ARC Raiders Loot Guide: What to Keep, Sell, or Scrap

New players die with full inventories of Common rubber parts while the Rare blueprint that changes their entire crafting queue disappears because there was no room. This guide is about not doing that.

The ARC Raiders loot guide covers which materials to keep, which to sell for vendor relationship XP, and which to scrap for components — plus Safe Pocket priority for the items that need to survive your death.

Key Takeaways

• Safe Pocket first: Fill it before you do anything else — quest items, blueprints, Rare materials
• Common materials are expendable once you have the Ferro crafting stack (2 rubber parts, 5 metal parts)
• Sell intact weapons to Tian Wen for vendor XP; scrap damaged weapons for component parts
• Hatch Keys from Shani are worth keeping in the Safe Pocket when running crafted gear
• Don't hoard Uncommon components for crafting you won't do this session — sell excess for vendor levels

The Three Categories

What to Keep

Keep anything with a specific crafting purpose in the next one or two sessions, and anything rare enough that losing it would set back progression.

Always keep:

• Quest items — they go in the Safe Pocket, no exceptions
• Exotic blueprints from Red zone containers
• Rare crafting materials you don't yet have surplus of
• Hatch Keys (one or two per run; extras can sell)
• Materials for active crafting projects — rubber parts and metal parts if you're working toward a Ferro

Keep situationally:

• Uncommon components if Tian Wen or Lance has an upgrade recipe you're close to completing
• Crafted weapons above your current equipped tier

What to Sell

Sell to the correct vendor for relationship XP. That XP unlocks better stock tiers and crafting recipes — it compounds over sessions.

• Intact weapons below your equipped quality → Tian Wen
• Excess Common and Uncommon crafting materials you have surplus of → Celeste
• Gadgets and deployables you won't use → Apollo
• Augments and med supplies above your current needs → Lance

Selling a weapon to Tian Wen earns more vendor XP than scrapping it, as long as the weapon is in reasonable condition. Don't sell damaged weapons — they're worth more as components.

What to Recycle

Recycling (the in-game term for breaking items down) returns crafting components. It's the better outcome for items too damaged or too low-quality to sell at useful value.

• Heavily damaged weapons — the component return beats the vendor price
• Common materials you've hit surplus on (5+ of any single type you're not actively crafting)
• Lower-tier weapon attachments that don't fit your current builds

The decision rule is simple: if a vendor would pay less for it than the components are worth to you, recycle it.

Safe Pocket Priority

The Safe Pocket is the only inventory space that survives death. Filling it correctly is a separate skill from general inventory management.

Priority order, highest to lowest:

1. Quest items — non-negotiable, always go first
2. Exotic blueprints — impossible to replace without another Red zone run
3. Rare crafting materials — same logic; these don't come from White zones
4. Hatch Keys — if you're running crafted gear, the key that lets you extract silently is worth protecting
5. Highest-value crafted weapon — last resort if slots remain

Never leave the map with an empty Safe Pocket. If nothing higher-priority qualifies, put the most valuable Common material you're carrying in there. Something always goes home.

Knowing your extraction routes before you're loaded down with loot is half the inventory strategy. The extraction points closest to high-value container clusters determine how much risk you're accepting per run.

The Safe Pocket starts at one or two slots and expands through Survival skill tree progression — upgrading it is covered in the ARC Raiders skill tree tier list as one of the highest-priority early investments.

Scrappy in Speranza. Certain crafting materials feed him for rewards — another reason not to sell or scrap everything at the first vendor you see.

Per-Vendor What to Sell

Celeste handles raw materials and farming supplies. Excess Common materials — anything you have more of than your next two crafting projects require — goes here. Don't dump everything; keep the components for the Ferro crafting stack (two rubber parts, five metal parts) until you have a reliable surplus.

Tian Wen handles weapons. This is where intact, usable weapons below your current equipped quality go. Selling weapons here is the fastest way to level up the vendor relationship, which unlocks better stock tiers and higher-tier crafting recipes. The Ferro is available at base vendor level; the Canto SMG and Anvil require relationship levels 2 and 3 respectively — selling consistently gets you there.

Apollo is Speranza's traveling mechanic. He handles repairs and equipment-related services. Items in his trade category that fall outside your active build are worth bringing to him rather than carrying excess inventory back across multiple runs.

Lance handles augments and medical supplies. Surplus medkits above what a session typically consumes and passive augments outside your current build go to Lance. His relationship level unlocks the stat modifiers that stack quietly across runs.

Shani doesn't buy general loot — she sells. She's the vendor for Hatch Keys, binoculars, and reconnaissance tools. The ARC Raiders beginner guide covers why Hatch Keys are worth the purchase: silent extraction with no alert radius is worth the resource cost every time you're carrying anything you'd rather not lose.

Quick Decision Reference

Tips

Don't hoard speculatively. If you're keeping Uncommon components "because they might be useful later," sell them. Vendor relationship XP has an immediate return; speculative crafting materials just occupy inventory. Keep what you'll use in the next session.

Check vendor stock before selling. Tian Wen's stock refreshes on a schedule. If he's carrying an upgrade you want, sell to him first to push toward the relationship level that unlocks it, then buy. Checking stock takes 30 seconds and prevents the situation where you sold the materials you needed that same run.

Crafted gear changes the math. Once you're running a crafted loadout (Ferro plus Anvil, for example), the Safe Pocket gets more valuable because you're running something worth protecting. Adjust your Safe Pocket contents to include more weapon protection and fewer raw materials as your gear improves.

Feed Scrappy before selling. Scrappy, Speranza's resident rooster mascot, acts as a resource producer — he generates materials after each raid and accepts certain items in return for bonuses. The Scrappy Feeding Boost was added in patch 1.22.0. Check his current feed requirements before dumping surplus materials into Celeste — what he accepts may be worth more as feed than as vendor coin.

Repair before scrapping. A weapon at low durability is worth less to a vendor. If the repair cost is low relative to the vendor price gain, repairing before selling nets more. If the repair cost exceeds the delta, scrap it instead. This calculation changes as vendor relationship levels increase and prices improve.

For a full picture of which weapons are worth building toward, the ARC Raiders weapons tier list covers the Ferro, Dolabra, and every other weapon ranked for both PvP and PvE.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I put in my Safe Pocket? Quest items first. Then exotic blueprints, rare crafting materials, Hatch Keys. A crafted weapon you can't afford to lose goes last if slots remain. Never leave the map with an empty Safe Pocket.

Should I sell or scrap weapons? Sell intact weapons to Tian Wen — vendor XP return is better than scrap value. Scrap damaged weapons — their component return beats what a vendor pays for compromised gear.

What is the best material to keep? Rubber parts and metal parts (Common tier) until you have a reliable Ferro crafting stack. After that, prioritize Uncommon components for active upgrade recipes.

What do vendors buy in ARC Raiders? Celeste: raw materials. Tian Wen: weapons and weapon parts. Apollo: gadgets and deployables. Lance: augments and meds. Shani sells but doesn't buy general loot.

What happens to loot when you die? Everything outside the Safe Pocket is permanently lost. Your loadout is consumed. Nothing outside the Safe Pocket is recoverable — other players can loot your corpse.

How do I expand my inventory? Conditioning skill tree (carry weight upgrades) and vendor relationship levels. Safe Pocket specifically expands through Survival progression — upgrade it early.

References

• ARC Raiders on Steam — official store page with system requirements and current patch information
• ARC Raiders Official Site — Embark Studios' game page including vendor and crafting system documentation