ARC Raiders Beginner Guide: First Raids, Loadouts, Maps

ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter: you drop Topside from the underground city of Speranza, loot, fight ARC machines and other Raiders, and keep what you carry only if you extract. For your first raids, start on Dam Battlegrounds, use the free loadout until you have spare gear, loot containers on the way to an extraction point, and leave early with whatever you found. Every successful extract feeds crafting, and crafting is how you get stronger. This guide covers your first hour, which maps to play, free versus custom loadouts, extraction, what to craft and upgrade first, and how leveling and rewards work after the Frozen Trail update.

Checked against the official Frozen Trail 2.0 and Live Update 2.3.0 notes and the ARC Raiders Wiki on November 12, 2026.

System changes are from Embark Studios' patch notes. Map unlock counts, loadout slots, Scrappy rates and workshop costs come from the community wiki, written from in-game data.

What should you do in your first hour of ARC Raiders?

Play a few short raids, extract with anything, and spend the materials on your Workshop. Your first goal is a working Gunsmith and a bigger stash, not big fights.

1. Take a free loadout to Dam Battlegrounds. It costs nothing, so a loss only costs time.
2. Loot, then leave. Search containers on the route to an extraction point and extract before the round runs low. A raid lasts 30 minutes on the main maps.
3. Build the Gunsmith. Level 1 costs 20 Metal Parts and 30 Rubber Parts and unlocks crafting for the Anvil, Burletta, Il Toro, Rattler and basic weapon mods.
4. Collect from Scrappy. The rooster in your Workshop gathers basic materials during your raids.
5. Take quests from the Main Hub. Quests grant XP since Frozen Trail, and your active quests and Feats show on the hub screen.

Which map should beginners play first?

Dam Battlegrounds. It is the only map with no unlock requirement and the wiki rates it the easiest. New maps unlock by total rounds played, not by level.

Map	Rounds played to unlock	Notes
Dam Battlegrounds	None	Easiest difficulty rating
Practice Range	4	Test weapons and mods; 2-hour session
Buried City	6	Dense streets, close fights
Spaceport	12	40 minutes during Hidden Bunker
The Blue Gate	18	40 minutes during Locked Gate
Riven Tides	20	Hardest difficulty rating; loot value raised about 15% in Frozen Trail
Stella Montis	24	Source of several unique blueprints
Pendola Pass	25	Frozen Trail map with Dynamic Loot Zones

Unlock counts are from the community wiki and can change with updates, so confirm them on the Destinations screen, which shows your rounds played against each target.

What are map conditions in ARC Raiders?

Map conditions are rotating variants of each map. Minor conditions add events that raise certain loot types, while major conditions change the atmosphere and add mechanics that make the map harder but more rewarding.

• Minor conditions: examples include Bird City on Buried City, Lush Blooms, Prospecting Probes, Husk Graveyard and Beachcombing on Riven Tides. Some Trials can only be completed during them.
• Major conditions: Night Raid, Electromagnetic Storm, Cold Snap, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, Hurricane, Close Scrutiny and ARC Frigate. Hidden Bunker and Locked Gate extend their maps to 40 minutes.

As a beginner, play normal conditions until you can extract consistently, then try major conditions once you can afford to lose a kit. Several of the best weapon blueprints only drop during major conditions.

Should you use the free loadout or your own gear?

Use the free loadout while your stash is thin, then switch to custom loadouts once you can afford to lose a kit. The free loadout is a random set of low-tier gear: a weapon, a light shield, ammo, meds and a gadget.

Option	Backpack	Safe pocket	Matchmaking
Free loadout	Set by the kit	None	Less likely to join at the start of a match
Custom loadout	16 to 24 slots, by augment	1 to 3 slots, by augment	Biased toward fresh servers
No loadout (custom, empty)	10 slots	1 slot	Custom loadout rules

Augments also set your weight limit, from 40 to 80. Go over it and your stamina drops sharply. If you only need one specific item, going in with no loadout at all gives you a safe pocket, which the free kit lacks. Augments can't be swapped Topside and lose 30 durability each time you are knocked out.

How do you extract safely in ARC Raiders?

Plan your exit before you loot. Head toward an extraction point early, approach it from cover, and don't start an extract while another squad is close.

• Leave with the round's middle, not its end. Late extracts are where Raiders camp.
• Use the safe pocket. Anything in it survives if you go down, so keep your best blueprint or key there.
• Raider Hatches: a hatch opens with a Raider Hatch Key and stays open for about 10 to 15 seconds for one Raider at a time. Hatch terminals have no shutdown timer, which makes them a late-round backup.
• Avoid big ARC early. Heavily armored machines eat ammo; Light Ammo barely scratches their armor.

Squads of up to three can drop together, and a teammate can revive you if you are knocked out, so playing with friends makes early extracts far more reliable.

What should you craft and upgrade first?

Gunsmith first, then stash, then the stations your quests ask for. Learn every blueprint you extract with, because crafting replaces most trader spending.

• Workbench (free): crafts the Ferro, Hairpin, Kettle and Stitcher, all ammo types, Light Shields, Bandages, Shield Rechargers and Light Impact Grenades.
• Gunsmith level 2: 3 Rusted Tools, 5 Mechanical Components and 8 Wasp Drivers, which unlock the Osprey, Rascal, Torrente, Venator and Arpeggio.
• Gunsmith level 3: 3 Rusted Gear, 5 Advanced Mechanical Components and 4 Sentinel Firing Cores, which unlock the top weapons, including the Bettina, Renegade, Jupiter and Vulcano (most need blueprints).
• Stash: starts at 64 slots and grows by 24 per upgrade. The second level costs 5,000 coins and the third 10,000. Frozen Trail raised the maximum to 328 slots.

The weapon tier list shows which guns are worth crafting first, and the blueprint guide shows where their recipes drop.

How does Scrappy work?

Scrappy collects Metal Parts, Fabric, Plastic Parts, Chemicals, Rubber Parts and Assorted Seeds while you are Topside. He gathers nothing while you are offline or idling in Speranza.

• You need at least 1 minute in a round to get anything, and the payout caps once you have been in the round for over 15 minutes.
• Time counts from when you joined, not how long the round has run.
• Scrappy holds resources from 5 rounds, then stops until you empty him, so collect after every few raids.
• At level 1 he pays out a bit more when you don't extract than when you do, which softens early losses.

How do you level up and earn rewards?

Quests, Feats and Trials drive progression. Quests give XP, Feats give Reward Points for the season pass, and Trials give weekly rewards from level 15.

• Feats: easy ones give 15 Reward Points, medium 25 and hard 50, plus progress toward weekly milestones worth 250 Reward Points each, three per week.
• Reward Pass: Frozen Trail replaced Cred with Reward Points and added the Frozen Trail Pass with 60 levels on Free and Premium tracks. Only one pass is active at a time; older Raider Decks moved to the Legacy Pass.
• Trials: five weekly challenges with a leaderboard, unlocked at level 15. Only your best score in each challenge counts.
• Skill tree: Frozen Trail turned mid-branch nodes into a choice between two skills, changeable when you reset the tree.

What comes after the beginner stage?

Once you have a few dozen rounds played and a working Gunsmith, the next goals are the Outpost, Pendola Pass and Amplified weapons. Expeditions, the prestige-style reset that unlocks at level 20, are paused for a rework.

The Outpost guide covers when the base-building project appears and how the Research Station works, and Pendola Pass unlocks at 25 rounds played. Live Update 2.3.0 disabled the Expedition Vault and moved its contents to players' stashes, with Bronze Statuettes as compensation for purchased slots. The latest hotfixes and store updates are on the ARC Raiders hub.

Related guides

• ARC Raiders best weapons tier list
• ARC Raiders blueprints: full list and how to farm them
• ARC Raiders Outpost guide: Amplified Weapons, skill tree
• ARC Raiders Pendola Pass map guide