[ARC Raiders] Workshop Upgrade Order & Priorities

This research note focuses on the 'Workshop' — the core engine of <ARC Raiders>.

Many players simply think, "I want to mod guns, so I should upgrade the Gunsmith Station first,"

but this leads to critical inefficiency from an economic standpoint.

Here's a workshop upgrade roadmap — analyzed from a backend developer's perspective — for escaping the early dead zone as fast as possible.

1. ARC Raiders Workshop Upgrade Material Requirements

Source: https://arcraiders.wiki/

Gunsmith Station

Role: Handles all weapon crafting and modification. Upgrading unlocks higher-tier weapons and advanced attachment blueprints.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Metal Parts ×20 - Rubber Parts ×30
2	- Rusty Tool ×3 - Mechanical Components ×5 - Wasp Driver ×8
3	- Rusty Gear ×3 - Advanced Mechanical Components ×5 - Sentinel Firing Core ×4	Bettina Renegade Hullcracker

Gear Bench

Role: Crafts shields and suits. The key facility that determines your defensive power.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Plastic Parts ×25 - Cloth ×30	Light Shield Medium Shield Combat Mk. 1 Looting Mk. 1 Tactical Mk. 1
2	- Power Cable ×3 - Electrical Components ×5 - Wasp Driver ×5	Heavy Shield Combat Mk. 2 Looting Mk. 2 Tactical Mk. 2
3	- Industrial Battery ×3 - Advanced Electrical Components ×5 - Bastion Cell ×6	Looting Mk. 3 (Cautious) ?

Explosives Station

Role: Crafts explosives for crowd control and area denial. Upgrading unlocks grenades with special effects.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Chemicals ×50 - ARC Alloy ×6	Gas Grenade Light Impact Grenade
2	- Synthetic Fuel ×3 - Crude Explosives ×5 - Pop Trigger ×5	Blaze Grenade
3	- Lab Reagent ×3 - Mixed Gunpowder ×5 - Rocketeer Driver ×3	Heavy Fuze Grenade Wolfpack

Utility Station

Role: Crafts a variety of tactical gear for scouting, mobility, and disruption.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Plastic Parts ×50 - ARC Alloy ×6	Barricade Kit Binoculars Door Blocker Remote Raider Flare Smoke Grenade
2	- Damaged Heat Sink ×2 - Electrical Components ×5 - Snitch Scanner ×6	Lure Grenade Zipline
3	- Damaged Motherboard ×3 - Advanced Electrical Components ×5 - Reaper Pulse Unit ×4	Photoelectric Cloak Snap Hook Tagging Grenade

Medical Lab

Role: Crafts healing items and medicine. Higher levels unlock faster recovery items and more efficient consumables.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Cloth ×50 - ARC Alloy ×6	Herbal Bandage Shield Recharger Adrenaline Shot Bandage
2	- Broken Biosensor ×2 - Tenacious Cloth ×5 - Tick Pod ×8	Sterilized Bandage Surge Shield Recharger
3	- Sealed Medkit ×3 - Antiseptic ×8 - Surveyor Vault Component ×5	Vita Spray

Refiner Station

Role: Converts basic resources into rare ones. A key facility that eases the burden of farming and looting.

Level	Required Materials	Key Unlocks
1	- Metal Parts ×60 - ARC Power Cell ×5	Crude Explosives Durable Cloth Electrical Components Mechanical Components
2	- Toaster ×3 - ARC Motion Core ×5 - Fireball Burner ×8	Advanced Electrical Components Advanced Mechanical Components Antiseptic ARC Circuitry ARC Motion Core Heavy Gun Parts Light Gun Parts Medium Gun Parts
3	- Motor ×3 - ARC Circuitry ×10 - Bombardier Cell ×6	Magnetic Accelerator Mod Components Power Rod

Looting in <ARC Raiders> is fundamentally driven by RNG (Random Number Generation).

That's why relying on chance for your material supply is inefficient.

The real purpose of upgrading the Workshop is to turn "items you have to get lucky to find" into "items you can craft from common materials."

With that mindset, here's the priority order I've worked out.

Upgrade Priority Order

Priority	Upgrade Target	Reason
Priority 0	Kkoko	Passive income source The only automated way to solve the early-game resource crunch — upgrade it the moment you have the materials.
Priority 1	Refiner	Removes the RNG (luck) factor Rare materials like "Electrical Components" or "Mechanical Components," which you'd otherwise depend entirely on field drops for, can now be crafted directly from common junk.
Priority 2	Gear Bench	Risk hedging In this game, you die just as fast as you kill enemies. No matter how well you loot, it means nothing if you die. The "Medium Shield" boosts your survival rate exponentially and is the surest insurance against losing your gear.
Priority 3	Gunsmith Station	The actual goal of the game Everything you need is now in place. With a stable system built, it's time to power up your firepower.