Workshop Upgrades Guide | ARC Raiders
Getting all of the upgrades for your Workshop is vital for progression in ARC Raiders, but it’s hard without knowing what to prioritize first and where to farm. After all, getting all of the upgrades requires hundreds of materials. There are many different types, and you’ll need loads of some of them! It’s no easy task, and it takes quite some time to do it all. Thankfully, our guide will help you with all of this!
What Materials You Need
First of all, here’s a handy chart showing everything you will need for every upgrade of every station in the Workshop. There are quite a lot of materials to track, but this list should help you as a checklist to keep track of your progress!
[Insert full table of every upgrade and required materials here]
Phew! As you can see, you’ll need to do quite a lot of scavenging to get everything upgraded fully. So, what would be the best order to prioritize upgrades for smoother progression? Let’s dive in!
Which Benches to Prioritize
The Refiner is the first station you want to focus on. It allows you to craft some of the materials required to upgrade other stations. Get it to Level 2 as soon as possible, then work toward Level 3 when you can. This will save you from relying on luck to loot advanced materials.
After that, focus on either the Gunsmith or the Gear Bench. If you have a lot of weapon blueprints, go for the Gunsmith. Otherwise, the Gear Bench is the better choice early on. It allows you to craft Shields and Augments, which always come in handy!
Luckily, the Gunsmith and Gear Bench don’t share many materials, so you can upgrade both concurrently if you have the loot for it.
Next, aim for the Explosives Station and Utility Station to reach Level 2. They give you access to useful tools, but their Level 3 unlocks aren’t particularly impressive, so you can prioritize Level 2 for now and upgrade to Level 3 later as you gather materials organically.
The Medical Lab should be your last priority. Reaching Level 3 is very rewarding as it unlocks the Vita Spray, the best healing item in the game! However, its third upgrade requires 5 Surveyor Vaults, which are rare drops from Surveyors—very rare ARCs. You usually get only 1 Surveyor Vault per kill, making this upgrade resource-intensive and slow. So, upgrade the Medical Lab when you can, but focus on other benches first.
Material Farm Spots
When it comes to farming spots, we’ll break them up into categories based on the type of area and loot, such as Residential, Medical, Commercial, Mechanical, and so on. These categories follow the same classifications the game uses.
Tip: Be sure to destroy and loot ARCs you encounter in all these spots. Taking them out while scavenging should get you enough ARC-specific materials. Need help with ARCs? Check out our detailed guide on every ARC type.
Residential
For Residential loot, we recommend the cluster of buildings in the southeastern part of the Buried City. This area includes the Santa Maria Houses, Red Tower, and Plaza Rosa. It also features some Medical and Commercial loot.
What’s extra convenient is that Plaza Rosa has a metro station, allowing you to extract easily after a quick loot run.
Here are the main materials you can find in this spot:
- Chemicals
- Durable Cloth
- Fabric
- Plastic Parts
- Power Cables
- Toasters
A Bastion usually patrols Plaza Rosa. Use the rooftops to take it down for Bastion Cells.
Similarly, you can often spot a Bombardier near the Santa Maria Houses. Hide inside residences and shoot at the Bombardier until it breaks down, giving you Bombardier Cells.
This is also a good spot to farm Dog Collars, Very Comfortable Pillows, and Cat Beds—essential materials if you plan to fully upgrade Scrappy, and you really should!
Mechanical and Industrial
We pair Mechanical and Industrial loot together because they often appear in the same area. We recommend the underground section of the Blue Gate map, accessible from the Outer Gates point of interest (POI). This tunnel contains many breachable and lootable cars and containers, offering a solid chance of yielding the materials you need!
Main materials found here include:
- Industrial Battery
- Mechanical Components
- Metal Parts
- Motors
- Rubber Parts
- Rusted Gear
- Rusted Tools
Medical
The Hospital building on the Buried City map is the prime spot for Medical loot.
Here, you can find:
- Cracked Bioscanners
- Rusted Shut Medical Kits
- Laboratory Reagents
- Fabric
- Chemicals
- Durable Cloth
- Antiseptic
Since this is an indoor area, you’ll often encounter Ticks and Fireballs. Take them out to gather their materials!
Technological and Electrical
Technological and Electrical materials often appear together. The best farming spot is around the Water Treatment Control POI and the adjacent buildings to the east on the Dam Battlegrounds map.
Materials you can collect here include:
- Damaged Heat Sinks
- Fried Motherboards
- Power Cables
- Electrical Components
- Metal Parts
- Plastic Parts
Important ARC Parts
Some materials are exclusively obtained as drops from ARCs. While common items like ARC Alloys and Wasp Drivers are fairly plentiful, some rare parts need focused farming. We’ve covered many basics in previous farming spots, so below we focus on key parts found only through ARCs.
Rocketeer Drivers
One of the easiest rare drops to farm, Rocketeer Drivers, can be gathered without even fighting Rocketeers! Just loot broken ARCs near the Old Battleground and Red Lakes areas on the Dam Battlegrounds map. Also, during Husk Graveyard events, many broken Rocketeers spawn all over maps—keep an eye out!
Sentinel Firing Cores
Good farming spots for Sentinel Firing Cores on the Dam Battlegrounds map include:
- The northern part of the map, just north of The Breach
- The Research & Administration building near the center of the map, where Sentinels can spawn near the top of the building along the eastern stairs
Surveyor Vaults
Surveyor Vaults are tricky to farm. The area around the West Container Yard on the Spaceport map is a solid spot for finding Surveyors. They move around a lot, making them unreliable targets, and usually drop only one Surveyor Vault per kill.
Look for blue beams of light shooting into the sky—these indicate Surveyors actively scanning their surroundings.
Leaper Pulse Units
The best spot for Leaper Pulse Units is the Red Lakes Balcony on the Dam Battlegrounds map. You’ll often find one or two Leapers patrolling the area.
To take them down, lead them near small buildings, then hide inside and shoot at them until defeated.
Wrapping Up
That’s everything you need to know to upgrade your Workshop fully in ARC Raiders. You now know what materials are needed for each upgrade, which benches to prioritize for smooth progression, and the best farming spots for all material types. With this knowledge, you’ll be well on your way to maximizing your Workshop’s potential and advancing quickly in the game.
Happy scavenging and good luck out there!