162 articlesIf you want to survive topside in ARC Raiders, you’ll need to make use of the best builds and loadouts, as well as know what items to loot.
There’s quite a lot to keep in mind in this game, though. It can be pretty overwhelming! There are a lot of skills to learn, many unique and different weapons, and mountains of loot to sift through…
In this guide, we’ll give you our recommendations to help you get only the best of the best.
BEST Builds, Loadouts & Items Guide | ARC Raiders
Skill Tree Build
For our recommended Skill Tree, we’re going to follow the one shown in the image above. This will get you a nice and varied set of Skills from every category. Not only is it a pretty strong build to use in the long-term, it also lets you get a feel for what you want to specialize in!
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That said, we do recommend going for In-round Crafting in the Survival category as soon as possible. You can get it quite early, requiring only a minimum of 3 levels. It can come in clutch when you need certain supplies during a raid.
After that, we would recommend trying to focus on Mobility until you max out Youthful Lungs. Then just get Skills in the order that you want, while following the general Skill Tree above.
Loadouts
When it comes to loadouts, there are quite a lot of weapons to pick from. However, you only get to pick two at a time, so it’s not too hard to make loadouts!
As a general rule, we recommend having a versatile combination of weapons. That means, you don’t want weapons that are only good for PvE or only good for PvP. You want to be ready for both scenarios.
Also, as you might imagine, the best weapons to use will vary based on your progress in the game and what you get as loot.
Now, with that in mind, here’s our recommended general progression of loadouts:
- Early Game – Stitcher I + Ferro I
- Early-Mid Game – Rattler I/II or Arpeggio I/II + Ferro I/II or Anvil I/II
- Mid Game – Anvil III/IV with Compensator attachment + Tempest I
- Late Game – Anvil IV with all attachments + Tempest I/II
The main thing to keep in mind as you progress here is to make sure you keep upgrading your weapons.
Using attachments on them also becomes increasingly important later on, so don’t ignore them. We only listed the must-haves, but we recommend slotting attachments on all your weapons whenever possible.
Also, remember that these loadouts are ultimately just recommendations. Feel free to use other weapons if you want to, such as weapons you prefer or even just cheaper weapons that you wouldn’t mind losing if a Raid goes awry!
Items and Loot
When it comes to items and loot to collect… realistically, you want to just hoard everything you can!
Pretty much every item has a use in this game. Even some of the low-tier basic materials, such as Metal Parts, are required for upgrades and crafting at nearly every point in the game.
That said, there are some key ones you should make sure to look out for. They are as follows:
- Lemons
- Apricots
- Prickly Pears
- Olives
- Mushrooms
- Dog Collar
- Torn Blanket
- Cat Bed
- Very Comfortable Pillow
- Assorted Seeds
- Mechanical Components
- Speaker Component
- Metal, Plastic, and Rubber Parts
- Power Cables
- Chemicals
We covered all of these items in more detail in our guide on important items, if you want to know where to find them. Most of these are mainly used to fully upgrade Scrappy the Rooster, who serves as a great passive source of materials!
But, as mentioned before, you generally just want to try hoarding everything you can. Everything’s useful in some way, and you can always sort through your loot safely after you successfully extract from a Raid.
That’s the end of our guide, so now you know our recommended best builds, loadouts, and loot items in ARC Raiders! We hope this helps you survive topside, Raider.
