Loot is almost always plentiful in Arc Raiders—except, it seems, when you need to find something specific. The first few missions will have you looking for a battery and some wires, two items that I've seen plenty of during my preview and the beta test. But somehow, as soon as I needed them, they decided to disappear from every drawer and cupboard.
There are certain spots scattered across each Arc Raiders map where you're more likely to find technological or electrical items like wires and batteries, and chances are, if you search a computer, you'll find what you need. But this isn't always guaranteed, and sometimes you'll raid rooms that have already been sorted through and stripped of valuables.
This happened to me during my first few games in Arc Raiders. I was on the lookout for six wires, but no matter where I searched or what I scrapped, I just couldn't seem to find anything. This is when PC Gamer guides writer Rory Norris and I hatched an ingenious idea.
I had a battery that he needed, and he had the wires I needed, so we decided to exchange goods. Now there's no way you can do this in the menu, so we had to jump into a game with all the supplies in hand. Once we landed in Dam Battlegrounds, we dropped all our materials on the floor, looked around for a little more loot and then extracted, heading back to Speranza to tick off our missions.
The beauty is that once you complete most missions, you get to keep the loot they ask for. So if a friend is struggling to find the right kind of resources, you can hand them over and trade back later—or be a true pal and let them keep the goods. It may seem like a small thing, but being able to help friends like this even without a built-in trading system is a really great feature, and one that makes Arc Raiders feel like more of a collaborative project than a solo game you happen to be playing alongside friends.
But Arc Raiders has more than just this little bonus for friends. When you're in a squad, anything your teammates do can count towards your mission objectives also. That could be killing Arc robots, looting a downed player, or searching item containers. I'm sure players will find more ways to help their squad as time goes on, but right from the jump this kind of teamwork makes Arc Raiders less of a chore and works towards its growing status as the kinder extraction shooter.
