The Only ARC Raiders Skills Guide You Need: Stop Wasting Your Points

Levels come at a crawl, and every skill point you waste is a future extraction you just fumbled.

Let's get one thing straight: the later levels come pretty damn slowly in ARC Raiders, and you only get one, precious skill point each time you level up.

This means every point matters. A lot.

The skill tree is split into three main branches: Conditioning (defense), Mobility (stamina), and Survival (looting/crafting). If you're new, you're probably tempted to put points in all three.

Don't.

If you want to survive, you need to ignore the combat tree almost entirely at the start. Your first 20-30 points should be dumped into two trees, and two trees only: Mobility and Survival. Here’s why.

1. The 'Gotta Go Fast' Philosophy (Mobility Tree)

This is the most important tree, bar none. In ARC Raiders, stamina is life. It's how you run from bots, how you dodge players, and how you cross the map to extract. When you're out of stamina, you're a dead man.

Your First Points: Marathon Runner & Youthful Lungs

Your first priority is this one-two punch. Marathon Runner makes all your movements cost less stamina. Youthful Lungs gives you a bigger stamina bar to begin with. These two skills alone will change how you play the game. You'll be able to sprint from cover to cover without immediately gasping for air.

The God-Tier Skill: Calming Stroll

After you've invested a bit in the tree, you can unlock Calming Stroll. This is, in my opinion, a top-tier perk. It makes your stamina regenerate at full speed even while you're walking. This is a game-changer. You can reposition in a fight, move across the map, and still be ready to sprint at a moment's notice.

2. The 'Loot Goblin' Philosophy (Survival Tree)

This is the other half of the game: getting in, getting the good shit, and getting out. This tree makes you a hyper-efficient scavenger.

The Most Important Skill in the Game: In-Round Crafting

This is the one. If you get nothing else, get this. In-Round Crafting lets you use materials you've gathered in the raid to craft items like healing resources or grenades. This is how you sustain yourself. You can go in with nothing, find some parts, and craft yourself a shield and bandages. It's essential. Get Traveling Tinkerer later to craft even more stuff.

Getting the Goods (Faster)

Being a good looter isn't just about finding stuff; it's about not dying while you do it. Looter's Instincts makes items appear faster in the loot menu. This is a must-have, especially when your "greedy little friends" are trying to steal your junk. Combine this with Proficient Pryer from the Conditioning tree (it's my one exception), which lets you breach doors and containers faster.

For the True Hoarder: Broad Shoulders

Once you're a fast-looting, in-raid-crafting machine, you'll have one new problem: all that junk is heavy. Broad Shoulders increases your maximum carry weight, letting you haul more loot back to Speranza.

3. Why You Should Ignore the Conditioning Tree (At First)

I know what you're thinking. "What about combat? What about defense?"

The Conditioning tree is full of skills that sound great. Used To The Weight (less shield slowdown), Blast-Born (less explosion stagger), Downed but Determined (longer bleedout).

Here's the problem: these are all skills for losing. They're skills that help you after you've been shot, staggered, or downed.

My philosophy? Spend your points on skills that stop you from getting shot in the first place. Superior mobility is better than armor. Being able to sprint away from a fight (Calming Stroll) is better than being able to crawl a bit further when you're downed.

Get fast, get self-sufficient, and get rich. Then you can worry about being a tank.

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