traders with money. Haven't been able to find a blueprint for a specific gun or grenade? Buy it until you learn how to craft it. Money does tend to come decently to all players in Arc Raiders, but only if you know where to look. Money in Arc Raiders helps more than you might think Beginners should prioritize earning more coins As a beginner in Arc Raiders, you're going to be losing a lot of money, crafting resources, weapons, and ammo. There's simply no way around it, because the game is built in such a way that you will end up crossing paths with either the heavily-armed and dangerous ARC machines, or other raiders looking to loot you or just shoot at something human. Furthermore, it will be a while before you can get any great blueprints through quests and looting in the bigger, more dangerous maps. That means that for at least the first ten hours in Arc Raiders, you will be at the mercy of traders for better medications, shields, looting augments, weapons, and grenades. All of those things are purchasable, yes, but they cost plenty of coins, making coins the single most important resource in the game for beginners. Luckily, the beginner map, Dam Battlegrounds, also offers one of the best loot routes in the game. Arc Raiders' medium-risk, high-reward money run This is my go-to run whenever funds are running low The best thing about my favorite money run in Arc Raiders is that it's possible on the very first map, that is Dam Battlegrounds. As beginners running out on money, this is almost certainly what you should be doing if it's coins you need. For this run, I'd recommend taking a weapon and some ammo with you. Craft at least three light grenades with you, and if you have the blueprint, take some Adrenaline Shots with you as well. Spawn into the Dam Battlegrounds map, and... just look around. You're looking for the Research & Administration building, and it's impossible to miss, what with it being the tallest structure in the map. Alternatively, you can just open your map to mark it and know where to go. If you spawn at a distance, use the Adrenaline Shots if you have any. Approach the building from the south side, and you should see an unmistakable set of blue metal stairs running to the very top of the building. If you're unlucky, there's also a Sentinel turret guarding the stairs at the midway point. That's what the grenades are for, so use three of them to take down the turret. Continue up the blue metal stairs until you reach the top, and enter the building. You'll be in a room with desks, computers, and drawers to search. Do not look through those drawers — you can't unopen them once you've looked through them, and anyone else entering behind you later will know that you're inside. Head to the right corner of the room and open the door. You'll see a long hallway to your left. A smaller turret may spawn here, so take it out with a single grenade if you need to. You should be headed to the very end of this hallway on your left. Stop at the end of the hallway when you see a line of lockers to your right and two doors to your right. Start with the lockers, and then head into rooms 1 and 2 to search every locker inside. You will find extremely valuable loot here, so keep collecting it as it comes. If possible, try not to collect crafting materials or anything you can't sell, unless you chance upon Gun Parts or maybe even some pink-tier crafting materials. Now, head back out, and take a few steps towards the way you came and entered the building. The corridor you're in also heads left, opening up into a square-shaped gallery with fireballs and ticks patrolling. Take care of them if they've spawned, and you'll see some more lockers to your left, facing another room. Loot the lockers, and enter room number 3. There are more lockers here to loot, so be quick and grab everything of value you found. Now that you've looted the most valuable three rooms and locker sets, I'd recommend leaving. Other raiders might be close behind, and as a rule of thumb, the more you delay extraction even with your goal complete, the more things tend to go south. Still, if you still have inventory spots open and are feeling brave, go ahead and loot the other rooms around for some more valuable loot or crafting materials. Make your way back underground, and ideally, you should have a plentiful bounty in your inventory. I have never gotten anything less than $60,000 from this run, and I'd even recommend buying a Raider Hatch Key and keeping one on your person. It sets you back by 9,000 coins, yes, but the upside here is immense. The lowest-risk, low-reward method for money in Arc Raiders This should net you about 80,000 coins per hour Arc Raiders currently has four incredible and gorgeous maps — Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, and The Blue Gate. While the last two unlock after you've gained plenty of experience, the first two unlock early on, and that's where these money runs are. If you're absolutely broke with no loot or stash to your name, you might as well invest a couple of hours in this low-risk, low-reward method to earn about 60,000–80,000 coins every hour. The game also has special events that run from time to time, which act as variators or modifiers to the usual gameplay. This includes electromagnetic storms, a Queen ARC appearing, a hidden bunker to unlock, and lush blooms — where a specific map is blessed with extra natural harvest. Taking a free loadout means you won't lose anything from your own stash. This method is for the Buried City map, and if you happen to see a leaf icon next to the Buried City map, Lush Blooms are in season, and this is where you need to go. Of course, this method works quite effectively even without this modifier. Take a free loadout with you, which means you won't lose anything of value from your own stash, even if you end up being knocked out by ARC or other players. Head into the Buried City map, and open the map. No matter where you are spawned, look for the building marked 'Space Travel' with a red outline. Your target is actually the building right next to it — it's unmarked and unlabeled, but that's where you have to go. Once you reach the east side of the building in the street between Space Travel and this building, you should be facing the entrance to the gallery, with a huge signboard saying "GALLERIA SOLDANELLA." Head inside the building, and up the stairs. There's nothing to loot on the ground floor here. Sometimes, a small turret might have spawned at the top of the first flight of stairs. Dispatch it with a grenade if you have one, or just shoot at it until it's down. There's plenty of cover here, so it shouldn't take more than a minute. Now, on the first floor, just look around, and you should see the entire place absolutely lined with potted plants with the Great Mullein plant to harvest. Take your time and harvest every single plant here. There's more where that comes from Galleria could definitely be called Gardenia Now, head on over to the top floor through the next set of stairs. With the added sunlight here, you should have a better time seeing all the plants, and boy, there are plenty. Start harvesting, pick up whatever else you see around you, and look for a zipline in the corner of this floor. Head up to the roof, and you should see a building with a huge "JKV" sign, right next to the building you're in. Now, head down the way you came in, and at the entrance of the Galleria Building, you'll see the JKV building in front of you. There's a scaffolding attached to this JKV building right in front of you. Use it to climb up inside, and you'll see a flight of stairs right in front of you. Get to the sixth floor, and take a right. Take a right, and you'll see two rooms you can loot. They have moderately valuable loot, but since you have nothing in your inventory except the plants, take what you want. Between these two rooms is a barricaded door. Breach it with your pickaxe, and you'll see two more rooms on the other side. They hold pretty great loot, so make sure you search every drawer and pry open every machine. There's also a raider bag here that should net you some decent grenades just a handful of steps past the door you just breached. That's it — head back to the nearest Metro Station, and get underground. The Great Mullein plants do sell for around 15,000–20,000 coins. Pair that with whatever else you might have found, and the bounty goes up to around 30,000 coins. Not only that, but you can keep some of these plants to recycle into Assorted Seeds, which is the most important currency underground. Use those seeds to buy all sorts of crafting materials from Celeste in the Traders tab, and you'll be locked and loaded with shield rechargers, light grenades, and bandages for your next run. I'm not a fan of loot routes and money runs... But for beginners, this one's truly important Truth be told, I'm not really a fan of following money routes and loot routes, or "the meta" in games, simply because they tend to take away the joy of discovery that players get to experience by themselves. However, with four huge maps and another on the way this very month, with new weapons, ARC machines, and content coming to this brilliant live-service game, there's more than enough to go around between all players.
