There’s nothing worse than spending precious skill points only to realize you’ve completely messed up your character build. With Arc Raiders offering no easy way to respec every single one of your 75 skill points matters unless you’re willing to complete an entire Expedition project and wipe your progression. Make the wrong choices early and you’re locked into a suboptimal build until you’re willing to start from scratch.
The problem? Arc Raiders’ skill descriptions are vague at best and outright misleading at worst. Skills that sound amazing on paper often deliver disappointing results, while others suffer from such severe diminishing returns that maxing them out is basically throwing points in the trash. The community has tested these abilities extensively, and the results are clear: some skills are absolute traps that will leave you underpowered compared to raiders who spent their points wisely.
Here are the seven biggest mistakes you can make with your skill points in Arc Raiders.
QUICK ANSWER: The 7 Worst Arc Raiders Skills
- Good as New (Survival) – Only works during bandage healing
- Security Breach (Survival) – Requires 36+ points for situational benefit
- Calming Stroll (Mobility) – Only active while walking (not jogging)
- Heroic Leap beyond 3/5 – Severe diminishing returns
- Slip and Slide beyond 2/5 – Minimal distance gains
- Effortless Roll beyond 1/5 – Negligible stamina savings
- Sturdy Ankles – Very low impact on fall damage
⚠️ WARNING: Arc Raiders has NO easy respec. Expedition reset wipes your entire character at level 20+. Choose carefully!
7. Maxing Out Slip and Slide (Mobility Tree)
On paper, sliding further and faster sounds like a no-brainer for an extraction shooter where mobility equals survival. In practice? Slip and Slide suffers from some of the worst diminishing returns in the entire skill tree.
Community testing has shown that while the first point or two provide a noticeable boost to slide distance, points three through five barely move the needle. Even worse, the slide speed increase is inconsistent at best. Whether you’re sliding down stairs, hills, or flat ground, the speed bonus feels identical regardless of your investment. You’ll go slightly further with all five points invested, but the difference between 2/5 and 5/5 is so negligible that you’re better off spending those three points literally anywhere else.
The real kicker? Sliding mechanics in Arc Raiders are already highly effective without any skill investment. You can chain slides into cover, evade Rocketeer fire, and maintain momentum through most combat situations using the base slide. Dumping five points here when you could be investing in Marathon Runner or Youthful Lungs is a rookie mistake that a lot of new players make.
The Fix: If you absolutely must take Slip and Slide, stop at one or two points maximum. Use those saved points for skills that actually scale properly.
6. The Security Breach Trap (Survival Tree – 36+ Points Required)
Security Breach sounds incredible. Who wouldn’t want to unlock those juicy security lockers that contain high-tier loot, blueprints, and rare materials? The problem isn’t the skill itself but the absolutely massive investment required to get there.
To unlock Security Breach, you need to sink a minimum of 36-37 points into the Survival tree. You only get 75 points total. That means over half your entire skill budget goes into one tree just to access this single ability, and along the way you’re forced to grab at least 15-20 points worth of “filler” skills that provide minimal benefit.
What do you sacrifice for Security Breach? Your core combat capabilities. You can’t get all of the god-tier stamina synergies from Conditioning (Fight or Flight + Survivor’s Stamina). You can’t max out Marathon Runner and Youthful Lungs for the full stamina engine. You can’t get Used to the Weight to offset heavy shield penalties. You end up with a slow, low-stamina raider whose only advantage is opening a special box type, while other players zoom past you with superior mobility and combat sustainability.
Even worse, Security Breach was significantly nerfed post-launch. The loot inside security lockers is still good, but it’s no longer the automatic jackpot it was during the first week. Meanwhile, you’ve permanently crippled your character’s core capabilities for a situational looting advantage.
The Fix: Skip Security Breach entirely unless you’re planning a very specific loot-focused build and you understand you’re sacrificing combat effectiveness. Most players are better served by a balanced 25/25/25 point spread across all three trees.
5. Calming Stroll (Mobility Tree – 15 Points Required)
This one tricks a lot of new players because the description makes it sound perfect for Arc Raiders’ massive maps. “While walking, your stamina regenerates as if you were standing still.” Sounds great, right? Who wouldn’t want constant stamina regeneration while moving?
Here’s the problem nobody tells you: Calming Stroll only works while using the dedicated walk button, not while jogging. Your character jogs by default. That means to actually benefit from this 15-point investment, you need to deliberately slow yourself down to walking speed.
Even worse, Calming Stroll doesn’t work while aiming. So the primary use case where you’d want constant stamina regen (during tense standoffs or while repositioning in combat) completely disables the skill. In practice, you’ll almost never use the walk function because jogging and recovering stamina while stationary is more efficient than crawling around at walking speed.
For a skill that requires 15 points in the Mobility tree to unlock, Calming Stroll delivers shockingly little value. You’re better off taking that single point and investing it in literally anything that provides consistent, passive benefits without requiring you to fundamentally change how you move.
The Fix: Skip Calming Stroll completely. If you need stamina regeneration, invest in Marathon Runner, Youthful Lungs, or Revitalizing Squat instead.
4. Over-Investing in Effortless Roll (Mobility Tree)
Dodge rolling is essential in Arc Raiders, so reducing the stamina cost sounds like a smart investment. And to be fair, Effortless Roll isn’t completely useless. The problem is that it provides such minimal benefits that spending more than one point here is a waste.
Community testing shows that while you do get an extra dodge roll at 3/5 Effortless Roll, the stamina savings from points four and five are negligible. The difference in stamina consumption is so small that players can’t reliably detect it in actual gameplay. Even at 5/5, you’re not going to notice a meaningful increase in how many times you can dodge roll before exhausting your stamina.
What makes this especially painful is that Effortless Roll shares a tree with genuinely powerful skills like Marathon Runner and Carry the Momentum. Every point you sink into Effortless Roll past the first one is a point you’re not spending on skills that could significantly enhance your raider’s capabilities.
The Fix: One point maximum, and even that’s debatable. Focus your Mobility investments on Marathon Runner, Youthful Lungs, and Carry the Momentum instead.
3. Heroic Leap Beyond 3/5 (Mobility Tree)
Heroic Leap increases your sprint dodge roll distance, which is genuinely useful for breaking line of sight during PvP encounters or escaping from dangerous ARC machines. The first few points actually deliver noticeable improvements. But like many Mobility skills, Heroic Leap suffers from absolutely brutal diminishing returns.
The difference between 0/5 and 3/5 Heroic Leap is substantial. You can feel the extra distance. But the difference between 3/5 and 5/5? Almost imperceptible. Content creators who’ve tested this with frame-by-frame analysis have confirmed that maxing out Heroic Leap provides such minimal additional distance that it’s a complete waste of points.
This is especially frustrating because Heroic Leap sits deep enough in the Mobility tree that you’re already making a significant commitment just to access it, and the last two points offer diminishing returns. Spending those last two points elsewhere in Survival or Conditioning would provide far more consistent value.
The Fix: Stop at 3/5 Heroic Leap. The first three points are worth it for aggressive players, but those last two points should go toward skills with better scaling.
2. Sturdy Ankles (Mobility Tree)
On the surface, reducing fall damage sounds useful. Arc Raiders has plenty of vertical gameplay, and taking less damage from drops could save your life. In reality, Sturdy Ankles provides such a small reduction in fall damage that it’s almost unnoticeable.
The skill only affects “non-lethal” falls, which means the heights where you were going to survive anyway. For falls that would kill you outright, Sturdy Ankles does nothing. For falls that deal moderate damage, the reduction is so minimal that you’d be better off just packing an extra bandage.
Testing shows that even with all five points invested, you’re saving maybe 5-10 health on the types of falls where Sturdy Ankles actually triggers. That’s not nothing, but it’s nowhere near valuable enough to justify multiple skill points when you’re on a strict 75-point budget.
The Fix: Skip Sturdy Ankles entirely; it offers negligible benefit for its point cost. One point might be justifiable if you’re swimming in extra Mobility points, but even then it’s questionable.
1. Good as New (Survival Tree)
This is the big one. Good as New might be the single most misleading skill in the entire game based on how its description is worded versus what it actually does.
The description says “while under a healing effect, stamina regeneration is increased.” Sounds amazing, right? Constant stamina boost while you’re healing up sounds like a survivability game-changer. But here’s what the description doesn’t tell you: Good as New only works while you’re actively being healed by consumables like bandages.
Bandages heal you for a few seconds. That’s it. Good as New gives you increased stamina regeneration for those few seconds and then turns off. You’re not getting a sustained stamina boost throughout your raid. You’re getting a tiny window of faster stamina recovery that lasts as long as a bandage’s healing-over-time effect.
In practice, this means Good as New is active for maybe 5-10 seconds per bandage use, and only if you’re actually regenerating stamina during that specific window. If you’re sprinting or dodge rolling while healing, you’re not benefiting at all. If you’re standing still and your stamina is already full, you’re not benefiting at all.
For a skill that requires investment in the Survival tree to access, Good as New delivers shockingly little value. You’re far better off taking Revitalizing Squat (stamina regen while crouching) or literally any other skill that provides consistent benefits instead of a brief, situational boost.
The Fix: Avoid Good as New completely due to its situational and brief nature. If you need stamina management, invest in Marathon Runner, Youthful Lungs, or Revitalizing Squat. All of these provide constant value instead of requiring you to consume items to activate.
The Meta Mistake: Going Too Deep Into Any Single Tree
Beyond specific bad skills, the biggest mistake you can make in Arc Raiders is over-committing to a single skill tree. The way the tree is structured, reaching the final tier (Pinnacle) skills requires 36+ points in one tree. That’s over half your total budget.
No Pinnacle skill is powerful enough to justify what you sacrifice. Security Breach, Flyswatter, and the other capstone abilities sound impressive, but they’re all situational tools that don’t compare to having a well-rounded character with strong mobility, looting efficiency, and stamina management.
The most successful raiders are running hybrid builds that spread points across all three trees, typically with allocations like: Mobility (25-28 points), Survival (20-25 points), and Conditioning (20-25 points). This gives you the core stamina engine from Mobility, essential looting and crafting from Survival, and clutch survival tools from Conditioning.
Players who rush Security Breach or other Pinnacles end up as one-trick ponies who excel at opening boxes but struggle with basic stamina management and mobility. Don’t fall into this trap.
What You Should Be Doing Instead
Rather than waste points on these trap skills, focus on the proven core that every successful raider needs:
Mobility Foundation (16-28 points):
- Marathon Runner (5/5) – Non-negotiable
- Youthful Lungs (5/5) – Essential stamina pool
- Slip and Slide (1-2/5 max) – Diminishing returns after this
- Carry the Momentum (1/1) – Free sprinting after dodge rolls
Survival Core (20-28 points):
- In-Round Crafting (1/1) – Game-changing
- Traveling Tinkerer (1/1) – Unlocks better craftables
- Looter’s Instincts (5/5) – Faster looting saves lives
- Broad Shoulders (5/5) – Carry more loot
Conditioning Picks (15-25 points):
- Used to the Weight (5/5) – Essential for shield users
- Fight or Flight (1/1) – Clutch stamina when hurt
- Survivor’s Stamina (5/5) – Synergizes with Fight or Flight
This balanced approach gives you strong mobility, self-sufficiency through crafting, efficient looting, and survival tools for when things go wrong. You won’t have access to Security Breach or other Pinnacle skills, but you’ll have a raider who performs consistently well in every situation instead of excelling at one thing while being mediocre at everything else.
The beauty of Arc Raiders is that your skill choices are permanent until you commit to an Expedition reset. That permanence makes these decisions meaningful, but it also means mistakes hurt. Avoid these seven trap skills and the broader mistake of over-specialization, and you’ll have a raider that can compete with the best players topside.
Yes, but there’s no traditional respec in Arc Raiders. The only way to reset skill points is through the Expedition Project system (unlocked at level 20), which completely wipes your character, blueprints, inventory, and progress. It requires donating hundreds of items over 7 weeks and resets you to level 1. This makes skill point mistakes extremely costly.
Rushing Security Breach (requires 36+ points in Survival tree). While the skill is useful, investing over half your total points to access it means sacrificing essential mobility and stamina management. Most successful players recommend a balanced 25/25/25 build instead.
No. Slip and Slide suffers from severe diminishing returns. The first 1-2 points provide noticeable benefit, but points 3-5 barely increase slide distance. Community testing shows maxing it is a waste of 3 skill points that could go toward Marathon Runner or other core skills.
No, this is a common misconception. Calming Stroll only works while using the dedicated walk button (slower than default jogging speed), and it doesn’t work while aiming. This makes it far less useful than the description suggests.
You get 75 total skill points (one per level). Completing Expedition Projects can grant 1-5 bonus skill points permanently, but requires full character reset. This limited pool makes avoiding bad skills critical.
Good as New increases stamina regeneration “while under healing effect”—but this only means while actively being healed by consumables like bandages (5-10 seconds). It’s not a sustained buff. For a Survival tree skill, it provides far too little value compared to alternatives like Revitalizing Squat.
Yes, but only the core ones: Marathon Runner (5/5), Youthful Lungs (5/5), and Carry the Momentum. Avoid over-investing in Mobility past 25-28 points, as later skills like Heroic Leap, Effortless Roll, and Calming Stroll have poor returns.
Unfortunately, your only option is completing the Expedition Project (level 20+), which resets your entire character. The process takes 7 weeks and hundreds of donated items. Plan your next skill tree carefully using a skill calculator before committing to the reset.
Remember: in an extraction shooter, consistency beats specialization. You need to be good at everything, not amazing at one thing. Build accordingly, and you’ll be extracting with a bunch of loot while the Security Breach chasers are still struggling to sprint from Point A to Point B.