Arc Raiders is finally here, and as disheartening as it has been to see Embark Studios' The Finals not get the popularity and praise it deserves, their latest extraction shooter is shaping up to be an entirely different story altogether. It seems the entire gaming community is rising up in unison to herald Arc Raiders (and put it on a pedestal), but that's only because the past three playtests have gone incredibly well for the game.

If you're one of the people who are going topside on launch day, you're in for a hell of a time. However, as accessible as Arc Raiders is for solo and team players alike, there's a lot that the game doesn't really tell you. There are a ton of hidden mechanics and abilities you can use to your advantage while you're raiding in Arc Raiders, and, for better or worse, the game doesn't go out of its way to tell you about them. That's where I come in.

Every ARC machine has a weak point

Exploit them to deal massive damage

During your initial runs, when you go topside in Arc Raiders, the ARC are going to be your biggest threat. These floating, surveilling, and crawling machines are scary to face, and nearly impossible to shake off if they spot you, so you're going to have to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Initially, you're not going to be sporting heavy weapons of higher tiers, which means that your fights against the ARC are going to be tough. However, what the game doesn't tell you, is that each ARC machine comes with a weakpoint. The ones you'll be facing the most, which are the flying drones like the Wasps and Hornets, are all airborne with fans. Aim at those exposed fans with even the lightest of weapons, and you'll suddenly have the upper hand in a fight that otherwise would feel like a terrible boss battle.

In fact, even if you use light weapons and ammo, which come with a description saying they are not effective against ARC armor, it doesn't matter. As long as you aim at the exposed weak points instead of straight into the armored plating of each machine, you'll come out of these small PvE skirmishes victorious.

There's a way to pick off drones with zero damage or ammo

When else is that pickaxe going to come in handy?

Even though it pains me to admit it, there were more than a few times when I found myself running out of ammo while fighting ARC drones during the recent Server Slam weekend. While that kind of situation consistently led to me dying to the machines back in May during the game's second Tech Test, Server Slam was a different story. Why? Because the single, one-off drones couldn't even see me, even when I was right on top of them.

And right on top of them is where you can be, too. Every single drone, and most big machines in Arc Raiders are actually climbable. Just mantle up to them and you'll be standing on top of them. To do that with the flying drones, you can either guide them through a tight doorway, or just throw down an EMP grenade to bring them down for a few seconds. Once that's done, and you're on top, all you need is to whip out your pickaxe, and start bashing the machine in. Within a few seconds, with zero ammo wasted, the ARC is going down, and the explosion? That won't harm you, either.

A full inventory doesn't always mean you can't loot more

There's always more space to be made

Once you're done looting and safely extract back underground to Speranza, you'll always find the option to recycle a lot of your loot to gain metal parts, chemicals, rubber parts, and a host of other ingredients that help you craft upgrades and weapons for the next run. However, you can do the same thing while you're on the surface, except it's called salvaging.

Say you find a metal toaster and another metal item, and they end up occupying two inventory items. Well, if you really need the inventory space, you can just salvage both of them into metal parts with a few clicks, and they'll merge into one category of metal parts. It will result in a few less parts than you would've gotten underground by recycling, but it also leaves room for something more valuable if you chance upon it.

In fact, Arc Raiders also follows a weight system like Skyrim, and once your loot reaches its weight limit, your speed will significantly go down for all movements. That's when salvaging can come in handy again, lowering the weight of your inventory.

You can recharge your shield even without rechargers

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

We know that heading topside means keeping shield rechargers at the ready. They do run out pretty quickly, though, especially if you find yourself in multiple skirmishes in areas with high levels of loot, danger, and ARC activity. That being said, there's one pretty neat way to keep your shields topped up even if you run out of shield rechargers, and that's the ARC powercells that the machines drop after you take them down.

Almost every machine in the game drops an ARC powercell, and usually, it will simply go into your inventory if you pick it up. However, just go ahead and put it in your quick-use slots, and suddenly, the powercells will be available to use on the fly, and they're good for half-a-shield's worth of recharge.

Fall damage doesn't exist in the game... if you don't want it to

Don't go jumping off cliffs just by reading this headline, though

That's right — fall damage in Arc Raiders only exists if you want it to. What do I mean by that? For starters, it doesn't mean that you can simply heave yourself off of rooftops or mountains with nary a scratch. You'd be knocked out before you know it if you did that. However, since the game does have a mantling mechanic, what it does mean is that you can negate all fall damage by simply climbing or mantling up to a ledge while you're mid-fall. I only chanced upon this discovery because I tried the same thing while playing Fortnite the week prior, and decided to do something foolish since my duo partner was anyway downstairs with a revive kit ready.

Admitted, it only works if you're falling completely vertically, but with four different maps at launch, there are going to be plenty of locations and opportunities where you can hurl yourself off a height and mantle to one below, without taking any bit of fall damage. Be careful with positioning, though.

You'll lose shields if you take damage while recharging

Make sure it's back up fully before resuming a firefight

Shield rechargers are some of the most important and handy tools you'll have in your inventory while topside. The thing with these recharges, however, is that they take time to complete. The moment you use a shield recharger, your shield won't be immediately full again. Instead, it will slowly load up to its capacity.

During that time, however, if you end up taking the slightest bit of damage, the recharge will be interrupted, and you won't get to reuse it, either. That means the rest of your shield will be lost in an instant, so make sure that if you're going to engage in a firefight with either another player or an ARC, your shield replenishment process is complete before you stick your neck out of cover.

Hidden systems and mechanics in a game reward curiosity

I'm rather fond of hidden mechanics like these that a game may not expressly tell you about. It feels like these covert systems, mechanics are a way to reward curiosity and punish complacency. Arc Raiders is an ambitious, beautiful, and punishingly clever game, and whether you go topside solo or with friends, every raid will tell a story worth surviving.