ARC Raiders: The Game-Changing Survival Skill You Need to Unlock ASAP

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What sets ARC Raiders apart is its character progression system, which truly rewards players for trying new things. While some skills have a bigger impact on how you play than others, you’ll still discover unexpected abilities that keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the best skills to improve in ARC Raiders, and which ones aren’t worth the effort. However, the Survival skill tree is consistently one of the strongest choices you can make. Both Conditioning and Mobility are useful, but a single skill within the Survival tree offers such a significant benefit that it’s well worth spending your skill points on.

Field Crafting Is One Of The Strongest Abilities In ARC Raiders

Getting a head start with a few items in Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs can be helpful, but the In-Round Crafting skill from the Survival skill tree really boosts how well we can survive raids. Just keep in mind that crafting items this way uses more resources than crafting them in your base.

This ability lets you make simple recipes using items you collect. Honestly, I really wish I’d unlocked In-Round Crafting at level 3 as soon as it became available, so I could have started making these recipes:

  • Bandages
  • Shield Recharger
  • Light Impact Grenade
  • Li’l Smoke Grenade
  • Flame Spray
  • Fruit Mix
  • Agave Juice
  • Adrenaline Shot

In the early game of ARC Raiders, or when you’re using a loadout with limited space, crafting supplies during a raid is really helpful. It lets you avoid filling up your inventory with things you might not need, and prevents you from wasting resources by bringing too much.

While you can directly use ARC Powercells and basic fabrics to recover shields and health, it’s much better to combine them into upgraded versions first for a bigger boost.

Knowing how to heal yourself is already a huge advantage, saving you from using up valuable medical supplies. But once you improve your Survival skill, it gets even better. After putting 17 points into Survival, you’ll unlock the Traveling Tinkerer ability, allowing you to craft powerful upgrades using specific recipes.

  • Noisemaker Device
  • Blaze Grenade Trap
  • Smoke Grenade Trap
  • Lure Grenade Trap
  • Gas Grenade Trap
  • Herbal Bandage
  • Raider’s Hatch Key

The Traveling Tinkerer ability is incredibly useful in combat because most of its recipes are easy to make with basic items like grenades and wires. The Raider’s Hatch Key, while costing more to craft due to its Advanced Components and Sensors, is especially valuable. It offers a quick escape during raids and can really change how you play.

ARC Raiders Has Plenty Of Powerful Skills Worth Investing In

If you’ve already unlocked the Traveling Tinkerer perk in the Survival skill tree (which takes 17 skill points), you’re over halfway to unlocking Security Breach at level 37. Although getting Security Breach takes effort, I suggest investing a few points in stamina skills from the Mobility tree along the way. Once you have it, Security Breach is a surprisingly useful ability that makes it easy to get great loot from Security Lockers.

Security Breach offers much better rewards than most loot rooms. Each locker typically contains 2 or 3 rows of items, giving you a high chance of finding rare and powerful gear, and you’re guaranteed to get at least one weapon.

The main issue with the Security Breach skill is that players widely believe it’s too strong and needs to be weakened. It currently surpasses many skills found in the other two skill trees of ARC Raiders.

Some of the later skills in the Conditioning tree aren’t worth the effort, but upgrading them early on can be a good idea for new players. Skills like Proficient Pryer, which speeds up breaching, and Fight or Flight, which helps you escape when you’re low on health, can really improve your chances of survival in ARC Raiders.

ARC Raiders Lets You Reset Your Skill Tree, With A Catch

Even if you’re not happy with how you’ve spent your skill points or want to start over completely, ARC Raiders offers a prestige system with good rewards for committed players. Unlike games like Escape From Tarkov which have scheduled resets, or Hunt Showdown with separate prestige tracks, ARC Raiders stands out by letting you voluntarily embark on periodic expeditions to reset your progress when you choose.

Once you reach level 20, you can send your raider on expeditions, but it will require a large investment of resources every two weeks. Successfully completing an expedition means your character will be removed from the game, but you’ll receive benefits like stronger buffs for the next season, more storage space, simpler crafting, and unique cosmetic items.

Right now, you can’t reset your skill tree without losing all your progress as a Raider – that includes your stored items, learned blueprints, in-game currency, workshop improvements, and completed quests. You will keep your overall account progress and can immediately access any map, but most players understandably aren’t willing to start over and lose everything in ARC Raiders just to create a better character build.

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2025-11-08 23:16