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For most new or general-purpose Raiders, start in Mobility with Youthful Lungs, then take movement skills such as Nimble Climber or Sure-Footed Scrambler. Choose Survival first when crafting and quiet looting are your priority, or Conditioning when you routinely carry heavy loads, breach containers, or need stronger downed-state performance. There is no single best build: Frozen Trail 2.0 makes the right unlock order depend on how you actually raid.
What changed in the ARC Raiders skill tree
Frozen Trail 2.0, released on October 8, 2026, replaced the previous mid-tree and end-tree layout. Each branch now has a middle point where you choose one of two skills. At the branch end, you can take up to two of three available skills after investing enough points. Embark says the redesign is intended to improve underused skills and make playstyle choices more meaningful.
The skill tree is persistent: points improve your Raider across raids rather than forming a per-raid loadout. The current guide reports 76 base points by level 75. It also reports a 10-point requirement for the middle choice and 30- and 40-point requirements for the first and second end choices. Those thresholds, and the reported reset price of 2,000 Coins per skill point, come from the guide’s October 9 cross-check rather than the official patch notes, so verify the values on your live tree before committing points.
Embark has warned that more adjustments are likely as the team observes how players use the redesigned tree. Pre-October 8 guides describe the legacy tree; their locations and routes may no longer match the game.
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How to choose your first skills
Start by identifying what most often ends a raid or slows down your route. If you run out of stamina while crossing open ground, climbing, or dodging, Mobility has the highest immediate value. If you spend raids searching containers and making field items, Survival pays off sooner. If your backpack is constantly over-encumbered, Conditioning removes a recurring penalty rather than adding a narrow combat trick.
- Movement and general use: prioritize maximum stamina, climbing, vaulting, and scramble efficiency.
- Scavenging and crafting: take field crafting, faster searches, and quieter looting.
- Heavy hauling: improve encumbrance handling, carrying capacity, and movement while loaded.
- PvP movement: favor stamina recovery, dodge and slide efficiency, and chained traversal effects.
- Route utility: build toward Security Lockers, mine defusal, in-raid repairs, or other tools your route specifically requires.
Because the middle and end nodes are choices rather than automatic unlocks, do not spend points only to reach a familiar name from an old build. Read the current tooltip and select the effect that matches your habits.
Mobility skills: stamina, climbing, and evasive movement
Mobility is the broadest starting branch for players who run, vault, climb, slide, scramble up slopes, or dodge frequently. Its benefits affect ordinary traversal as well as fights, which is why it is the safest default for a new player.
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- Youthful Lungs: increases maximum stamina. The extra reserve gives you more room for sprinting, climbing, dodging, and other stamina-consuming actions before you must stop.
- Nimble Climber: speeds climbing and vaulting. The current guide reports a maximum increase of 15% to climbing and vault speed.
- Sure-Footed Scrambler: extends sprint scrambling on steep slopes, helping you keep momentum where a normal sprint would end.
- Ready to Roll: widens the timing window for recovering with a fall roll.
- Fight or Flight: returns stamina after you take combat damage, with a cooldown. The guide reports up to 25 stamina from this effect; official notes say its stamina gain was increased by about 25% per level in Frozen Trail 2.0.
The 10-point Mobility choice
At the reported 10-point gate, choose between two different vault patterns:
| Skill | Effect | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Vault Spring | Lets you jump at the end of a vault. | Players who use vaults to launch into rapid repositioning or aggressive pushes. |
| Vaults on Vaults on Vaults | Removes the stamina cost of vaulting. | Players who cross fences, windows, and low cover repeatedly during routes. |
Later Mobility effects
Further nodes reduce dodge-roll or general movement stamina costs, extend sprint acceleration, improve sliding or wall leaps, and shorten recovery after a heavy landing. These are valuable when your route contains repeated traversal rather than one isolated climb.
Mobility end choices
| Skill | Effect and limitation | Who should choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Sprinting on Fumes | Allows sprinting without fully draining stamina, but another action or incoming damage cancels the effect. | Raiders who need a last burst of travel and can avoid being interrupted. |
| Wall Run | Lets you run a few steps up a wall. | Players who use vertical routes, surprise angles, and creative escapes. |
| In the Flow | Chained mobility moves increase speed and reduce stamina cost. | Raiders who consistently link slides, vaults, climbs, and other movement actions. |
These end skills are not interchangeable. Wall Run adds a new route option, Sprinting on Fumes supplies a conditional burst, and In the Flow rewards uninterrupted movement chains.
Conditioning skills: carrying, breaching, and resilience
Conditioning is the practical branch for players who return from raids with full bags, become over-encumbered, breach containers under pressure, or spend a lot of time downed. Its effects are less about flashy traversal and more about keeping your loadout functional.
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Early Conditioning skills
- Used to the Weight: reduces shield movement penalties.
- Stubborn Mule: makes stamina regeneration less affected by over-encumbrance. Official notes report that its stamina-regeneration values increased by about 33% in Frozen Trail 2.0.
- Three Deep Breaths: shortens recovery after using a stamina-draining ability.
- Vigorous Vaulter: preserves vault speed while exhausted.
- Vault ‘N’ Carry: allows vaulting while holding a carryable object.
The 10-point Conditioning choice
| Skill | Effect | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Mule’s Gallop | Allows sprinting while over-encumbered. | Loot-focused Raiders who accept a slower load but still need to reach extraction quickly. |
| Back on Your Feet | Regenerates health while critically hurt, up to a limit. | Players who frequently survive fights with very low health. Official notes increased its healing from 30 to 40. |
Later Conditioning effects
Additional nodes increase carrying capacity, reduce the movement penalty from excess weight, reduce the encumbrance impact of an equipped weapon, improve downed crawl speed or the time before collapse, and shorten breaching time. Select among them according to whether your main problem is the size of your haul, the speed of your route, or surviving after a knockdown.
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Conditioning end choices
- Security Breach: opens Security Lockers. This is the direct choice when your route is built around those lockers.
- Weapon Bash: enables a melee attack with a weapon.
- Bull Rush: knocks back players or ARC while sprinting with your weapon stowed.
Security Breach provides access utility, Weapon Bash adds a close-range option, and Bull Rush is a movement-based disruption tool. Choose up to two only after considering how often you will use each one.
Survival skills: crafting, quiet looting, and field utility
Survival supports longer scavenging runs. It improves the time and noise cost of searching, unlocks field-made supplies, and adds tools that can save a raid when returning to a station is not practical.
Early Survival skills
- In-Round Crafting: unlocks several field-crafted consumables.
- Looter’s Instinct: reveals container contents faster. The guide reports up to a 25% reduction in search time.
- Silent Scavenger: reduces looting noise, with a reported maximum reduction of 50%.
- Sturdy Ankles: reduces fall damage from non-lethal heights.
- Agile Croucher: increases crouched movement speed.
The 10-point Survival choice
| Skill | Effect | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Roll | Provides a faster, shorter dodge with lower stamina cost. | Raiders who want a compact evasive move and frequent dodges. |
| Minesweeper | Lets you defuse nearby mines and explosive deployables. | Routes where traps or defensive explosives are a recurring hazard. |
Later Survival effects
Deeper Survival nodes reduce breach noise, unlock field-crafted tools and grenade traps, increase recovery-roll height, generate crafting materials from breaching, sometimes reveal two items at once, and reduce damage while downed. These options split into stealth, economy, trap use, and downed-state protection, so there is no universal sequence.
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- Road Warrior: increases ammo and ARC Powercell loot from ARC and allows full-efficiency in-round recycling.
- Nomadic Crafting: expands your field-crafting options.
- Field Repair: repairs weapons, shields, and gadgets up to 30% durability during a raid.
Embark noted a launch issue in which Field Repair could be unavailable after unlocking. The stated workaround was to restart the game while a fix was in progress. If the skill remains missing after a restart, check the current in-game notices before spending additional reset currency.
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Which skills should you unlock first?
Best general starting route
- Take Youthful Lungs for a larger stamina reserve.
- Add Nimble Climber or Sure-Footed Scrambler based on whether vertical obstacles or steep slopes slow you more often.
- Continue into the movement-cost, slide, or recovery skills that match your route.
- At the Mobility end, compare Sprinting on Fumes, Wall Run, and In the Flow rather than selecting by name alone.
This route is a broadly useful default, not a developer-endorsed meta. It improves the actions most Raiders perform in nearly every map and encounter.
Looting and crafting route
- Start with In-Round Crafting if you regularly need consumables before extraction.
- Take Looter’s Instinct to spend less time exposed while searching.
- Add Silent Scavenger when noise during searches is what attracts fights.
- Choose Quick Roll or Minesweeper at the middle gate according to whether combat movement or trap removal is more common on your route.
- Later, select Road Warrior, Nomadic Crafting, or Field Repair according to your ammunition economy, crafting plan, and repair needs.
Heavy-hauling route
Invest in Conditioning skills that improve capacity and reduce the movement cost of excess weight. Choose Mule’s Gallop if you often need to sprint while over-encumbered. Add Stubborn Mule when stamina regeneration collapses under a full load, and consider Vault ‘N’ Carry if carrying objects through vertical shortcuts is part of your extraction route.
PvP-oriented movement route
Prioritize maximum stamina, stamina recovery after damage, dodge or roll efficiency, and chained movement. The end choice is habit-dependent: Sprinting on Fumes supplies a conditional escape burst, Wall Run creates unusual angles, and In the Flow rewards players who can maintain a continuous movement chain. Published aggressive PvP allocations are examples, not proof of a settled universal meta.
Security and utility route
Build toward Security Breach when Security Lockers are central to your planned route. If traps are the larger obstacle, Minesweeper may be a more immediate Survival investment. If your weapons and shields frequently leave a raid damaged, Field Repair can provide value once its availability issue is resolved in your client.
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Resetting and planning around skill choices
The guide-reported reset price is 2,000 Coins per skill point. Since that figure is not in the official patch notes, confirm the current cost in the reset screen before rebuilding. A reset is most useful when your playstyle has changed, a branch choice no longer fits your routes, or a patch has altered an effect. It is usually wasteful to reset simply because another player posted a different build.
Before confirming a route, write down three priorities: movement and stamina; loot capacity and downed-state resilience; and stealth, crafting, and field utility. Mark each planned skill against one of those categories. This prevents spending points on a branch whose benefits you rarely trigger and makes the 10-, 30-, and 40-point gates easier to evaluate.
Frozen Trail 2.0 changes to watch
The official update lists 16 new skills, 13 removed skills, and 11 skills moved between branches. It also records three numeric changes: Fight or Flight’s stamina gain rose by about 25% per level, Stubborn Mule’s stamina-regeneration values rose by about 33%, and Back on Your Feet’s healing increased from 30 to 40. Other rank percentages and point gates reported by the current guide are useful planning figures, but they are not official patch-note numbers.
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Quick Recap
Common mistakes to avoid
- Following a pre-rework guide: verify every location and gate against the Frozen Trail 2.0 tree.
- Treating one build as universal: a PvP movement route does not automatically suit a quiet looter or heavy hauler.
- Ignoring conditional wording: Sprinting on Fumes ends when another action or damage interrupts it, and Fight or Flight has a cooldown.
- Spending for a distant end skill without a route plan: count the points and decide whether the final effect will trigger often enough to justify the investment.
- Assuming an unlock worked because the node is lit: test Field Repair and other utility skills in a live raid, then restart if Field Repair is unavailable as Embark’s notice described.
A practical decision checklist
- Do I lose raids because I cannot cross, climb, or dodge far enough? Start Mobility.
- Do I spend most of a raid searching and crafting? Start Survival.
- Do I become over-encumbered before extraction? Start Conditioning.
- Which action do I repeat most: vaulting, scrambling, searching, breaching, sprinting while loaded, or repairing?
- At each choice node, does the skill solve a problem I encounter every raid, or only a rare situation?
- Have I checked the live tooltip and reset cost after the latest update?
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