ARC Raiders Beginner Guide: How to Survive Your First Raids

ARC Raiders is a PvPvE extraction game. You leave the underground town of Speranza, head Topside to scavenge for up to 30 minutes, and then reach an extraction point to bring your loot home. If you're knocked out and finished off before you get out, you lose everything you carried except what's in your Safe Pocket. This guide covers what new Raiders need to know for their first raids.

Last checked: November 9, 2026.

How a raid works

Every round follows the same loop:

Prepare in Speranza. Pick your gear from your stash, or take a free loadout.
Pick a map. New players start on Dam Battlegrounds. Some rounds come with a map condition that changes the raid.
Scavenge Topside. Search containers, lockers and ARC wrecks for materials, weapons and valuables. As Embark puts it, the more dangerous the location, the better the loot.
Extract. Reach an extraction point before it closes and ride back down to Speranza.
Sell, craft and upgrade. Turn your loot into coins, new gear and workshop upgrades, then go again.

You can play solo or in a squad of up to three. Matchmaking tries to put squads of the same size together where it can.

Your first loadout

Before each raid you choose between two loadout types:

Loadout	What you get	Best for
Custom loadout	The weapons, shield, augment and items you pick from your stash	Raids where you have a plan and gear you're willing to risk
Free loadout	A random set of basic gear at no cost, but with less space for loot	Learning maps and stocking up without risking anything

Free loadouts cost nothing, so use them a lot early on. The trade-off is space: you can carry less home, and the free kit has no Safe Pocket.

For a custom loadout, the key pieces are:

Augment. It sets your backpack layout and which shields you can use. Some favor carrying more loot, others favor combat or utility.
Shield. It reduces the damage you take, but it isn't a second health bar. Your health still drops when you're hit.
Two weapons plus your Raider Tool. The Raider Tool is your melee tool and is also used to breach things.
Ammo. Embark warns that ammo is scarce Topside, so pack extra for the guns you bring.
Healing and utility. Bandages, Shield Rechargers and a Smoke Grenade cover most problems in your first raids.

Only bring what you're prepared to lose. A cheap kit that gets you home beats an expensive one you drop on your first fight.

What you keep and what you lose

What happens	Result
You extract	You keep your whole loadout and everything you looted
You're downed but revived or you crawl into an extraction	You keep everything
You're knocked out for good	You lose your loadout and loot, except items in your Safe Pocket
You're still Topside when the timer runs out	You're eliminated and lose your gear

What is the Safe Pocket?

The Safe Pocket is a small protected slot that keeps its item even if you're knocked out. Put your single most valuable find in it, such as a rare blueprint. Most custom augments give you one or more Safe Pocket slots; the free loadout gives you none.

How to extract

Extraction points connect to the tunnels that lead back to Speranza. There are several kinds:

Elevators, metro stations and airshafts. Interact with the terminal to call your ride. This takes a while and is loud, so other Raiders and ARC may come to see what's happening.
Raider Hatches. These only open with a Raider Hatch Key, but they're quick and quiet. They also don't shut down on a timer like the others.
Ballistic Gondola. On Pendola Pass, you activate a transceiver and ride a gondola out.

Extraction points close one by one as the raid goes on, and the map shows their timers. Don't leave your exit until the last minute: you may join a raid that's already partly over, and the longer you stay, the fewer ways home remain.

Even if you're downed, you can still crawl to an extraction terminal and use it. ARC stop attacking downed Raiders in normal raids, so the danger is other players.

Looting basics

Grab everything at first. Almost every item has a use, whether for crafting, quests or selling.
Sell valuables. Some items, like trinkets, exist mainly to be sold for coins. Early on, coins pay for stash upgrades.
Keep ARC parts. Wrecks of ARC machines drop materials you need for crafting better gear.
Recycle in the field. You can break items down Topside to save space, and the field crafting menu lets you make basic items from what you've found.
Watch your stash. It fills up fast. You can upgrade it with coins, up to 328 slots since the Frozen Trail update, not counting Expedition bonuses.

Use the workshop's tracking option to mark the materials you need for your next upgrade or blueprint. Then you know what to grab and what to leave.

ARC: the machines

ARC are the hostile machines that patrol every map. The small drones you'll see first, like Wasps and Hornets, patrol set routes and are easier to avoid than to fight. Watch their scanner light: blue means patrolling, yellow means suspicious and red means they've found you. Heavy ammo and explosives work best against armored ARC, and bright yellow parts are their weak points. Our ARC Raiders enemies guide covers every machine.

Other Raiders

Other players are the wild card. Some will help you, some will shoot on sight. A few things help:

Talk. Use proximity chat or the emote wheel to signal that you're friendly.
Your playstyle shapes your lobbies. Embark's matchmaking tends to match you with Raiders who play like you. Defending yourself is treated differently from starting fights.
Revives exist. A Raider with a Defibrillator can pick you up when you're downed.
Noise travels. Gunfire, breaching and called elevators all draw attention.

There's no permanent PvE-only mode right now. Read our ARC Raiders PvE mode guide for the latest.

Back in Speranza: progression

Between raids, Speranza is where you get stronger:

XP and skills. Extracting, fighting and finishing quests earn XP. Each level gives a skill point for the skill tree, which has three branches: Conditioning, Mobility and Survival.
Workshop. Craft gear at specialized stations, including the Gunsmith (weapons), Gear Bench (shields and augments), Medical Lab, Explosives Station, Utility Station and Refiner. Upgrade them to craft better items.
Scrappy the rooster. Your workshop rooster digs up materials for you while you're out on raids.
Traders. Speranza's traders sell gear and give quests that reward weapons, materials and XP.
Feats and the Reward Pass. Feats are short challenges that earn Reward Points toward your active Reward Pass.
Repairs. Weapons wear out with use. Repair them from your inventory before they break.

Higher-level Raiders can also join the Expedition Project, an optional progress reset in exchange for lasting bonuses. Embark has paused Expeditions for a rework and plans to bring them back in early 2027.

10 tips for your first raids

Use free loadouts until you know the maps.
Pick an extraction point early and keep track of its timer.
Crouch and move slowly near ARC patrols; most fights are optional.
Heal with bandages before recharging your shield; health is what keeps you alive.
Don't heal or reload in the open.
Put your best find in your Safe Pocket right away.
Sell spare valuables to fund stash upgrades.
Stay under your augment's weight limit; going over it cuts your stamina hard.
Repair your gear between raids.
Accept that you'll lose some runs. It's part of the game.

If you're still deciding on a platform, see ARC Raiders crossplay, platforms and price, and check the maps and map conditions guide when you're ready to move beyond the Dam.

Frequently asked questions

Is ARC Raiders hard for beginners?

It can feel tough at first because you lose your gear when you're knocked out. Free loadouts remove most of that risk, and everyone starts on Dam Battlegrounds, which is a good place to learn the loop.

What do you lose when you die in ARC Raiders?

You lose your loadout and everything you looted that raid, except the items in your Safe Pocket. Anything you left in your stash in Speranza is safe.

What is a free loadout in ARC Raiders?

A free loadout is a random kit of basic gear that costs nothing. You risk nothing by using it, but you get less space to carry loot home and no Safe Pocket.

Can you play ARC Raiders solo?

Yes. You can raid alone or in a squad of up to three, and matchmaking tries to put solos against other solos where possible.

Does ARC Raiders have a wipe?

There's no forced wipe. The Expedition Project is an optional reset you choose to do for long-term rewards, and it's paused until early 2027 while Embark reworks it.

How long is a raid in ARC Raiders?

A raid lasts up to 30 minutes, and some major map conditions extend it to 40. You may join a raid in progress, so check how much time is left as soon as you arrive.

What should you sell in ARC Raiders?

Sell items marked as trinkets or valuables and spare basic items you can craft again. Keep crafting materials you need for tracked upgrades, quest items and ARC parts.