Best skills to get first in Arc Raiders

Arc Raiders will be many players' first foray into the world of an extraction shooter, especially for the console crowd who haven't had access to many of the mainstays of the genre, and instead have been cursed with things like DMZ.

But players new to the genre may not immediately know which skills will make the most immediate difference, and which ones aren't worth the early investment. There are a handful of skills that will make a difference every round, and they will make the transition to the genre quite a bit easier to handle.

8

Looter's Instincts

Searching for a container in Arc Raiders.

You'll spend a lot of time raiding in Arc Raiders; it will be true early, and it will be true later as well. There's no way around that fact, but one thing that might make it a little easier is raiding faster.

This skill will increase the speed at which loot in a container is revealed. On its face, it might not seem like it makes an incredible difference, but the time saved over a full round adds up to something meaningful.

7

In-Round Crafting

It will take you a while to understand every resource you need to craft important items, but one way to speed up that process (and do some valuable stuff in the middle of a run) is to gain the ability to craft while on top.

Sometimes you'll eat through the resources you carried in your backpack on the way up faster than you expect, and the ability to replenish some of them by creating topside can save you from drying out and losing all your loot.

6

Silent Scavenger

We mentioned it above, but you'll be looting quite a bit. You will also run into other Raiders quite a bit as well. And there are few easier ways for another Raider to get hold of you than to hear you loot and take advantage of your inability to defend yourself.

Silent Scavenger will make your looting quieter, and that can make all the difference. If an enemy doesn't hear you raiding, the chances of them detecting your presence are lower. Which means you might end up on them instead.

5

Agile Croucher

Stealth will often be a tactical necessity in Arc Raiders. Stealth doesn't necessarily mean you never get into fights or aren't aggressive; stealth can simply mean maneuvering around silently to get into a fight where you have an advantage.

This will often require crouching to move silently. Unfortunately, you slow down your movement by crouching quite a bit. However, with this skill, it will reduce the movement penalty by a noticeable amount.

4

Marathon runner

There will be large parts of each run where endurance is not an issue. But when stamina becomes an issue, it's suddenly the most valuable resource out there, second only to health.

This skill will make sure you use less stamina by moving around. This ensures that you can use stamina that much more defensively or aggressively, and it can make all the difference in a fight.

3

Youthful lungs

This is related to the last skill and is next in the tree. What's better than your actions taking less stamina to perform? Have more stamina to begin with.

Having both of these skills combined will make a huge difference to you. You will be able to do so much more with this skill combination, and other players will not be able to keep up.

2

Mild pressure

Breaking the hood of a car in Arc Raiders.

There will be some containers that you find in Arc Raiders that require hacking to open. This is an extremely noisy (and sometimes extremely loud) process, and it can attract the wrong kind of attention.

This skill makes the break noticeably quieter. This doesn't turn it into a stealth operation by any means, but it does mean that enemies have to be measurably closer to hear it, rather than seemingly anywhere within a 50-meter radius.

1

Skilled Pryer

Breach of a destroyed arc in Arc Raiders.

While the sound aspect of breaking a container is definitely the most concerning, the time it takes to break open can be an important factor as well. This is less so when it comes to stealth, and more important when it comes to mining items like Arc Probes.

Arc Probes are often out in the middle of an open area, and time spent around them is time that might just be spent in the crosshairs of an enemy. Being able to pry things up faster means you can get back to relative safety that much sooner.