In ARC Raiders, crafting supplies come from almost every successful Topside activity: search containers and loose loot, strip destroyed ARC machines, investigate hidden caches and supply meteors, recycle unwanted gear, buy listed materials from Celeste, and complete quests. The fastest way to target one missing item is to open Inventory → Crafting, select its recipe, and use Acquire Resources to see the sources currently available in your build.
That menu is more reliable than a static farming route because loot categories, recipes and spawn behavior can change with updates. Use a dedicated Medical area when you need laboratory reagents, protect blueprints in your Safe Pocket, and extract before a full pack or escalating ARC and player pressure turns useful materials into a lost run.
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What counts as a crafting material in ARC Raiders?
Materials are the resources consumed by field recipes, workshop stations, Scrappy requirements, quests and the Expedition Project. They range from ordinary scrap and wires to rare components, ARC Powercells, cores and schematics. You do not need to memorize every spawn: the crafting interface filters recipes by materials you currently hold and identifies ways to obtain what is missing.
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That description explains the central loop. You enter a map, gather resources, decide what is worth carrying, craft or recycle when appropriate, then extract so the materials reach your stash. Materials left in a raid bag when you are eliminated do not advance your workshop.
Every reliable source of materials
Search ordinary containers and loose items
Start with the broadest source: containers and objects scattered throughout each map. Search cabinets, boxes, shelves, tool areas and loose components rather than sprinting only between objective markers. Community documentation groups this loot into three practical tiers:
- Base materials: scrap, wires and basic components used by common recipes and early workshop tasks.
- Advanced materials: powercells and rarer components that support more demanding recipes and upgrades.
- Special materials: cores, schematics and unique items that are often tied to high-value crafting, quests or progression.
Container density matters more than a single named object. A building cluster with many searchable rooms can produce more useful supplies per minute than an isolated high-value container, especially when you are still collecting basic components.
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Destroyed ARC units leave remains that can be searched. The community guide describes a useful, but not guaranteed, pattern: standard units tend to provide common materials, elites are associated with rare materials, and bosses can provide epic or unique materials. Treat those descriptions as guide-level weighting, not an official drop-rate table. A dangerous fight is not automatically profitable if the remains are exposed to other players or far from extraction.
Risk supply-meteor events for premium loot
Supply meteors can contain rare or epic materials, weapon schematics and ARC Powercells. Their value is balanced by visibility: the event attracts competing raiders and additional ARC threats. Approach only when your squad has a retreat plan, enough healing and ammunition, and a nearby extraction option. If the meteor site is contested, leaving with ordinary loot is often better than trading a full backpack for one uncertain high-tier container.
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Investigate hidden caches
Less-traveled locations can hide caches in abandoned buildings, underground bunkers, ARC facility ruins and caves. Some caches require a key or a hacking interaction. Add these places to a route when you already have the required access item; making a special detour without it spends time and increases exposure without improving the haul.
Use traders and quest rewards
Traders can sell materials shown by the Acquire Resources list, including purchases from Celeste when she is listed as an available source. Quests also provide materials and can award blueprints. Check the crafting screen before spending currency so you know whether buying one component completes a recipe or merely substitutes for a material you could have gathered safely.
Use the crafting screen to locate a missing item
Embark’s ARC Raiders UI/UX team describes the Acquire Resources feature as “a streamlined way to acquire missing materials directly from the crafting screen.” It turns the recipe into a live checklist instead of a guess about map spawns.
- Open your inventory and choose Crafting.
- Select the item or recipe you want to make. The interface shows the materials you have and the materials you still lack.
- Choose Acquire Resources. Review the sources it lists, such as recycling or buying from Celeste.
- Pick the lowest-risk source that fits your current run. If recycling supplies the shortfall, return to your inventory and select an expendable item.
- Craft the item after confirming that the conversion will not consume a component reserved for a quest or workshop upgrade.
The list is build-dependent. Patch changes can alter recipes, loot categories, stash capacity and UI behavior, so treat the current in-game list as the authority for your installation.
Field Recycling: when breaking items down is worthwhile
Field Recycling lets you dismantle an item immediately. Select the item and choose Recycle; the resulting materials are available for crafting without waiting for extraction. This is useful when a recipe is one conversion away and the item has little value for a quest, workshop upgrade or sale.
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Check these conditions before recycling
- Confirm the item is not a quest objective or a component named by an active workshop requirement.
- Compare the conversion with the Acquire Resources list. Recycling is efficient only when it supplies the material you actually need.
- Keep rare schematics, cores and unique items unless the recipe explicitly requires a duplicate and you understand the loss.
- Do not dismantle a high-value sellable merely to gain a small amount of a common component; currency may be the better long-term resource.
Recycling is an instant conversion, not a way to increase total value. Use it to finish a specific craft or reduce pack pressure, not as an automatic action on every item.
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Laboratory reagents have a more focused route than general scrap. PC Gamer identified the Hospital in Buried City as the best location at the time of its guide, describing it as the only area then classified solely as Medical. Search both containers and loose objects: cabinets, boxes, countertops and chemical stands can all hold reagents.
Alternative Medical and Research areas
If the Hospital is contested, empty or too far from your extraction plan, reported alternatives include:
- Research areas near the Hospital in Buried City.
- Pharmacies at Plaza Rosa and Piazza Arbusto.
- The Testing Annex in Dam Battlegrounds.
- The Medical Research area in Stella Montis.
These alternatives are reported locations rather than guaranteed spawn points. Use Acquire Resources to confirm that the current build still recognizes the area as a useful source, then search methodically instead of checking one counter and leaving.
A safe reagent run
- Set the laboratory-reagent recipe as your objective before deploying.
- Enter with enough space for medical loot and one or two contingency items; do not fill the pack with low-value scrap on the approach.
- Search the Hospital’s cabinets and boxes first, then sweep countertops and chemical stands for loose reagents.
- If the building is heavily contested, rotate to a listed pharmacy or research area rather than forcing a fight for a single room.
- Extract as soon as the recipe requirement is met unless the remaining route also advances a quest or blueprint objective.
How to find blueprints and add their recipes
Blueprints are most reliably found in locked-room containers and can also appear as quest rewards. A blueprint is not useful until it is extracted and learned at Speranza.
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- Search locked rooms when you have the key or hacking capability. Keep enough inventory space to carry a schematic out.
- When possible, move a valuable blueprint into the Safe Pocket during the run. This protects it if the rest of the backpack is lost.
- Extract successfully and return to Speranza.
- At the appropriate workshop station, choose Learn and Consume. The action adds the recipe to that station and consumes the blueprint item.
Do not sell or recycle an unlearned schematic simply because its immediate resale value looks attractive. The recipe unlock can be worth more than the short-term payout, particularly for a blueprint needed by a workshop upgrade or recurring field craft.
What to keep, recycle, sell or leave behind
Backpack decisions become important because the available storage is finite. PC Gamer’s 2025 tally counted 1,195 materials across 62 unique items used for quests, Scrappy, workshop upgrades and the Expedition Project, and reported a 280-item maximum stash. Those figures are a practical warning: keeping every object is impossible, and the exact totals can change with patches.
Priority order when space is tight
- Active quest items: keep materials named by a current objective.
- Workshop requirements: preserve components needed for the next station upgrade you intend to make.
- Rare schematics and blueprints: protect them in the Safe Pocket when possible and extract.
- High-value sellables: retain items with meaningful trader value after checking that they are not needed elsewhere.
- Common materials: keep enough for your immediate recipe plan, then recycle or leave duplicates when the pack is full.
Use the crafting and Acquire Resources screens before selling. A material that looks like surplus may be the only component for a quest, Scrappy task or workshop tier you have not yet reached.
When selling beats recycling
Sell true surplus to traders after checking quest and workshop requirements. Selling is preferable when the item converts into only a small amount of a common resource but has useful currency value, or when your stash already contains more of that resource than your active recipes require. Recycling is preferable when it completes a recipe immediately and the item has no protected progression role.
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Plan routes by value, danger and time
No single map route is best for every material. Compare a proposed route on five axes before deploying:
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| Route factor | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Material category or loot weighting | Choose Medical areas for reagents, ordinary buildings for base components, and high-tier encounters for rare or unique materials. |
| Container density | Prefer compact clusters of searchable rooms when you need many common items quickly. |
| ARC and PvP danger | Increase the expected value only when your gear, squad and escape plan can handle the added threat. |
| Distance to extraction | Shorter returns protect a successful haul and reduce the time spent carrying irreplaceable schematics. |
| Objective overlap | Favor routes that also progress a quest, blueprint hunt or workshop upgrade. |
Dedicated Medical locations can outperform general routes for reagents, while meteor events and elite or boss remains trade higher potential value for higher danger. The right choice is the route that meets your current requirement with the least avoidable exposure, not the route with the most dramatic loot table.
A repeatable material-farming run
- Define one primary target. Select the recipe, quest or workshop upgrade that matters this deployment.
- Open Acquire Resources. Note whether recycling, Celeste, a named area or a particular loot category is available.
- Build a route with an exit. Put the densest relevant containers first and keep a realistic extraction path rather than adding every possible detour.
- Search by category. In a Medical run, sweep cabinets, boxes, counters and chemical stands; in a general run, search containers and loose components across a compact building cluster.
- Reassess after each major find. If you obtain the required amount, stop taking unnecessary fights. If a blueprint appears, protect it and shorten the route.
- Convert only with a reason. Recycle an expendable item when it completes the recipe; otherwise preserve flexibility until you can check requirements in Speranza.
- Extract before greed compounds risk. A second meteor, distant cache or boss remains is optional once the primary objective is secured.
- Process the haul. At Speranza, learn blueprints with Learn and Consume, complete the intended craft, and sell only verified surplus.
Common mistakes and their fixes
Following an old spawn map exactly
Static guides cannot guarantee every spawn or drop rate. Loot categories, recipes and interface behavior can change. Fix the problem by checking Acquire Resources immediately before the run and treating map advice as a probability, not a promise.
Ignoring loose loot
Reagents and components can sit on countertops, chemical stands or other surfaces rather than inside a marked crate. Sweep the entire room after opening containers.
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Fighting for premium loot without an exit
Meteors, elites and bosses can produce better materials but also draw ARC and player attention. If the route has no safe extraction or your pack is already valuable, disengage instead of escalating.
Selling a progression item
Quest materials, workshop components and unlearned schematics can look like ordinary valuables. Check active objectives and workshop requirements first, and use the Safe Pocket for a blueprint you cannot afford to lose.
Carrying everything until the stash fills
The reported 280-item stash maximum and the large number of distinct material uses make indiscriminate hoarding impractical. Organize around current objectives, keep a useful reserve of common components, and convert or sell verified surplus.
What is and is not guaranteed
No authoritative complete table establishes drop rates or guaranteed spawn points for every material on every map. Community descriptions of standard, elite and boss remains, meteor contents and hidden-cache locations are useful for route planning but are not official guarantees. The Hospital’s Medical classification and the alternative reagent areas are also time-sensitive observations. Confirm the current build’s behavior through the in-game Acquire Resources list, especially after a patch.
The dependable principles remain consistent: loot broadly Topside, specialize your search when the material category is known, use recycling and trader purchases deliberately, protect blueprints, and extract before risk outweighs the value of another room.
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