Arc Raiders’ Mobility Skills Are Not What You Expect
▼ Summary
– Arc Raiders introduces permanent upgrades through XP, a unique feature in the extraction genre where temporary gear is the norm.
– The Mobility skill tree’s perk descriptions are vague and misleading, with no option to respec, leading to potential player frustration.
– Early Mobility skills like Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs are highly beneficial and require minimal investment.
– Later Mobility skills such as Hero Leap and Calming Stroll offer diminishing returns and are often not worth fully upgrading.
– Players are advised to invest in the Survival tree instead, as it provides more valuable and consistent perks like in-round crafting and container breaching.
Arc Raiders introduces a compelling twist to the extraction shooter formula with its permanent upgrade system, allowing players to earn experience points for lasting character enhancements rather than relying solely on temporary gear. This approach feels surprisingly fitting in a genre typically dominated by loot you’re bound to lose. While the idea of a skill tree is appealing, the inability to respec points presents a significant drawback, especially when many perk descriptions are unclear or downright misleading.
Players drawn to the Mobility tree expecting to transform into a speed demon may find themselves disappointed. Many of the later skills fail to deliver on their promises, leaving you with limited options, either push through with your current build or start fresh with a new character in the Expedition Project. Fortunately, some of the most valuable mobility upgrades are available early on. Skills like Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs provide noticeable benefits without heavy investment, making them smart picks before branching into other areas.
Once you’ve secured those foundational abilities, shifting focus to the Survival tree is a wise move. There, you can unlock practical perks such as Looter’s Instincts, Broad Shoulders, In-Round Crafting, and Security Breach. These not only expand your capabilities during matches but also offer more reliable returns than several high-tier mobility options. A major issue with the Mobility tree is the lack of numerical data; players can’t see exactly how much a skill improves their performance, which makes informed decisions nearly impossible.
Independent testing, including analysis from content creator ‘Archaic’, highlights the underwhelming nature of several Mobility skills. Hero Leap, Calming Stroll, Slip & Slide, Effortless Roll, and Sturdy Ankles all demonstrate minimal impact and steep diminishing returns. Personal experience with these perks aligns with these findings.
Hero Leap increases the distance of your sprint dodge roll, a handy maneuver for evading enemy fire. However, the benefits drop off sharply after the initial upgrades. Moving from a standard roll to three out of five points in Hero Leap is noticeable, but maxing it out offers little extra value. Calming Stroll, a 15-point capstone skill, allows stamina to regenerate at the same rate as standing still, but only while walking, not during jogging or aiming. Since walking is much slower than the standard movement speed, this perk forces you into a sluggish pace for a benefit that rarely justifies the trade-off.
Slip & Slide promises longer and faster slides, which sounds ideal for dodging threats like Rocketeers. In practice, the effect is inconsistent. Whether due to bugs or design, sliding on various surfaces shows little change in speed regardless of point investment, though distance does increase marginally. Spending five points here is hard to recommend. Effortless Roll reduces the stamina cost of dodge rolls, but the savings are minimal and subject to diminishing returns. Putting more than a single point into this skill is difficult to justify. Sturdy Ankles reduces fall damage, making it one of the more practical picks in the tree. Still, the difference between upgrade tiers is slight, and it won’t save you from lethal drops or follow-up attacks. As with Effortless Roll, capping investment at three points is advisable.
In most cases, you’re better off skipping these Mobility skills entirely or investing just a point or two to capture the most meaningful boost. Saving those skill points allows you to invest in the Survival tree, where you gain access to valuable features like in-match crafting and the ability to open locked containers. Beyond that, many passives in the Survival and Conditioning trees deliver stronger, more consistent advantages compared to the Mobility options discussed.
(Source: PC Gamer)