If you’re anything like me, your Arc Raiders stash is a complete disaster. Every rusted tool and broken flashlight feels essential until you’re buried in junk with no space for what you actually need. The classic extraction game curse strikes again. With over 200 different items, knowing what to keep versus what to recycle or sell is something you’ll spend a lot of time thinking about. I’ve spent way too much time sorting through this mess, so let me share what I’ve learned.
The Golden Rule: Track Your Resources First
Before you sell or recycle a single thing, open your Workshop and click “Track Resources” on every station you need to upgrade. This puts a little eye icon on items you need, both in your stash and during raids. It’s the game’s way of stopping you from accidentally scrapping that Toaster you need for your Refiner upgrade.
⚠️ Confusing Items
| Item Name | Decision | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| 🔧 Rusted Tools | KEEP | Workshop level 3 upgrades |
| 💾 Fried Motherboards | KEEP | High-level station upgrades |
| 🔥 Damaged Heat Sinks | KEEP | Rare — Refinery upgrades |
| ⚕️ Rusted Medical Kits | KEEP | Medical Lab upgrades |
| ⚡ Power Cables | KEEP | Multiple upgrades need intact cables |
| 🔬 Cracked Bioscanners | KEEP | Rare — Medical Lab level 3 |
| ⚙️ Advanced Electrical Components | KEEP | Rare spawn, multiple stations |
| 🍞 Toasters | CHECK | Track Resources first! |
| 🔦 Broken Flashlights | SELL | Vendor trash — no uses |
| 🎹 Ruined Accordion | SELL | No crafting use |
| ⚽ Deflated Soccer Ball | SELL | Trinket with no quests |
| 🕯️ Candle Holders | SELL | Common trinket |
WARNING: Some items say “recyclable” but are needed for upgrades. ALWAYS use Track Resources in Workshop before selling!
What to Keep: The Essentials
These are the items you absolutely want to hang onto because they’re tied to workshop upgrades, quests, or they’re just a pain to find again.
For Workshop Upgrades: Start with ARC parts – anything that drops from those robot enemies. Sentinel Firing Cores, Bastion Cells, Bombardier Cells, and Rocketeer Drivers are all needed to level up your benches. You need multiple copies of most of these, so keep every single one until your workshops hit level 3.
Then there are the weird “broken” items that look like vendor trash but aren’t. Rusted Tools, Fried Motherboards, Damaged Heat Sinks, and Rusted Shut Medical Kits all sound useless, but they’re required for high-level upgrades.
Power Cables, Cracked Bioscanners, and Advanced Electrical Components fall into the “rare enough to be annoying” category. You’ll find them in specific POIs, and when you need six of them for an upgrade, you’ll wish you’d kept every one you found.
For Scrappy Upgrades: Scrappy wants Dog Collars, Cat Beds, and Very Comfortable Pillows. But the real grind is the fruit: Lemons, Apricots, Prickly Pears, Olives, and Mushrooms. You need a lot of these to max him out, and they don’t spawn as frequently as you’d think. Grab every piece of fruit you see, especially Mushrooms.
Quick Reference: Interactive Item Database
Now that you know the basics, here’s a tool that makes decisions easier on the fly. This interactive database lets you search any item in Arc Raiders and instantly see whether to keep, sell, or recycle it, and what it’s worth. Bookmark this for when you’re mid-raid and need a quick answer.
What to Sell: The Good Stuff
This is where things get interesting.. Selling often beats recycling, especially when you need coins to expand your stash or buy from traders.
Trinkets Are Pure Profit: Anything with a diamond icon and a “Trinket” tag is meant to be sold. Prioritize these high-value trinkets: Lance’s Mixtape (10,000 coins), Breathtaking Snow Globe (7,000 coins), and Syringes (5,000 coins). Playing Cards, Music Albums, and Statuettes all fetch decent money too. Residential areas on Buried City are loaded with these, so make sure to search the area well.
Most trinkets stack to three, but when you’re mid-raid and need to make space, grab the single high-value items over stacks of cheap stuff. One 5,000-coin item beats a stack of three 1,000-coin trinkets every time.
💎 High-Value Trinkets
| Item Name | Value | Stack | Quest? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🎵 Lance’s Mixtape | 10,000 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| ❄️ Breathtaking Snow Globe | 7,000 | ×1 | ✓ Safe |
| 💉 Syringes | 5,000 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 🃏 Playing Cards | 3,000 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 💿 Music Albums | 2,500 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 🗿 Statuettes | 2,000 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 🛏️ Very Comfortable Pillow | 1,500 | ×3 | ⚠️ SCRAPPY |
| 🐕 Dog Collar | 1,200 | ×3 | ⚠️ SCRAPPY |
| 🐈 Cat Bed | 1,200 | ×3 | ⚠️ SCRAPPY |
| 📷 Vintage Camera | 1,800 | ×1 | ✓ Safe |
| ⌚ Antique Watch | 1,600 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 💎 Jewelry Box | 1,400 | ×1 | ✓ Safe |
| 💍 Gold Ring | 1,200 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 🌸 Perfume Bottle | 1,100 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
| 🍴 Silverware Set | 1,000 | ×3 | ✓ Safe |
PRO TIP: Prioritize single high-value items (Lance’s Mixtape, Snow Globe) over stacks of low-value trinkets when inventory is tight.
What to Recycle: The Math Game
Recycling is all about converting items into the specific materials you need right now. The community has this figured out: only recycle when you’re short on crafting components.
Recycle When You Need Specific Materials: The smart move is checking what your next upgrade requires, then recycling items that give those exact components. Planning to upgrade your Gunsmith? Recycle old weapons and tools for Metal Parts and Rubber Parts. Working on your Medical Lab? Break down medical gear for Chemicals and Fabric.
Electronics are the exception to the “recycle what you need” rule. For items like Power Banks, Broken Phones, Damaged Tablets, and Fried Motherboards, it’s almost always more valuable to recycle them and then sell the resulting components individually. A Power Bank sells for 640 coins but recycles into parts worth 1,400 coins total. Always check the recycle preview on electronics – if the math works out better, break it down.
🔄 Recycle vs Sell: The Math
| Item | Sell | Recycle | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔋 Power Bank | 640 | ~1,400 ⚡ | RECYCLE +119% |
| 📱 Broken Phone | 450 | ~950 ⚡ | RECYCLE +111% |
| 📟 Damaged Tablet | 800 | ~1,600 ⚡ | RECYCLE +100% |
| 💾 Fried Motherboard | 550 | ~1,100 ⚡ | RECYCLE +100% |
| 🛡️ Common Shield (Green) | 1,200 💰 | ~600 | SELL +100% |
| 🔫 Common Weapon (Green) | 800+ 💰 | ~400-700 | SELL +33-100% |
| 🛡️ Rare Shield (Blue) | 2,500+ 💰 | ~1,200 | SELL +108% |
| 🔫 Duplicate Weapon | Varies | Gun Parts + Metal | DEPENDS |
PRO TIP: Electronics almost always recycle for 2-3x their sell value. Check the recycle preview before deciding!
When NOT to Recycle: This is where players often make a mistake: if you already have 500 Metal Parts and your stash is full, recycling more weapons for Metal Parts only exacerbates the problem. That’s when you sell instead. The community recommends keeping 150-200 of each basic material (Metal, Plastic, Rubber, Fabric, Chemicals) as a buffer, then selling or using any surplus. Don’t recycle yourself into a worse inventory problem.
The same logic applies to duplicate gear. If you’ve got three shields but only use one, don’t automatically recycle the extras. Confirm if you actually require more components first. If not, sell them for coins instead.
The Salvage Penalty: One critical thing the community hammers home: recycling during a raid (called “salvaging”) only gives you about 50% of the materials compared to recycling at your hideout. Only salvage mid-raid if you are completely out of inventory space and it’s absolutely necessary to make room for a critical item. Otherwise, extract with your loot and recycle at base for full value.
Managing your Arc Raiders inventory comes down to three simple questions: Is it needed for an upgrade? Is it worth more recycled or sold? Do I have space for it? Consistently use the Track Resources feature, prioritize high-value trinkets when coins are needed, and recycle strategically for crafting materials.
📦 Basic Materials: Stock Limits
| Material | Keep Max | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ⚙️ Metal Parts | 150-200 | Scrappy generates — don’t hoard |
| 🔷 Rubber Parts | 150-200 | Easy to refill from Scrappy |
| 🧱 Plastic | 150-200 | Used in most crafts |
| 🧵 Fabric | 150-200 | Medical crafting, steady supply |
| 🧪 Chemicals | 150-200 | Consumables + medical |
| ⚡ Wires | 100-150 | Recycle Power Cables for more |
| 🔧 Gun Parts | 50-100 | Weapon repairs only |
| 🤖 ARC Alloy | 50-75 | Craft → ARC Circuitry to save space |
| 🌱 Assorted Seeds | 100+ | Trade to Celeste, stack to 100 |
SPACE SAVER: If you have 500 Metal Parts and your stash is full, you’re hoarding too much. Craft or sell the excess!
Frequently Asked Questions
Click “Merge Stacks” button (top right of inventory), then Track Resources in your Workshop for all stations. Only after doing these two things should you start selling or recycling items. This prevents accidentally scrapping something you need.
Always recycle electronics like Power Banks, Broken Phones, and Damaged Tablets. They recycle into components worth 2-3x their sell value. A Power Bank sells for 640 coins but recycles into materials worth ~1,400 coins total.
Salvaging happens mid-raid and gives only 50% of materials. Recycling happens at your hideout and gives full value. Only salvage if you’re completely out of space and must pick up something critical. Otherwise, extract and recycle at base.
Keep Dog Collars, Cat Beds, and Very Comfortable Pillows (needed for Scrappy upgrades). Keep any trinket marked with an eye icon (tracked for quests). Sell everything else immediately, prioritizing single high-value items like Lance’s Mixtape (10,000 coins) over stacked low-value trinkets.
Arc Raiders’ labeling is confusing. Items like Rusted Tools, Power Cables, and Fried Motherboards say “can be recycled” but are ALSO required for Workshop upgrades. This is why Track Resources is essential – it marks these items with an eye icon so you don’t accidentally recycle them.
A: Keep 150-200 of each basic material (Metal Parts, Rubber Parts, Plastic, Fabric, Chemicals). More than that and you’re wasting space – either use them for crafting or sell the excess. Basic materials are easy to get from Scrappy, so don’t hoard thousands.
Only if you’re level 60+ and planning to reset in December. Expedition rewards bonus skill points based on stash value at departure, so some players are hoarding valuable items. If you’re not resetting soon, ignore Expedition and manage inventory normally.
Stash expansions cost 5,000 coins for the first upgrade, then increase by 5,000 each time (10K, 15K, 20K, etc.). The max capacity is 280 slots. But before spending coins, use Merge Stacks, store attachments on weapons, craft materials into consumables, and sell trinkets – these free up 20-30 slots easily.
There is no other traditional storage, but you can “store” attachments by equipping them on weapons in your stash. This is space-efficient because the attachment doesn’t take a separate slot. Think of it as using weapons as attachment storage.
Broken Flashlights, Ruined Accordions, and any trinket WITHOUT an eye icon that isn’t Dog Collar, Cat Bed, or Very Comfortable Pillow. For a comprehensive list, check community cheat sheets or use the Track Resources feature to identify what you actually need.