ARC Raiders: How to Max Score the Raider Caches Trial

This week's trials give you three objectives: destroy ARC enemies in the swamp, search raider caches, and open containers inside the traffic tunnels. A normal Tuesday, basically. Today's focus is the cache trial: hidden boxes scattered across the map that make a ticking sound, which is very calming and not at all stressful when you have 6 minutes left on the clock.

You can earn points toward this trial in Cold Snap, Normal, and Hurricane event modes. One of those is objectively better than the others. The guide will tell you which one. You will probably try the wrong one first anyway.

Which Mode To Use (And Why You'll Pick Wrong First)

The instinct is to play Uncovered Caches mode because it has more cache spawns per map. This instinct is wrong. After about 15–20 minutes, caches start catching fire and get destroyed. On top of that, if another player opens one before you, it goes completely silent: no ticking, no indication it exists. You're chasing spawns that are disappearing and invisible to your ears simultaneously. Wonderful.

Hurricane mode is the answer. Fewer spawns per map, yes: but they never burn, never go silent even after another player loots them, and award double points. You can navigate to an already-looted cache and still collect the score. This is the mode. Queue this mode.

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Hurricane maps run on a schedule: one match per hour, 24/7. To get the maximum time in raid, join right at the top of the hour. If it's 12:34, sit and wait until 1:00 PM, then immediately queue the Hurricane map that appears. Yes, you are now setting alarms for a video game. This is fine. This is peak optimisation.

The example run in the source started with only 22 minutes left on the clock and still hit 22,400 points. With a full raid from the hour mark, 25,000–30,000 is realistic. Missing those early minutes costs you 4–6 swamp spawns which you will feel in your soul.

Map Choice

Recommended maps are Dam Battlegrounds or Bluegate. Both have good cache density. Dam is slightly messier because caches are spread through the interior rather than hugging the edges: expect some backtracking and at least one moment where you stare at your map like it wronged you personally.

Before your raid, open Metag: a community tool showing all known cache spawn locations per map. Yes, there is pre-game homework. Yes, this is what optimisation looks like. No, it does not get more glamorous than this.

Loadout

• Extra meds and stims: you're running the entire raid. You will also take fall damage being dramatic about a hill.The roll mechanic exists. You will forget it exists exactly when it matters.
• Shields: something will shoot you mid-cache-hunt. It always does. This is guaranteed by some unwritten law of extraction shooters.
• Seekers: to deal with "the annoying." Direct quote from the source. No further elaboration given. You know what they meant.
• Grenades: a couple, just in case. In case of what? Unclear. Bring them anyway.
• A Hatch Key: lets you extract through the Sunroof Hatch, which is conveniently on-route near the end of the Dam loop. Not optional unless your hobby is sprinting 120 meters in 40 seconds against a hurricane with zero stims remaining.This specific scenario was demonstrated live on video. It was not comfortable to watch.

Caches emit a ticking / beeping sound. Your job is to walk to approximate spawn locations and listen. The audio range is only about 20 meters, so you genuinely need to be standing at the spawn point: passive listening while sprinting past does not work. The game does not reward proximity. It rewards commitment.

To hear better, put your back to the storm. Wind direction actively affects your audio, so orienting away from it gives a small but real advantage. You will also find yourself running backwards through open areas to angle your hearing. This is normal. This is fine. This is ARC Raiders now.

Not every spawn location will have a cache: they're randomised each match. You will walk up a hill, listen carefully, hear absolutely nothing, and have a brief personal crisis. This is also normal and expected.

In Hurricane mode, caches already looted by other players still beep and still give you full points for searching them. This single mechanic is the entire argument for Hurricane mode. It is a very good argument.

Wind & Movement: Don't Skip This

The Hurricane storm actively affects your movement speed. Running with the wind gives a speed boost. Running against it slows you down to a pace that is technically moving but feels more like grief. Running perpendicular is neutral: no boost, no penalty.

Design your cache route as a loop that keeps you running with or alongside the wind for as much of the route as possible. On Dam, a perfect circle isn't really possible due to cache placement, but even a rough arc will save you significant time compared to zigzagging against the storm repeatedly. The source run ran with the wind exactly once the entire match and described it as "quite nice." It was a glimpse of what could have been

Every minute you spend running against the wind is a minute you don't spend finding caches. Plan he loop. Check Metag first. Don't be the person who sprints east into the storm for 3 minutes, finds nothing, and has to sprint back west.

The Dam Battlegrounds Route

This is not a rigid GPS route: it's a general order of priority landmarks based on a run that scored 22,400 with a late start. With a full raid you'll have time to hit all of these plus the swamp cluster at the end.

• Pattern House (hilltop): climb up. Cache spawn at the top. Described as "a bit of a pain." Absolutely worth it.Your legs will survive. Probably.
• Under the bridge: yes, physically go under the bridge. Cache spawns here. It sounds obvious. It is not where people check.
• Raider Outpost: quick check on the way through, nothing complicated.
• Testing Annex, corner near the electrical tower: reliable spawn. Don't skip it.
• The random outskirts camp nobody visits: caches spawn in obscure little side camps too. The map doesn't care that nobody goes there. You have to go there now.
• Water Towers: multiple spawns in this cluster. Good value stop, worth the slight detour.
• Scrapyard: run through while listening. Your ears may start inventing sounds. Trust them anyway; sometimes they're right."My ears are going crazy again, dude.": direct source quote. A deeply relatable moment.
• Near the Sunroof Hatch: cache spawn right by the extract. Maximum efficiency. Plan to end the run here.
• Swamp (near the Baron / north of old battleground / Pale Apartments): multiple spawns but the area is genuinely difficult to navigate because everything looks identical. Save it for the end. Expect to miss 3–4 caches here regardless of how confident you feel going in.The swamp is not a place. It is a lesson.

A full raid from the top of the hour with reasonable spawn knowledge should land you somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 points. Starting 22 minutes late and navigating imperfectly still produced 22,400 in the source run: so the floor is higher than it feels, and the ceiling is very achievable.

Double points in Hurricane mode means even a modest cache count significantly outperforms a perfect run in any other mode. The math is not complicated. The mode choice, however, is apparently not obvious to anyone playing for the first time. That's what guides are for.

Mistakes To Make Exactly Once

• Playing Uncovered Caches mode because it has more spawns.The spawns are on fire. They have always been on fire. You just hadn't met the fire yet.
• Not checking Metag before the raid and navigating from memory.You will stand in total silence staring at a field for 4 minutes. It will be very peaceful. Very wrong.
• Running a back-and-forth line directly into the wind for most of the route.The storm has humbled people before you. It has infinite patience.
• Leaving the Hatch Key at home and having to sprint 120m in 40 seconds with no stims against the storm to barely extract alive.Described on camera as "looking a little bit scary." It looked extremely scary.
• Stopping to loot a container when the extract is 120m away and you have under a minute left.The loot will still be there. You will not be. These facts are connected.
• Going into the swamp without knowing the spawn points and confidently walking in a large, unhelpful circle back to where you started.