ARC Raiders maps feature a variety of terrains and buildings, requiring you to run, climb, and traverse to explore. Sometimes you’ll encounter other players, leading to skirmishes.
You might wonder why your movements are always predicted, or why some players seem incredibly agile while you can’t match their movements. This usually happens because you’re not yet familiar with effective movement techniques. Below, IGGM will explain how to move efficiently in ARC Raiders.
Basic Movement
ARC Raiders has three basic movement modes:
- Walk: Slowest speed, but quietest, suitable for stealthily approaching enemies indoors.
- Strafe/Jog: The default movement mode, moderate speed, balancing movement and stealth.
- Sprint: Fastest speed, but produces a lot of noise, easily revealing your position.
Sprinting consumes the stamina bar that appears at the bottom center of the screen. Running out of stamina at the wrong time can lead to death, so managing your stamina bar is crucial, especially during intense combat.
Run-sliding is a technique that combines sprinting and sliding, helping to conserve stamina and maintain speed, but it requires the assistance of ARC Raiders items such as Ziplines and Snap Hooks during movement. It works well on flat ground and downhill, with speeds similar to a direct sprint. To use run-sliding, simply sprint, crouch, slide, and sprint again in a loop.
You can deploy mines while sliding, which is useful for blocking passages when escaping through narrow passages, but its effectiveness is limited in open areas.
Remember, never to use run-sliding uphill, as it will render you almost immobile and make you an easy target. Switch to normal running when approaching a hill. If you need to dodge uphill, use a dodge roll, which is unaffected by slope.
Momentum Mechanics
Sprints have a short acceleration phase at the start. Sliding before the acceleration is complete results in a dead slide, with poor distance and speed. Therefore, you must allow your character to gain enough momentum before sliding to achieve a long and fast slide. Holding down while crouching allows for a longer glide distance than toggle crouch.
Jump distance is directly related to momentum; the higher your momentum, the farther you jump. Releasing forward (W) and pressing left/right (A/D) in mid-air will immediately halt your momentum. To maximize your jump distance, hold down the W key. This can also create bunny hops, but timing requires practice.
Combat Movement
Movement is especially important in close-quarters combat. It can even compensate for gaps in ARC Raiders weapons, helping you find better shooting opportunities and angles.
Dodges
You can dodge forward, backward, sideways, and diagonally. However, you cannot trigger a dodge roll while standing; you must input movement in any direction. You can bind a dodge roll to a mouse side button. This frees up your keyboard fingers, allowing for free dodges in any direction.
Slightly tapping the sprint before dodging creates a longer sprint dodge. Short dodges consume less stamina but are less effective; long-range dodges are recommended. You can also slide followed by a dodge roll, similar to a dash dodge.
Rolling
If you dodge when your stamina is depleted, you’ll perform a slow, clumsy fat roll, making you extremely vulnerable. However, as long as you still have at least a small amount of stamina, you can perform a full dash roll. Just make sure you don’t use up your last bit of stamina before dodging.
When you’re close to an enemy, shooting and immediately using a dodge roll to get behind them can disrupt their aim. If you’re facing a player with low sensitivity or using a controller, this will give you enough time to aim and counterattack.
You can also peek out from behind cover to shoot, then immediately use a dodge roll back to cover for a quick retreat. Alternatively, you can slide out of cover to shoot, then roll back. This utilizes game latency and hit detection mechanics to reduce the chance of being hit.
Reload Cancel
During reloading, you can instantly cancel the reload animation and resume firing by inputting the dodge roll command. This is very useful when you still have ammo but accidentally reload, or when an enemy suddenly rushes in. However, it won’t help you automatically reload. You can also use an aggressive dodge to roll behind an enemy to a safe position and reload.
Falling Dodge
When falling from a height of about two stories, using a dodge roll before landing can negate fall damage. You can hold to crouch to perform this, which has a higher success rate, but at greater heights, you will still take damage and be slowed.
Environmental Interaction
Climbing
You will automatically vault over low obstacles when you approach them; sprinting or walking has little effect on this. When you encounter a higher climbable edge, a slower climbing animation will trigger, during which you cannot fire.
In practice, if you jump in advance, you can sometimes jump directly onto the platform, skipping the slow climbing animation, but the timing is crucial. For higher platforms, jumping followed by a short climbing animation is faster than a full climb.
When falling from any height, triggering the climbing animation before landing completely negates fall damage. While you’re hanging on the edge of a building during the climbing animation, pressing crouch will allow you to fall immediately. If the climbing animation can be triggered below, repeating this a few times will allow for a damage-free descent from a height.
Snap Hook
Snap Hook is the best of all quick-use items, saving you a lot of climbing time. However, it’s a legendary item, and the materials required to craft it are hard to obtain. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time farming materials and crafting, then the cheap and diverse ARC Raiders coins for sale on IGGM are definitely what you need.
When you use Snap Hook for aiming, a grayed-out reticle indicates the distance is too far, while a fully visible reticle means you can hook. If you input jump while the grappling hook is in flight, you can fly higher and farther. Aiming at a high place and using Snap Hook allows for a quick, long-distance dash.
Ziplines
When you’re at the end of a zipline, precise key input for jumping, sprinting, or crouching while gliding can grant you significant extra momentum, allowing you to glide further or jump higher, especially effective on downhill ziplines.
Grabbing a vertical zipline just before landing can mitigate fall damage. You must grab it a fraction of an instant before touching the ground; a quick tap won’t work. Horizontal ziplines cannot be used for fall cushioning.
Some maps in ARC Raiders have very complex terrain. IGGM recommends you practice them extensively. Once you master various movement techniques, these challenging terrains can actually become advantageous.
