ARC Raiders ARC Kill Guide: Best Weapons & Tactics

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The fastest way to kill ARC in ARC Raiders is to stop shooting centre mass and start shooting the glowing core: core hits land for roughly 1.5–2× body damage, which means a Bastion that takes about 90 body shots dies to roughly 55 core shots from the same gun. Pair that with a mid-calibre assault rifle (a Ferro-class weapon covers most encounters), fight from elevation with an exit behind you, and you cut both your time-to-kill and your exposure to third parties. Everything below is the specific weak points, approximate damage values, weapon picks by situation, and positioning rules that make solo and squad ARC kills efficient.

What actually decides how fast an ARC dies

Three multipliers stack, and most players only use one of them.

• Hit location. Every ARC has at least one exposed core — a glowing lens, vent, or panel. Core damage is roughly 1.5× on light ARC and up to 2× on heavy ARC once armour plates are stripped. Shooting the chassis is the single biggest DPS loss in the game.
• Ammo class vs. armour. Light ammo (SMGs, pistols) chews through Ticks and Wasps but gets heavily reduced against Bastion plating. Heavy ammo and explosives ignore most of that reduction. Bringing light ammo to a heavy ARC fight is a losing trade even at perfect accuracy.
• Sustained fire vs. burst. Heavy ARC have short windows where the core is exposed — after a slam, after a rocket volley, after a shield break. A weapon that can dump 20+ rounds in that window outperforms a higher-damage-per-shot weapon that forces you to reload mid-window.

ARC weak points and damage values at a glance

The table below uses a mid-tier medium-ammo assault rifle firing core hits as the reference weapon (roughly 30 damage per body shot, 45 per core hit). Figures are approximate community measurements for the current patch cycle — ARC health, armour values, and weak-point multipliers are adjusted in balance patches, so confirm current numbers in the in-game firing range before you build a loadout around them.

*Approximate, core hits only, single mid-tier weapon. A marksman rifle roughly halves the shot count against Rocketeers and Bombardiers; light ammo roughly doubles it against Bastions.

Best weapons for ARC hunting

Best overall: a mid-calibre assault rifle

An assault rifle on medium ammo is the only class that answers every ARC tier without a hard counter. It has enough rate of fire to exploit short core windows on heavy ARC, enough range to work a Rocketeer at 60 m, and enough ammo efficiency that you can clear a raid’s worth of small ARC without restocking. The trade-off is that it’s never the fastest option at anything — a shotgun beats it against Ticks, a marksman rifle beats it against a distant Bombardier. If you only carry one gun, carry this one.

Best for solo: a marksman rifle

Solo players have the worst exposure problem, and a marksman rifle solves it by letting you kill from outside the ARC’s retaliation range. Heavy ammo also sidesteps the armour reduction that makes light-ammo builds miserable against Bastions and Bombardiers. The trade-off is severe: a slow rate of fire means a missed core shot costs you real time, and you are nearly helpless if a squad pushes you inside 15 m. Pair it with an SMG or pistol as a secondary rather than relying on it alone.

Best for swarm clear: a high-RPM SMG

Ticks, Wasps, and Fireflies are the ARC that actually kill players — not through damage, but by forcing movement that exposes you to other raiders. A high-RPM SMG clears a swarm in one magazine and costs almost nothing to feed, which matters because swarm ammo is the biggest recurring drain on your stash. Do not bring it as your primary to a heavy ARC fight; light ammo against Bastion plating is close to throwing bullets away.

Best for heavies: grenade launcher or LMG

Explosive damage largely ignores plating, so a grenade launcher is the fastest legal way to open a Bastion or Bombardier. The trade-off is ammo weight — explosives take up stash and inventory space disproportionate to their shot count, and splash can damage you at close range. An LMG is the safer alternative: a large magazine means you never reload mid-core-window, which is the most common reason heavy ARC kills go wrong.

Best budget start: shotgun plus pistol

Early on, a shotgun and a reliable pistol will kill every light ARC and every medium ARC inside 15 m, which is most of what you’ll meet. Shotguns are also the cheapest way to break Bastion leg plates if you fight one in a stairwell or alley. The trade-off is that you simply cannot contest a Rocketeer or Bombardier at range, so treat those as fights to avoid rather than fights to take.

The six-step ARC kill loop

1. Identify the ARC before you shoot. Tick chatter sounds different from a Leaper’s servo whine, and engaging the wrong tier with the wrong gun is the most common cause of a lost raid. Listen first.
2. Pick your ground before your target. Get elevation or a hard corner between you and the ARC, and know which direction you’ll retreat. ARC push predictably; players do not.
3. Break armour before chasing the core. On Bastions and Bombardiers, shots into plating do almost nothing. Strip the plates first, then switch to the core — this is why an LMG’s large magazine outperforms a higher-damage weapon that has to reload.
4. Fire in the exposure window only. Heavy ARC expose their core after a slam, a volley, or a shield break. Firing during the armoured phase wastes ammo and gives away your position.
5. Reload behind cover, never in the open. Nearly every death in an ARC fight happens during a reload. Break line of sight, reload, re-peek.
6. Leave before the loot. Gunfire draws raiders. Loot fast, move immediately, and don’t re-engage a second ARC group from the same position.

Positioning: where to stand

ARC have a leash range and a turn rate, and both can be exploited. Stand above them where possible — most ground ARC cannot elevate to reach you, and their projectiles arc. Keep a solid object within two steps so you can break line of sight for reloads. Fight with your back to your extraction route, not into the map, so a lost fight becomes a retreat rather than a death. And never fight ARC in open ground with three or more sightlines onto you; the ARC is rarely what kills you in that position.

Solo vs. squad: the differences that matter

Solo, your job is to fight fewer ARC at once. Pull single targets with sound or a single shot, kill from maximum range, and skip every heavy ARC that isn’t blocking your route. A solo Bastion kill is a 15-second commitment during which you are completely deaf to approaching players — that’s the real cost, not the ammo.

In a squad, split roles explicitly: one player on core damage with a heavy or medium weapon, one on swarm clear with an SMG or shotgun, and one watching the flanks rather than shooting. The third role is the one groups skip and the one that gets them killed. Call armour breaks out loud so the core-damage player knows when to switch targets.

Worked example: what a Bastion kill actually costs

Assume a Bastion core with roughly 2,600 effective health once its plates are stripped, and a reference assault rifle doing about 45 per core hit. That’s 58 core hits. At ~600 RPM, pure trigger time is under 6 seconds — but you’ll break line of sight twice for reloads at roughly 2.5 seconds each, plus 3–4 seconds repositioning between exposure windows. Realistic time-to-kill lands at 14–18 seconds.

Ammo cost is two 30-round magazines, or roughly two stacks of medium ammo. Swap to a grenade launcher at ~180 splash per shell on the core and the count drops to about 15 shells — three magazines, meaningfully faster, but triple the inventory weight. That trade is worth it when you’re farming Bastions deliberately and not worth it when a Bastion is incidental to your route. Either way, the fight is usually worth taking: two stacks of medium ammo costs a fraction of what a heavy ARC drops, so the only genuinely bad outcome is losing the gun.

Durability, consumables, and the mistakes that kill you

• Weapon durability wears fastest on sustained fire. LMGs and SMGs degrade quickest because they put the most rounds downrange per raid. Carry a repair kit on long runs rather than discovering the problem mid-fight.
• Ammo is the real consumable. Light ammo evaporates against swarms; heavy ammo is scarce and heavy. Budget your stacks per raid before you leave, not after.
• Common mistake: shooting armour. Players empty a full magazine into a Bastion’s chest plate before realising nothing is happening. Break plates first.
• Common mistake: reloading in the open. If you die mid-ARC fight, this is almost always why.
• Common mistake: fighting the second ARC group. The first fight is the one you planned for. The second is the one that gets third-partied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do you shoot an ARC for bonus damage?

Shoot the glowing core — a lens, vent, or exposed panel depending on the ARC type. Core hits do roughly 1.5× body damage on light ARC and up to 2× on heavy ARC once armour plating is stripped. On Bastions and Bombardiers you must break the plates covering the core first, because shots into plating deal heavily reduced damage.

What is the best weapon for killing ARC in ARC Raiders?

A mid-calibre assault rifle on medium ammo is the best single answer, because it handles every ARC tier without a hard counter and has the rate of fire to exploit short core-exposure windows. Specialise only when you know your route: a marksman rifle for solo work at range, an SMG or shotgun for swarm-heavy areas, a grenade launcher or LMG for heavy ARC.

Can you shoot down Rocketeer rockets?

Yes — incoming rockets are destructible, and doing so is far cheaper than eating the damage or spending a heal. The practical problem is that shooting rockets means you’re not shooting the core, so in a squad the overwatch player should handle rocket interception while the core-damage player keeps firing. Solo, dodge rather than intercept unless you have no cover.

How much ammo does it take to kill a Bastion?

Roughly 58 core hits with a reference medium-ammo assault rifle, which is about two 30-round magazines, or 70–90 shots if you’re hitting the body instead of the core. A grenade launcher cuts that to about 15 shells because explosive damage largely bypasses plating. Always break the leg and chest plates before counting your shots.

Is it worth fighting ARC solo?

Light and medium ARC, yes — they’re quick, low-risk, and drop useful materials. Heavy ARC solo is a judgement call: the ammo and time cost is manageable, but a 15-second fight leaves you deaf to approaching players, which is the actual danger. Skip heavies that aren’t blocking your route.

Do other players hear you fighting ARC?

Yes. Gunfire is one of the loudest tells in the game, and a long ARC engagement broadcasts your position to every squad in earshot. That’s why the kill loop ends with leaving immediately: the fight itself is survivable, but lingering over loot in the same spot is what turns a clean kill into a third-party death.