Your gear determines much of your success while playing a game of Arc Raiders, but so do your skills. The game chops up 45 different skills across three trees, with most skills improving your general mobility and speed, as well as your ability to loot.
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But with so many choices, it’s easy to get lost. So let me share with you my thoughts on which skills are most beneficial, based on my 60 hours with the game.
Keep in mind, however, that I’m primarily a solo player, and my choices have often been made with that in mind. And while I don’t shy away from gunfights, I’m a fan of stealth games, so I’m often sneaking around on maps like Sam Fisher. I’ve also not yet weighed in on which of the skills at the very ends of the skill trees are best. The game is still young, so metas have yet to be solidified. Still, you can’t go wrong with the options I’ve laid out here.
Skill tree basics
Arc Raiders has a level cap of 75. You get 1 XP per level, which you can invest in a skill tree that covers 45 different skills distributed across three main branches. You can sink multiple points into many of these skills. So, no, you can’t unlock everything in the tree. You also can’t respec easily (you’ll have to wipe your character to do so by completing a project, which requires a ton of loot and has a specific timed window in which to send your character off).
10 universally great skills for (almost) every playstyle–solo or grouped up
There are a ton of different ways to play Arc Raiders, with various guns and gadgets to help you live out the fantasy of a sniper, grenadier, shotgunner, or even freerunner.
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Still, there are some skills that will benefit just about anyone. At a minimum, everyone should invest at least one skill point into each of the starting points of each three. For Mobility that’s “Nimble Climber,” which lets you climb and vault faster. For Conditioning that’s “Used to the Weight,” which lets you move faster while wearing heavier shields. And for Survival, “Agile Croucher” lets you move faster while crouching.
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You need to buy these skills to progress in their respective trees, but they also should give you a good idea of the general direction each tree will take you. From there, I highly recommend observing what you think your weak points are while playing and what you’d like to improve.
But from the Mobility tree, everyone should at least snag “Marathon Runner” and “Youthful Lungs” so you can move and run farther and for longer.
From the Survival tree, I recommend everyone at least grab “Looter’s Instincts” and “Silent Scavenger.” These will help you loot faster and more quietly.
From the Conditioning tree, I recommend “Gentle Pressure” and “Proficient Pryer.” These two will combine to make your breaching faster and quieter.
Lastly, everyone should aim to get “Security Breach” from Survival at some point, as it’s required for looting specific locations.
These 10 skills will help you with some of the most consistent activities in Arc Raiders: traveling and looting.
In my estimation, the usefulness of every other skill is highly dependent on your play style. For example, something like “Downed but Determined,” found in the Conditioning tree, will let you stay in a down-but-not-out state longer before you get fully knocked out. Personally, I’d rather focus on avoiding being downed and investing skill points into something like “Revitalizing Squat” in Survival, which boosts your stamina regeneration while crouched.
Again, my playstyle, which is often solo, sees me routinely covering lots of distance, so taking a breather while crouched helps me stay moving–plus, if I’m hunkered down in cover and crouched, I’ll also regenerate stamina faster to get away from whatever bad situation ‘m in.
That said, I can still offer some general guidelines for things to consider when selecting your skills based on whether you primarily play solo or in a group.
15 of the best skills for solo players
© Screenshot: Embark Studios / Claire Jackson / Kotaku
All of these skills should be considered in addition to the universal skills mentioned above. In my opinion, Mobility is perhaps the most important skill category for solo players who often need to get the hell out of a bad situation as fast as possible. Consider investing in these Mobility skills if you’re running on your own:
- Slip and Slide (sliding is already pretty generous, so at least one point should work for a while)
- Sturdy Ankles
- Calming Stroll (this ability lets you recover stamina while walking at the same rate as if you were still, making it a great way to recover stamina while still heading toward your destination)
- Effortless Roll
- Heroic Leap
As you can probably guess, this is leaning toward a more parkour-based build, but I’ve found high Mobility is essential to staying alive when you don’t have backup regardless of how much you intend to move around like a typical Assassin’s Creed protagonist.
From the Survival tree, I recommend the following skills for solo play:
- Revitalizing Squat (lets you regenerate stamina more quickly while crouched, which can help you make your getaway if you’re hiding from an assailant)
- In-Round Crafting
- Good As New
- Stubborn Mule (good only if you’re okay pushing your luck and exfiltrating with an encumbered status from carrying so much)
- Three Deep Breaths
- Traveling Tinkerer
I haven’t unlocked some of these skills myself yet, but they’re likely to be the next ones I grab. Again, everything here maximizes stamina recovery and the ability to get what you need to do faster. And crafting in round is a great way to restock restorative items or make up for a poorly chosen loadout.
Lastly, there’s Conditioning. As a CrossFit girl IRL, I’m all about conditioning, but I haven’t found it as useful in Arc Raiders for solo play. But your mileage may vary. I recommend investing in these Conditioning skills for solo runs:
- Unburdened Roll (if your shield pops, especially unexpectedly, this makes a reflexive roll less burdensome on your Stamina)
- A Little Extra
- Loaded Arms
- Fight or Flight (you’ll need to grab Blast Born before you can buy this, which I don’t find as useful a skill, but them’s the rules of the tree)
Depending on how you like to play the game, some of these skills might be more useful than others. And I’ve also left out some of the “end game” skills, as well as tips on which skills you should sink the most points into after the initial XP cost. The efficacy of any given skill is highly dependent on your own playstyle–and at that point, competency in this game means you should be making your own judgement calls for certain strategies you prefer. For example, I really like being able to breach something as fast as possible, so I’ve been investing more points into Proficient Pryer. But maybe that’s not as important to you, or, you have someone you play with who’s your group’s designated breacher, and so maybe it makes sense for another person to invest in these skills to round out your group’s abilities.
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Speaking of groups, let’s have a look at which skills are going to be the most beneficial for a crew.
4 of the best skills for groups
© Screenshot: Embark Studios / Claire Jackson / Kotaku
Consider these group skills in addition to the universal skills I mentioned above, as well as some of the skills that are suitable for a solo player–being really fast and quiet makes you effective as a lone wolf, but it also makes you an asset on your team.
When considering group play, we need to consider what actions are impossible when you’re on your own. Here’s one example: You can’t revive yourself in Arc Raiders! If you get downed near an extraction point, you can still potentially crawl your way to safety, but one of the first benefits of having comrades is that they can get you back on your feet. There are a few skills that help you with staying in the game while you’re in a downed-but-not-out state, so those are essential ones to snag. Let’s break it down for each of the trees.
For Mobility, one skill makes the most sense for group play: Crawl Before You Walk.
Everything else in this branch makes you faster and ups your stamina capabilities. So invest in those as you deem appropriate. If you think your character is too slow and quick to exhaust, then invest in the general skills I outlined, as well as the ones suitable for solo play. But also consider what role you’re going to play in your group. Maybe you’re the designated medic, carrying more restoratives than other people. If that’s the case, then you probably want to be speedy so you can get to a dying teammate as quickly as possible.
From the Survival skill tree, grab Traveling Tinkerer if you’re typically in a group. In addition to In-Round crafting, this will help you be the go-to person for crafting supplies Topside.
For Conditioning, I recommend grabbing Downed But Determined and Turtle Crawl. These will increase the amount of time you’re down-but-not-out, thus increasing your chances of getting revived by a teammate.
What’s in my skill tree?
I mostly play solo, and while I’ve purchased a few skills with a “see what happens” philosophy in mind, most of my choices were about making myself faster so that I can more quickly and efficiently get out of bad situations and cross great distances.
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At level 40, I’ve invested 25 points into Mobility, 9 points into Survival, and 7 into Conditioning. Here’s what my tree looks like:
© Screenshot: Embark Studios / Claire Jackson / Kotaku
For now, I’m quite happy with my build. In fact, if I froze my build options here, I wager I’d still have a perfectly fun time in the game; I’m fast and I’m hard to kill. (Someone tried again this morning. Didn’t work out for them.)
I’d like to be able to craft more items during a game, so Traveling Tinkerer is on my list, as is A Little Extra, which will net me more resources while looting. I’m finding I’ve left behind my reliance on Free Loadouts and instead need to double down on crafting new gear and repairing what I have, so that seems to make the most sense.
