ARC Raiders Beginner Guide: How to Extract and Survive Your First Raids

New to ARC Raiders? Here is the short version: every raid gives you 30 minutes to loot and get out alive. Learn to extract first, fight second. Go in with the free loadout, grab what you can, and leave through an elevator, metro station, or air shaft before its timer runs out. Then spend what you brought home on workshop upgrades in Speranza.

How a Raid Works

ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter. You deploy from your underground shelter, Speranza, onto a map full of hostile ARC machines and other players. You loot materials, complete quests, and fight only when you have to. The goal of every raid is the same: get back to Speranza alive with your loot.

The raid timer is 30 minutes. When it hits zero, the map is bombarded and anyone still on it dies. You lose everything you were carrying except what is in your Safe Pocket.
Extraction points close one by one. Each one has its own countdown on your map. When a point's timer expires, it is closed for the rest of the raid, so check the timers before you commit to a route.
Death costs you your loadout. Anything you brought into the raid and did not put in your Safe Pocket is lost if you die. That is why your first raids should use the free loadout.

How to Extract: Step by Step

Extraction is the skill that matters most for beginners, and it works the same way on every map:

Pick an active extraction point on your map. Elevators show as a downward arrow, metro stations as a train car, and air shafts as a fan symbol. Check its countdown timer first — if it is nearly closed, route to a different one.
Scout before you commit. Pause within sight of the entrance for 30–60 seconds. Listen for gunfire and watch for ARC patrols. If the area is hot, switch exits instead of forcing a fight.
Call the extraction at the outside console. Press E on PC to interact. An alarm sounds — loudly. That noise attracts nearby ARC machines and other players, so move to cover with a view of the doorway instead of waiting in the open.
Wait for it to arrive. It takes about 15 seconds for the elevator to open or the train to arrive. Stay hidden until the doors open.
Go inside and use the second console. Interact with the console inside to leave immediately, or wait and it departs automatically after about 2 minutes. Everyone inside extracts when one person uses the console.
If you are knocked down, you can still make it. Crawl inside the extraction point if you are close enough, and you can use the interior console while downed. Extraction still completes as long as you are inside when it departs and nobody finishes you off first.

Extraction Types by Map

Map	Extraction type	Where the console is
Dam Battlegrounds	Cargo elevator	Right outside the elevator
Spaceport	Cargo elevator	Right outside the elevator
Buried City	Metro station	Underground in the station, by the gated tracks; stations have multiple entrances
Blue Gate	Air shaft	Right outside the shaft

Raider Hatches: The Safer Exit

Scattered across every map are Raider Hatches. They have no timer and no waiting — but each one needs a Raider Hatch Key to open. Keys can be crafted, looted, or bought from a shop, and they are hard to find early on, so save one for a run when you are carrying loot worth protecting. If you have a key in your inventory, just find a hatch on the map and use it.

Your First Raids: A Checklist

Use the free loadout. Do not risk crafted gear until you can extract reliably.
Set one goal per raid. Loot one area, finish one quest, or grab one upgrade material — then leave.
Watch the extract timers from the start. Plan your exit when you land, not when the raid timer is nearly gone.
Put valuables in your Safe Pocket. Anything in the Safe Pocket comes home even if you die.
Extract early. Leaving with a modest haul beats dying with a great one. You can always go back in.
Holster your weapon to move faster. Press H on PC to put your weapon away when you are travelling between points.
Do not fight at the extraction point. It is the most dangerous spot on the map. If another squad is already there, wait them out or take a different exit.

The Workshop: Workbench Upgrades That Matter

Back in Speranza, the Workshop turns the materials you extract into gear. You start with a free Workbench that crafts basic ammo, bandages, shields, and the Looting Mk. 1 rig. Six more stations can be built and upgraded to level 3, and each level unlocks new crafting recipes. Higher levels need rarer parts from tougher ARC machines, so expect to collect them over many raids.

Station	What it crafts	Level 1 cost	Level 2 cost	Level 3 cost
Gunsmith	Weapons, mods, weapon upgrades	20 Metal Parts, 30 Rubber Parts	3 Rusted Tools, 5 Mechanical Components, 8 Wasp Driver	3 Rusted Gear, 5 Advanced Mechanical Components, 4 Sentinel Firing Core
Gear Bench	Shields, armor rigs, augments	25 Plastic Parts, 30 Fabric	3 Power Cable, 5 Electrical Components, 5 Hornet Driver	3 Industrial Battery, 5 Advanced Electrical Components, 6 Bastion Cell
Medical Lab	Healing items, recovery tools	50 Fabric, 6 ARC Alloy	2 Cracked Bioscanner, 5 Durable Cloth, 8 Tick Pod	3 Rusted Shut Medical Kit, 8 Antiseptic, 5 Surveyor Vault
Explosives Station	Grenades and throwable explosives	50 Chemicals, 6 ARC Alloy	3 Synthesized Fuel, 5 Crude Explosives, 5 Pop Trigger	3 Laboratory Reagents, 5 Explosive Compound, 3 Rocketeer Driver
Utility Station	Tactical and mobility tools	50 Plastic Parts, 6 ARC Alloy	2 Damaged Heat Sink, 5 Electrical Components, 6 Snitch Scanner	3 Fried Motherboard, 5 Advanced Electrical Components, 4 Leaper Pulse Unit
Refiner	Advanced components for other stations	60 Metal Parts, 5 ARC Powercell	3 Toaster, 5 ARC Motion Core, 8 Fireball Burner	3 Motor, 10 ARC Circuitry, 6 Bombardier Cell

Costs are as listed by current crafting guides; patch changes can alter them, so confirm the in-game requirements before spending rare parts.

Which station first? A sensible order is Gunsmith level 1, then Refiner level 1 — the Refiner's level 1 crafts (Mechanical Components, Electrical Components, Durable Cloth, Crude Explosives) are exactly what the other stations ask for at level 2. After that, take the Gear Bench if other players keep killing you, or the Medical Lab if you keep losing fights to attrition. Spread level 1 across every station before pushing any one station to level 3: level 1 is cheap, and the higher levels are gated by ARC drops you will be collecting anyway.

Two more workshop facts worth knowing:

Gunsmith level 4 and the Research Station were added with the Frozen Trail 2.0 update, and both need the Outpost unlocked first. Gunsmith 4 (3 Radial Press, 3 Magnetic Accelerator, 1 Emperor Modulator) unlocks weapon amplification.
Blueprints unlock advanced recipes. Blueprints are mostly found in locked-room loot containers, sometimes as quest rewards. You must extract with a blueprint before you can learn it — put it in your Safe Pocket to guarantee it comes home — then consume it in Speranza to add the recipe to the right station.
Do not recycle upgrade materials early. Check the table above before recycling anything: the parts you need for level 2 and 3 upgrades are easy to throw away by mistake.

Durability matters. Weapons, shields, and augments lose durability as you use them. Low durability means slower reloads on weapons and less capacity on shields, and at zero durability an item becomes unusable. Repair items with materials before your next raid, and upgrade weapons at the Gunsmith — each upgrade tier adds handling and durability bonuses rather than just raw stats.

Scrappy helps while you are away. Scrappy, the rooster in Speranza, passively generates basic materials as you explore topside. Check in on him between raids.

Common Beginner Mistakes

Staying until the last minute. The raid timer and the extraction timers both run out. Leave with time to spare.
Fighting everything. ARC machines drop useful parts, but every fight risks your whole haul. Pick your fights.
Recycling the wrong materials. Keep the parts listed in the upgrade table above until the station that needs them is built.
Bringing gear you cannot afford to lose. If you cannot extract reliably yet, the free loadout is the right loadout.
Forgetting the Safe Pocket. Blueprints and your most valuable finds belong there, not in your backpack.
Ignoring the alarm. Calling an extraction announces your position. Be in cover, not in the doorway, when it arrives.

Controls Worth Knowing (PC Defaults)

Action	Key
Interact / call extraction	E
Holster weapon (move faster)	H
Emote wheel (for example, "Don't shoot!")	G

Check the in-game settings if you have rebound any keys. Console controls differ; the interact and holster actions are the ones to learn first either way.

Where to Go Next

Once you can extract consistently, start pushing further into each map: learn which areas hold the materials for your next workshop level, take on the tougher ARC machines for level 3 parts, and try the metro stations in Buried City, which are less exposed than the open-air elevators. The loop never really changes — deploy, loot with a purpose, and get home — it just gets richer as your workshop grows.

Last checked: November 15, 2026. Sources: Beebom, "How to Extract in Arc Raiders" (April 10, 2026); TheGamer, "Every Way To Extract In Arc Raiders" (November 1, 2025); Dexerto, "How to extract in ARC Raiders" (November 5, 2025); Peak/Nexon, "How to Extract from the Starting Area" (November 1, 2025); coe.gg, "How to Upgrade Workbench in Arc Raiders – All Costs"; gamebrief.net, "ARC Raiders Workshop Upgrade Items: All 6 Stations (2026)" (August 12, 2026); ARC Raiders Community Wiki, "Workshop" (updated March 15, 2026). Extraction steps and workbench costs are cross-checked across at least two of these sources; in-game requirements may differ after patches.