The meta for Arc Raiders' Launch Day is now clear

With the slam playtest server down and the October 30th release date just around the corner, all eyes are on you ARC Raiders to deliver a much-needed shot in the arm to the extraction shooter subgenre. This piece of the gaming industry has been “hot new” for the past few years and has reached a level of popularity only mirrored by the Battle Royale formula.

This led to a flood of subpar and derivative games under the “extraction shooter” umbrella – but ARC Raiders promises to deliver something more. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Embark's entry into the extraction shooter space, not the least of which is its apparent firm grip on the genre's fundamentals. It is essential to ARC Raiders features a dynamic loot system combined with progression across runs through features such as the weapon bench and skill tree. As such, a different meta can be expected to develop over the game's lifespan, with one weapon likely to be a rising star from the start.

In this context, “meta” refers to whatever combination of weapons, skills, or general tactics the gaming community deems most effective at any given time.

ARC Raiders: Why Ferro could dominate at launch

The ARC Raiders ferro rifle is easy to control and has a high DPS ceiling

In a standard PvPvE extraction experience, the weapons that are easiest to access can often serve as the most ubiquitous – sometimes it makes more sense to optimize a low-level weapon than constantly trying to scale and adapt new strategies accordingly. The Ferro Rifle fits this description well, as there are only a few simple obstacles to its creation:

5x metal parts
2x rubber parts
Level 1 Workbench

So Ferro can comfortably be called a “starter gun”, but its damage-dealing potential isn't limited by that. At its core, the Ferro is a heavy single-shot breaching rifle, similar to what is often referred to as a “shooter” rifle in other games. In other words, it's slow but has incredible power. With his above-average range, Ferro can be an excellent resource for players with a keen eye for positioning, enemy movement, and route management.

Deals significant damage to other ranged Raiders and is also particularly effective against certain types of ARC machines. For example, drones like the Wasp and Hornet have small weak points that are hard to hit with pistols, assault rifles, and shotguns, but the Ferro's pinpoint accuracy and long range make the process much easier. The mobility of drone-type enemies, as well as the smaller grounded ARCs, can also be effectively countered with well-placed shots from Ferro.

And that's to say nothing of the weapon's upgrade path, which can reduce reload time by up to 39%. Since the Ferro's biggest mitigating factors are its long reload time and slow rate of fire, increasing the reload speed by more than a third of the baseline can be extremely effective. Ferro is once again one of them ARC RaidersThe most affordable weapons, and this is reflected in its modest upgrade requirements: only metal parts and simple weapon parts are needed to upgrade each level.

Field Depot Location Off Radar ARC Raiders

In addition to all these advantages, Ferro is simply fun to use, especially for those who love to balance risk and reward. Taking down sneaky ranged attacks with a powerful one-shot rifle is immensely satisfying and rewarding, and returns quite a bit of juice per squeeze. Since it's so easy to access and maintain, I could easily see it dominating ARC RaidersFirst days on the market. However, only time will tell if and how this will be affected by future balancing patches.