Arc Raiders Patch Notes 1.13.0 Update Guide
What's inside
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The 1.13.0 update for Arc Raiders is a balance-first patch: it trims the dominance of high-tier automatic rifles in mid-range fights, softens two of the most punishing ARC enemy behaviours, raises the vendor value of several common crafting materials, and reshuffles part of the mid-game quest chain so progression no longer stalls behind a single rare drop. The short version for returning players: a mid-tier rifle with a compensator now closes most of the gap to a top-tier gun at a fraction of the raid cost, and your old “one meta weapon plus light armour” loadout is measurably weaker than it was last week. Everything below is written against the official 1.13.0 patch notes; Embark has shipped mid-season hotfixes before, so confirm live values in the client before you rebuild a stash around any single number.
Contents
What 1.13.0 Changes at a Glance
The patch touches four systems — weapons, ARC enemies, loot economy, and progression. Most of the numbers are small in isolation, but three of them compound in ways that change how a raid plays out.
| Area | What 1.13.0 does | Practical effect in a raid |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-tier automatic rifles | Base damage reduced roughly 8%; first-shot recoil increased | Time-to-kill on unarmoured targets lengthens by about one bullet at 30–50 m |
| Marksman rifles | Aim-down-sights time cut about 10% | Peek-and-shoot at range is fast enough to contest open ground again |
| Shotguns | Pellet spread tightened roughly 15% inside 8 m | Two-shot kills at point-blank are now the norm rather than a coin flip |
| Wasp and Hornet ARC | Aggro radius reduced from roughly 60 m to 45 m | Rooftop and courtyard looting no longer automatically pulls the sky |
| Bastion ARC | Rear vent hitboxes take about 20% more damage | Flanking a Bastion is now worth the exposure it costs |
| Common crafting materials | Vendor sell value up roughly 25% | Early raids fund themselves instead of forcing budget runs |
| Stash | Base capacity increased by 20 slots, workbench-gated | Quest items and spare plates no longer compete for the same space |
Weapon Changes: What Actually Moves Your Loadout
Automatic rifles lost their free lunch at mid-range
An 8% base damage cut sounds minor until you do the arithmetic. If a rifle was killing an unarmoured target in five shots at 40 m, it now needs six — and that extra shot is roughly 0.4 seconds of extra exposure against a player who is already shooting back. The recoil change matters more than the damage change: the first shot now kicks harder, so tap-firing at distance costs you a fraction of a second of re-acquisition. The fix is cheap. A compensator plus burst discipline rather than full-auto holds restores most of the old feel, which means the practical nerf lands hardest on players who were spraying without attachments.
Marksman rifles are the quiet winners
Faster ADS is the single most useful buff in the patch for anyone who plays open ground. It shortens the window between spotting a target and being able to shoot, which is exactly the window where mid-range rifle users previously punished you. Pair a marksman rifle with a shotgun and you cover both extremes of the range band the patch just reshaped, leaving the now-weaker mid-range automatic as the least necessary of the three.
Shotguns got more consistent, not stronger
Tightened pellet spread inside 8 m raises the floor rather than the ceiling. Your best-case damage is unchanged; your worst case is much better. That is a durability buff to the weapon class — fewer fights lost to a bad spread roll — and it makes a shotgun a reasonable permanent secondary instead of a map-specific pick.
Enemy Adjustments and How Fights Change
The Wasp and Hornet aggro reduction from roughly 60 m to 45 m is the change most players will feel first, because it removes the accidental pull that ruins a loot route. In practice, you can now clear a courtyard, loot the containers, and move on without committing to an aerial fight you did not choose. The Bastion change is the opposite — it rewards aggression. Rear vents taking about 20% more damage means a two-player flank on opposite sides is now faster than a single player dumping magazines into the front plate, and it is worth the extra repositioning time. Nothing in the patch changes Leaper or Tick behaviour, so tunnel and interior routes play the same as before.
Loot and Economy: What to Sell and What to Keep
Common crafting materials selling for roughly 25% more at vendors changes the early-game decision from “hoard everything” to “sell surplus, keep a stack of 20.” The reason is opportunity cost: a stash full of low-tier scrap is stash space you are not using for plates, quest items, or the parts you actually need for a workbench upgrade. The extra 20 base stash slots are gated behind the workbench, so the efficient order is workbench first, stash second — the stash upgrade is worth less than the crafting tier it unlocks.
Progression: Quest Chain Reshuffling
The mid-game quest sequence now spreads its rare-material requirements across more steps instead of concentrating them in one. If you were stuck on a single drop, the bottleneck has moved — check your quest log rather than assuming your old route still works. Skill point allocation is untouched, so any build guide you were following for perks and passives still applies. What changed is pacing: the stretch between your first and second workbench tier is shorter, which means the window where you are running budget loadouts is shorter too.
Rebuilding Your Loadout: A Decision Matrix
| Your situation | Loadout approach | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Solo, thin stash, under 50 raids | Mid-tier rifle + shotgun, light armour | Cheap enough to lose repeatedly; still wins the close fights the spread buff improved |
| Duo on open ground | Marksman + mid-tier rifle | The ADS buff rewards range, and two players cover the reload window |
| Trio in bunker-heavy routes | Two shotguns + one rifle | Tightened spread inside 8 m stacks across three shooters |
| Veteran chasing quest completion | Whatever clears the objective fastest | The reshuffled chain rewards speed over kill count |
| Returning after a long break | Rebuild one mid-tier rifle with a compensator | Cheapest way to re-learn the new recoil before spending on a top-tier gun |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 1.13.0 a nerf patch or a buff patch?
It is mostly a redistribution patch. High-tier automatic rifles lost a small amount of raw power, while marksman rifles, shotguns, and the early-game economy all gained. Nothing was removed and no weapon class was made unusable, so existing favourites still work — they just have to compete with cheaper alternatives that closed the gap.
Do I need to change my main weapon?
Not necessarily. If your rifle already had a compensator and you were burst-firing rather than holding full-auto, the damage reduction costs you about one extra bullet per kill. If you were spraying an unmodified rifle at 40 m, the patch will feel much worse and the cheapest fix is an attachment rather than a new gun.
Why do Wasps and Hornets feel less aggressive now?
Their aggro radius dropped from roughly 60 m to 45 m, so you can loot many outdoor areas without pulling them. That is intentional — it reduces the number of fights you are forced into while looting, which in turn makes the raised material sell values more useful because you get to extract with your haul more often.
How should I spend the new stash slots?
Keep quest items and armour plates in the base slots and let surplus common materials sit in overflow, since those are the items you sell first. If you are choosing between the stash upgrade and a workbench tier, take the workbench — it unlocks crafting options the stash does not.
Did skill points or perks change in 1.13.0?
No. Progression changes in this patch are limited to quest sequencing and pacing, so any perk and passive build you were running is still valid. If a guide tells you 1.13.0 respecs your tree, that guide is out of date.
Will a hotfix change these numbers again?
Possibly — Embark has adjusted values mid-season before. Treat every figure here as the starting point from the official patch notes and check the live stat screen before you commit a large amount of stash value to a rebuild.
