Arc Raiders Loot Weapon Crates Trial: 3-Star Guide

The Loot Weapon Crates Trial is exactly what it sounds like: find and loot weapon cases scattered around any available map. Cases drop guns of various rarity plus ammo: useful if you dropped in with nothing, useless once your backpack is full and someone is already standing on the spawn you needed.

The trial counts crates from any map. The catch: every other player on the server learned the same spawn locations you did. You are not special. Neither are they, but they got there first.

Point System

Death wipes your raid progress entirely: not just your gear. The Arc Raiders Trials Season 4 made extraction mandatory for point retention. There is no partial credit for dying near the exit.

Pick Your Map Wisely

Six maps are in rotation. The correct choice for this trial is Riven Tides, the coastal map added in Patch 1.26.0 (April 28, 2026). Most players default to familiar ground. You benefit from their attachment to nostalgia.

Riven Tides is compact. Navigation is fast. And because it launched recently, weapon case spawn locations on this map are less burned into muscle memory than Dam Battlegrounds or Stella Montis. Early drops here have markedly lower contest rates: for now. That changes as the season progresses.

Warning Dam Battlegrounds has the highest weapon crate density in the game, but so does its player traffic. Unless you enjoy third-party loot theft, avoid peak hours on Dam.

There are 14 weapon cases on Riven Tides. They are not evenly distributed. The Harbor zone holds the largest cluster. The rest is scattered across hotels, customs offices, and docks that someone has probably already cleared.

Spawn location determines your opening move. Don't cross the entire map for one crate that may not even be there: non-guaranteed spawns are real and punishing. Work outward from your drop point toward the Harbor when the path is clear.

Three-Star Strategy

Route Priority

1. Drop closest to Harbor: get in before the cluster is stripped.
2. Clear 2–3 Harbor cases, move to Customs House, grab 2 more.
3. Check Stacking Yard on the way to extraction: low risk, often untouched.
4. Extract. Do not get greedy. Do not fight someone over a case worth 300 points.

General Rules

• Join raids early in the session: first in means first to the weapon crate spawn locations.
• Cases don't always spawn. Move on. Standing around hoping achieves nothing.
• Other Raider Cache types do not count toward this trial. Don't waste time on them.
• Extraction is non-negotiable. Every death before the exit is a full reset.
• Night Raid reduces ARC spawn density on some routes: plan accordingly if ARC pressure is a problem.

Loadout

You are here to loot, not to win gunfights. Pack mobility and light healing over heavy firepower. The Anvil IV clears small ARC units efficiently without burning your ammo before extraction. Bring one sidearm for Raider encounters. That's it.

If you spawned with nothing, the trial feeds itself: weapon cases are literally the source of your loadout. Raid in light gear, loot your way to something functional, extract. The Arc Raiders weapon crates drop guns across all rarity tiers, so even a bad run produces usable equipment.

Fallback: Dam Battlegrounds

If Riven Tides lobbies are somehow oversaturated, Dam Battlegrounds remains the fallback. The Hydroponic Domes yield 2–3 weapon crates. Control Tower top floor gives 3–5. The South Swamp Outpost spawn is low-contest and chains into Hydroponic Domes cleanly.

That said: Dam is the map everyone knows. The Dam Battlegrounds weapon crate route has been optimized by the community for months. You will share it with strangers who are faster, better-geared, and already there.