The Rust Belt has been overrun by strange machines in ARC Raiders. Now it’s up to you and a handful of survivors to reclaim the wasteland, one harrowing run at a time.

Developed by Embark Studios, ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter where you collect resources “Topside” before dashing for the nearest exit and escaping to safety. Naturally, as you progress, you'll need to select the best skills for your ARC Raiders character to up your chances of survival and get the job done. Our ARC Raiders skills guide below will help you choose the best perks depending on your playstyle. We also have an ARC Raiders beginner’s guide with numerous tips for those who are just starting out.

 

The ARC Raiders skill tree: Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival

The ARC Raiders skills menu has three distinct skill categories for you to check out:

• Conditioning (green): Many of these perks are related to melee damage and preventing outright incapacitation.
• Mobility (yellow): These perks improve your movement, evasion, and traversal capabilities.
• Survival (red): These perks boost your ability to regain stamina and carry lots of loot.

Note that many of ARC Raiders' skills can be upgraded by adding more points. Each category also has major nodes that can only be unlocked once you’ve allocated enough points into that branch. As such, our ARC Raiders best skills guide primarily looks at the most vital perks for each category. Just remember that you still need to activate pre-requisite nodes before you can select higher-tier options.

 

Best Conditioning skills in ARC Raiders

• Fight or Flight (Minor): Regain a fixed amount of stamina when hurt in combat. Fight or Flight has a cooldown between uses.
• Professional Pryer (Minor): It takes less time to breach doors and containers.
• Survivor’s Stamina (Major): Your stamina regenerates faster when you’re critically hurt.
• Downed but Determined (Minor): It takes longer before you collapse when you’re downed.
• Turtle Crawl (Minor): You take less damage when you’re downed.
• Back on Your Feet (Major): When critically hurt, your health regenerates up to a certain limit.

The drones and mechs that you face in ARC Raiders are absolutely deadly. Your character could get downed in just a few hits from turret fire and missiles. Worse, you need to contend with rival players who are out to steal your hard-earned loot.

The Conditioning skills recommended above should help you stay alive in dire situations, especially when you get critically hurt and need to escape quickly. In the event that you’re downed, it’s imperative that you stay in the fight longer so you can crawl to a teammate who can revive you—or into a nearby extraction point before it closes. Manage to do so, and you'll still get to keep all the resources that you gathered during that run.

 

Best Mobility skills in ARC Raiders

• Nimble Climber (Minor): You can climb and vault more quickly.
• Marathon Runner (Minor): Moving around costs less stamina.
• Youthful Lungs (Minor): Increases your maximum stamina.
• Carry the Momentum (Major): After a sprint dodge roll, sprinting does not consume stamina for a short time. The skill has a cooldown between uses.
• Slip and Slide (Minor): You can slide further and faster.
• Sturdy Ankles (Minor): Take less fall damage when falling from a non-lethal height.
• Calming Stroll (Major): While walking, your stamina regenerates as if you're standing still.

Stamina is an important mechanic that you need to be mindful of all the time in ARC Raiders. It’s quickly expended when sprinting, and sprinting is a given if you want to avoid hostile robots and players. As such, the Mobility perks recommended above ought to boost your stamina usage on the battlefield.

Moreover, being able to climb, vault, dodge roll, and slide faster can help you survive protracted engagements. If an enemy is unable to predict your erratic movements—or if they’re unable to chase you—then they’re going to have a hard time shooting you as well.

 

Best Survival skills in ARC Raiders

• Agile Croucher (Minor): Your movement speed is increased while crouching.
• Revitalizing Squat (Minor): Increases your stamina regeneration while crouching.
• In-Round Crafting (Minor): Unlocks the ability to field-craft items while Topside.
• Good as New (Major): Stamina regeneration is increased while under a healing effect.
• Traveling Tinkerer (Minor): Unlocks additional items to field-craft.
• Broad Shoulders (Minor): Increases the maximum weight that you can carry.
• Looter’s Luck (Minor): While looting, there’s a chance to reveal twice as many items at once.
• Stubborn Mule (Minor): Your stamina regeneration is less affected by being overencumbered.
• Security Breach (Major): Lets you breach Security Lockers.

You’ll spend most of your ARC Raiders matches opening containers and scrounging around for loot. Even if your Augment grants you several inventory slots, you still won’t be able to carry everything thanks to encumbrance. That’s where some of our recommended Survival perks come in, since they allow you to bring more resources.

Even better, perks like In-Round Crafting and (later on) Traveling Tinkerer are some of the best skills in ARC Raiders as they allow you to field-craft important items mid-match. If you or your team needs extra ammo, bandages, and shields, then you’ve got a handy ability that turns excess resources into useful equipment. Being able to breach Security Lockers that you stumble upon (and grabbing the high-end loot inside) is icing on the cake.

That does it for our guide to the best skills in ARC Raiders. We hope these tips help you conquer the Rust Belt and become a fearsome Raider.

ARC Raiders is available now on the Epic Games Store—and if you're just getting started, be sure to also check out our ARC Raiders beginner’s guide for tips on extraction shooters, surviving the Rust Belt, and battling both machines and your fellow players.