ARC Raiders Skill Trees Explained: Stop Wasting Your Points

Okay Raider, you've survived a few trips topside, maybe even brought back something valuable. You're leveling up, earning those precious skill points. Now comes the hard part: figuring out where the hell to actually put them.

ARC Raiders features a pretty beefy skill tree system, split into three distinct branches: Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival. Each tree has around 15 skills, adding up to 45 total passives and abilities designed to shape your playstyle. Staring at this web of icons can feel like trying to decipher alien hieroglyphics. Don't panic. While you can eventually unlock everything, your early choices matter a lot. Let's break down each tree and highlight the skills that will give you the biggest bang for your buck early on, based on what we know from playtests and developer info.

Conditioning: The Tough Guy Tree

This tree is all about making you harder to kill and less burdened by the world. It focuses on stamina, strength, carry weight, and general endurance.

• Must-Haves:

  • Youthful Lungs: Increases max stamina. More stamina means more running, dodging, and climbing. Absolutely essential, and it's upgradable. Get this early.

  • Proper Breathing: Faster stamina regeneration. The other half of the stamina equation. Also upgradable, also essential.

  • Broad Shoulders: Increases carry weight capacity. Lets you haul more loot out, which means faster progression. Need I say more?

• Strong Choices:

  • Stubborn Mule / Used to the Weight: Reduce stamina penalties from being encumbered or wearing heavy shields. Great for loot goblins or tanky players.

  • Sturdy Ankles: Reduced fall damage. Saves you precious health from clumsy drops.

  • Proficient Pryor: Faster door and container breaching. Speeds up looting significantly, especially useful if you play fast.

• Situational/Late Game:

  • Fly Swatter: One-hit melee kills on annoying small ARC enemies like Ticks and Wasps. Very satisfying, but requires a heavy 36-point investment in the tree.

  • Security Breach: Lets you breach special security lockers for potentially better loot. Another high-investment (36 points) skill for dedicated looters.

Mobility: The Speedy Gonzales Tree

If you like running fast, climbing walls, and generally being hard to hit, this tree is for you. It's all about stamina efficiency, traversal speed, and making your movement smoother.

• Must-Haves:

  • Marathon Runner: Movement costs less stamina. Lets you run further, dodge more, and reposition faster. Core skill.

  • Effortless Roll: Dodge rolls cost less stamina. Dodging is life. Make it cheaper.

• Strong Choices:

  • Nimble Climber: Climb and vault faster. Gets you over obstacles and into cover quicker.

  • Agile Croucher: Faster crouched movement. Essential for stealthy repositioning or sneaking past enemies.

  • Slip and Slide: Longer, faster slides. Great for quick bursts of speed downhill (and stamina regen, see our ).

• Situational/Late Game:

  • Vaults on Vaults on Vaults: Vaulting no longer costs stamina. Requires a huge 36-point investment, but amazing for hyper-mobile playstyles.

  • Carry the Momentum: Free sprinting after a sprint dodge roll. Good synergy for aggressive movement, needs 15 points.

Survival: The Sneaky Rat Tree

This tree focuses on staying hidden, looting efficiently, and generally not dying when things go south. It enhances stealth, noise reduction, looting speed, and downed state survivability.

• Must-Haves:

  • Looters Instincts: Containers reveal loot faster. Less time standing still looting means less time getting shot. Crucial QoL.

  • Silent Scavenger: Make less noise while looting containers. Essential for not broadcasting your location to every Raider and ARC within earshot.

• Strong Choices:

  • Just Another Plant: Crouching makes you harder for ARC enemies to spot. Great for avoiding unnecessary AI fights.

  • Gentle Pressure: Make less noise while breaching doors and containers. Another key stealth skill. Breaching is LOUD otherwise.

  • Downed but Determined: Extends your bleed-out timer when downed. Gives you more time to crawl to safety or for a teammate to revive you.

• Situational/Late Game:

  • Mindsweeper: Diffuse enemy mines and deployables by getting close. Very niche, but could save your life. Requires 36 points.

  • Back on Your Feet: Passively regenerates health up to a certain threshold when critically low. Another expensive (36 points) panic button for survivability.

Early Recommendations?

Focus on Stamina first (Youthful Lungs, Proper Breathing) from Conditioning. Then, pick up Marathon Runner and Effortless Roll from Mobility. After that, grab Looters Instincts and Silent Scavenger from Survival. This core set gives you endurance, better movement, and safer looting – the foundation for surviving your initial raids.

From there, specialize based on how you like to play. Want to carry everything? Go deeper into Conditioning. Prefer hit-and-run? Mobility is your friend. Like playing sneaky? Survival has the tools. Just don't waste points on niche skills early on. Get the fundamentals sorted first. And remember to check our other guides, like the Arc Raiders beginner guide and 10 tips to make sure you don’t break your keyboard, plus my thoughts on the game ditching seasonal wipes.

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