ARC Raiders: 2026 beginner's guide to the extraction shooter

ARC Raiders has established itself in just a few months as the new benchmark of the extraction shooter genre. Developed by Embark Studios, the Swedish studio founded by former Battlefield veterans from DICE and published by Nexon, the title launched on October 30, 2025 on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. Since then, it has kept up a steady stream of major updates and is drawing in both Tarkov players looking for a more accessible alternative and curious newcomers won over by its retro-futuristic art direction. Here's everything you need to know to avoid getting flattened by ARC robots — or by other Raiders — during your first descents to the surface.

An extraction shooter from Embark Studios

Embark isn't new to this: the studio had already made a name for itself with The Finals, its competitive shooter built around physics-based destruction. With ARC Raiders, the team completely shifts gears to offer a third-person (TPS) experience where the goal is no longer to win a match, but to get out alive.

The pitch is as simple as it is unforgiving: Earth has been devastated by a mechanical threat that fell from the sky, the ARC. The last humans live in hiding underground in the city of Speranza, and venture back to the surface to scavenge the remains of a lost world.

Each raid is a short story: thirty minutes to explore a hostile zone, fill up your bag, dodge the machines, and hope to reach an extraction point without getting taken down by another player.

Understanding the concept: PvPvE, extraction, and punishing death

ARC Raiders' PvPvE rests on three pillars you need to grasp from your very first session:

• Raids: head out solo, in a duo, or in a trio on a map, pick up everything you find (weapons, materials, quests), and leave through an extraction point (elevator, subway station, Raider hatch).
• Death is costly: if you die before extracting, you lose your entire bag inventory. Only the safe pocket protects one or two precious items — use it for your rare loot.
• A twofold threat: AI-controlled ARC robots are only half the danger. The other half is other Raiders, who will very often try to take you out to grab your bag.

The game offers several raid formats: day or night, with modifiers (sandstorms, drone swarms, boss presence). Each variant changes the loot, the difficulty, and above all the level of PvP pressure.

Speranza: the underground hub and its merchants

Between raids, you always come back to Speranza, the refuge city that serves as the central hub. This is where you sell your loot, upgrade your gear, take on quests, and manage your personal workshop.

Merchants are your financial lifeline. The most important ones to know from the start:

• Celeste, the Naturalist — takes natural components and basic resources (seeds, plants, animals) in exchange for crafting materials.
• Shani, the Infiltrator — sells tactical gear and, most importantly, the precious Raider Hatch Key, essential for many hatch extractions.
• Tian Wen, the Armorer — the shop dedicated to firearms, attachments (sights, magazines, grips), and ammunition.
• Lance — at the clinic, he upgrades your basic augments into improved versions.

Raising each merchant's reputation unlocks their advanced stock: it's a progression system that runs parallel to your character's and needs constant upkeep.

The best starting maps to prioritize

ARC Raiders offers several playable zones, each with its own geography, loot, and atmosphere. For beginners, two maps are better suited to learning the ropes:

• Buried City — a city buried under the dunes, with narrow streets and plenty of ruins to search. Loot here is varied and extraction points are well distributed. This is the ideal map for learning the rules.
• Dam Battlegrounds — the former Alcantara hydroelectric plant, once a Raiders stronghold. More vertical, with indoor areas rich in quality loot.

More advanced maps like Stella Montis (a massive abandoned complex carved into the mountain), Spaceport, Blue Gate, or Riven Tides concentrate better loot but also more bosses and veterans lying in ambush. Save these for later.

The golden rule for your first hours: memorize at least two extraction points before every raid, and always keep a fallback route in mind. A Raider dead five meters from the hatch hasn't looted anything at all.

The best tier 1 weapons for survival

At the start, you won't have access to the most powerful weapons, but a few reliable options can still hold their own:

• The Fondoir — the most reliable starting weapon, a versatile carbine that's easy to find in common rarity. Ideal for learning the fundamentals of the gunplay.
• The Tempête — considered the most versatile assault rifle in the game, tier S as soon as you find it. Effective at all ranges, it should become your go-to.
• The Bobcat — an SMG with a devastating fire rate for close-quarters indoor fights.
• The Vulcano — a semi-auto shotgun designed for close combat.
• The Renégat — a solid mid-range combat rifle, a good compromise for open maps.

As soon as you get your hands on the Anvil, the rifle considered the best in the game against ARC armor, keep it stored in your workshop for raids where you know bosses might spawn.

ARC robots: from the Wasp to the Matriarch boss

Understanding the ARC bestiary means learning to choose your fights. The main enemies to know:

• Wasp — the small flying drone you'll encounter most often. Alone it's not scary, but in a swarm it will rush you and drain your health bar in a matter of seconds.
• Tick — small explosive ground units, to be dealt with at range before they charge you.
• Snitch — the alert unit: as soon as it spots you, it calls in reinforcements. Absolute priority target.
• Bastion — a mechanical, crab-shaped colossus, heavily armored, capable of breaking through cover. Aim for its yellow knees and the cylinder on its back.
• Rocketeer — a massive flying robot that fires rockets. Considered the most dangerous threat in the game: never stand still in open ground.
• Matriarch — one of the game's bosses, capable of summoning Bastions and Rocketeers to seriously complicate the fight.
• Queen — the ultimate boss, colossal, which only appears on maps under the Harvester condition. Reserved for strong, well-equipped groups.

How to avoid getting farmed by other players

PvP is what makes ARC Raiders as intense as it is frustrating. Here are a few principles to survive your early days:

• Play stealthy — cut the sprint in sensitive zones, walk crouched near rare loot, listen before you shoot. Sound is a crucial indicator.
• Avoid yellow and red zones until you're properly equipped. Unmarked residential areas offer an excellent loot-to-risk ratio.
• Don't fight for the sake of fighting — every bullet used, every heal consumed eats into your raid budget.
• Extract early — it's better to leave with a half-full bag than to hope to fill it and lose everything at the hatch.
• Use the free arsenals during your first raids: no need to sacrifice your personal gear until you've built up the reflexes.

A good Raider isn't the one who kills the most. It's the one who makes it back the most often. Economic progression comes directly from your extraction rate, not your kill count.

Hub economy and progression

ARC Raiders relies on a tight economic loop: the more you extract, the more you sell, the more you upgrade your workshop, your arsenal, and your augments. A few tips to get started on the right foot:

• Prioritize investing in the Mobility skill — it makes every raid smoother and will save you from many Rocketeers.
• Don't sell everything: keep the materials that frequently come up in vendor quests.
• Complete each vendor's reputation quests to unlock their advanced stock.
• Save your Raider Hatch Keys for important raids — don't waste them on scouting runs.

The cyclical meta-progression of the Expedition Project also lets you voluntarily start over from scratch to earn permanent bonuses. Wait until you've completed the main quest campaign before diving into it.

Going further

ARC Raiders now receives two major updates per year. The next one, Frozen Trail, planned for October 2026, is set to bring the largest map since launch, new ARC enemies, a reworked skill tree, and new weapons. Plenty to motivate both veterans and newcomers.

To dig deeper, check out the official site arcraiders.com, the detailed pages on the Fandom wiki for the complete bestiary, or the regularly updated tier lists on Dexerto.fr. And if you're looking for a raid partner, know that the French-speaking community is active on the official Discord and on French-language community servers — a good duo changes absolutely everything in an extraction shooter.