ARC Raiders Melee Trial: Max Score Guide

Trials unlock at Level 15. Each week, five challenges drop. You're placed in a division of 100 players at the same rank, and on Monday the standings are settled. Only your personal best score per challenge counts toward your rank total: so a single excellent run beats twenty mediocre ones. ARC Raiders Trials rank progression has 14 total tiers, from Rookie I up through Hotshot and the exclusive Cantina Legend, which is reserved for the top 1,000 Hotshot players globally. Getting promoted means finishing ahead of your division. Getting demoted means the inverse. The math is bleak.

New seasons start you two ranks below your last placement. You spent eight weeks grinding to Ace? Congratulations, you're Daredevil III again.

This is not a combat mission. This is a stamina management exercise dressed up as combat. Your inventory priorities, in strict order: Adrenaline Shots, Adrenaline Shots, a shield, and then whatever weapon makes you feel better about yourself. A free loadout can get you 3-star. To push for serious score, you need an actual loadout with as many Adrenaline Shots as your slots allow.

The best map for this trial is Stella Montis. The Shredder: a medium-sized, heavily armored, hovering ARC unit introduced with this map: is the optimal target. It has high HP, a consistent spawn pattern, and enough surface area to keep your melee combo going long enough to matter. Shredder spawn locations Stella Montis include the Business Center, hallways above the Sandbox, Assembly and Assembly Workshop, Cargo Docks A and B, the Lobby Metro platform, and Culture Archives. Pick whichever cluster sits nearest a wall or column you can abuse.

Use aggression-based matchmaking to land in lower-hostility lobbies. Other Raiders shooting your Shredder is not a sharing economy you want to participate in.

Execution

1. Load into Stella Montis. Normal conditions are fine: no modifier required.
2. Find a Shredder near cover. A wall, column, or doorframe. Anything between you and a 360-degree shotgun blast.
3. Bait the Shredder toward your chosen cover. Walk directly at it. This is intended. It locks the Shredder into an attack pattern that stays within your cover abuse range.
4. Hit the head with right-click (PC) or L2/left trigger (controller). Every swing on the head is ~150 points. Body swings are ~70. Do the math and aim accordingly.
5. When stamina drops, use an Adrenaline Shot. Do not wait for empty. Pop it during a swing cycle to maintain rhythm.
6. Duck behind cover when the Shredder winds up its 360-degree shotgun burst. Come back out. Repeat until it's scrap.
7. A full Shredder yields ~2,900 points. Find the next one.

Solo players going uncontested can reach 70,000+ score per run. The ceiling is your stamina supply and your patience, in that order.

If Stella Montis is contested or you're running this from Spaceport, the Bastion melee weak spot approach is a valid alternative. Shoot the Bastion's leg joint to stun it, then circle behind and strike the yellow canister on its back with your Raider Tool repeatedly. When it recovers, use a Photoelectric Cloak and step back to cover. Rinse and repeat. Spaceport's Hidden Bunker event runs multiple Bastion spawns in close proximity, which makes it time-efficient even if slightly less score-dense per target than a Shredder chain.

Skill Tree Optimizations

Before you load in, open your Raider Skill Tree. Two perks apply to melee stamina management ARC Raiders:

Effortless Swing. Priority: Mandatory

Reduces stamina cost per melee swing. More swings per Adrenaline Shot. This is the only perk that matters for this trial. Take it.

Sky-Clearing Swing. Priority: Situational

Marginal gain at best. Occasionally useful for generating extra score while rotating between Shredder spawns. Skip it on a tight build.

Squad Play

In a squad, everyone targets separate Shredders simultaneously. Scores are individual: your teammate punching a different robot doesn't cost you anything. The ARC Raiders squad trial strategy for this week is exactly the same as solo, just with more robots taking a coordinated beating at the same time. Do not fight over the same Shredder. That's not cooperation, that's just inefficiency.

Free Loadout Viability

Yes, you can reach 3-star with a free loadout. No, you won't threaten the upper divisions. The Adrenaline Shot ceiling is the hard constraint: free loadout ARC Raiders Trials won't let you carry enough to sustain extended melee chains. Good enough for the weekly reward, irrelevant for promotion.