ARC Raiders Enemies & Combat Glossary

ARC are the mysterious machines that ravaged the surface of Earth, and in ARC Raiders they are the enemy you meet in every single round. Some are small enough to hide in the rafters of a house; others tower over the buildings and need a whole squad. Knowing where each one is weak and what it does when it spots you often decides how a raid ends.

This glossary names every ARC type currently in the game, grouped by size and role, including the three machines added by the Frozen Trail update on 8 October 2026. It also covers the combat words around them: armor and weak points, ammo types, shields and what happens when you are downed. Health and damage values change between patches, so we describe behavior, not figures.

ARC	Type	Main threat	Where to hit it
Tick, Pop, Fireball, Comet	Small, ground	Latching, explosions, fire	Any hit for Ticks and Pops; open cores
Wasp, Hornet, Firefly, Snitch, Spotter	Small, flying	Gunfire, stuns, flames, calling help	Thrusters
Turret, Sentinel	Stationary	Sustained fire, long-range shots	Sentinel: yellow canister on its arm
Leaper	Large, ground	Crushing leaps, shockwave	Eye, leg joints
Bastion	Large, ground	Gatling bursts	Knee joints, rear canister
Bombardier	Large, ground	Long-range mortar	Knee joints, rear cylinder, its Spotters
Rocketeer, Vaporizer	Large, flying	Missiles, burning laser	Thrusters, exposed core
Shredder	Medium, hovering	Shrapnel in all directions	Thrusters
ARC Turbine	Huge, flying	Lightning missiles, mines	Spinning parts once it lands
Queen, Matriarch	Boss	Everything at once	Core and leg joints after the plates come off
Bully, Skulker, Hydra	New in 2.0	Aggression, ambush, triple turret	Still being mapped by players

ARC and their alert lights

ARC is the name for every hostile machine Topside. They notice you by sight and by sound, including the noise of breaching a door or container nearby.

The color of an ARC's scanner light tells you its mood:

• Blue: patrolling, nothing found yet.
• Yellow: it saw or heard something and is coming to look.
• Red: it has a target and is attacking.

Shoot a blue machine and it can jump straight to red. Destroyed ARC can be searched for parts, and almost every type drops one unique part of its own (a Tick Pod, a Bastion Cell, a Queen Reactor and so on). Those parts are what workshop upgrades and trades ask for: the Gunsmith, for example, needs Wasp Drivers from destroyed Wasps. Damaging and destroying ARC also gives experience.

Armor plating and weak points

You can read an ARC's defenses from its paint:

• Matte white plating is unarmored. Every weapon hurts it, stronger rounds more so.
• Shiny dark gray plating is armor. Weak rounds bounce off it; enough damage strips the plate and exposes what is underneath.
• Bright yellow parts are weak points: leg joints, canisters, fuel tanks and cores. Hits there go straight to the machine's health.

Flying ARC also depend on their thrusters. Destroy two of them and the machine loses control and crashes, often taking heavy damage from the fall. Raiders can even climb onto some large ARC and shoot from on top of them.

Frozen Trail reworked how explosives hit ARC. Explosive weapons such as the Hullcracker now deal over 50% more damage to armor plates but around 30% less to fragile parts, so explosives are better at cracking heavy armor and slightly worse at finishing exposed weak points.

Ammo types

Every weapon uses one of six ammo types, and with few exceptions the ammo type decides how well a weapon gets through ARC armor:

Ammo	Weapons
Light Ammo	Kettle, Stitcher, Bobcat, Hairpin, Burletta, Stiletto
Medium Ammo	Rattler, Arpeggio, Canto, Renegade, Venator, Torrente, Osprey, Tempest
Heavy Ammo	Ferro, Anvil, Bettina, Bantam
Shotgun Ammo	Il Toro, Vulcano
Launcher Ammo	Rascal, Hullcracker
Energy Clip	Jupiter, Equalizer, Aphelion, Dolabra

Light rounds bounce off armored shells such as a Fireball's, while heavy ammo pierces ARC armor and is the usual answer to armored machines. Ammo comes from Tian Wen's shop, crafting, the ground and destroyed machines: Wasps drop Light Ammo, Hornets Medium Ammo. Since Frozen Trail, Launcher Ammo and Energy Clips have a daily purchase limit at the traders.

Ticks, Pops, Fireballs and Comets

• Tick: a small spider-like machine that waits on ceilings and rafters, then leaps at your head, clings on and drains health and shield. Hold the interact button to tear it off. One swing of the Raider Tool destroys it, which saves ammo; you usually hear Ticks before you see them.
• Pop: a rolling bomb. It speeds toward you beeping faster and faster, then explodes. Pops guard large indoor areas together with Fireballs.
• Fireball: a rolling machine with an armored shell that opens to fire a flamethrower. Once you are burning, the damage keeps ticking for a few seconds. Shoot the core when the shell opens, or use heavy rounds on the shell.
• Comet: a heavier roller that charges groups of Raiders and detonates in a wide shockwave. It splits its shell open just before it blows, and hitting the inside then destroys it early. Embark removed Comets from standard Dam Battlegrounds sessions in April 2026 to keep that map friendly to beginners.

Wasps, Hornets, Fireflies, Snitches and Spotters

• Wasp: a small, fast drone with a rapid-fire gun that strips shields in seconds, usually patrolling open ground in groups.
• Hornet: a lightly armored drone that fires a slow stun round, stunning you briefly and draining your shield. Its front thrusters are armored; the rear ones are not. The projectile is slow enough to dodge roll.
• Firefly: a heavily armored drone with a flamethrower. When it attacks it exposes a yellow fuel tank, the place to shoot.
• Snitch: an unarmed scout with a spotlight scanner. If it sees you it alerts nearby ARC and calls reinforcements down from orbit, so kill it before its calls finish. Snitches are fragile once a couple of thrusters are gone.
• Spotter: a pair of drones that work for the Bombardier, holding a marking laser on you so its mortar can find you from far away. Destroy both and a new pair arrives after a while.

Turrets and Sentinels

A Turret is a crude fixed gun found inside buildings. Its sweeping scanner is visible, so an alert Raider can avoid it, and it has no armor, so a few rounds of any ammo destroy it. A Sentinel is a bigger turret on rooftops and ledges outdoors, watching open ground from a distance. It follows you with a laser; when several beams converge on you, a heavy shot is coming, and it will fire at your last known position if you duck away. The yellow capsule on the back of its swiveling arm is its weak point.

Leaper

The Leaper is a fast four-legged brute that jumps huge distances to land on Raiders, hurting anyone near the impact even on a near miss, and it releases a shockwave at close range. Its weak points are the eye and the leg joints. Leapers guard high-risk areas and often travel with smaller ARC. Fire is a popular answer: a Blaze Grenade on its body, then heavy rounds to finish. Another common tip is to fight it from behind a doorway too small for it to follow you through.

Bastion

The Bastion is a slow walking fortress covered in thick plating, armed with a gatling gun. It screeches, then sprays its last known target for a few seconds. The weak points are the yellow knee joints and a canister on its rear; breaking the canister peels back the rear plate and reveals a larger weak spot, and hitting the joints or canister stuns it briefly. Its unique part, the Bastion Cell, is needed for Gear Bench upgrades.

Bombardier

The Bombardier is a large walker with a long-range mortar, guided by its two Spotters. Kill the Spotters and it loses its eyes for a while. It has yellow knee joints and a yellow rear cylinder, is most open right after it fires a salvo, and punishes anyone who gets close with a shockwave. Its unique part, the Bombardier Cell, goes into Refiner upgrades.

Rocketeer and Vaporizer

The Rocketeer is a large flying ARC that guards valuable locations. Four yellow lasers turn red just before its missile volley, and a couple of hits can down a Raider. Fight it from solid cover and aim for the thrusters; losing two of them brings it down.

The Vaporizer is a large flying drone with a laser that leaves burning ground behind it and an energy shield it raises when grenades or other thrown items come its way. The shield blocks gunfire too, but it needs time to recharge after use, so a known tactic is to bait the shield out first and attack while it recharges. Frozen Trail adjusted its multi-target laser to leave a clearer window for dodging. Vaporizers also appear with Surveyors in the Close Scrutiny ARC Operation.

Shredder

The Shredder hovers just above the ground and fires bursts of shrapnel in every direction, which makes it deadly in rooms and corridors. Every so often it stops to charge a bigger blast: that pause is your window. Its thrusters are the weak point and explosives work well. It was first met in the halls of Stella Montis and now appears on other maps too.

ARC Turbine

The ARC Turbine arrived with Riven Tides in April 2026. It drifts calmly through the sky behind heavy armor and electrified defenses that make it almost impossible to hurt in flight. Provoke it and it launches cluster missiles that call down lightning, hitting hard and stunning. At some point it stops, scatters proximity mines below itself and lands; only then are the spinning yellow parts inside its landing-gear gaps exposed. Embark significantly increased its loot in July 2026.

Queen

The Queen is one of the largest ARC in the game, and you only meet her guarding a Harvester. She fires mortars from her dome that land around you and burst into fire, sweeps a laser that scorches the ground, and answers anyone up close with an EMP pulse or a ground slam. Shoot off armor plates, then hit the glowing core and the yellow leg joints. Since Frozen Trail, the better loot is in her leg pieces rather than the leg armor. Her unique part is the Queen Reactor.

Matriarch

The Matriarch is even more dangerous and appears only under her own map condition. She launches swarms of missiles that track you, throws gas and flashbangs, shields herself and summons other ARC, large and small, to protect her. Her legs stomp and knock Raiders down for a moment. Fighting her in the open rarely works; stay behind large, solid cover. Frozen Trail restored her full set of ranged attacks and, as with the Queen, moved the better loot into her leg pieces.

Bully, Skulker and Hydra

Frozen Trail added three new ARC on 8 October 2026, and tactics against them are still settling.

• Bully: an aggressive machine that Embark describes as machine-learned. It gallops straight at your position and keeps pushing with a range of lethal attacks; use cover and time your counterattack. Early reports name its leg joints, and its head when it opens up to fire, as weak points.
• Skulker: the opposite style. It lurks at the edge of your vision, strikes in a flurry when you slip up, then vanishes and reappears somewhere else.
• Hydra: a stationary turret split into three stacked sections that aim and fire on their own, built to handle whole squads. It guards the ARC Frigate and the fallen Emperor. Split its attention, stay near cover and attack between its volleys.

Parts from the Bully and the Skulker are among the materials for upgrading the Research Station in the new Outpost, and the Season 6 Trials include challenges built around both machines.

Surveyors, Probes, Couriers and husks

Not every ARC fights. These machines are mostly loot, with a catch:

• Surveyor: an armored rolling sphere that stops to beam a signal into the sky, exposing its core; the beam calls in an Assessor. It rolls away faster than you can sprint and rams you only if cornered.
• ARC Probe: lands during the round to collect samples. You can breach it with the Raider Tool for parts, but it beeps loudly for help while you work. Crashed probes can still be opened, with less inside.
• Assessor and Courier: unarmed machines. The Assessor comes down to take air and soil samples, and breaching it calls an ARC squad to its location; the Courier appears to carry ARC parts, which is what you find inside.
• Husks: wrecks of ARC from old battles, such as the Baron Husk, scattered around every map and searchable for parts. The Husk Graveyard condition adds many more.
• ARC Reclaimer: a drone that shuttles between the ground and the ARC Frigate during that condition.

Shields and augments

A shield is worn equipment that absorbs part of the damage you take. There are three: Light, Medium and Heavy. Which one you can equip depends on your augment, and heavier shields slow you down. A shield does not work like extra health: while it has charge it reduces a share of every hit, and the hit drains both its charge and its durability. A Shield Recharger fills the charge back up during a raid.

Frozen Trail made the Heavy Shield easier to live with: its movement penalty dropped from 15% to 10% and it loses durability more slowly. Wasp gunfire and Hornet stun rounds are especially hard on shields.

Downed, knocked out and revived

When your health runs out you are downed: you collapse and can crawl for a limited time. In standard rounds ARC stop attacking a downed Raider, and you can still crawl to an extraction terminal or a Raider Hatch, and since Frozen Trail you can open your map while down. A squadmate can pick you up, and a Defibrillator revives faster and with more health, on any Raider, squad or not.

If another Raider finishes you, or you give up, you are knocked out. You lose everything you carried except what was in your safe pocket, and anyone can loot your body. You still keep the experience from the round. Your equipped weapons also lose durability on a knockout (15% since April 2026), and so do augments. Looting knocked-out Raiders has no effect on your own matchmaking. During Embark's PvE toggle test, ARC can pick a downed Raider back up as a target after an eight-second grace period.

A whole squad going down together is a squad wipe; the dodge roll that avoids many ARC attacks is explained under combat roll.

Related terms

• ARC Raiders Maps, Extraction & Raid Terms: where each ARC lives, map conditions, exits
• ARC Raiders Loot, Crafting & Progression Terms: what the ARC parts are for
• General gaming terms: shooter aiming and gunplay · combat abilities