68 Useful Tips and Tricks for ARC Raiders – Beginner and Advanced Guide

ARC Raiders is a complex game. Players unfamiliar with the extraction shooter genre may struggle to adjust, as it combines elements from various games into a cohesive experience. Here’s a massive tips and tricks guide to help anyone get started in ARC Raiders.

68 Best Tips and Tricks for ARC Raiders

Updated as of December 2025.

• 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.
• 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.
• Weapons are upgradable outside of rarity.
• Crafting Shields is better than repairing broken ones.
• Shields only reduce damage taken, so always heal your health first before shields if you are extremely low.
• There’s a minimal difference between a Heavy Shield and a Medium Shield, just because shields only reduce damage taken.
• Rooms that need to be breached usually have a Security Breach Locker inside.
• When you play free loadouts, don’t sell the free augments. Turn them in for an Mk. 1 and then sell them if you really want money, and just regularly use Mk. 2s and Mk. 3s.
• Headshots do more damage.
• When you see some blue and red sparks after hitting someone, that means you have broken their shields.
• You can revive downed enemies with a defibrillator (it’s an achievement).
• There are no skill resets. Be careful where you spend your skills.
• You can reach the end of two skill trees since the max level is 75.
• The Expedition (Project) will take seven days to complete in its last phase. This is useful if you want to time your “reset.”
• If you don’t have decent weapon attachment blueprints, you can always buy the common ones from the trader.
• Capitalize on trading Assorted Seeds with Celeste. Magnets, Steel Springs, and Wires are very valuable for your decent loadout runs.
• Tagging Grenades is a useful tool to tag rats and campers.
• You can get stunned by your own Jolt Mine.
• Always check the timer of the raid when you load into a match. It’ll change your strategy going forward.
• Spamming free loadout matches can jumpstart your consumables through Scrappy.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• ARC Surveyors run away so fast. Try to stun them with mines to hold them down.
• Blueprints are consumables.
• Thanks, Raider, don’t shoot. Trust on your own risk. 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.
• I hate Rocketeers and Leapers with a passion.
• 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.
• 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 you can find craftable materials that are needed for upgrades.
• Locked rooms always hold the best loot and should be the best way to farm blueprints.
• You can kick trees to make them drop Lemons and other fruits. These are mostly needed for upgrading Scrappy the Rooster, but they are also decent for selling.
• Destroying big ARC enemies like the Bastion always drops several parts for looting.
• You can extract with random strangers at the same time.
• You can track resources, especially the upgrades needed for your workshop. The tracked resources get an eye icon in the upper-right corner of their icons.
• Keys are one-time use only.
• Try to get used to sorting your stash by “category.” It becomes way easier to set up a loadout as the equipment, tools, weapons, ammo, and consumables are always at the top.
• Always pick up the basic materials: Metal Parts, Rubber Parts, Fabric, Plastic Parts, and Chemicals. They stack up to 50 per slot, and if your inventory gets full, that’s when you get rid of some of these materials that are in low count.

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