ARC Raiders Beginner Guide: For the First Raids

Anyone opening an ARC Raiders beginner guide before going up to the surface for the first time runs into two groups of enemies at once: the machines and the other players. This page sums up how the cycle of gearing up, looting and extracting works, which ARC types there are and where progress comes from.

⚠️ As of August 2026

The information is based on the official game overview from Embark Studios as well as the patch notes up to Live Update 1.42.0. Individual values and map rosters change with every major update.

The basic principle: go up, collect, come back alive

ARC Raiders is an extraction game. The home base is Speranza, a settlement below ground. From there you go up — called "Topside" in the game — to collect loot and disappear again. If the raider makes it through, everything looted is kept. If they fall before that, what they carried is gone.

You play alone or in a squad of up to three people. Matchmaking tries to put squads against squads and solo players against solo players. Both play styles are intended, but they call for different approaches: solo, staying unnoticed counts; in a squad, coordination does.

The ARC machines: who becomes dangerous to you topside

The machines differ greatly in size and behavior. An overview of the types named by Embark:

Since Live Update 1.42.0 the Snitch can call in a Rocketeer or a combination of Firefly and Hornet — overlooking it too long has therefore become more expensive than before. Taking it out quickly, or not being spotted at all, is the single most important rule for beginners.

Info box: the Queen is not a starting target

Embark explicitly describes an attack on the Queen as a fight that is usually lost quickly. For experienced raiders there are ways, for newcomers avoiding it is the right answer.

The maps of the Rust Belt and their special conditions

All trips take place in locations in the so-called Rust Belt. The starting map is Dam Battlegrounds with forests, swamps, old research centers and apartment blocks. Later come Buried City — a city covered by sand dunes with a hospital, a shopping center and public squares —, the Spaceport as a decayed launch facility and Blue Gate in the mountains with open areas, tunnels and underground complexes. About a place called Stella Montis there are so far only rumors.

Every map has changing weather and changing times of day. In addition, Map Conditions can be active that change the course of a raid and the loot:

• Night Raids — at night, with better loot and a higher ARC threat
• Harvest Season — more natural materials
• Electromagnetic Storm and Hidden Bunkers — each with their own rules and locations

Since Update 1.42.0 these conditions no longer follow one worldwide schedule but one staggered by region. That makes the windows fall into each region's prime playing time more often.

Progress in Speranza: skill points, Cred and Workshop

In Speranza all progression systems come together:

• Experience and levels — actions topside give XP, every level-up gives skill points for abilities such as more carrying capacity, more speed or better sneaking.
• Feats and Cred — small goals topside, such as destroying a certain number of Wasps, give Cred. It is used to unlock rewards in the Raider Decks.
• Workshop — this is where you craft, upgrade and repair. The workshop itself can be expanded.
• Traders — they hand out quests, tell the story of the Rust Belt and buy up what is surplus.
• Trials — weekly challenges in several difficulty levels with leaderboards.
• Codex — gradually collects the knowledge about ARC, places and people.

On top of that come larger Projects, among them the expeditions. That system is, however, paused after the fifth round until early 2027 — the details are in the post on the last expedition before the break.

Equipment for the first trip

Weapons range from the Rattler, a simple automatic rifle, through the Vulcano as a close-range shotgun, to energy weapons such as the Equalizer. Attachments and workshop upgrades change them further.

Gadgets are the underrated part: Lure Grenades distract machines, and there are also ziplines, mines, door blockers, grenades, torches and bandages. Much of it can also be found topside, but bringing it along is more reliable. Shield and augments decide the profile — light and fast with less carrying capacity, or heavily protected with more room for ammunition.

Anyone who has lost everything is not left empty-handed: Free Loadouts are free equipment sets with nothing given in return, and the rooster Scrappy picks up items along the way.

What this means in practice

The most common beginner mistake in extraction games is measuring the value of the loot by its quantity. In ARC Raiders, though, only what survives the way back counts — a half-filled backpack that arrives beats a full one left lying in the field. For the first hours that means extracting early, even when there would still be time.

The second realization concerns the machines. ARC enemies are rarely the actual problem, but they make noise and attract other raiders. Anyone who destroys a Snitch has won the fight and given away their own position. That is why avoiding is almost always cheaper than fighting, and the detour around a patrol costs less than the confrontation.

For co-op rounds the squad size of three is the real deciding factor. It is small enough that coordination works without a command structure, and large enough that one loss does not mean the end. Anyone playing as a pair should know that matchmaking puts squads against squads — a duo therefore regularly runs into three opponents.

What changes with the Frozen Trail update in October mainly concerns progression: the Raider Den gives way to the Outpost, the skill tree is reworked. Anyone starting now should therefore not make long-term skill plans but simply play first.

Sources

• ARC Raiders: Everything you need to know
• ARC Raiders: Live Update 1.42.0
• ARC Raiders: The 5th Expedition