Arc Raiders Solo Guide: How to Survive, Loot, and Extract Alone

Arc Raiders doesn’t hold your hand when you drop into the Rust Belt alone. Squads have numbers, callouts, and someone to pick them up when they go down. You have none of that. But solo play has its own advantages if you know how to use them. You’re faster, quieter, and you don’t have to split loot three ways.

I’ve spent a lot of time running solo raids, dying in stupid ways, and slowly figuring out what works. This guide covers everything I’ve learned about surviving and extracting as a lone raider. If you’re brand new to the game, check out our Arc Raiders beginner guide first, then come back here when you’re ready to go it alone.

The solo mindset

Here’s the most important thing to understand about solo play: you are not a soldier. You are a rat. And rats get the cheese.

That’s not an insult. It’s a survival philosophy. Squads can afford to hold positions, push fights, and tank damage. You can’t. Your advantages are speed, a smaller profile, and the fact that nobody expects a solo player to be where you are. Lean into that.

The core rules for solo play:

• Avoid fights you don’t need. If you spot another player and they haven’t seen you, let them pass. Every fight is a coin flip when you’re alone.
• Extract early. If you find one good item or finish one quest, get out. Greed kills solo players more than anything else in this game.
• Stay moving. Lingering in one spot lets squads converge on you. Loot fast, move fast, extract fast.
• Use free loadouts to learn. The free loadout option costs you nothing on death. Use it to learn map layouts, extraction points, and ARC patrol routes before risking real gear.

Solo loadouts

Your loadout as a solo needs to cover two things: getting out of bad situations and staying alive long enough to extract. You don’t need the highest DPS setup. You need reliability and escape tools. For a deeper look at weapon rankings, check our weapons tier list.

Budget build (low risk)

Use this when you’re learning a new map or don’t want to risk expensive gear.

Slot	Item	Why
Augment	Looting Mk. 2	Better loot from containers, more value per raid
Shield	Light Shield (Green)	Cheap, replaceable, still blocks a hit or two
Primary	Anvil Hand Cannon	Solid mid-range damage, common ammo
Secondary	Il Toro Shotgun	Emergency close-range when things go wrong
Quick Use	5x Herbal Bandages, 3x Smoke Grenades	Healing + escape
Safe Pocket	Raider Hatch Key, Zipline	Guaranteed extraction + vertical escape

High-end build (serious raids)

Once you’re comfortable with solo play and have gear to invest, this setup gives you real survivability.

Slot	Item	Why
Augment	Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor)	HP regen when low, keeps you in the fight without burning meds
Shield	Medium Shield (Blue)	Good protection without heavy movement penalty
Primary	Venator Pistol (Lvl 4)	Accurate, fast, great for picking off bots and players at range
Secondary	Vulcano Shotgun	Devastating up close when cornered
Quick Use	1x Vita Spray, 5x Surge Shield Rechargers, 3x Smoke Grenades, 2x Blaze Grenades	Full healing kit + offensive option
Safe Pocket	2x Jolt Mines, Snap Hook	Trap setups + mobility without a zipline

The Survivor augment is the real star here. When your HP drops, it starts regenerating on its own, which means fewer moments where you’re standing still with a bandage out.

Skill tree priorities for solo

Your first skill points should go into two things, no exceptions: Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs. Marathon Runner reduces your sprint stamina cost. Youthful Lungs increases your total stamina pool. Together, they let you run circles around squads who invested in combat skills first.

After those two are maxed, your priorities shift:

1. In-Round Crafting (Survival branch) is your #1 unlock after stamina. Being able to craft bandages and shield rechargers mid-raid means you can go in lighter and stay out longer.
2. Conditioning branch for HP and damage resistance. Solo players eat a lot of chip damage from ARC bots, and every extra hit point matters when there’s nobody to revive you.
3. Looting perks for better container rewards. More value per raid means fewer raids needed, which means fewer chances to die.

For a complete breakdown of every branch, see our skill tree builds guide.

⚡ Quick tip: Don’t invest heavily in combat skills early. You’re a solo player. Your job is to avoid fights, not win them. Combat skills matter later when you’re running high-end raids with expensive loadouts worth protecting.

Stealth and movement

Movement is everything for a solo raider. Most of your deaths will come from being spotted, not from losing a fair fight. Here’s how to stay invisible.

Holster your weapon. You sprint significantly faster with your weapon put away. This is the single biggest speed advantage most new players don’t know about. Yes, you’re vulnerable for the draw time, but a solo player who can’t be caught doesn’t need to shoot.

Slide on every slope. Sliding down hills is fast, makes you a tiny target, and regenerates your stamina while you move. Any time you see a downhill slope, use it. It’s free speed.

Go prone in bushes. If you spot another player or squad, don’t panic. Find the nearest bush, go prone, and stop moving completely. Players in this game have a hard time spotting someone who isn’t moving, especially in vegetation. I’ve had full squads walk right past me.

Melee is your stealth weapon. Suppressed rifles are still loud. Your melee weapon is completely silent and can one-hit weaker bots like Ticks and Wasps. It’s also great for quietly taking out alarms and turrets without alerting everything in a 200-meter radius.

Use smoke grenades aggressively. A single smoke grenade will save your life more than any gun upgrade. Pop smoke when extracting, when you’re being pushed, or when you need to cross an open area. Squads hesitate to push into smoke because they can’t coordinate their fire.

Extraction strategy

Extraction is where solo raids go wrong. You’ve spent ten minutes looting carefully, you’ve got a bag full of good stuff, and now you need to get out. This is the part that kills people.

Raider Hatches are your best friend

Elevators and subways are loud, slow, and predictable. Squads camp them. ARC converges on them. They’re death traps for solo players.

Raider Hatches are the opposite. They’re quiet, they’re fast, and they don’t broadcast your location to every player on the map. The catch: you need a Raider Hatch Key.

How to get keys:

• Buy from Shani’s shop for 9,000 Credits (one per 24 real-world hours)
• Craft at the Workbench Utility Station for 50 Plastic Parts + 6 ARC Alloy
• Complete Hatch Repair quests for key rewards

Always put your Raider Hatch Key in a Safe Pocket slot before deploying. If you die with it in your regular inventory, it’s gone. In your Safe Pocket, it survives death, which means you always have an extraction option on your next run too.

When you activate a Raider Hatch, the door only stays open for 15 seconds. Miss that window and the key is consumed without extraction. Don’t fumble this. Clear the area, activate, and walk straight in.

If you must use an elevator

Sometimes you don’t have a key and the elevator is your only option. Here’s how to handle it:

• Scout first. Use binoculars or a scope to check for campers before committing. Look for players prone near the extraction zone.
• Let someone else go first. If another squad triggers the elevator, let them deal with the chaos. The fighting creates noise that covers your approach, and you can slip in during the aftermath.
• Use decoys. Noise emitters or fake flares can bait squads into revealing their positions before you commit to the extract.
• Smoke the platform. Pop smoke right on the elevator as you call it. You need maybe 10 seconds of cover. One smoke grenade buys you that.

Using ARC to your advantage

Most players treat ARC bots as obstacles. Solo players should treat them as tools.

When a squad is chasing you, run through an ARC patrol. The bots will aggro on everyone, splitting the squad’s attention between you and the machines. While they’re dealing with Snitches and Grunts, you’re putting distance between yourself and them.

Lure grenades are especially effective for this. Toss one near an ARC cluster when a squad is pushing your position, and watch the bots redirect toward the enemy team. It won’t kill them, but it buys you 10-15 seconds of chaos to reposition or extract.

One more thing: learn the ARC patrol routes on each map. They’re mostly consistent. Knowing where the bots walk means you can either avoid them entirely or lead enemies into them on purpose.

Solo vs squads mode

The Headwinds update added a dedicated Solo vs Squads matchmaking option. It does exactly what it sounds like: you drop in alone against coordinated three-player squads. In exchange for the disadvantage, you get a flat 20% XP bonus on every action. If that sounds too aggressive, the opposite end of the spectrum is Friendly Lobby, where other players can’t attack you at all.

This mode is not for beginners. It’s designed for level 40+ players who are comfortable with the maps and confident in their movement. But if you’re at that point, the XP bonus makes it one of the fastest ways to level up. The weekly trials are another strong solo progression path, offering guaranteed rewards without the risk of losing gear to other players.

Tips for Solo vs Squads:

• Third-party everything. Wait for two squads to fight, then clean up the survivors while they’re healing. You’ll never win a fair 1v3, but a 1v1 against a wounded player after a squad fight? That’s winnable.
• Play the edges. Don’t drop into the center of the map. Work the perimeter where fewer squads roam and loot is less contested.
• Hit-and-run. Take a shot, relocate immediately. Never stay in the same position after firing. Squads will pinch you from multiple angles if you give them time.
• Know when to bail. The 20% XP bonus only matters if you extract. A dead raider gets nothing. If the raid is going sideways, cut your losses and leave.

Best maps for solo

Dam Battlegrounds is the most solo-friendly map. The water towers and Marano Park area have consistent rare spawns without the heavy traffic of central zones. You can complete quests and farm materials here with relatively low squad interference.

Buried City (Bird City condition) rewards the patient solo player. The chimney nests can contain epic items, and the abundance of ziplines makes for quick rotations when things get hot. Learn the zipline network and you’ll always have an escape route.

Stella Montis is tougher for solos because of its tight corridors and limited escape routes. If you run it solo, stick to the outer edges and avoid the central structures where squads tend to set up.

Frequently asked questions

Wrapping up

Solo play in Arc Raiders is a different game. You’re not competing on damage or firepower. You’re competing on awareness, speed, and decision-making. Every raid is a risk-reward calculation: is this loot worth the extra 30 seconds in the danger zone?

The best solo players I’ve watched share one trait: they leave early. They grab what they came for and they get out before the map gets hot. There’s no shame in a short raid with a clean extract. That’s a win.

Start with free loadouts, learn the maps, get comfortable with Raider Hatch locations, and build your skills from there. You’ll still die. Everyone does. But you’ll die less, and the raids where you slip out with a bag full of rares while squads are busy fighting each other? Those feel incredible.

For more Arc Raiders content, check out our PvP guide for combat-focused loadouts and techniques, and our inventory management guide to make sure you’re keeping the right loot, our weapons tier list for the full breakdown on every gun in the game, and our trials guide for earning guaranteed weekly rewards.