This ARC Raiders crafting guide is for players who keep extracting full inventories of Common materials and never know which ones to keep. The crafting system rewards understanding vendor relationship leveling, not hoarding. Most of what looks like complexity at hour five resolves into three rules at hour twenty: craft the Ferro early, level Tian Wen and Celeste before the others, and stop hoarding Common materials once you can craft what they go into. This guide is those rules unpacked, with recipes and vendor level structure that make them actionable.
If you haven't completed your first ten runs yet, the ARC Raiders beginner guide covers gear slots, zones, and Speranza basics that this guide assumes you already know.
TL;DR: Craft the Ferro battle rifle as your first major build — two rubber parts and five metal parts at Tian Wen, no vendor level required. Level Tian Wen and Celeste first; their workbenches gate the most useful early-to-mid recipes. Don't hoard Common materials past the Ferro stack — sell them at the matching vendor for relationship XP. Blueprints from Red zones unlock recipes above your vendor level. Hatch Keys are craftable at Shani once your relationship clears the threshold.
Key Takeaways
- Ferro craft first: 2 rubber parts + 5 metal parts at Tian Wen, no vendor level requirement
- Five vendor workbenches in Speranza — Tian Wen (weapons), Celeste (materials), Apollo (gadgets), Shani (Hatch Keys/recon), Lance (general supplies)
- Vendor level gates recipes — selling items and completing contracts at a vendor levels their workbench
- Blueprints unlock specific recipes above your vendor level — Red zones drop the rare ones
- Craft over buy when both options exist — material cost is consistently lower than vendor price
- Hoard until your first Ferro craft — after that, sell common materials for vendor XP
- Hatch Keys are craftable at Shani — cheaper than buying when you're running with crafted gear
What ARC Raiders Crafting Actually Does
Crafting in ARC Raiders runs through the five vendor workbenches in Speranza. You can't craft in the field. Every recipe requires returning to the central hub between runs, opening the relevant vendor's workbench, and spending materials you've extracted from raids. Materials and weapons all carry to and from runs through your stash. The Safe Pocket protects what you brought in; everything else stays in stash.
The system rewards two things: vendor relationship leveling and material discrimination. Vendor levels unlock the recipe pool — you can't craft a tier-3 Tian Wen weapon at Tian Wen level 2. Material discrimination means knowing which Common materials to keep for crafting and which to sell for vendor XP. Hoarding everything is the trap most new players fall into. By hour 20 they're carrying inventory they'll never use because the recipes that need them are six vendor levels away.
The ARC Raiders loot guide breaks down which materials to keep versus sell on a session-by-session basis. This crafting guide is the upstream version of that — what you should be working toward, so the loot decisions make sense.
The Five Vendor Workbenches
Each vendor's workbench is independent. Leveling Tian Wen does nothing for Celeste's recipe pool. Plan your selling and contract completion around which workbench you want to advance.
Tian Wen (Weapons): Craft the Ferro, weapon variants, and weapon parts. Levels through selling weapons (intact damaged weapons sell for more in component value than scrap). The most important workbench for the first 30 hours.
Celeste (Materials and Farming Supplies): Crafts basic ammunition tiers, Crafting Catalysts, and material conversion recipes. Levels through selling raw materials. Crucial early because she sells the basic materials you'll buy back later.
Apollo (Gadgets): Crafts grenades, deployable sensors, trip wires, and tool consumables. Levels through gadget sales and Apollo-specific contracts. Lower priority than Tian Wen and Celeste unless you're running squad support builds.
Shani (Hatch Keys and Reconnaissance): Crafts Hatch Keys, ARC scanners, and reconnaissance tools. Critical once you're running with crafted gear that can't be replaced quickly. Hatch Keys give silent extraction — losing your loadout to a contested Cargo Elevator is a Shani-level problem.
Lance (General Supplies): Crafts armor repair kits, healing items, and general consumables. Lower-tier priority for most builds. Lance is where you go after Tian Wen and Celeste hit their useful plateaus.
Step-by-Step: How to Approach Crafting
Step 1 — Get the Ferro stack before doing anything else
Run two White or Orange zones with the goal of collecting two rubber parts and five metal parts. Both are Common materials with reliable drop rates from container loot and downed ARC units. Once you have the stack, return to Speranza and craft the Ferro at Tian Wen.
The Ferro requires no vendor level. This is the only S-tier weapon in the game with no relationship gate. From the ARC Raiders weapons tier list: "The Ferro battle rifle — craftable from two rubber parts and five metal parts" — this is the foundation craft for the rest of the game.
Step 2 — Level Tian Wen with damaged weapon sales
After the Ferro craft, your goal is Tian Wen relationship XP. The most efficient way: sell damaged weapons you collect from PvP kills and ARC drops. Damaged weapons return more in component value than in straight credits — Tian Wen specifically pays out vendor XP plus components when you sell weapons in any state.
Don't repair weapons before selling unless you're keeping them. Repair cost eats the margin you'd get from selling damaged.
Step 3 — Level Celeste alongside Tian Wen
Celeste levels through raw material sales. Once you have a stable Ferro stack and aren't building toward another weapon recipe, sell excess Common materials to Celeste for relationship XP. The early Celeste recipes — Crafting Catalysts and conversion items — multiply your effective material yield in mid-game. They're worth chasing in parallel with Tian Wen, not after.
Step 4 — Use blueprints to skip vendor levels
Blueprints drop in Orange and Red zones. They unlock specific recipes immediately, regardless of your vendor level. A Rare blueprint for a tier-4 Tian Wen weapon is craftable at Tian Wen level 1 if you have the materials.
Blueprints are why Red zones are worth running even when their loot value seems comparable to safer zones. The recipe access from a single Rare blueprint can outpace 20 hours of vendor relationship grinding.
The Tian Wen workbench. Two rubber parts and five metal parts produces the strongest primary weapon in the current meta. No vendor level required for this specific recipe.
GODEEPER: Why the Ferro is the best primary in the current meta — and which weapons earn the second slot when you've got resources to build a full kit. ARC Raiders Weapons Tier List →
Step 5 — Craft Hatch Keys at Shani once you're running crafted gear
Crafted weapons and armor cost real materials to replace. The moment you're running a Ferro plus crafted armor into Orange or Red zones, your loadout is worth protecting. Hatch Keys give silent Raider Hatch extraction — no Cargo Elevator noise drawing PvP attention to your exit.
Shani's relationship needs to clear the Hatch Key recipe threshold before you can craft them. Sell reconnaissance items and complete Shani contracts to push that level up.
Step 6 — Apollo and Lance only when squad role demands it
Solo players rarely need Apollo or Lance crafts in the first 50 hours. Squad support builds — designated tank, scout, demolition — benefit from Apollo's gadgets earlier. If you're running solo, Tian Wen, Celeste, and Shani cover the entire core kit. Apollo and Lance become useful once your build branches into specific roles.
For how squads divide crafting responsibility across players, the ARC Raiders best squad loadouts guide covers role splits — the same logic applies to which member levels which workbench.
Recipe Priority Order
Recipes worth chasing in approximate order, given a fresh account that has cleared the first ten runs:
- Ferro battle rifle — Tian Wen, no vendor level. Foundation craft.
- Light armor set — Celeste tier 1, low Celeste level. Protects against most ARC light damage.
- Crafting Catalyst — Celeste mid-level. Multiplies output of subsequent material crafts.
- Hatch Keys — Shani mid-level. Silent extraction capability.
- Tier-2 Tian Wen weapons — depends on which weapon types you favor; secondary builds.
- Apollo grenades — Apollo low-mid level if you're running squad demolition.
- Lance repair kits — Lance low level, useful once your armor durability matters.
This sequence assumes you're not chasing specific blueprints. A Rare blueprint changes the order — when you have one, prioritize the materials for that recipe before continuing through the default queue.
Tips
Don't repair weapons you plan to sell. Repair cost cuts into the component value Tian Wen pays for damaged weapons. Sell damaged, repair only what you keep.
Craft armor before chasing the second weapon. A Ferro plus light armor outclasses a Ferro plus Standard armor in most engagements. The damage reduction from a tier-1 craft armor set extends your survivability more than a sidearm upgrade does.
Track Common material thresholds, not absolute counts. You don't need 20 metal parts. You need enough to craft the Ferro plus a backup, then sell the rest. Keep 10 metal parts and 4 rubber parts as your standing reserve. Anything above that goes to Celeste for vendor XP.
Blueprints are worth Red zone runs even when loot is thin. A single Rare blueprint can unlock a recipe that would take 30 hours of vendor leveling to access naturally. The blueprint drop rate in Red zones makes them worth the risk for builds in this stage.
Apollo grenades are dramatically more efficient than purchased grenades. Crafted grenades cost a fraction of their purchase price in vendor value. If you're running grenade-heavy builds, Apollo levels become a multiplier on your effective grenade economy.
Save your Crafting Catalysts for Rare-tier crafts. They multiply yield, which means they're wasted on common items where the multiplier doesn't matter. Use them on Uncommon-and-up tier crafts where the gain compounds.
Speranza's workbench area. Five vendor workbenches, each gated by relationship level. Plan crafting around which vendor track is closest to its next recipe unlock.
GODEEPER: Vendor relationship leveling, contract completion paths, and which credits to spend at which workbench across the full progression curve. ARC Raiders Currency and Progression Guide →
Common Mistakes
Hoarding Common materials past the Ferro stack. Common materials accumulate fast. Past the standing reserve of 10 metal and 4 rubber, every additional Common is an inventory slot you could be using for materials that actually progress your crafting queue. Sell to Celeste, take the relationship XP.
Leveling Apollo before Tian Wen. Apollo's craftables matter for squad support builds and grenade-heavy playstyles. For most players, Apollo's level-1 recipes are not load-bearing. Leveling Apollo first delays the Tian Wen crafts that change your run economy.
Ignoring blueprints because they're for weapons you don't currently use. Blueprints have stash value. Even a blueprint for a weapon you don't plan to run is worth keeping — vendor levels will eventually outpace its access tier, but blueprints don't degrade in value the way Common materials do once you've crafted the recipes that consume them.
Crafting tier-1 items at vendor level 5+. Tier-1 crafts plateau in usefulness. If your vendor relationship has progressed past tier-3 access, the tier-1 recipes are mostly XP-burning crafts at this point. Skip them. Spend materials on the highest-tier craft your access allows.
Buying Hatch Keys instead of crafting them. Once Shani's relationship clears the Hatch Key recipe, the credit cost of buying becomes irrelevant — material cost is dramatically lower. Crafting your Hatch Keys is a 10-second decision that pays off across every silent extraction run.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does crafting work in ARC Raiders? Five vendor workbenches in Speranza, each with independent relationship leveling that gates their recipe pool. Materials extracted from runs are spent at the vendor's workbench to craft weapons, gadgets, and consumables. Blueprints from runs unlock specific recipes above your vendor level. The short version of this ARC Raiders crafting guide: craft the Ferro first, level Tian Wen and Celeste before the others, use blueprints from Red zones to skip vendor levels.
What is the best weapon to craft? The Ferro battle rifle. Two rubber parts and five metal parts at Tian Wen's workbench. No vendor level required. Outperforms most legendary weapons against ARC machines.
How do you unlock more recipes? Two paths: vendor relationship leveling (sell items and complete contracts) and blueprint drops (Orange and Red zones). Blueprints unlock specific recipes immediately, regardless of vendor level.
Can you craft Hatch Keys? Yes, at Shani's workbench. Shani's relationship level needs to clear the Hatch Key recipe threshold first. Crafting is dramatically cheaper than buying once unlocked.
Should you craft or buy weapons? Craft when the recipe is unlocked. Material cost runs roughly half the vendor purchase price for comparable weapons.
Which vendors should you level first? Tian Wen and Celeste in parallel. Tian Wen for weapons (the Ferro and progression weapon variants). Celeste for materials and Crafting Catalysts that multiply later crafts.
Do crafted weapons survive death? No. Crafted weapons are lost on death like any other inventory item. The Safe Pocket is the only slot that survives. Plan loadout craft frequency around your expected death rate.
References
- ARC Raiders on Steam — official store page, current patch notes, weapon balance updates
- ARC Raiders Official Site — Embark Studios' developer page with crafting system documentation and Flashpoint update notes
- ARC Raiders Weapons Tier List — full S through D weapon ranking with build context
- ARC Raiders Loot Guide — what to keep, sell, scrap with Safe Pocket priority
- ARC Raiders Currency and Progression Guide — credit flow and vendor relationship XP paths
