Discover everything you need to know about upgrading the best workshop in Arc Raiders, including the required materials.
Workshop in Arc Raiders is your main crafting and upgrade hub, where you build, upgrade, and customize your equipment, weapons, consumables, and gear. Upgrading the best workshop is essential to progress smoothly. While upgrading the Gunsmith unlocks better weapons, attachments, and mods, the Medical Lab provides healing items and consumables.
Most materials required for upgrading the workbenches are easy to locate, but some are difficult to acquire. Upgrading many stations, a little is less effective than maxing a couple early. Knowing which materials you need helps target map zones or containers. In this guide, we’ll discuss the best workshop upgrades in Arc Raiders, including what makes them the best or worst ones.
Best Workshop Upgrades in Arc Raiders
Below are the best workshop upgrades in Arc Raiders.
1. Gunsmith
One of the most important workbenches you can install and upgrade is the Gunsmith. It’s here where you’ll be able to craft weapons that you learn from blueprints, and create attachments. This increases the effectiveness of your weapons and upgrades them, improving their performance. We recommend upgrading the Gunsmith workbench because stronger weapons mean faster clearing of threats and better extraction success.
Things like increasing your magazine size, reducing reload speed, and other benefits that happen as you upgrade weapons do factor into your potential damage output. To fully install your gunsmith and upgrade it to level three, you need some items.
20 metal parts and 30 rubber parts. Both metal and rubber parts are basic building blocks that you can obtain in several ways. Either by recycling items that you scavenge during raids, looting from containers in the world, or purchasing. You’ll also need three rusted tools. These can be found in mechanical points of interest on any map. You’ll also need five mechanical components. You can get these in some ways, so pick your poison.
2. Medical Labs
Once you’ve upgraded from free loadouts to custom loadouts, you’ll come to realize that basic bandages just aren’t going to cut it. That’s where the medical lab comes in, providing you with the means to craft and maintain your supply of life-saving consumables.
The Medical Lab unlocks healing-consumable and medical-gear blueprints. At higher levels, you gain access to better medkits, shield rechargers, and Vita Spray. Because healing items are quite important, improving your medical-crafting capacity is useful. The cost and rarity of some of the materials for higher levels are significant. If you’re more stealth or loot runner, then the Medical Lab is more directly in your path.
You need 50 fabric, as one of the required materials, to upgrade the Medical Labs. This is one of the basic materials in the game and can be found in several different ways. Six Arc Alloy can be obtained from any ark enemy in the game, making it one of the easier materials to get if you go into a raid with an arc killing mentality.
You can also get a number of these from recycling any higher-tier arc part. Two cracked bio scanners can be a bit elusive, given that they can only be found at medical POIs, which are less abundant and often smaller than the other points of interest. Five durable cloths can be found in medical POIs, but also in commercial locations. These are uncommon, but you’ll actually find plenty of them if you’re diligent with your looting. You can also craft this at your refiner for 14 fabric, which is an easy way to get what you need.
3. Gear Bench
When you need a new shield or perhaps looking to move beyond the basic augments. Either way, you’ll need the gear bench. We wouldn’t recommend prioritizing this workbench, but it certainly has its uses. Upgrading it unlocks better equipment like stronger shields and other gear that directly improve your survivability.
Crafting better defensive or utility gear helps your survival in raids. You’re better equipped to carry more loot, survive tougher fights, or use more gadgets. If you prefer being mobile, stealthy, or a looter rather than full-on DPS, the Gear Bench in Arc Raiders unlocks the gear that supports that style.
You need 25 plastic parts and 30 Fabric. Both are basic materials in the game and can be found in a number of different ways. Power cables are rare recyclables that can be found in electrical, residential, and commercial POIs. Be sure to check the surfaces of any electronics console, as you’ll often find these sitting out in the open. As far as we know, you can’t obtain them by recycling any other items.
You’ll also need five electrical components. These can be found only in electrical POIs, which limits their potential drop locations. However, you can also easily get these by recycling a few notable items, mainly the Wasp and Hornet drivers, as well as the snitch scanner, amongst other things. You can also craft these at your refiner using rubber and plastic parts. Then there are five hornet drivers. These are guaranteed drops from the corpse of any arc hornet.
4. Refiner
Long-term, you’re going to want your refiner up and running as soon as possible. This allows you to craft refined materials that are necessary for several more advanced recipes. You might not see the value immediately, but as you start evolving your loadouts. However, it becomes an essential workstation to fully install your refiner and upgrade it to level three. Many players delay this until after they’ve got Weapon med and gear bench at level 2, but it’s very useful mid-game.
You need 60 metal parts to upgrade the Refiner. This is one of the basic materials in the game and can be found in several different ways. You’ll receive these from Scrappy after every raid. You can also purchase them from Celeste using assorted seeds.
Five arc power cells are lootable items that you can obtain from any of the minor arc enemies in the game, such as wasps, hornets, snitches, ticks, etc. You can also recycle them from the advanced ark power cells that drop from the more elite arc enemies, such as the bombader, bastion, and rocketeer. Toasters are rare items that can be found in residential areas.
You’ll also need five arc motion cores. These rare items can be found from arc surveyors, bastions, bombaders, and the queen’s topside. Considering the enemies you have to kill to obtain them, I recommend stashing them in a safe pocket just in case you die during a raid. You can also craft these for other purposes once you’ve upgraded your refiner to level three.
Fireball burners have a guaranteed drop from fireball enemies found throughout the various maps. Wait for the fireball to reveal its flamethrowers and shoot the central orb, which is exposed.
5. Explosive Bench
Throwable explosives are wickedly effective in Arc Raiders, and while not necessary, they’re certainly useful. Explosive Bench provides a variety of grenades, mines, explosive utilities, and traps. It gives you tactical explosives beyond just shooting. The materials for the explosives bench are non-trivial and may require farming specific drops. If you enjoy using grenades, mines, and traps, then upgrading the Explosives Bench earlier will pay off.
Rubber parts are one of the basic materials in the game and can be found in a number of different ways. Like all based materials, you’ll receive these from scrappy after every raid, and you can also purchase them from Celeste using assorted seeds. Arc alloy can be obtained from any ark enemy in the game, making it one of the easier materials to get if you go into a raid with an arc killing mentality.
You can also get a number of these from recycling any higher-tier arc part. Synthesized fuel might be elusive at first, but the best place to obtain synthesized fuel is at the rocket assembly on the spaceport map, which is considered an Exodus POI.
6. Utility Bench
Arguably, the least important workbench in Arc Raiders, you still have to show some love to the utility bench. This allows you to gain access to a few key items that can be helpful in any raid. The Utility Bench upgrades unlock gadgets and tactical tools such as ziplines, deployables, and special grenades.
The gadgets you unlock can enhance mobility, recon, stealth, and utility roles rather than pure firepower or defence. If you’re frequently using ziplines, traps, and mobility tools, then Utility upgrades pay off. You’re still early game and struggling to survive, extract, or kill. In that case, core benches like Gunsmith or Medical Labs give more immediate impact.
Snitch Scanners are guaranteed drops from snitches, and while they’re fun to throw and piss off your enemy with, they’re better used to upgrade your utility bench. Fried Motherboards are the items you can only obtain by scavenging technological POIs. In this case, you need two items from the same type of POI, so chances are you’ll find one, if not both, if you concentrate your efforts.
Advanced Electrical Components are rare, refined materials that can only be found in electrical POIs. While you can obtain them by recycling a few epic items, such as a rocketeer driver and the power rod, you really want to craft these at your level two refiner for three wire and two electrical components.
