Solo ARC Raiders Beginner’s Guide – Best Settings, Skills, Looting (2025)

Solo ARC Raiders Beginner’s Guide: This guide shows solo players exactly how to configure controls and graphics, pick the strongest early‑game skills, route through high‑value loot areas, manage inventory and crafting, and extract safely for consistent profit in ARC Raiders’ PvPvE Rust Belt. Whether you’re struggling to survive your first raids or trying to turn risky solos into reliable extractions, these step‑by‑step tips will help you stabilize and snowball your progression.

Also Read: Fisch Gravy Mutation Guide

Best controls, settings, and audio

Keybinds and sensitivity

ARC Raiders plays best when your most‑used actions are reachable without finger gymnastics. Guides recommend rebinding Shoulder Swap off the default to a convenient key like Q or Mouse Button 4 so you can quickly left/right‑peek around cover. Put Melee, Grenade/Utility, and Ping on easy‑reach inputs (E/F or extra mouse buttons) so you can break small bots, throw smokes, or mark enemies while still strafing.​

Mouse sensitivity should allow two things: snappy 180° turns to respond to flanks and precise tracking at mid‑range. PC keybind guides suggest starting around a medium sens (e.g., 0.8–1.0 at 800 DPI or the in‑game default) and raising or lowering until you can do a comfortable 180° without overshooting targets. Controller players are advised to set aim acceleration and boost to zero, then raise base sensitivity until they can turn quickly while still making small aim corrections.​​

Graphics and FPS for readability

Competitive settings focus on visibility and frame‑rate over visuals. Performance guides recommend: low or off for shadows, foliage, and motion blur; medium for textures and effects; then enabling DLSS/FSR or dynamic resolution if your GPU struggles. In your GPU control panel, forcing “prefer maximum performance” and enabling low‑latency or reflex options can noticeably reduce input lag in firefights.​​

Turn music down and keep effects, dialogue, and ambient volume high so you can clearly hear footsteps, ARC drones, distant gunfire, and elevators or trains being called. This is crucial for solo play, where audio often gives you the only warning before another Raider or patrol rolls into your path.​​

Best early‑game skills for solo players

Core survival and looting perks

ARC Raiders has three trees (Conditioning, Mobility, Survival), and solo‑focused guides agree that stamina, stealth, and looting efficiency should come before pure weapon perks. High‑value early picks include:​

• Agile Croucher (Survival) – increases crouch movement speed, letting you stay quiet without crawling; widely recommended as a first pickup for solo players.​
• Looter’s Instincts (Survival) – speeds up container search times so you can loot quickly and move before third parties arrive.​
• Marathon Runner / Youthful Lungs (Conditioning) – extend sprint duration and improve stamina regen, making disengages and long rotations much safer.​
• Sturdy Ankles (Mobility) – reduces fall damage and stumbling when dropping from ledges or roofs, which prevents embarrassing deaths while kiting ARCs or players.​

Skill‑tree breakdowns also highlight Calming Stroll, which greatly boosts stamina regeneration while slow‑walking, and inventory perks like Broad Shoulders or Loaded Arms for higher carry weight so solos can extract with more loot per run. Veteran players with 100+ hours recommend solidifying this “mobility + looting backbone” before diving into niche gun‑handling or specialized combat perks.​

Proximity chat, awareness, and survival mindset

Using prox chat without getting farmed

Proximity chat can both save and end runs. Solo guides recommend leaving it on push‑to‑talk only, because open mics instantly give away your position. Use your mic sparingly to de‑escalate: a calm “Solo here, just passing through, not pushing evac” can convince other players to ignore you, especially in low‑tier zones.​

Avoid talking near extractions, high‑tier loot, or major objectives; assume squads are listening and waiting. Never taunt other players or broadcast loot information, since that invites pushes you might otherwise avoid. When in doubt, silence and good movement discipline keep you alive more than clever voice lines.​

Solo mindset: wins are extractions, not kills

Extraction shooters reward survival, not raw KD. Experienced solo players stress that a “win” is extracting with any valuable item or finished quest, not clearing the lobby. Avoid unnecessary PvP, especially early; pick fights only when you have better positioning, an off‑angle, or a clear third‑party opportunity after both sides have traded.​

Inventory, recycling, and crafting priorities

What to loot, keep, sell, and recycle

Loot is heavy and backpacks are small, so you must filter aggressively. Recycling guides split items into three categories:

• Keep: Quest items, station‑upgrade mats, unique ARC components, and high‑rarity gear with good stats or potential future buffs.​
• Sell: Pure vendor trash (items flagged “only used for selling”), very low‑tier gear you’ll never equip, and excess meds or ammo once your stash is stable.​​
• Recycle: Duplicate weapons, outdated armor, and items marked “recyclable,” which convert into materials for crafting better gear.​​

Scrappy‑type materials—Metal, Rubber, Plastic, Fabric, Chemicals, Seeds—drop across Rust Belt but are more common in industrial complexes, garages, and residential interiors, and are needed for crafting and upgrading stations. Treat them as a backbone resource rather than junk.​​

How selling, recycling, and salvaging work

In Speranza, you can open your stash, select items, and choose Sell or Recycle, with recycling yielding full‑value materials used at crafting stations. During raids, you can Salvage items in your backpack for fewer materials, which is still better than dropping value on the ground when space runs out. Many players recommend routinely clearing your stash after each session so you don’t enter raids with a cluttered inventory and no idea what’s important.​​

What to craft first

Early on, focus crafting on three pillars:

• Medkits and armor plates: keep at least one full heal and one armor refresh in every kit; survivability is the highest priority stat for solos.​
• One reliable primary weapon + core attachments: pick a gun you like, then craft a decent optic and recoil‑control attachments instead of spreading resources across many guns.​
• Utility grenades (smokes, flashes, decoys): smokes and decoys are extraction‑winners, letting you break line‑of‑sight or fake pushes while you slip away.​

Check Speranza vendors after every run; they often sell missing attachments, utility gear, or quest‑related items cheaper than crafting from scratch, and their stock rotates over time.​

Map knowledge, audio cues, movement, and combat

Planning routes and using the map

Before leaving Speranza, study the map and choose one main loot loop and two extractions on opposite sides of that loop. As a beginner, avoid the highest‑tier central POIs and instead chain mid‑tier loot zones on the map edges, where you’ll run into fewer squads. Factor in ARC patrol paths—skirting patrols is safer than brute‑forcing through them, especially solo.​

Audio as your radar

With tuned audio, you can treat sound as a wallhack‑equivalent for awareness. Guides suggest listening for:

• Distinct ARC drone hums and robot footsteps.
• Gunfights two or more blocks away—use them as beacons to avoid or third‑party.
• Environmental sounds like elevators, trains, or doors, which betray other players’ movements.​​

If you hear sustained fighting near your intended path, wait it out or route around; walking straight through gunfire is how most early solos die.​​

Movement and positioning tips

Good movement lets you fight only on your terms:

• Holster your weapon when traversing open ground to sprint faster and be a harder target.​
• Use slides on slopes to preserve or even regenerate stamina while maintaining high speed; advanced players chain slides and jumps to cross long distances with minimal stamina cost.​​
• Always maintain a mental escape lane when entering a building or compound; never commit down a dead‑end without a backup exit.​

Solo combat basics

When fights are unavoidable:

• Prioritize isolated targets—lone players, split duos, or small ARC pods.​
• Shoot ARC weak points (turrets, exposed batteries, thrusters) to end engagements quickly and save ammo.​
• Use melee to quietly remove small bots, alarms, or finishing blows without alerting half the zone.​
• If chased by a squad, drag them through an ARC patrol; bots will often engage them, creating an opportunity to disengage.​

Extracting safely and common solo questions

Safe extraction habits

Extraction is where you “win,” so treat it as a boss fight every time:

• Scout evac zones from cover; check for corpses, open containers, or unusual smokes—classic signs of campers.​
• Call the evac, then fall back to a defensible angle instead of standing on the pad; watch for last‑second pushers and use smokes to break sightlines before boarding.​​
• As a solo, leave as soon as your bag holds one or two key upgrades or a major quest item; multiple small scores beat one greedy loss.​

FAQ snippets you can expand

• Can ARC Raiders be played completely solo?
  Yes. Instances hold multiple Raiders, but you can queue, loot, and extract alone; just emphasize stealth, mobility, and early extractions.​
• Which settings matter most?
  Clear keybinds, no aim acceleration, competitive graphics (low shadows/foliage, high FPS), and loud effects/footsteps make the biggest difference early.​
• Should I always recycle or sometimes sell?
  Sell pure vendor junk and common gear you’ll never use; recycle duplicates and items flagged “recyclable” to feed crafting; keep anything linked to upgrades or quests.​
• How often should I check vendors?
  After every raid; they rotate attachments, meds, utilities, and speciality items that can shortcut your next loadout or quest.​

Building these habits—tight settings, smart skill picks, disciplined looting, deliberate routes, and cautious extractions—turns ARC Raiders from a punishing solo experience into a methodical progression loop where most losses are learning opportunities, not random wipes.​