One of the roughest parts of any extraction shooter is making money early on. With the free loadouts mechanic, **ARC Raiders** goes a long way toward solving that problem. If you’re ever low on cash or want a more stress-free way to play, grab a free loadout and go to town. Here’s how they work.
## How Free Loadouts Work in ARC Raiders
Free loadouts are a set of random, relatively low-quality gear that you can use to get into a raid quickly and without spending a dime. You can use them as often as you like—there’s no cooldown or limited items keeping you from doing free run after free run. They are genuinely free.
The only “costs” to a free loadout are the time you spend playing and how lacking it is in firepower and survivability compared to any kit you’d put together yourself. Your weapon has no upgrades, you have limited ammo and meds, and a small backpack. You don’t even have a Safe Pocket to guarantee a piece of loot if you die.
How you play your free loadout is up to you, but you’ll need to pick your battles wisely because you are almost always at a disadvantage.
## What Comes with a Free Loadout?
A free loadout will always include:
– A green shield
– A rank 1 gray weapon
– A single stack of ammo
– A small collection of meds and/or grenades
The augment you get is also gray rarity. This means it can only hold a few items before you’ll need to drop something to make space. You can’t alter your augment in a raid either. So even if you manage to knock out another Raider or three, you’ll need to make some hard decisions about what loot to take and what to leave on the ground.
## What to Do with the Free Loadout Augment
Surviving with your free loadout offers more than just the loot you found. You can also talk to Lance at the Clinic and trade in your free loadout augment for one of the three green-rarity augments available.
While it’s not world-shattering rewards, it can give you a leg up on your next kitted raid—saving you crafting resources or Coin to buy a better augment. This way, you’re moving from a free run to a cheap one, where you still have plenty of room to get better loot without needing to put up much upfront.
Alternatively, you can simply dismantle everything you came out with to prepare for a juiced raid that’s a little less costly to put together.
## How Should You Play a Free Loadout?
There are two main playstyles when it comes to free loadouts: **loot goblin** or **PvP chaser**.
### Loot Goblin
This playstyle understands that you’re at a massive gear disadvantage against almost everything in the server and focuses on hoovering up as much loot as possible before extracting.
The loot goblin approach is slower and more methodical. You’ll watch and listen to PvP fights happening around you and steer well clear of them. You’ll also need to be cautious of the ARC robots flying around the map, as they’ll reveal your position and drain what few healing resources you have.
### PvP Chaser
The PvP-chasing free loadout playstyle is all about finding another, better-geared player, taking them by surprise, knocking them out, and taking their stuff.
Once you have a complete kit, you’ll need to decide if you want to keep chasing other players or slow it down to ensure you make it out with your goodies.
Of the two, the PvP chaser playstyle is often more exciting. But many players prefer being a loot goblin when on the back foot, then spending the resources earned from free runs on a completed loadout they can trust.
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Now that you know how free loadouts work in ARC Raiders, how will you use yours? Whether you prefer cautious scavenging or daring PvP encounters, free loadouts offer a great way to jump back into the action without breaking the bank.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146615/how-to-use-free-loadouts-in-arc-raiders