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What are the Skill Tree Branches?

Mobility (Yellow): Skills here improve your movement, stamina usage, and speed. This is vital for navigating the map, escaping danger, and reaching loot faster.

Survival (Red): Focused on crafting, inventory management, and overall sustainment in the field. This branch is essential for managing resources during longer raids and making sure you can handle more loot.

Conditioning (Green): This branch is all about managing weight, stamina, and staying active for longer. It includes buffs that help you stay agile even with heavy armor or when carrying significant loot.

Essential Early-Game Skills

When you start, there are a few skills that make a huge difference in your efficiency. Prioritize these for a smooth early-game experience:

Marathon Runner (Mobility)
This skill reduces stamina consumption while running, making it essential for early exploration. You'll find yourself running a lot to get loot or escape danger, and not running out of stamina is critical.

Youthful Lungs (Mobility)
This skill increases your maximum stamina, allowing you to sprint for longer periods without getting tired. Combined with Marathon Runner, you’ll become much more mobile early on.

In-Round Crafting (Survival)
This skill allows you to craft bandages and shields mid-raid, which is extremely helpful in high-risk situations when you’re low on health or need protection. Don’t underestimate the value of self-sufficiency when you're deep in a raid.

Looter’s Instincts (Survival)
This unlocks a faster container search, crucial for increasing your loot and experience. Whether you’re looking for rare resources or simply want to stockpile materials, this will make your loot runs much more efficient.

Broad Shoulders (Survival)
This skill increases your maximum carry weight, letting you extract more loot without becoming overburdened. Managing your carry weight is crucial, as it allows you to make the most of your scavenging efforts.

Recommended Progression Path

As you level up, balancing between movement, sustainability, and carry capacity will be important. Here's an efficient path for getting the most out of your points:

1. Mobility First (approx. 11-15 points)

Start by investing in the following to improve your mobility and stamina:

Nimble Climber (1/5): This makes your character quicker on climbs, which helps you avoid getting stuck in terrain or when trying to escape from enemy combat.

Marathon Runner (5/5): Max this out early to drastically reduce stamina consumption while running. This skill is your bread and butter for survival in the early-game.

Youthful Lungs (5/5): Max this skill to increase your stamina capacity. You’ll have more energy for running, climbing, and dodging.

2. Survival Utility (approx. 15-20 points)

Next, focus on ensuring you can craft and carry what you need while in the field:

In-Round Crafting (1/1): Unlocking this is important as it allows you to craft essential items like bandages and shields mid-raid, making you more self-reliant.

Traveling Tinkerer (1/1): This skill enhances your ability to craft on the go, improving your sustainment during long raids.

Broad Shoulders (5/5): Max out this skill to maximize your carry weight. This lets you carry more loot and lessens the risk of being encumbered when trying to extract valuable items.

3. Conditioning (Late Game)

As you approach higher levels, you’ll want to target skills that help with movement penalties and weight management. This is especially important for tougher raids and PvP combat:

Loaded Arms (1/1): Reduces the weight of your primary weapon, allowing you to carry heavier gear without penalties.

Used To The Weight (5/5): This skill removes movement penalties when carrying shields, letting you stay nimble even when heavily armored.

Playstyle Variations

Depending on whether you prefer to play solo or with a squad, you might want to prioritize different skills. Here’s how to tailor your build based on your playstyle.

1. Solo Players

Solo players need to focus on stealth, mobility, and self-sufficiency. You won’t have teammates to rely on, so you’ll need to minimize detection and maximize your ability to gather loot efficiently:

Silent Scavenger (Survival): This skill reduces the noise you make while looting, allowing you to avoid detection by enemies.

Suffer In Silence (Survival): This skill ensures that you can stay hidden even when you’re low on health, keeping you from giving away your position during critical moments.

2. Squad Players

If you’re playing with a team, you’ll want to focus on skills that improve your survivability and help your teammates:

Crawl Before You Walk (Conditioning): This allows you to move faster while downed, which can make all the difference when trying to crawl to cover or safety.

Downed But Determined (Conditioning): This skill increases the time it takes before you die when downed, giving your teammates more time to revive you.

3. PvP Focus

For players who enjoy the thrill of PvP combat, a build that focuses on quick movement, stamina recovery, and dodging will be essential:

Three Deep Breaths (Survival): This skill helps you recover stamina quickly after being exhausted, so you can get back into the action without slowing down.

Effortless Roll (Mobility): This skill allows you to roll more frequently in combat, enabling you to dodge attacks and position yourself better during a fight.

Tips for Maximizing Your Build

Respeccing is Hard: Keep in mind that respecs are not easy in ARC Raiders—they require a full character wipe through the "Expedition" prestige system. Therefore, it’s important to think ahead and plan your skill tree allocation before committing to any particular path.

Balance is Key: While it’s tempting to max out one tree, the best builds typically offer a balance between mobility, survival, and conditioning. Going all-in on one area can leave you vulnerable in other aspects of the game.

Adapt to the Situation: Depending on the type of raid or encounter you’re facing, you may need to adjust your priorities. Always be prepared to tweak your playstyle to suit the challenges ahead.

Buy Arc Raiders Blueprints: If you're aiming to unlock more powerful weapons and equipment, remember that acquiring blueprints for new gear is key to progressing your build. Whether you’re looking for a specific weapon or armor set, buying Arc Raiders blueprints can help you craft exactly what you need for the next big battle.

In ARC Raiders, your skill tree is an essential part of your progression. It’s vital to prioritize skills that will improve your mobility, inventory management, and sustainment during raids. Whether you’re playing solo, with a squad, or focusing on PvP, balancing your skills will make sure you’re ready for whatever the game throws at you. Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll be able to make the most out of every raid.