Since launch, Arc Raiders has kept players locked in with its intense, high-stakes gameplay. Survival is everything, which means staying efficient, moving smart, and reacting fast under pressure. With the right skills equipped, you can secure better loot and give yourself a real edge in every raid.
Arc Raiders features 45 skills across Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival. Below, we break down the best ones to help you survive longer, move smarter, and come out on top.
S-tier skills are must-haves thanks to their raw power and versatility across nearly every build. A-tier skills are strong picks that enhance specific playstyles and pair well with the right gear. B-tier skills are more situational, offering value in certain scenarios but requiring the right conditions to truly shine.
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Back On Your Feet | Gives you a critical buffer after taking heavy damage, helping you stay in the fight instead of going down when pressure spikes. |
| Fight or Flight | Grants a burst of stamina when you’re injured, letting you disengage, reposition, or escape before a bad fight turns fatal. |
| In-Round Crafting | One of the strongest skills in the tree, allowing you to craft items on the fly and extend both solo and squad survivability mid-raid. |
| Looter’s Instincts | Reduces the time you’re exposed while searching containers, keeping looting fast, safe, and efficient in dangerous areas. |
| Proficient Pryer | Dramatically cuts breaching time on locked doors and containers, giving you quicker access to high-value loot with less risk. |
| Survivor’s Stamina | Boosts stamina regeneration while injured and pairs perfectly with Fight or Flight for high mobility under pressure. |
| Slip and Slide | Improves slide distance without increasing stamina cost, making movement smoother and evasive during fights. |
| Used to the Weights | Reduces heavy gear penalties so you can carry shields and high-tier gear without sacrificing speed or mobility. |
| Vaults on Vaults on Vaults | Removes the stamina cost of vaulting entirely, keeping movement fluid and aggressive in tight combat spaces. |
| Youthful Lungs | Increases maximum stamina, making sprinting, repositioning, and stamina management far more forgiving during long raids. |
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| A Little Extra | Grants bonus loot when breaching containers, speeding up progression and making every successful breach more rewarding. |
| Blast-Born | Reduces sound dampening from explosions, helping you stay aware of your surroundings and avoid surprise ambushes. |
| Calming Stroll | Improves stamina regeneration while walking, making it ideal for prolonged fights and controlled repositioning. |
| Downed but Determined | Extends your bleed-out timer, giving you more time to manage encumbrance and secure valuable loot before going out. |
| Effortless Roll | Lowers stamina cost during dodges, boosting agility and allowing you to stay mobile longer in combat. |
| Flyswatter | Allows you to one-hit turrets and drones with melee attacks, making it a clutch option during chaotic engagements. |
| Gentle Pressure | Reduces the sound of your footsteps, making movement and breaching quieter and safer in high-risk areas. |
| Heroic Leap | Increases dodge roll distance, giving you more flexibility when attacking or escaping under pressure. |
| Loaded Arms | Helps maintain mobility while carrying heavy gear, making flexible and high-value loadouts easier to run. |
| Marathon Runner | Improves overall movement efficiency, perfect for long runs and high-encumbrance raids. |
| Three Deep Breaths | Speeds up stamina recovery after full depletion, helping you reset quickly during extended engagements. |
| Traveling Tinkerer | Expands in-field crafting options, giving you more flexibility and problem-solving power during raids. |
| Turtle Crawl | Increases durability while downed, improving your chances of surviving until help arrives. |
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Agile Croucher | Increases crouch movement speed, letting you stay low while repositioning quickly in tight or high-risk areas. |
| Broad Shoulders | Boosts overall carry weight, making it easier to haul heavy loot without constantly worrying about encumbrance. |
| Good as New | Speeds up stamina regeneration while healing, helping you recover faster and get back into the fight. |
| Looter’s Luck | Gives you a chance to score double loot, adding extra payoff to successful scavenging runs. |
| Nimble Climber | Improves climbing speed, making it valuable on vertical maps where quick elevation changes matter most. |
| Off the Wall | Extends wall leap distance, though its impact is limited since wall-leap opportunities are rare. |
| Revitalizing Squat | Enhances stamina regeneration while crouched, ideal for stealthy movement or holding defensive positions. |
| Ready to Roll | Extends Recovery Roll timing, helping prevent accidental fall damage and making movement more forgiving for newer players. |
| Security Breach | Unlocks access to unique lockers, offering extra loot and strong value on exploration-heavy maps. |
| Suffer in Silence | Reduces noise while injured, helping you slip away during escapes when staying quiet matters most. |
| Sky-Clearing Swing | Increases melee damage against drones, offering high payoff if you can safely get within range. |
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Carry The Momentum | Grants a brief window of stamina-free sprinting, letting you push forward or reposition without draining your meter. |
| Crawl Before You Walk | Slightly increases crawl speed while downed, though its impact is limited since you’re already vulnerable. |
| Effortless Swing | A key boost for melee-focused builds, improving overall combat flow and efficiency in close-quarters fights. |
| Minesweeper | Allows you to disarm explosives, but the long interaction time makes it risky during active raids. |
| One Raider’s Scraps | Provides a small chance to find extra field-crafted items while looting containers. |
| Stubborn Mule | Reduces the stamina regeneration penalty when carrying loot beyond your weight limit, helping you move more freely while overloaded. |
| Silent Scavenger | Lowers the noise you make while looting, offering situational value in stealth-heavy scenarios. |
| Sturdy Ankles | Reduces fall damage, making aggressive movement and risky drops more forgiving. |
| Unburdened Roll | Removes the stamina cost of a single dodge roll, giving you a free burst of mobility when it matters most. |
| Vigorous Vaulter | Reduces the speed penalty of vaulting while exhausted, keeping movement smoother during long chases or escapes. |
Wrapping it all together, picking the right skills in Arc Raiders is only part of the equation. Your build determines how you survive, move, and loot, but your controller setup decides how well you can execute under pressure. Even the strongest skills lose value if your aim feels inconsistent or your movement fights back.
That’s why dialing in your controls matters just as much as choosing the right perks. The right sensitivity, deadzones, and layout help you track targets more smoothly, react faster in PvPvE fights, and stay in control during chaotic escapes. When your settings and skills work together, every raid feels more manageable.
If you want to take that next step, make sure to check out our best Arc Raiders controller settings guide. Lock in your setup, build consistency, and give yourself the best chance to extract stronger after every run.