Welcome to the Rust Belt, Raider. Below, you’ll find a collection of guides designed to help you survive your first excursions Topside. From mastering the basics of your first run to planning your long-term progression, these articles will give you the foundation you need without spoiling the deeper mysteries of Speranza and the world above.

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Overview of ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders, developed by Embark Studios and set for release in 2025, is an engaging shooter game that places players in a cooperative environment where they must fend off alien invaders known as the ARC. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the game’s rich narrative and dynamic gameplay encourage collaboration among players, fostering teamwork as they strategize to tackle increasingly challenging waves of enemies. As a shooter, ARC Raiders excels with its emphasis on tactical gameplay, allowing players to utilize a variety of weaponry and gadgets to adapt to different combat scenarios, making each encounter unique and thrilling. Beyond the shooter genre, the game incorporates elements of survival and exploration, as players must scavenge resources, craft items, and enhance their gear to stay one step ahead of the ARC threat. This blend of cooperative play, strategic planning, and resource management creates a multifaceted experience that appeals to a wide range of gamers, highlighting the potential for camaraderie and creative problem-solving in a richly constructed world. ARC Raiders stands out by combining traditional shooting mechanics with engaging survival elements, ensuring a captivating experience for players.

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Your First Steps Topside: A Beginner’s Survival Guide to ARC Raiders

So, you’ve just arrived in the underground settlement of Speranza. The air is thick with the hum of machinery and the nervous energy of other scavengers. You’re eager to prove yourself, but the surface—the Rust Belt—is unforgiving. This guide is your essential primer for surviving those crucial first few hours and turning you from a fresh arrival into a capable Raider.

The Foundational Truth: Extraction is Everything

Before we dive into the specifics, you must internalize one golden rule: success in ARC Raiders is measured not by what you kill, but by what you extract with. You can have the most intense firefight, down three rival players, and fill your pack with legendary loot, but if you don’t make it to an extraction point alive, you return to Speranza with nothing. Your entire progression is driven by the materials and items you manage to bring back.

This shapes every decision you’ll make. It’s better to leave a raid with a modest haul than to risk it all for one last container and end up losing everything. Know when to cut your losses and run.

Preparing for Your First Run: Loadouts and Risk

Once you’re in Speranza, you’ll need to gear up. You have two primary options when selecting your equipment before a match.

• Custom Loadout: This is where you use your own gear. You’ll select your Augments (which determine your bonus effects and inventory slots), weapons, ammo, shields, and consumables. The most important part of this loadout is your Safe Pocket. Any item you place in these special slots will be retained even if you are eliminated during a match. This is the place for your most valuable finds.
• Free Loadout: If you’re low on resources or just want to do a quick, low-risk scavenging run, select the Free Loadout. You’ll start with low-tier equipment, very little ammo, and crucially, you will have no Safe Pockets. The risk is high, but it’s a great way to practice, and you can still earn experience points (XP) and gather basic resources. Spamming Free Loadout matches is also a clever way to jumpstart your consumable stockpile through your pet, Scrappy, who forages for you while you’re away.

The Rhythm of the Raid: Explore, Loot, Escape

Once you drop Topside, you need a clear plan. Here’s a basic flow to follow.

1. Orient Yourself and Move with Purpose

You’ll spawn in a random location on one of the game’s four massive maps. Pull up your map immediately. Your goals are to identify high-value areas that match the resources you need and, just as importantly, to note the locations of extraction points. These can be Raider Hatches (which require a key), Airshafts, Cargo Elevators, or Subway Tunnels.

The world is vast and vertical. Use ziplines, jump pads, and terrain features to your advantage. Robots often patrol open spaces, so adopting a guerilla warfare mindset—using the environment for cover and moving through less-traveled paths—will keep you alive longer.

2. Master the Art of Looting

You will find containers everywhere. It’s a good idea to open them, as even empty ones grant you a small amount of XP. However, you need to be smart about what you take. In the early game, focus on these priorities:

• Weapon Components: Scrap metal, electronics, and weapon parts are crucial for crafting. Without a good gun, you won’t be able to penetrate the armor of tougher enemies.
• Medicines: Bandages and the components to make them are your lifeline.
• Basic Materials: Always pick up Metal Parts, Rubber Parts, Fabric, Plastic Parts, and Chemicals. They stack up to 50 per slot and are the building blocks for almost everything.
• Quest Items: These items are often lightweight and provide a significant amount of experience.

A useful trick is to track the resources you need most for crafting. You can do this in the Gear Bench menu, and it will place a small icon on the containers or loot that hold those specific materials, making your scavenging much more efficient.

3. Use Your Environment and Manage Your Stamina

Combat isn’t always about pulling the trigger. You can use the environment to your advantage by exploding barrels to damage groups of enemies. If you need to create a distraction, you can even throw snowballs at alarmed vehicles to divert ARC patrols away from your location.

Your stamina bar is your most important resource in a tight spot. Sprinting depletes it, while standing still, walking, or crouching lets it regenerate. Try to holster your weapon when you’re running long distances—it allows you to move faster. You can also perform a slide while sprinting, which doesn’t cost any stamina and can make you a harder target to hit.

4. The Final Sprint: Extraction

When you’ve got a good haul or the situation is getting too hot, it’s time to leave. Head for your chosen extraction point. Be warned, when you activate a regular extraction point, it emits a loud noise that can attract enemies and rival players.

If you’re the first to arrive, consider using it as an opportunity to plan an ambush. If you’re downed but manage to crawl inside the extraction zone, you will still successfully extract with all your loot. And remember, Raider Hatches close automatically after a while, even if your entire squad hasn’t made it through yet, so don’t dawdle.

Your Base of Operations: Speranza

Back in Speranza, your progress continues. You’ll meet various vendors who sell items and offer quests. You’ll use the materials you’ve gathered to create different workshops, which in turn allow you to craft higher-tier gear and consumables. You’ll also need to manage your personal stash. It starts with limited slots, but you can purchase more. Get into the habit of recycling or selling items you don’t need. Selling to vendors gives you currency, while recycling yields materials for crafting. A good rule of thumb is that if you want money, sell the item; if you need components for a specific upgrade, recycle it.

Finally, don’t forget about Scrappy the Rooster, your pet in your living quarters. He forages for free resources while you are Topside, so be sure to check in with him after every raid.

Welcome to the fight, Raider. Stay smart, stay alive, and the Rust Belt will provide.

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The Art of the Build: A Guide to ARC Raiders’ Skill Trees and Progression

In ARC Raiders, your power isn’t defined by picking a specific class, but by how you invest your skill points across three dynamic trees. Every raid you survive earns you experience, and with each level, you gain a point to spend. With a maximum level of 75, you can theoretically max out two entire trees, but how you get there makes all the difference. This guide breaks down the three trees—Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival—and offers proven builds to match your playstyle.

The Three Pillars of a Raider

Before you start spending points, you need to understand what each tree represents. There is no “skill reset” option, so every choice is permanent. Choose wisely.

• Conditioning (Green): This tree is all about stamina management, weight capacity, and resilience in a firefight. If you find yourself running out of breath at the worst moments or getting downed too easily, you’ll want to invest here.
• Mobility (Yellow): This tree enhances your movement capabilities. Faster climbing, longer slides, and more efficient stamina use for traversal all fall under Mobility. If your goal is to be a slippery target who can outmaneuver both ARC machines and other players, this is your tree.
• Survival (Red): This tree focuses on your efficiency as a scavenger. It governs your looting speed, carrying capacity, and, most importantly, your ability to craft items while on a run. For players who want to be self-sufficient and extract with maximum loot, Survival is essential.

Top-Tier Skills to Prioritize Early

While every skill has its use, some are so impactful that they should be at the top of your list, regardless of your ultimate build.

From the Mobility Tree:

• Marathon Runner (S-Tier): This skill drastically reduces the stamina cost of sprinting. In a game where mobility is life, this is arguably the best early-game investment you can make. It allows you to cover more ground, escape threats more easily, and spend less time catching your breath.

From the Conditioning Tree:

• Youthful Lungs (S-Tier): This skill increases your maximum stamina. A larger stamina pool is a direct upgrade to your survivability, giving you more fuel for sprints, slides, and dodge rolls in critical moments. Pairing this with Marathon Runner creates a foundation of incredible endurance.

From the Survival Tree:

• In-Round Crafting (Major): This is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful skills in the entire game. It unlocks the ability to craft items—ammo, bandages, shields, and tools—during a raid using resources you find. This self-sufficiency can turn a losing fight around and allows you to stay Topside longer without relying on pre-packed consumables.
• Looter’s Instincts / Proficient Prying: These skills (found in Survival and Conditioning, respectively) speed up the time it takes to loot containers and breach doors. Every second you’re standing still is a second you’re vulnerable, so speeding up this process is a massive safety and efficiency boost.

Proven Builds for the 2026 Meta

With the fundamentals covered, let’s look at three distinct builds tailored for different playstyles. The game’s meta shifted in January 2026 to favor a balance of stamina and crafting, so these builds reflect the current landscape.

The Pure PvP Build

This build is for Raiders who hunt other Raiders. It focuses on maximizing stamina, movement, and survivability in direct player combat to give you the edge in a firefight.

• Core Philosophy: Outmaneuver and outlast your human opponents.
• Key Skills:
  • Used to the Weight (Conditioning): Reduces the movement penalty from your shield, keeping you agile even when geared up.
  • Fight or Flight (Conditioning): Grants a burst of stamina when you take damage, allowing you to instantly reposition or escape.
  • Marathon Runner & Youthful Lungs (Mobility/Conditioning): The foundational stamina combo for maximum uptime.
  • Carry the Momentum (Mobility): After a sprint dodge roll, your sprint costs no stamina for a short time, enabling relentless aggression.
  • Effortless Rolls (Mobility): Reduces the stamina cost of dodge rolls, letting you use your primary defensive tool more often.

The Stealth Loot Build

This build is designed for players who prefer to avoid conflict, slip through hot zones unnoticed, and extract with the most valuable cargo.

• Core Philosophy: Speed and silence are your armor.
• Key Skills:
  • Silent Scavenger & Looter’s Instincts (Survival): These skills make your looting much quieter and faster, reducing the chance of drawing unwanted attention.
  • Marathon Runner & Youthful Lungs (Mobility/Conditioning): Speed is your best friend. You need to be able to move between loot-rich areas quickly and evade any threats you can’t hide from.
  • Broad Shoulders & Looter’s Luck (Survival): Increases your carry weight and gives you a chance to find double the items when looting. More loot per run means faster progression.
  • In-Round Crafting (Survival): Allows you to convert spare parts into the meds or tools you need without having to expose yourself by visiting dangerous, loot-dense areas.

The Fast Mobility Build

This build is all about raw, untethered speed. You use your superior movement to dictate the terms of every engagement, whether you’re running toward a goal or away from a threat.

• Core Philosophy: If they can’t catch you, they can’t kill you.
• Key Skills:
  • Marathon Runner & Youthful Lungs (Mobility/Conditioning): The non-negotiable foundation for any speed-based build.
  • Slip and Slide (Mobility): Allows you to slide further and faster, making you an incredibly difficult target to track.
  • Carry the Momentum (Mobility): The stamina-free sprint after a roll is a core part of this build’s high-speed evasion loop.
  • Nimble Climber (Mobility): Vaulting and climbing are faster, giving you more options for escaping or reaching advantageous positions.
  • Heroic Leap (Mobility): Unlocks a powerful movement ability for clearing gaps or gaining height quickly.
  • Revitalizing Squat (Survival): Regenerates stamina faster while crouching, letting you briefly hide and recover your most valuable resource before the next high-speed dash.

Choose the build that best fits your natural playstyle, invest your points wisely, and you’ll find your chances of survival—and success—increase dramatically with every raid.

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The Endgame Grind: Mastering Expeditions and Advanced Runs

You’ve learned to survive, you’ve built a solid character, and the Rust Belt no longer feels like an insurmountable threat. But for those who want to push their account to its limits, the true endgame begins with Expeditions. This recurring, high-stakes event is designed for veteran players who want to reset their progress for permanent, account-wide rewards. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to prepare for, survive, and conquer an Expedition.

What is an Expedition?

An Expedition is a limited-time project available to players starting at level 20. It’s a massive, multi-stage undertaking that requires you to gather a colossal amount of specific resources. Once you commit to starting an Expedition by contributing the first materials, you have 60 days to complete all five stages. The final phase, “Departure,” then takes seven days to complete.

The catch? Upon completion, your character’s progression is reset. All your experience, learned recipes, and inventory are wiped clean. This sounds punishing, and it is, but the rewards are permanent and apply to every future character you make.

Why Reset Your Progress?

The primary purpose of an Expedition is to reset your raider. This is a powerful mechanic for two main reasons.

First, it allows you to correct any mistakes you may have made in your initial build. Perhaps you spread your skill points too thin before you understood the meta. An Expedition gives you a clean slate to create a new, optimized build.

Second, and most importantly, completing an Expedition grants your account a permanent experience bonus and increased inventory slots. These bonuses stack with each completed Expedition, providing a long-term goal for dedicated players. The developers plan to support the game for over a decade, and Expeditions are designed as the recurring event that keeps veteran players engaged.

If you’re a new player below level 20, or if you’re struggling to survive consistently, do not start an Expedition. You’ll turn your entire game into an endless, stressful grind and risk wasting all your resources without completing the project.

Breaking Down the Expedition Stages

An Expedition consists of five stages, each requiring you to contribute a specific set of materials to a communal project capsule. The exact resource requirements can vary slightly from one Expedition to the next, but the categories remain consistent. Here is a breakdown of what a typical Expedition looks like.

• Stage One: Foundation
  • Metal Parts: 150
  • Plastic Parts: 200
  • ARC Alloy: 80
  • Steel Springs: 15
• Stage Two: Core Systems
  • Durable Cloth: 35
  • Wires: 25
  • Electrical Components: 20
  • Cooling Coils: 4
• Stage Three: Framework
  • Light Bulb: 4
  • Battery: 30
  • Shredder Gyro: 10
  • Exodus Modules: 1
• Stage Four: Outfitting
  • Frequency Modulation Box: 5
  • Advanced Electrical Components: 5
  • Ion Sputter: 3
  • Leaper Pulse Unit: 3
• Stage Five: Load Stage This stage requires you to contribute a massive value of items in four categories, measured by their in-game coin value:
  • Combat Items (200,000 coins): Weapons, Ammo, Grenades, Traps, and Weapon Mods.
  • Survival Items (100,000 coins): Medkits, Shields, and Tools.
  • Provisions (150,000 coins): Keys, Trinkets, and Natural Gifts.
  • Materials (300,000 coins): Scrap and Processed Materials.

Once the Load Stage is complete, the capsule is fully stocked. You then have a seven-day window to send your raider on the final Expedition beyond the Copper Belt. All items remaining in your personal stash will be carried over to contribute to your next raider’s initial skill points.

Advanced Tips for Survival and Resource Optimization

To even attempt an Expedition, you need to be running efficient, high-yield raids. Here are some advanced tips to elevate your game.

Know Your Enemy

Different ARC machines have different weak points and are vulnerable to specific ammo types. Learning these is key to conserving ammo and surviving tougher encounters.

• Snitches: These flying drones call in reinforcements when they spot you. Prioritize them, and use their drops (Snitch Scanners) for workshop upgrades.
• Hornets: Shooting their rotors will destabilize their movement and aim.
• Probes: These ground units have three separate searchable containers with valuable ARC loot, but they will call for help if you try to breach them.

Master the Map and Its Secrets

• Zoom in on your map. Smaller points of interest that don’t show up at the default zoom level will appear.
• Locked rooms, which require breaching, almost always contain the best loot and are your best bet for farming high-tier blueprints.
• You can kick trees to make them drop Lemons and other fruits, which are used to upgrade Scrappy the Rooster.

Efficient Looting and Resource Management

• Exclusive ARC items from enemies (Tick Pods, Bastion Cells, Wasp Drivers, etc.) are needed for workshop upgrades. Always loot them.
• Don’t underestimate “junk” items. Residential zones are full of trinkets and keys, which are extremely valuable for their weight-to-coin ratio.
• If you have an overabundance of common resources, you can throw them into the Expedition capsule’s Foundation stage just to free up inventory space, even if you aren’t committed to finishing the project yet.
• Always check your Refiner in the workshop. It passively produces materials that you might need for upgrades.

Interacting with Other Players

Not every encounter has to end in a firefight. You can use emotes or proximity chat to signal that you’re friendly. Sometimes, larger groups of players will band together to take down a massive walker, sharing in the rewards. But be warned—trust is a risk. Someone might just be waiting for you to turn your back.

Surviving the endgame in ARC Raiders is about more than just good aim. It’s about game knowledge, resource management, and knowing when to fight, when to hide, and when to run. Master these skills, and you’ll be ready to face the ultimate challenge of an Expedition. Good luck, Raider.