In Embark Studios' atmospheric extraction shooter, survival hinges on your ability to cross lethal terrain while dodging swarms of rogue machines. Walking everywhere on foot exposes your squad to unexpected ambush patrols, consumes precious stamina, and leaves you vulnerable during high-intensity extraction phases. Securing mounts and high-speed traversal gear transforms your field operations, allowing you to quickly secure high-tier loot hotspots, outrun hostile ARC drops, and reach extraction beacons before rival Raiders cut off your retreat route. If you want to accelerate your mobility and acquire mounts fast in ARC Raiders, this guide breaks down every unlock step, optimal farming route, and resource priority necessary to put your squad in the fast lane.
Understanding how mount acquisition interacts with your overall progression curve is essential. You cannot simply purchase a top-tier vehicle directly from a vendor upon landing in Speranza. Instead, acquiring mounts requires a methodical combination of faction milestone completion, targeted component scavenging, and garage bench upgrades. By focusing your early play sessions on high-yield missions and schematic unlocks, you can cut down the typical unlock timeline by hours and gain a massive tactical edge on the surface.
1. Understanding Mounts and Traversal Equipment in ARC Raiders
Mount Categories and Traversal Mechanics
Mounts and personal transport units in ARC Raiders are designed around specific tactical utility. Rather than acting purely as passive cosmetic transport, mounts consume power reserves, offer localized armor protection, and enable rapid redeployment across long map distances. Light scout bikes excel at tight maneuverability and low noise signatures, making them ideal for solo operations or fast stealth looting runs. Medium heavy-duty skimmers offer expanded cargo slots and reinforced plating, allowing squads to transport heavy industrial salvage directly to secure extraction points.
Using mounts effectively requires managing power cell expenditure and noise pollution. Accelerating at full throttle emits loud mechanical audio cues and thermal signatures that draw nearby ARC drones and rival squads directly to your location. Learning when to boost across open killing fields and when to disengage engine power near hostile strongholds is just as crucial as building the mount itself. For more advice on coordinating squad movements during high-stakes drops, check out our guide on mastering squad synergy in ARC Raiders.
Why Speed and Mobility Dictate Extraction Success
Time on the ground is your primary enemy in any extraction drop. The longer your team remains stationary, the higher the density of ARC threat spawns becomes. Mounts compress your travel time between surface drop pods, research stations, and extraction points. By drastically shortening travel windows, you minimize friction with roaming hunter-killer units and prevent third-party ambushes from enemy player squads waiting along major chokepoints.
Furthermore, mobility allows you to aggressively claim high-value supply caches ahead of competing teams. When a rare drop pod lands across the map, foot-bound Raiders often arrive too late to contest the payload. Squads equipped with fast traversal mounts can quickly claim the site, loot the high-grade components, and set up defensive positions before opposition forces reach the area. If you enjoy competitive tactical shooters, you can explore broader genre recommendations on our FPS games hub.
2. Complete Main Quests and Resistance Milestones First
Prioritizing Faction Standing for Schematic Unlocks
The single most common mistake new players make is spending hours blindly searching surface loot containers for complete mount units. Mounts are not dropped as raw world loot; they must be crafted using blueprints unlocked through faction progression. The underground traders and workshop engineers in the hub area hand out essential vehicle schematics as reward milestones when you advance through primary story contracts.
Focus your first 5 to 10 hours of play on completing primary Resistance objectives rather than hunting for random side activities. Main contract lines award heavy faction experience points, clearing key reputation gates fast. Reaching Faction Tier 2 with the Workshop Syndicate unlocks your basic skimmer blueprint, giving you the fundamental schematic needed to construct your very first mount.
Key Story Milestones That Award Vehicle Blueprints
Pay close attention to specific mission chains assigned by the head mechanics in Speranza. Contracts labeled as "Logistics Recovery" or "Surface Mobility Initiative" directly feed into mount progression. Finishing these contracts rewards you with non-tradable blueprint blueprints alongside early crafting components like Servo Motors and High-Density Fuel Cells.
- Contract: Signal in the Dust – Unlocks basic garage assembly facilities and raw component refining recipes.
- Contract: Relay Station Sweep – Awards the Chassis Blueprint for the light scout skimmer.
- Contract: Power Grid Overhaul – Grants access to high-capacity battery cell blueprints essential for long-range mount operation.
By prioritizing these contracts over general free-roam scavenging, you ensure every surface deployment brings you closer to key blueprint requirements without wasting gear drops on non-essential crafting materials. To track more mission strategy guides for top releases, explore our dedicated gaming guides section.
3. Efficient Material Farming for Mount Crafting
Essential Components for Assembling Traversal Gear
Once you acquire your vehicle blueprints, building your mount requires collecting specialized industrial salvage. Unlike basic weapon upgrades that use common scrap metal, mount schematics call for specific high-tier materials. You will need a reliable stock of Titanium Alloy Plates, Micro-Processors, Precision Ball Bearings, and Ionized Fuel Cells. Scrap metal alone will not cut it when assembling advanced drive trains.
Prioritize your inventory space during extraction runs for blue-rarity and purple-rarity mechanical items. Avoid cluttering your pouch with raw junk unless it can be dismantled directly at your workbench into complex polymers or conductive wiring. To understand how to manage your crafting materials efficiently across all gear tiers, consult our comprehensive ARC Raiders crafting guide.
The Quickest Scavenging Routes Across Ruined Landscapes
To farm mount components at high speeds, deploy into map sectors dense with industrial infrastructure. Railway yards, automated maintenance depots, and crashed transport freighters offer the highest concentration of mechanical salvage containers. Avoid residential ruins or commercial plazas when hunting for vehicle parts, as those zones primarily yield medical supplies and basic barter goods.
- The Maintenance Hangar Loop: Land at the North-West Airfield drop pod, quickly breach the three central hangars, loot all heavy toolboxes, and extract at the nearby underground tunnel.
- The Freight Rail Yard: Sweep through derailed cargo cars, focusing on green military crate spawns containing servo motors and power wiring.
- Power Substation Run: Target heavy transformer stations to harvest high-voltage capacitors and energy cells required for mount engine construction.
Consistently running these targeted routes allows you to compile all necessary mount assembly components within 4 to 6 successful extractions, radically cutting down your grind time compared to unorganized looting runs.
4. Target Specific High-Tier Extraction Zones
Navigating High-Risk Sectors for Rare Parts
Standard surface zones yield low-tier salvage that takes dozens of refining steps to turn into usable mount parts. To assemble higher-tier mounts fast, you must venture into contested high-threat sectors where advanced ARC units patrol. Red-marked alert zones feature heavy mechanical walkers and flying sentinel swarms, but they also host elite research crates containing pre-assembled vehicle sub-components like Turbines and Hydro-Pneumatic Suspension struts.
Entering these high-threat zones without a plan is lethal. Gear up with armor-piercing ammunition, EMP devices, and smoke grenades to disengage when ARC forces overwhelm your position. If you enjoy optimizing high-yield farming strategies across hard games, compare this loop with our famous Elden Ring rune farming guide.
Extracting Safely with High-Value Crafting Scraps
Finding rare vehicle components is only half the battle; carrying them back to Speranza intact is what counts. High-value mount components carry significant inventory weight, slowing your character's movement speed and increasing stamina drain while on foot. When your backpack is filled with essential mount parts, avoid picking up secondary loot that pushes you into heavy encumbrance status.
Call in extraction pods early rather than waiting until the final storm phase. Campers often target late extractions, knowing desperate players will rush in encumbered with loot. Secure defensive high ground around the extraction site, lay down proximity traps, and use thermal optics to scan surrounding brush before pushing into the capture circle. For more tactical survival strategies on PC titles, check out our PC gaming index.
5. Optimize Squad Dynamics and Traversal Synergies
Coordinating Team Roles for Faster Map Traversal
Farming mount materials solo is notoriously difficult due to inventory limitations and high combat pressure. Running in a full four-player squad allows your team to divide roles, maximize storage capacity, and secure high-threat industrial zones with ease. Designate specific squad roles prior to launching your raid deployment to streamline material acquisition.
- The Scout: Equipped with light speed gear and ping tools to identify target vehicle crates quickly.
- The Heavy Anchor: Carries heavy firepower to deal with ARC Mech drops and enemy Raider squads contesting loot sites.
- The Mule: Utilizes expanded backpack rigs dedicated entirely to carrying heavy vehicle alloys and power cells back to extraction.
- The Tech Specialist: Carries hacking tools and repair kits to breach locked mechanic doors faster and keep team equipment operational.
This division of labor ensures your team can clear major industrial compounds in under five minutes, pack away every high-value mount schematic or component, and head straight for extraction before rival squads converge on your signal.
Managing Energy Reserves and Vehicle Cooldowns
Once you craft your first mount, maintaining its operational readiness during field drops requires discipline. Mounts do not possess unlimited power. Continuous boosting quickly depletes battery reserves, leaving you stranded in open terrain with a completely drained engine. Carry spare Battery Refill Modules in your quick-item wheel to quickly charge your vehicle during extended sweeps.
Coordinate boost usage with your teammates so the entire squad travels at a uniform speed. If one player burns through their energy cell while others save theirs, your team becomes spread out across dangerous terrain, leaving lagging members vulnerable to sniper fire or elite ARC hunter drones.
6. Best Upgrades and Maintenance Strategies for Max Speed
Essential Engine and Armor Upgrades
Unlocking your base mount is only the beginning of your high-speed mobility progression. Baseline vehicles possess modest acceleration and limited hull durability, making them vulnerable to concentrated small-arms fire and drone lasers. Upgrading your mount at the garage workbench dramatically enhances top speed, boost duration, and structural integrity.
- Overclocked Turbine Injection: Increases top speed by 25% and shortens boost recharge delay by 3 seconds.
- Composite Reactive Plating: Absorbs incoming mechanical drone fire, preventing instant dismounts when riding through active kill zones.
- Silent Drive Motors: Reduces the audio foot-print radius of your mount by 40%, letting you bypass rival squads undetected.
Prioritize speed and noise suppression upgrades early on. Avoiding combat while mounted keeps your vehicle from sustaining catastrophic damage that requires expensive garage repairs back in Speranza.
Field Repair Protocols and Durability Hacks
Mounts sustain wear and tear during every deployment. Hitting terrain hazards, taking enemy fire, or over-boosting engine core temperatures degrades overall vehicle health. Operating a damaged mount decreases top speed and creates smoke plumes that reveal your location across long distances.
Always equip a Field Blowtorch or Repair Arc in your secondary utility slot before dropping into high-risk maps. If your mount takes heavy damage during a firefight, pull behind cover and perform field repairs immediately. Keeping your mount durability above 80% guarantees maximum speed output when you need to make a rapid getaway toward an active extraction elevator.
To stay updated on patch notes, official announcements, and community events directly from the developers, visit the official ARC Raiders official website or keep an eye on the ARC Raiders Steam page for upcoming balance updates. Learn more about the game's production history at Embark Studios.
Summary Checklist for Getting Mounts Fast
To summarize your path toward rapid mount acquisition in ARC Raiders, follow this strategic checklist every time you log in:
- Focus Resistance Contracts: Clear main story missions to unlock basic vehicle schematics from Speranza vendors fast.
- Farm Industrial Hotspots: Target airfields, rail yards, and power grids for blue and purple mechanical salvage.
- Raid High-Threat Sectors: Brave alert zones to loot rare sub-components like turbines and suspension units.
- Run a Balanced Squad: Assign inventory and combat roles to maximize carrying capacity and security.
- Upgrade for Speed First: Invest early crafting materials into engine output and noise suppression to stay fast and unseen.
By executing this strategy, your squad will leave foot travel behind and dominate surface extractions with unmatched speed and tactical mobility.