The damaged rocketeer driver looks like the consolation prize nobody asked for. You go in hunting an epic Rocketeer Driver for a quest or a workshop upgrade, and instead your inventory fills up with a green, battered version that clearly won’t satisfy any NPC. The instinct is to ignore it or leave it on the ground.
That’s a mistake. The damaged rocketeer driver sits in a very specific niche in ARC Raiders’ economy: it is a compact, recyclable way to turn scavenged junk into ARC Alloy. If you treat it like currency instead of a failed quest drop, it starts to make a lot more sense.
Damaged rocketeer driver vs. rocketeer driver
First, it helps to separate two items that share a name and cause a lot of confusion.
| Item | Rarity | Role | Weight | Stack Size | Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damaged Rocketeer Driver | Common / Uncommon (recyclable) | Scavenged material for ARC Alloy | 0.25 KG | 3 | ~640–2,000 Raider Coins (varies by source) |
| Rocketeer Driver | Epic (recyclable) | High‑tier material, quest target, workshop upgrades | 1 KG | 3 | 5,000 Raider Coins |
The epic Rocketeer Driver is the one you get from destroying Rocketeers or searching Rocketeer Husks. It feeds into upgrades like taking the Explosives Station from level 2 to 3, and recycling it returns advanced components such as Advanced Electrical Components, ARC Alloy, or ARC Circuitry depending on whether you recycle or salvage.
The damaged rocketeer driver is the much lower‑tier variant. It doesn’t count for those upgrades and won’t complete quests that explicitly call for Rocketeer Drivers. Its entire purpose is to be turned into ARC Alloy or sold for coins.
Damaged rocketeer driver stats and value
The damaged rocketeer driver is deliberately lightweight and limited in stack size, which makes it a small but steady source of materials if you pick it up whenever you spot it.
| Property | Damaged Rocketeer Driver |
|---|---|
| Category | Recyclable material |
| Rarity | Common / Uncommon |
| Flavor text | “Can be recycled into ARC Alloy.” |
| Weight | 0.25 KG |
| Stack Size | 3 per stack |
| Typical sell price | 640–2,000 Raider Coins |
| Recycle output | ARC Alloy |
The weight is the key number here. At a quarter kilo per unit, a full stack costs you only 0.75 KG of carry capacity, which is very little compared to many guns or heavy crafting items. That makes the damaged rocketeer driver one of the more efficient ways to carry raw alloy potential out of a raid.
Damaged rocketeer driver recycling and salvage
The driver’s whole pitch is simple: turn scrap into ARC Alloy. Recycling and salvaging do that in slightly different ways.
| Action | Where you do it | What you get | Trade‑off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recycle (Speranza) | Back at base between raids | ARC Alloy at full listed amount | Costs time; you must extract safely first |
| Recycle (Topside during raid) | While still in the zone | 50% of the usual alloy return | You lose half the components but free inventory immediately |
| Salvage | Topside | ARC Alloy, but fewer / lower‑quality than recycling | Fastest way to turn dead weight into a little alloy mid‑run |
When you recycle a damaged rocketeer driver in Speranza, you get its full alloy payout. The exact number can differ slightly between databases, but the pattern is the same: each unit converts into a small chunk of ARC Alloy, and that’s what matters if you’re stockpiling materials for crafting or hideout upgrades.
Recycling mid‑raid only returns half the usual components. Salvaging is harsher still, trading some or all of that alloy value away for the convenience of freeing weight instantly. In practice, you treat damaged drivers as follows:
- Keep and extract them when you have inventory room and plan to recycle in Speranza.
- Recycle or salvage them Topside only when you’re overweight and need to make space for higher‑value loot.
Where damaged rocketeer drivers actually come from
Unlike the epic Rocketeer Driver, which drops from Rocketeers and Rocketeer Husks, the damaged version is framed as general scavenged loot. The item’s listed source is simply “Scavenging” rather than any specific enemy or event.
In practice, that means you’re most likely to see it when you’re looting environmental containers, debris, or dead ARCs rather than when you’re laser‑farming Rocketeers for a quest. It can show up during runs where you never even see a Rocketeer on the field.
This is why players who are specifically hunting intact drivers often get frustrated: their bags fill with damaged ones that look like quest items but are mechanically closer to a mid‑tier scrap part.
Why damaged rocketeer drivers matter in the economy
On paper, the damaged Rocketeer driver is underwhelming. It doesn’t unlock workshops, it doesn’t complete quests, and it doesn’t drop from the boss‑type enemy you’re likely obsessed with. Still, it quietly plugs two economic gaps.
First, it smooths out early and mid‑game ARC Alloy income. Not everyone can reliably kill Rocketeers or secure extraction with epic components. A small, common material that turns directly into alloy gives less‑geared squads a steady trickle of crafting resources just by looting the world.
Second, the weight‑to‑value ratio is good enough that it becomes a reasonable “filler” pick‑up: when you’re not at risk of being overweight, grabbing damaged drivers ensures you’re not walking past free alloy. Over a handful of raids, the materials add up to extra mods, grenades, or upgrade progress you’d otherwise have to grind for elsewhere.
How damaged rocketeer drivers fit with rocketeer driver farming
The damaged Rocketeer driver exists in the shadow of the epic Rocketeer Driver, which sits at the center of many players’ progression stories. That higher‑tier item drops from Rocketeers and their husks, can be used to upgrade the Explosives Station, and breaks down into a mix of ARC Alloy and advanced electrical parts or circuitry.
Players who just want that epic driver often end up in a familiar loop: kill a Rocketeer with expensive grenades or a launcher, run in to loot, then get third‑partied and lose everything. It’s a high‑stress way to chase a single part. The damaged driver doesn’t solve that, but it does act as the low‑stakes counterpart.
You treat them differently:
- Epic Rocketeer Drivers: you risk more, build loadouts around killing Rocketeers, and protect extractions.
- Damaged rocketeer drivers: you scoop them up when convenient and think of them as bonus alloy on runs where you’re not specifically chasing Rocketeers.
Seen that way, the damaged version isn’t “the wrong drop”; it’s just the basic alloy conversion item that happens to share part of a name with something much more glamorous.
If you’re stuck in that loop of dying over an intact Rocketeer Driver, the damaged rocketeer drivers you pick up along the way are your consolation prize—but a useful one. Bank them when you can, recycle them in Speranza rather than mid‑raid, and think of them as the alloy drip feed that funds your next attempt on the real thing.
