IN ARC Raidersthe skill tree is an important aspect of the game that determines how players interact with the world, move around it, and even fight other players. There are some pretty strong skills in all three sections, from resource gathering buffs to smoother movement, but there are a few in the long list that players should avoid, at least in the beginning. The problem is that players can only get so many skill points, which means that even when they reach max level, there will still be a few slots locked, meaning that there are tough decisions to be made about which ones to prioritize over others.
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Some skills are quite obviously weaker than others, giving the player only a small bonus that doesn't really change their game much. Others seem to have quite a powerful effect, but in practice the skill ends up doing next to nothing in the context of an actual raid, basically just becoming a stepping stone to the next set in the tree. It's important to plan ahead when choosing skills, as the later ones require a huge investment to achieve, so if players want to unlock these safes quickly, they need to know where to best put their hard-earned points and not waste them on weaker buffs.
Hero's Leap
Worse than it sounds
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Negligible distance gained, if any
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Skills like stamina regeneration become more valuable
When players first look deeper into the mobility skill tree, Heroic Leap actually sounds like a pretty good bonus that not only applies to literally every single game, but also gives them a significant amount of extra mobility, which can be invaluable given how large some maps are. In practice, however, the extra length is essentially non-existent, adding what is effectively less than one button input in the direction of rotation.
The mobility tree itself is known for having fairly average skills, many of which appear to be useful but turn out to be rather mediocre. The last two skills are pretty cool, one vaulting costs no stamina and the other allows players to add a vault to the end of their jumps, but luckily players can unlock both without maxing out Heroic Leap. Arguably, a little extra distance in each throw can add up over the course of a match and the sweep is a bit faster, but most of the time there is no real distance between a player with or without skill.
Roll effortlessly
Not a big enough difference to matter
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One extra roll at max level while walking
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No meaningful gain, not even at five points
Effortless Roll is in a special category of stamina-based skills that sound great on paper but don't do much in reality. The idea of being able to roll a few extra times, or having enough stamina at the end of one roll to keep running, is appealing, and many players have sought out this skill directly in wakefulness, assuming it's as effective as it sounds. However, expectations may not always match reality, as the actual reduction in stamina is borderline unnoticeable, especially in the context of an actual raid.
List of weapon tiers in ARC Raiders
Here are the weapons available in ARC Raiders, sorted by tier list.
While walking, players may gain one extra roll when walking at 3rd level and above, but there is no functional difference when sprinting. Even when players have maxed out their stamina and fully upgraded virtually every other mobility-related skill, the advantage still doesn't seem to exist, leading many players to question whether the skill is bugged or kept intentionally weak for balancing purposes.
Browse before you go
Simply better options
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Only useful when shot down
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A small speed boost that doesn't affect survivability too much
It's never nice to go down ARC Raiders. When playing alone, unless a kind soul comes along with a defibrillator, chances are the player will just slowly bleed out and lose all gear. Being able to crawl faster can potentially be a game-changer when you're playing with a team, but even then it's heavily dependent on being able to revive teammates once they crawl into cover. Movement while being shot down also actually speeds up the bleeding process, meaning that moving around faster may help the player reposition, but it won't stop or even slow down the actual timer.
There are some very fringe cases where this skill could actually be used to great effect in solo play. The Looting Mk 3 augment allows players to regenerate health while down, effectively allowing them to stay alive forever even if they've been shot down. Combine this add-on with the crawl skill, and suddenly players have another escape option, provided they can get away from whoever shot them. Still, even in this particular scenario, it's likely that the other player or someone nearby will come in to quickly finish the job, removing any potential utility the skill could have gained.
Crawling turtles
Not a hard enough shell
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Practically useless in many cases
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Marginal chances of saving the player, but overall not worth it
The developers at Embark sure love their knockdown skills, and Turtle Crawl is one such perk that, one, only kicks in when the player is knocked down, and two, does basically nothing when they are. On the comedic side of things, the idea of crawling and having a stockier body like a turtle is kind of fun, but there's virtually no use case in the game where players would ever want or need to be a bit stronger on the ground.
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If they need a skill that works after being knocked out, Downed But Determined will give them a longer bleed period that could actually help them survive long enough for a teammate to pick them up again. But being harder to kill while traversing just doesn't make any practical sense, because it doesn't matter if the enemy raider has to spend an extra bullet or two; the player dies regardless. It would be nice to be able to sustain ranged fire a bit better, as there are scenarios where the extra HP could matter, but in virtually every situation the player is either out there so they'll be shot in no time, or hidden enough to be revived by a teammate so health didn't matter in the first place.
Blast-Born
It won't save you from tinnitus
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Minimal impact in most games
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An early skill that should never be rushed
Sound is a very important aspect ARC Raiders it can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful extraction. Knowing where players or Arcs are coming from is invaluable information, so the concept of having much sharper ears during intense moments sounds like a lot. The Blast-born skin reduces the ringing and cluttering noise of nearby explosives, allowing players to listen to the chaos to hear the subtlest sounds of movement. Yet in an actual raid, those loud crashes and bangs are still more than loud enough to mask footsteps and gunfire, even for the best of listeners.
If this skill had a much more meaningful impact on those bigger hits, it might be a nice extra piece to help in close range PvP encounters, especially those around explosive Arcs. But this skill is really nothing more than a mild sound reduction that still leaves players with ringing ears and disoriented vision while doing nothing to actually protect against the blast itself. The skill is at the beginning of the tree and can basically be used as a stepping stone to better skills like Survivor's stamina, but for the most part players should avoid investing more than one point.
