How to Play Arc Raiders: Beginner Guide (2026)

ARC Raiders is a PvPvE extraction shooter built by Embark Studios, the Stockholm studio also behind THE FINALS. It launched on October 30, 2025 as a buy to play title starting at $39.99, with a $59.99 Deluxe Edition, available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Each raid drops you into a hostile, robot patrolled map for up to 30 minutes to loot gear, avoid or fight rival raiders, and reach an extraction point before time runs out. This guide covers installation, the core loot and extract loop, controls on PC and controller, loadout choices, and what to expect from your first few raids.

What Kind of Game Is ARC Raiders?

ARC Raiders sits in the PvEvP category, player versus environment versus player, meaning every raid mixes two separate threats at once. The environment threat comes from ARC, a hostile robotic faction that patrols each map and reacts to noise and movement. The player threat comes from other raiders running the same loot mission you are, who can shoot you and take your gear exactly the way you can take theirs. Both threats matter every single raid, and ignoring either one is the fastest way to end a run empty handed.

ARC itself is not a single monolithic enemy type. Expect small, fast moving scout units that alert larger machines if they spot you, heavier combat units that can shred an unprepared raider in seconds, and environmental hazards tied to the map's backstory as a testing ground overrun by its own creations. Learning to recognize an ARC unit's silhouette and movement pattern from a distance is a skill that pays off every raid, since avoiding a fight you cannot win is usually smarter than winning one you barely survive.

Installing and Getting Started

ARC Raiders installs through Steam, the Epic Games Store, or your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S storefront, all under the same paid pricing rather than a free download. After install, the game walks new accounts through a short tutorial covering movement, shooting, and the ping system before releasing you into your first real raid. It is worth spending a few extra minutes in the settings menu first. PC players can remap keyboard and mouse bindings and tune mouse sensitivity, while console players get preset controller layouts with Xbox and PlayStation specific button prompts already applied.

The Core Loop: Loot, Survive, Extract

Every raid follows the same basic shape. You drop into a map, spend up to 30 minutes looting weapons, crafting materials, blueprints, and quest items from buildings and containers, fight or avoid ARC machines and other raiders along the way, then find a working extraction point and get out before the timer ends or you die trying. Die during a raid with a custom loadout equipped, and you lose both the gear you brought in and whatever you picked up along the way, which is what gives every fight and every loud noise real weight.

Controls Overview

Keyboard and Mouse (PC)

PC uses the standard WASD movement layout with the mouse controlling aim, left click for your primary fire, and right click typically mapped to aiming down sights or a secondary action depending on your equipped gear. Sprint is bound to Left Shift by default and can be set to hold or toggle in the settings menu. Every keyboard and mouse binding on PC can be remapped, so if a default key feels awkward, change it before your first real raid rather than fighting it mid fight. Getting your mouse DPI set correctly first makes the in game sensitivity slider far more predictable to tune afterward.

Controller (Console and PC)

ARC Raiders has native support for both Xbox and PlayStation controllers, including button prompts that match whichever pad you have connected, and PC players can use a controller as well if they prefer it over mouse and keyboard. Controller button layouts follow standard shooter conventions and can be adjusted through preset options, though keyboard remapping currently offers more granular customization than controller rebinding does.

The Ping System

Communication in ARC Raiders runs through a ping wheel rather than voice chat alone. Holding the ping button brings up a radial menu with specific callouts, letting you flag enemies, loot, or extraction points precisely without needing a working microphone or a squad that speaks your language. Learning the ping wheel early is worth it even if you mostly play solo, since a fast, accurate ping is often the difference between your squad reacting to a threat in time and not reacting at all.

Audio matters more in ARC Raiders than in many shooters, since footsteps and machine sounds are a primary way you detect threats before you see them. Playing with headphones rather than speakers, and taking a minute to adjust master volume against footstep and gunfire volume in the settings menu, genuinely changes how much warning you get before a fight finds you. Graphics settings are less critical to survival, but keeping frame rate stable and consistent matters more for reaction time than pushing every visual setting to maximum, especially in a game where a split second reaction can be the difference between extracting and losing everything.

Loadouts: Standard vs Custom

New players should lean on Standard loadouts for their first 10 to 20 hours. Standard loadouts use borrowed gear at no resource cost, so dying in one costs you nothing beyond the raid itself, which makes them the safest way to learn map layouts, enemy behavior, and basic gunfights. Custom loadouts use gear you actually own, crafted or bought with resources earned from previous raids, and losing a custom loadout on death means losing that real investment. Only move into custom loadouts once you consistently understand where fights happen, where ARC machines patrol, and where the nearest extraction points sit on a given map.

Extraction: How It Actually Works

Extraction points are elevators scattered across each map, and each one shows a countdown timer once activated. To use one, you find an available elevator, activate the console next to it to start the extraction sequence, then survive until the countdown finishes and step inside before it closes. Activating that console is loud. It draws the attention of both nearby ARC machines and any other raiders on the map who hear it, so an extraction attempt is rarely a quiet moment even if the rest of your raid was calm. Once inside the elevator, you activate the internal console to complete the extraction and walk away with everything you looted.

Tips for Your First Raid

Run Standard loadouts on Dam Battlegrounds, one of the more beginner friendly maps, until you can consistently find at least one extraction point without checking a map guide first. Move with purpose rather than sprinting everywhere. ARC machines and other raiders both react to noise, so constant sprinting draws more attention than it saves in time. Loot efficiently rather than completely, grabbing valuable and useful items and moving on rather than clearing every container on the map, since time spent looting is time an extraction window can close or a rival squad can catch up to you. Treat your first handful of raids as scouting missions for map knowledge first and loot second. Knowing where extractions, chokepoints, and ARC patrol routes are will matter more than any single item you find early on.

Solo, Duo, or Trio: Choosing How to Raid

ARC Raiders supports solo play as well as squads of two or three, and each option changes how a raid should be played. Solo raiders move faster, stay quieter, and never have to worry about a teammate's mistake giving away a position, but they also have no one to revive them or watch a second angle during a fight. Duo and trio squads can cover more ground, split attention between looting and watching for threats, and stack damage in a fight, at the cost of more noise and more coordination required to actually pull it off. New players often find solo raids easier to learn from since every decision and every mistake is entirely their own, with no confusion about who was supposed to be watching which direction.

Learning the Map

Each ARC Raiders map has a distinct layout of loot dense buildings, ARC patrol zones, and multiple extraction points, and knowing that layout ahead of time changes how you play a raid completely. Players who know a map tend to move directly between valuable loot areas and safe extraction routes, while players who do not tend to wander, which burns raid time and increases the chance of a bad encounter. Spend deliberate time on Standard loadouts specifically to build that map knowledge rather than treating every raid purely as a loot run, since the payoff compounds every time you play that map again.

Crafting, Blueprints, and Base Progression

Loot you extract with is not just for your next raid. Materials and blueprints you bring home feed a base level crafting and progression system that lets you build better gear over time rather than relying purely on what you find each run. Blueprints in particular are worth prioritizing early, since unlocking a new craftable item permanently expands what you can build at your base, while raw materials are consumed as you use them. This is part of why extraction, not just elimination, is the actual goal of a raid. A raider who out loots and safely extracts is making more long term progress than one who gets more kills but dies before reaching an elevator.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

The most common beginner mistake is jumping straight into a custom loadout before understanding a map, which turns an early learning mistake into a real gear loss. A close second is ignoring sound entirely. Footsteps, gunfire, and especially extraction console activations all carry, and players who move loudly without checking their surroundings tend to get caught by either ARC or a rival squad that heard them coming. New raiders also frequently overstay a raid, trying to loot one more building instead of heading to a known extraction point with time to spare, only to get caught in the open when the timer runs out or a fight breaks out nearby. Treating the extraction timer as a hard deadline rather than a suggestion will save more raids than any single gear upgrade.

Other Live Service Shooters Worth Knowing About

ARC Raiders is not the only live service shooter worth your time this year. If you want to see how a fully public, cross platform live service shooter tracks its population, our Destiny 2 player count page breaks that down, and if invite only exclusivity is more your speed, our Deadlock player count page covers Valve's still closed hero shooter and MOBA hybrid. For a more traditional round based tactical shooter to compare against ARC Raiders' extraction format, our Valorant beginner guide walks through installing, agent roles, and your first matches.

Betting on Competitive Shooters

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Every current ARC Raiders veteran started exactly where you are now, dying in Standard loadouts, missing extraction windows, and slowly learning each map. Once the fundamentals click, following the wider competitive shooter scene and betting on the matches you watch at flush.com is a natural next step.