Rick Flair
The titular ARCs deserve to be in the name of the game. The threat they pose is no joke, and dying to them can be as easy as dying to the other player. Of course, you can avoid them, and that’s what you will do the majority of the time. But what if you really need to fight them? What if you need parts unique to this ARC? Well, then you have no other choice but to combat them. Here, we cover ARC Raiders’ enemy weaknesses, so that you know how to get out of the tricky situations scot-free. By the end of this article, you’ll find out what the weak points of the enemies are and which weapons are the best against them. You’ll also find out how to identify where to shoot if you forget what weak points the enemies have.
To fight the ARCs effectively, you need access to a variety of weapons at all times. Unfortunately, to create better weapons, you need blueprints. We have a service just for that. Check out our ARC Raiders Blueprints to get the blueprints for the game’s hardest-hitting weapons.
Read our other ARC Raiders guides:
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ARC Raiders Enemies Guide
We will go through every enemy type in the game and explain how to deal with them in this ARC Raiders enemies guide. The general rule of thumb is to shoot the engines for flying ARCs and aim for the core for ground-based ARCs. It’s easier said than done, though. Almost every ARC requires its own approach. In addition to showing you how to kill ARCs, we will also share the best weapons to use against each one. TL;DR, we recommend using Anvil against any normal ARC. It’s the only Heavy Ammo-using weapon in the game that has a decent fire rate. Against boss ARCs, the best weapon to be used is still Hullcracker, despite significant nerfs. Now, take a look at the handy table of the enemy weak spot locations in ARC Raiders:
| ARC Name | Weaknesses | Best Weapons | Tips |
| Snitch | Shoot 2 of the white rotors, and it will be destroyed. | Any medium ammo weapon except for Rattler/Anvil. | Don’t panic if it starts calling the reinforcements; shoot it down fast. If you do it quickly, it will not summon them. |
| Wasp | Shoot its engines to make it crash, or shoot the center of the mass with any fast fire-rate weapon. | Any weapon that has a decent fire rate. | Easiest enemy to deal with. Though shooting its engines is more effective, you’d have a better time just shooting its body. |
| Hornet | Shoot down its rear engines. It can be really tricky, so if you can, just unload a mag on its body. | Medium ammo weapons or Anvil. | One of the tougher ARCs to deal with. Frontal engines are protected by armor. To take its rear engines faster, crouch. This way, you’ll have an easier time aiming at them. |
| Tick | Hit it with melee, don’t waste ammo on it. | Virtually anything goes. | Once you hear the noise they make, start beelining. They won’t grab you if they can’t identify where you’re going. |
| Pop | Just shoot it with any weapon. | Light ammo weapon and up. | If you manage to destroy it even when it’s close to you, you won’t take any damage from it. |
| Fireball | Shooting its armor in the middle opens up a white underbelly. Two accurate shots are enough. | Fast medium ammo weapon or Anvil. | Try to gain some distance before shooting them, as they cover the area in fire when they die. |
| Turret | They’re mostly unarmored, so just shoot them. No weak spots. | Any weapon. | Play peek a boo with them. Hide behind the corner, and when it stops firing, pop out. |
| Sentinel | Find a place to hide and wait for it to fire. It’ll take 3-4 shots from a heavy weapon. No weak spots. | Anvil or at least a medium ammo weapon. | Sentinel typically monitors the open areas around specific locations. Hide behind the cover, as it does severe damage. |
| ARC Surveyor | This ARC occasionally opens its protective layer and emits a light beam. When it does so, throw a grenade near it. Bullets don’t deal enough damage to handle it quickly. | Snap Blast or Blaze grenades. | Less of an enemy, more of a loot goblin. Good and easy XP farm. |
| Shredder | Shoot the thrusters in the middle of its body. | Anvil or grenades are preferable. |
One of the most dangerous normal enemies. Shoot it and hide as soon as you hear its attack signal. Never fight without cover. |
And that concludes the list of normal enemies. As we mentioned, Anvil is a highly effective weapon against ARCs. One problem is that it’s not very good against raiders. The ammo flies too slowly to be effective at the distance. We recommend pairing it with another weapon for maximum effectiveness. Let’s focus on boss ARCs now. Here are some more of the best ways to kill ARCs in ARC Raiders:
| ARC Name | Weaknesses | Best Weapons | Tips |
| Leaper | The legs and the eye are its weak points. It is faster to kill it by damaging its legs. | Anvil, Hullcracker, or fire grenades. | One of the easier bosses to take down. Just try not to fight it in the open if you can’t deal with it fast. |
| Rocketeer | The engines and the white plating above the “eye”. Hitting the white plating is almost impossible as it’s always above you, hiding the weak spot. | Anvil, Wolfpack grenades, Jupiter. | A very dangerous boss. It moves a lot and shoots fast. Hiding behind a thin cover doesn’t help, since the rockets do AoE damage. Fight it from inside the buildings. Two Wolfpacks kill it instantly. Hullcracker used to be great against it, but after the nerfs, you have to hit the weak spots for it to be effective. |
| Bastion | The leg joints and the rear canister. Damage to the rear causes it to fail faster. | Anvil, Medium ammo weapon, Hullcracker, mines (esp. Deadline). |
Bastion can seem dangerous, but in a group, he poses no threat. Just stand on the opposite sides and start aggroing it in turns. Shooting the rear destroys it fast. Another strategy is to jump on top of it and set a mine. Deadline kills it almost instantly. |
| Bombardier | Same as Bastion | Anvil, Medium ammo weapon, Hullcracker, mines. | Bombardier is the most dangerous boss ARC. It launches missiles that deal massive damage, and it has Spotter drones that track you to the ends of the earth. Shoot them down first and then deal with the Bombardier. Same weak points as Bastion, so the strategy is the same. Always clear the Spotter drones when they respawn. |
| Queen | Leg joints, head core. | Hullcracker, Equalizer, Jupiter. | The head core is a much weaker point than its legs. If you have an Equalizer, you can crack the protective shell really fast and then go to town. If not, try to find higher ground and shoot the head center with a Hullcracker. Jupiter works fine, but it takes longer than just using Hullcracker grenades to its face. |
| Matriarch | Leg joints, head core, face plates. | Hullcracker, Equalizer, Jupiter, Wolfpack grenades. |
Matriarch is smaller than the Queen, but it constantly summons other boss ARCs to compensate for it. Its weak points are practically the same, with one significant difference. If you break the “face” plates, you can reliably target its weak spots. There are two of them, closer to the center of its “face”. Use Equalizer to break them, and then you can damage it even with a medium ammo weapon pretty reliably. Keep the Wolfpacks to clear the boss ARCs it summons. |
That concludes the list of enemies in ARC Raiders and the enemy weak points. Remember that almost every ARC has a weakness, but not every weapon can deal with it. If you have an intention to farm ARCs, always take two weapons with you and stock up on grenades. They’re very dangerous enemies, but curious Raiders are more dangerous. We don’t recommend taking Hullbreaker solo unless you already have a blueprint and sufficient materials. Now, let’s talk about how you can always identify weak points on ARCs even if you forget them. BLOG20
ARC Armor Types Explained
The ARCs in the game are color-coded. You can accurately identify their weak points just by looking at them. Different kinds of plating have different colors. Understanding what they mean can help you reliably shoot their weak points. Let’s have ARC armor types explained:
- Unarmored Plating: White coloring. Any weapon can damage unarmored plating, but the higher the ARC armor penetration, the better. Medium ammo weapons can quickly break it.
- Armored Plating: The armored parts are gunmetal-colored. To even damage them, you need at least medium ARC armor penetration. Light ammo will not do any damage to it whatsoever. Usually, armored plating protects the unarmored one. Breaking armored plating reveals the enemy's weak points.
- Weak Points: Yellow-colored spots. As every game ever taught us, if you see a bright yellow spot on the enemy, that’s the weak point. ARC Raiders is no exception to this rule. Leg joints, engine thrusters, ARC Surveyor’s beacon, all of them have yellow elements on them. Shoot them to deal the most damage to the enemy.
With this knowledge, you can now efficiently deal with any ARC, even if you forget their weak zones. Mag dumping the ARCs doesn’t always work. Trust us, we’ve had enough encounters with Fireballs with nothing but a Stitcher on our hands. If you do not deal with the ARCs effectively, you’ll be chewing through your ammo. They’ll end before you do everything you need in the raid.
ARC Enemy Tips
If you want to deal with ARCs even better, we’ve prepared a short list of ARC enemy tips. They’re not so much pieces of advice against specific ARCs, but a general list of ideas. They apply to all enemies in the game. Check out some of the best tips to fight enemies in ARC Raiders:
- Avoid Unnecessary Encounters: It’s funny to give this as a first tip, but it’s true. Don’t fight the ARCs, unless needed. They constantly respawn, and you won’t have enough ammo to deal with all of them. To add to that, you grab unnecessary attention when shooting.
- Fight the Flying ARCs Next to the Walls: Sometimes, just one right bullet to the thruster is enough to destroy the ARC. They take damage from crashing. If they hit the wall after you destroy one of the engines, they die instantly.
- Use ARCs as a Distraction: Bad position to take the fight? Want to distract other players with enemies? Just shoot any ARC close to them, use a Lure grenade, or a Snitch Scanner. This can win you time, if not the shootout. Pro Tip! Trigger the boss ARCs if you think there are enemies in that direction. If you shoot it, then hide, you might see it get reaggroed.
- Observe the ARCs: ARCs aren’t just enemies; they give you information. If you’re up high, observe what the ARCs are doing. If you see a blue scanner, then the ARCs are calm. If you see a yellow scanner, it means a player has alerted it. If you see a red scanner, it’s aggressive and will fight the player.
- Listen for Audio Cues: ARCs are hard-hitting, but fair. They always give you a chance to avoid their attack. Listen to the specific sounds they emit before attacking. Learning the timings will help you avoid damage even when not looking at the ARC.
- Loot Previously Destroyed ARCs: It’s a great source of experience, as ARCs give between 200 and a whopping 1000 XP per part looted.
Using these tips will help you stay out of trouble and avoid creating one yourself. Remember that you don’t need to be a good shooter, but a smart one. Only this way will you survive long enough to bring out lots of goop.
Conclusion
With this guide, you now know how to deal with every enemy in ARC Raiders. Remember, just because you can destroy the ARC doesn’t mean you have to. Be vigilant when traversing Topside and make sure you’re dealing with ARCs efficiently, whether it’s battling them or using them for info. See you in the other guides, raider. More are coming soon.
F.A.Q
What are the weaknesses of each enemy in ARC Raiders?
Most often, they are white or yellowish parts of their hull. Shoot them to make sure you deal good damage.
How do I defeat boss enemies in ARC Raiders?
It really depends on the boss you’re fighting, but the rule of thumb is that you always shoot for the legs. If it’s a Rocketeer, then shoot its engines. If it’s a Queen or Matriarch, the head core.
What’s the best weapon to use against armored enemies in ARC Raiders?
Generally, Anvil is always the safest choice if you think you’re going to be dealing with lots of ARCs. It can even destroy boss ARCs if there’s a need for it.
How do I counter flying enemies in ARC Raiders?
Shoot their engines. It will make them crash, or you’ll deal enough damage to destroy them.
Do ARC Raiders bosses have unique weak points?
Yes! The Queen’s weak point is her Head Core. Same for Matriarch, but the Matriarch also has weak spots on its faceplate.
