Complete Beginner Guide

Arc Raiders is a cooperative third-person shooter where you and your squad drop into hostile zones, complete objectives, and extract before being overwhelmed. If you are new to the game, this guide covers everything you need to go from your first raid to confident mid-game progression.

The core loop is simple: deploy into a zone, complete the mission objective, and extract alive. What makes Arc Raiders compelling is the tension between risk and reward -- going for high-value loot means longer exposure, which means more danger.

Your first priority as a new player is learning the three zones available at game launch and understanding their layouts. Each zone has distinct terrain, enemy compositions, and risk profiles. Speranza, the central hub, offers vendors and services between raids.

Movement in Arc Raiders uses a cover-based system. You can aim down sights for precision, hip-fire for mobility, and use the environment to break line of sight. The key principle: never stand still in the open against anything beyond the weakest enemies.

Your operator has a crouch and prone toggle, plus a sprint. Sprinting is faster but makes you easier to hit and prevents you from firing. The optimal rhythm in combat is: move between cover, acquire your target, fire in controlled bursts, then move again.

Reload timing is critical. Reloading when enemies are pushing is a common new-player mistake. If you have half your magazine and a fight is imminent, you are better off firing the remaining rounds before reloading rather than being caught reloading.

Grenades and abilities have cooldowns that reset between raids. Using them freely is encouraged -- holding onto a grenade for the 'perfect moment' that never comes is a net negative. Throw grenades when you have a tactical advantage to gain.

Arc Raiders has four enemy categories: basic grunts, special units with unique abilities, bosses that require coordination to defeat, and raid enemies that appear in high-tier zones. Each category requires different tactics.

Basic grunts are predictable and die in 2-4 shots depending on your weapon. They are dangerous in groups, not individually. The threat from grunts is numerical -- six grunts firing simultaneously will kill you faster than you can react.

Special enemies have abilities that change how you approach them. Scout drones reveal your position -- eliminate them first or play around their vision cones. Heavy units have armor that requires headshots or specific weapon types to penetrate efficiently. Swarm enemies deal contact damage and should be kited rather than tanked.

Boss enemies have health bars and phases. In their first phase, they follow a pattern you can learn. In their second phase, they become more aggressive and their patterns change. Bring full ammo and health items to boss fights.

Every raid has an extraction point marked on your map. Reaching it and activating extraction ends the raid successfully -- you keep all loot and progress you collected. Failing to extract means losing everything you picked up that run.

Extraction takes approximately 10 seconds to activate. You must be at the extraction point and not taking damage during this time. If an enemy shoots you during extraction, the timer resets. Plan your approach to extraction so you arrive with enough time to buffer unexpected combat.

Some extractions require a minimum gear value threshold -- you must extract with a certain total value of loot to complete the extraction. This prevents rushing for the fastest extraction with minimal risk. High-value extractions offer better rewards but are not mandatory.

The 'emergency extraction' option appears when a raid goes catastrophically wrong. It extracts you immediately but at half the loot value. Using emergency extraction when you have no chance of a normal extraction saves your operator from death, which has a longer respawn timer.

Gear in Arc Raiders ranges from common (white) to legendary (orange). Higher rarity gear has better base stats and more mod slots, making it objectively better than lower rarity for most situations.

The vendor system in Speranza lets you purchase gear with the currency earned from raids. Celeste sells weapons, with inventory rotating daily. Check her stock every session -- specific weapons appear and disappear on a cycle.

Mods are attachments that enhance your gear: muzzle brakes improve accuracy, extended magazines increase capacity, and scopes add zoom levels. Higher-tier gear has more mod slots, letting you stack more enhancements.

Scrap and crafting materials come from dismantled unwanted gear. Dismantling always yields some return -- never leave loot behind without at least dismantling it if you cannot carry everything.