If Arc Raiders’ storms and sentinels don’t get you, the stash limit might. Between Scrappy upgrades, Workshop benches, quests, and Expeditions, the game quietly expects you to haul home well over a thousand individual loot items — far more than your 280-slot stash can hold at once. That’s why a good “keep / sell / scrap” view of loot isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s how you avoid soft-locking yourself behind some missing dog collar or Hornet driver you shredded three nights ago.
This explainer pulls together what the community’s best cheat sheets highlight: the important items, where they tend to spawn, what they’re actually used for, and when it’s safe to cash them out or break them down. It won’t list every single trinket in the game — the exhaustive tables already do that — but it will give you the structure you need to read those tables intelligently and make decisions fast in the field.
Arc Raiders loot basics: categories, rarity, and spawn logic
Most of Arc Raiders’ non-equipment loot falls into a few functional buckets:
| Category | Examples | Main uses |
|---|---|---|
| Base materials | Metal Parts, Rubber Parts, Fabric, Chemicals, Plastic Parts, Oil | Core resource for almost every crafting recipe and repair |
| Advanced components | Advanced Electrical Components, Advanced Mechanical Components, Processors, Sensors, Mod Components | High-tier benches, weapon mods, augments |
| ARC parts | ARC Alloy, ARC Circuitry, Fireball Burner, Hornet Driver, Queen Reactor | Refiner levels, weapon crafting, specific quests |
| Biomes & plants | Apricot, Lemon, Mushroom, Olives, Prickly Pear, Assorted Seeds | Scrappy upgrades, some quests, occasional projects |
| Keys & access | Blue Gate keys, Dam keys, Spaceport keys, Raider Hatch Key | Open locked rooms, side activities, extra loot routes |
| Quest specials | Antiseptic, Power Rod, Surveyor Vault, Tick Pod, Snitch Scanner | Named missions and progression quests |
| Valuables | Music Album, Lance’s Mixtape (5th), Breathtaking Snow Globe, Silver Teaspoon Set | Sell for Coins (no mechanical use once requirements are met) |
| Junk / recyclables | Humidifier, Coffee Pot, Dart Board, Expired Pasta | Scrap into basic materials or sell when you’re sure they’re not needed |
Spawn logic is simple but strict: every loot item has one or more “location types,” and it can appear in any container that matches those tags. For example, Antiseptic is a Medical item and can show up in medical cabinets; Camera Lens lives in Security, so check security offices, checkpoints, and similar spaces. Some structures, like a power plant, can be both Electrical and Industrial, so they can roll from both pools.
Rarity controls probability, not importance. You’ll pick up hundreds of Common Metal Parts, but a single Epic Power Rod can block your quest log. Treat rarity as a hint about how much patience a farm will require, not as a ranking of how “good” something is.
How many items you actually need to level everything
Across quests, Scrappy, Workshop benches, and Expedition projects, the full upgrade path demands a surprising number of specific items. Taken together, the total is just shy of 1,200 individual pieces of loot. You’ll never hold that much at once, but it explains why your stash constantly feels like it’s bursting.
Here are the standout sinks that shape your long-term inventory strategy.
Quest-critical loot (don’t sell these early)
| Item | Approx. quantity | Primary use |
|---|---|---|
| Antiseptic | ~10 total, 2 explicitly for “Doctor’s Orders” | Medical quests and progression tasks |
| ARC Alloy | 100+ across everything | Story objectives, Refiner & other workshop upgrades |
| Battery | ~30 for upgrades, plus 3 for “Trash into Treasure” | Quest item and shield crafting material |
| Great Mullein | 1+ | “Doctor’s Orders” and related medical tasks |
| Hornet Driver | At least 2 | “The Trifecta” quest and Gunsmith progression |
| Leaper Pulse Unit | 3–4 | “Into the Fray” quest and Utility Station level 3 |
| Power Rod | 1 | “Tribute to Toledo” quest |
| Rocketeer Driver | 1+ | “Out of the Shadows” quest and explosive crafting |
| Snitch Scanner | At least 2 | “The Trifecta” quest and Utility Station upgrades |
| Surveyor Vault | 1 | “Mixed Signals” quest and Medical Lab level 3 |
| Syringe | 1 | “Doctor’s Orders” quest |
| Tick Pod | 1+ | “Small But Sinister” quest and Medical Lab level 2 |
| Wasp Driver | 2+ | Questline involving Wasps and Gunsmith upgrades |
| Water Pump | 1 | “Unexpected Initiative” quest |
| Wires | 30+ total, 3 explicitly for quests | Multiple missions, Expeditions, and recipes |
As a rule of thumb, any ARC-specific driver, cell, pod, or named medical item is guilty until proven innocent. If it has a unique icon and drops from a specific enemy type or niche biome, assume it feeds into quests or benches later. Don’t sell or scrap your first copies until you’ve checked what your current benches and projects require.
Scrappy upgrades: the weird little grocery list
Scrappy’s upgrades are where Arc Raiders leans into “post-war farmer market” energy. Instead of just requesting metal and rubber, Scrappy wants a spread of fruit and household comforts. Fully training Scrappy consumes the following notable items:
| Item | Total needed | Location type | Keep / sell / scrap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apricot | 15 | Nature (orchards, groves) | Stash until Scrappy is maxed |
| Cat Bed | 1 | Residential / Commercial | Stash; do not sell your first one |
| Dog Collar | 1 | Residential | Stash; it’s easy to regret selling this |
| Lemon | 3 | Nature (fruit trees) | Stash all early, sell only extras later |
| Mushroom | 12 | Nature (forests, damp areas) | Stash until Scrappy level 5 |
| Olives | 6 | Nature | Stash for mid-tier Scrappy upgrades |
| Prickly Pear | 6 | Nature (desert/jungle) | Stash; easy to underestimate |
| Very Comfortable Pillow | 3 | Residential / Commercial valuables | Stash the first three before selling any others |
Notice what’s missing: most generic food junk is safe money once you’re stocked on the fruits above. Bloated Tuna Can, Expired Pasta, and similar “expired” or obviously useless consumables can go straight to the vendor if you’re not starving for basic scrap materials.
Workshop benches and the big material sinks
Gunsmith, Gear Bench, Medical Lab, Utility Station, Refiner, Explosives Station, and expedition projects collectively eat the bulk of your base materials and advanced components. The exact per-level numbers vary, but the patterns are consistent.
| Bench / project | Key items | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gunsmith (all tiers) | Mechanical Components, Rusted Tools, Rusted Gear, Arc Alloy, Sentinel Firing Core | Save every Mechanical Component and rare industrial scrap until this is maxed. |
| Gear Bench | Advanced Electrical Components, Bastion Cell, Industrial Battery, Power Cable | Electrical-themed loot and ARC drops matter here more than their rarity implies. |
| Utility Station | Advanced Electrical Components, Damaged Heat Sink, Leaper Pulse Units | Don’t break down Heat Sinks or Leaper parts unless you’ve checked your upgrade status. |
| Medical Lab | Durable Cloth, Cracked Bioscanner, Rusted Shut Medical Kit, Surveyor Vault, Tick Pod | Any “medical gadget” item should be assumed safe to stash until the Lab is complete. |
| Explosives Station / Lab | Crude Explosives, Explosive Compound, Laboratory Reagents, Pop Trigger, Rocketeer Driver, Synthesized Fuel | A mix of Security/Industrial junk and Exodus fuel; don’t mass-sell explosives components. |
| Refiner | ARC Motion Core, ARC Circuitry, Fireball Burner, Motor, Toaster | Many ARC recyclables you’d otherwise scrap are needed intact for Refiner levels. |
| Expedition projects | Cooling Fan, Sensors, Wires, Light Bulb, Humidifier, Magnetic Accelerator | These are easy to accidentally liquidate; Expedition prep screens will call them out but too late if they’re gone. |
One important detail: base materials like Metal Parts, Rubber Parts, Fabric, Chemicals, and Plastic Parts are always useful. Even if benches technically don’t list them, virtually every gun, shield, and mod recipe uses some combination of these. Selling them is rarely optimal unless you’re deep into the endgame and swimming in excess.
Sell vs scrap vs stash: how to read the cheat sheets quickly
The big loot tables categorize each item as Sell, Scrap, or Stash based on its best long-term value once all upgrades are accounted for. Here’s how to interpret those labels instead of memorizing hundreds of individual entries.
| Label | What it really means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Stash | Needed for quests, benches, projects, or widely used recipes. Keep until all upgrades that reference it are done. | ARC Alloy, Advanced Electrical Components, Dog Collar, Scrappy fruits, Hornet/Wasp Drivers, Sensors, Processor |
| Sell | Best converted into Coins once any one-off requirement is satisfied. Rarely, if ever, needed for crafting. | Music Album, Lance’s Mixtape (5th Edition), Breathtaking Snow Globe, Statuette, Rosary, Fine Wristwatch, Volcanic Rock |
| Scrap | More valuable as raw materials than as an intact object. Not directly referenced by quests or upgrades. | Humidifier, Rusted Bolts, Garlic Press, Crumpled Plastic Bottle, Ruined Baton, Diving Goggles, Rubber Pad |
There are a few edge cases:
- Items that look like junk but gate projects. Light Bulb and Humidifier can feed Expedition projects; some early tools classed as “safe to recycle” still pop up in later content. If you’re actively pushing Expeditions, be conservative with selling these until your project list is clear.
- Recyclables that also have bench roles. Fireball Burner and the various damaged ARC parts are often marked “Scrap” in isolation, but some are needed intact to level Refiner or specific stations. The safest approach is to hold 2–4 intact copies of each unique ARC part until your workshop is fully upgraded; scrap the rest for Alloy or base resources.
- Keys and access cards. Any key with “Blue Gate,” “Dam,” “Buried City,” “Spaceport,” or “Raider Hatch” in the name should live in your stash until you’ve opened its corresponding area. They don’t recycle and they can unlock high-value loot routes.
What’s actually safe to liquidate most of the time
If you want to free space without cross-referencing a spreadsheet mid-raid, focus on these broad “safe” zones once you’ve satisfied the oddball requirements mentioned earlier.
| Safe bucket | Examples | Why they’re safe after checks |
|---|---|---|
| Pure valuables | Music Album, Music Box, Silver Teaspoon Set, Red Coral Jewelry, Statuette, Vase, Torn Book | No bench or quest calls for these directly; they exist to convert into Coins. |
| Novelty junk | Rubber Duck, Dart Board, Breathtaking Snow Globe, Poster of Natural Wonders, Painted Box, Film Reel | One-off “flavor” loot; once you’re sure a specific quest isn’t holding one hostage, they’re pure money. |
| Food trash | Bloated Tuna Can, Expired Pasta, Faded Photograph (as a quasi-junk sentimental), Empty Wine Bottle | No long-term mechanical roles; scrap or sell depending on whether you need materials or cash. |
| Common broken tools | Garlic Press, Ice Cream Scooper, Frying Pan, Number Plate, Rusted Bolts | They recycle into generic Metal; no direct quest calls them out. |
| Overstocked ARC recyclables | Extra Damaged ARC Powercells, Damaged Tick Pods, Damaged Wasp Drivers after upgrade demands are met | Once you’ve met the known counts, the rest can be safely turned into Alloy or other resources. |
How to actually use an Arc Raiders loot cheat sheet in play
A dense A–Z loot table is useful, but scrolling it on a second monitor while a Hornet lines up a shot is not. The trick is to combine the high-level patterns above with a simple routine every time you get back to base.
- Step 1: Merge stacks and sort by type. Use the built-in “Merge Stacks” button to collapse partial stacks, then sort by category so similar loot groups together.
- Step 2: Pull out obvious Stash items. Manually drag known keepers — ARC parts, advanced components, fruits, medical gadgets, keys — into a mental “do not touch” zone in your stash. This is where the cheat sheet shines: a quick search on an unfamiliar item tells you which bucket it falls into.
- Step 3: Sell flagged valuables first. Anything the table marks as “Sell” that isn’t called out by Scrappy, quests, or Expedition projects is free money. This is usually enough to resolve immediate stash crunch.
- Step 4: Scrap surplus junk for materials. For “Scrap” items, check how much base material you’re sitting on. If you’re short on Metal, Rubber, Plastic, Fabric, or Chemicals, recycling these is often better value than selling them.
- Step 5: Spend materials by upgrading and crafting. Before the next raid, burn through some of your hoarded resources by:Turning materials into equipment frees stash space and makes your next run safer.
- Repairing shields and guns to full durability
- Upgrading weapons to the next tier
- Crafting weapon mods and Quick Use items (smokes, decoys, etc.)
If you’re extremely short on time, you can flip the logic: treat everything as sellable unless the cheat sheet tags it as quest- or bench-relevant. That’s the mindset behind the “Safe to recycle” lines in the community posters — it’s easier to remember what you don’t need than to memorize every single ingredient you might someday want.
Arc Raiders’ loot economy is deliberately noisy. You’re meant to be buried in rusted tools, strange ARC offcuts, and decorative junk, then slowly tease out what actually matters. A good loot cheat sheet doesn’t fight that design; it just stops the game from punishing you for not having a photographic memory of which fruit Scrappy asked for three phases ago.
If you treat ARC-specific parts, advanced components, fruits, medical gadgets, and keys as “always keep until proven otherwise,” and let everything else earn its way into the stash, you’ll stop hoarding for its own sake and start hoarding with purpose — and your 280 slots will suddenly feel a lot less claustrophobic.
