Cosmetics in Arc Raiders are more than a dress-up layer; they’re a quick way to size up another raider before deciding whether to talk, run, or pull the trigger. Recent updates have pushed a steady stream of new outfits and backpack bundles into the in‑game store and Raider Decks, and players are already treating some of them as visual shorthand for “friendly,” “sweaty,” or “shoot on sight.”
How skins fit into Arc Raiders’ progression and store
Arc Raiders splits cosmetics across three main tracks:
- Free earnable outfits from Raider Decks (its battle‑pass equivalent) and quests.
- Premium outfits and bundles bought with Raider Coins, the paid currency.
- Rotating store cosmetics that mix full outfits with smaller items like backpack charms, tattoos, and emotes.
Players juggle three currencies:
- A white, soft currency used for weapons and economy items.
- A blue currency earned from missions, challenges, and Trials, used to buy “free” Deck cosmetics.
- Gold Raider Coins, which fund premium sets in the store.
For anyone who bought a Deluxe edition, a bundle of Raider Coins lands in the account on day one, which is enough to scoop up one of the pricier premium outfits as soon as the store opens.
Recent headline skins: Riposta, Macrame, and more
Recent patches and rotations have brought in a cluster of new cosmetics that already have reputations of their own.
| Skin / Bundle | Type | Pricing (tokens) | Key visual traits | Notable behavior / perception |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riposta | Full outfit + extras | ~1,400 bundle / 1,000 outfit | Fencing‑style chest armor, distinct helmet mask | Reads as high threat in PvP “trust” tier lists |
| Macrame | Premium outfit bundle | ~1,500 bundle / 1,000 outfit | Ribcage‑like robes, broad hat, face wrap, short sword | Widely read as “PvP maniac,” often shot on sight |
| Farmer set | Backpack + charms | 600 bundle / 500 backpack | Big wicker basket, farm tools, grain sack, shears | Mostly a flavor pick; rarely seen as sweaty |
| Midnight Rooster | Scrappy skin + extras | 700 bundle / 500 Scrappy | Jet‑black Scrappy, spotting scope charm, emote | Popular cosmetic flex, no combat impact |
| Sailor’s Backpack (Macrame bundle) | Backpack | Included / sold separately in bundle | Tool‑laden craft pack on metal frame | Highly detailed; fits many outfits |
| Snake Tattoo | Face/head cosmetic | In Macrame bundle | Snake circling scalp and down cheek | Reusable with any outfit, strong identity marker |
Riposta: Fencing armor that screams “duelist”
Riposta is built around a fencing silhouette: a rigid chest plate, padded limbs, and a stark, opaque helmet that hides the face entirely. It arrives as a bundle in the store with a full outfit, a waterskin backpack attachment, a bow emote, and a facial scar cosmetic.
The outfit itself can be stripped back quite a bit. You can remove the main chest plate, split the headgear into separate removable parts, drop the sleeves, and pull off the waist bag. That flexibility lets you move from a fully armored duelist to something closer to workwear with a distinctive helmet thrown on top.
Players who rank outfits by “trust level” tend to put Riposta near the “shoot first” end of the spectrum. The heavy armor and blank mask project confidence and intent; someone who ground the currency for this set and kept its most intimidating elements visible often isn’t looking for a hug.
Macrame: Scrap‑samurai robes and a PvP reputation
Macrame is one of the more visually aggressive premium outfits in the current rotation. Its robes hang off the body in ribcage‑shaped panels, with visible knotwork giving it the handcrafted look that its name nods to. Combined with the wide hat and full face covering, it evokes a post‑apocalyptic samurai built out of scrap fabric and armor plates.
In the store, Macrame is sold as a bundle that includes:
- The main outfit with three color schemes.
- The Sailor’s Backpack, a heavily detailed craft pack.
- Scrolls and a gourd as attachable trinkets.
- The Snake Tattoo, which wraps around the head and down a cheek.
The outfit supports a surprising amount of toggles. The hat can come off, the mask can be removed, and the short sword at the hip can be hidden. Even stripped down, the silhouette stays distinctive thanks to the layered robes and asymmetrical shoulder armor.
In live play, Macrame users are often treated as hostile by default. Community discussions about who to trust in proximity chat put Macrame firmly in the “PvP maniac” category: highly stylized, clearly intentional, and usually piloted by someone confident enough to back up the look.
The Sailor’s Backpack and other cross‑outfit pieces
The Sailor’s Backpack that ships with Macrame is one of the stronger backpack designs so far. It rides on the standard Arc Raiders metal frame, but the pack itself is dense with modeled tools: pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, coils of wire. A set of scrolls can hang off the bottom rails, and the small gourd adds a bit of color and movement.
Unlike outfits, backpack pieces are designed to travel well between looks. The Sailor’s Backpack, scrolls, and gourd slot cleanly onto more grounded skins like Valente’s cowboy jacket or basic Raider Deck outfits, and they help break up the repetition of the default framed packs.
The Snake Tattoo works the same way. Once unlocked, it can pair with anything from minimalist workwear to heavy diver suits, as long as your chosen hairstyle doesn’t completely cover it. These cross‑outfit elements are where a lot of long‑term visual identity lives, because they survive swaps between full sets.
Farmer bundle: Agriculturalist backpack, grain sack, and shears
On the other end of the spectrum is the Farmer bundle, a smaller cosmetic pack that leans entirely into the game’s ruined‑earth setting. Its pitch is simple: “farm‑to‑table” in a world without farms.
The bundle includes:
- Agriculturalist backpack — a large wicker basket mounted to the standard frame, filled with an axe and other tools, plus seed bags on the sides and a small lockbox at the bottom.
- Grain sack charm — a hanging sack labeled 5 kg that clips onto the pack’s lower bar.
- Gardening shears charm — small shears that look as suited to shearing as to trimming shrubs.
At 600 tokens for the bundle, or 500 for just the backpack, it’s priced well below premium outfits. It doesn’t change your hitbox or mobility; it only adds weight in the fiction, not the code. In matches, Farmer gear reads more as darkly comic than threatening. Strapping a 5‑kilogram grain sack to a high‑mobility raider is about vibe, not optimization.
Midnight Rooster: turning Scrappy into a shadow
Scrappy the rooster has quietly become one of Arc Raiders’ mascots, and the Midnight Rooster bundle lets you shift him from a colorful presence to a sleek black silhouette. The bundle rotates through the store with:
- A Scrappy skin that turns the bird completely jet black.
- A spotting scope backpack charm.
- An expressive emote themed around the rooster.
The Midnight Rooster set sits at the lighter end of the pricing scale, with the full pack at 700 tokens and Scrappy alone at 500. It’s a pure flourish: Scrappy doesn’t confer gameplay advantages, but the black variant reads cleaner against the dusty landscapes and has quickly become a favorite for players who treat their companion as part of their persona.
How customization actually works on these sets
Arc Raiders treats most premium outfits as modular. Within each set, you can usually toggle major components on and off:
- Headgear often splits into helmet and mask/goggles, each removable.
- Outer layers like chest plates, ponchos, and coats can usually be stripped away.
- Belts, bags, and visible tools may have their own toggles, changing how busy the silhouette looks.
Riposta and Macrame both follow this pattern. Riposta supports independent removal of chest armor, multiple headgear pieces, sleeves, and waist storage, letting you shift from competitive sweatsuit to a low‑profile traveler. Macrame’s hat, face covering, and sword can all disappear without forcing you to unequip the whole outfit.
Backpacks and charms are fully cross‑compatible. The Agriculturalist pack can sit behind a Luna spacesuit, a Valente cowboy, or a Voltedge street‑wear look. The same is true for the Farmer grain sack and shears, the Macrame scrolls, and the Midnight Rooster spotting scope. That mix‑and‑match layer is where the most distinctive looks come from, especially once you throw multi‑set tattoos and scars into the equation.
Trust, threat, and why certain skins get you shot
Because Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter where every encounter can turn hostile, cosmetics quickly become social signals. Over time, players start to associate certain sets with specific behaviors.
A few broad patterns have emerged:
- Heavily armored, masked skins like Riposta, Macrame, Striker, and Leviathan are often treated as high‑threat. Their users tend to lean into PvP and use darker palettes and gas‑mask style headgear.
- Utility‑heavy, science‑oriented outfits such as Bog Walker project competence and are frequently worn by well‑geared players. They might help kill a Matriarch, but they’re also more likely to flip on you once the Arc threat is down.
- Brighter, bulkier, or comedic looks — Luna’s full spacesuit, Boonie’s relaxed outdoorswear, Riot’s “minion‑gone‑fishing” overalls, or farmer baskets — often correlate with more cooperative behavior, or at least with players less focused on min‑maxing their intimidation factor.
- Default and early Deck skins like Origin, Ryder, and Voyager are ambiguous. They might belong to a new player or to someone deliberately hiding their progression.
Recent community rankings of outfits by “likelihood to shoot on sight” slot Macrame and Riposta at the top danger tier. Default Origin sits one notch below—not because the outfit is aggressive, but because it hides experience and gear level. Farmer backpacks and Midnight Rooster fall at the opposite end: they stand out visually but rarely signal a hardened ambusher.
None of this is enforced by the game itself. Skins don’t change stats or hitboxes. But in a mode where you have seconds to decide whether to speak or fire, a mask, a poncho, or a cartoonish rooster can be the difference between a quick alliance and a pre‑emptive headshot.
How store rotations and future skins are likely to evolve
Arc Raiders runs on a weekly store rotation. Premium outfits and bundles cycle in and out, while free cosmetics arrive through seasonal Raider Decks and quest rewards. Some players expect Embark to stage releases with “S‑tier” skins headlining a week, followed by slower B‑tier rotations that encourage anyone who missed the flashier items to top up Raider Coins before the next big drop.
Trailer and key‑art outfits that haven’t appeared in the live store yet are widely assumed to be sitting in the pipeline for future Raider Decks or premium passes. Comments around earlier trailers point to ice‑cleated coats and more grounded “tacticool” designs as highly anticipated additions, especially for players who prefer Arc Raiders’ current grounded aesthetic over outlandish costumes.
For now, the pattern is clear: each rotation tends to include at least one strong, identity‑defining outfit (Macrame, Riposta, Torpedo), plus one or two smaller bundles of backpack kits, lucky charms, and emotes (Farmer, Midnight Rooster). That mix gives heavy users something to chase while still letting budget‑conscious players pick up reusable flourishes that travel across every future skin they unlock.
Cosmetics in Arc Raiders already shape the social rules of a match as much as the weapons on your back. Whether you pick up Riposta to lean into the villain role, throw on Macrame’s knot‑work robes for a scrap‑samurai fantasy, or quietly clip the Agriculturalist basket behind a humble Deck outfit, other raiders are reading you the moment you come into view — and deciding whether your fashion sense earns you a wave or a bullet.
