PvE Strategy Guide for Arc Raiders

Getting Started on the wiki, partly its editors' experience, covers losing Wasps and Hornets, which ammo pierces ARC armor more easily and when not to heal.

Published 28 March 2026. Updated 5 November 2026.

Avoiding and Losing ARC

The wiki's Getting Started page, which says some of its details come from its editors' experience rather than official sources, says Wasps and Hornets that spot you give a characteristic whistle and their scanner beams turn red. It says you can run for a building, where they eventually lose interest and go back to their patrol, though they can still shoot through windows and open doorways. It says breaching anything is loud and attracts attention, and that birds flying off as you approach can alert nearby ARC. The ARC detection guide covers what each scanner color means.

Fighting Wasps and Hornets

If you fight them, the same page says disabling their thrusters can make them crash, and it advises against taking on more than one at a time. The ARC enemies page gives each machine's weak point and counter.

Ammo Against ARC Armor

Getting Started's New Player Tips say heavy and medium ammo penetrate ARC armor more easily than light ammo. Each weapon's item page shows its ARC armor penetration and headshot multiplier where the weapon's wiki page gives them.

Healing Between Fights

Getting Started says shields reduce the damage you take rather than acting as a second health bar. By their item text, a Bandage gradually restores health and a Shield Recharger gradually recharges a shield. The page says you cannot hold a weapon while using either, so it is not something to try in the middle of a fight, and that health comes first, since it is theoretically possible to die with a full shield.

The PvE Matchmaking Toggle Beta Test

Embark ran a PvE matchmaking toggle Beta Test from October 13 to 20, 2026, opened by Store Update 2.1.0, in which players could switch between the standard PvPvE experience and new PvE servers. Embark's post listed what changed on PvE servers: zero player to player damage, throwables including stun and fire items did not work on other players while barricades and ziplines were unaffected, overall loot value was lowered, and squad separation was not prioritized, so different size groups met more often. Embark said certain major map conditions did not offer PvE, Night Raid, Locked Gate and Hidden Bunker among them. Per the same post, ARC enemies could re-acquire a downed player: there was an eight second grace period after going down, and after that ARC could attack if it caught you moving. In Store Update 2.2.0 on October 20, Embark says the PvE Beta test has wrapped up, asks for feedback in its Discord PvE feedback channel, and says it will send a survey to a representative sample of players starting October 22. In Store Update 2.1.0, Embark said player feedback, along with the in-game data, would help it decide if the toggle becomes a permanent part of the game.

Boss Fights

The Queen guide gives a priority order, not a script: the yellow points on her leg joints first, then the armor plates off her body when you have an angle on it, then the red glowing core once it is showing. On the Matriarch, her wiki page, as the Matriarch guide quotes it, says not to target the legs: break the faceplates off, then hit the big red glowing core.

What ARC Leaves Behind

By its item text, ARC Alloy is obtained from ARC enemies or activities, or by recycling certain ARC parts, and the ARC Powercell drops from all ARC enemies. Getting Started says you do not have to destroy ARC yourself to collect them, since there is wreckage everywhere.

PvE Loadout

Getting Started says to take enough ammo, since more can be hard to find Topside. By its item text, a Heavy Shield blocks a large portion of incoming damage at a significant cost to mobility, and a Smoke Grenade's lingering cloud blocks visibility from ARC and other Raiders. The best PvE loadout guide gives full loadouts.

What This Guide Does Not Set

The pages this guide cites give no order to fight machines in and no way to clear a zone, so it sets none.