ARC Raiders may be pulling new players into the extraction shooter genre (especially those who normally avoid the “high-risk loot” gameplay loop) but one of its most important progression mechanics is the Trials system, which becomes available once you start settling into the game’s flow.
Trials are essentially ARC Raiders’ weekly competitive challenge track, and they give players an extra reason to run raids beyond pure scavenging.
Even though the main goal in ARC Raiders remains looting and extracting safely, Trials create an extra progression track that turns each raid into points toward weekly tasks, rankings, and rewards.
ARC Raiders’ Trials system is unique because it combines weekly missions with a ranking ladder, so your performance affects both your rewards and your placement against other Raiders.
When Do You Unlock Trials in Arc Raiders?
To start Trials, you first need to reach Level 15, which is the official unlock requirement.
Once unlocked, Trials appear inside the Trials menu (commonly found under the Raider tab), where you’ll see your currently active objectives for the week.
ARC Raiders runs five Trials challenges per week, but they rotate fast, so the challenges you’re tracking now may change in the next reset.
Some challenges focus on combat goals like damaging or destroying specific ARC enemies (Hornets, Wasps, Snitches, Bastions, Rocketeers, Leapers, Queens/Matriarchs, etc.), while others revolve around raid interaction and utility actions like harvesting plants, searching supply drops, opening ARC probes, searching frozen containers during Cold Snap, or delivering carriables such as field crates.
Certain Trial objectives can also be tied to special map modifiers, like downloading information during a Hidden Bunker condition, which forces you to play a specific map state to score points.
How Do Trials Points Work in Arc Raiders?
However, the most important thing to understand is that Trials points don’t work as an infinite grind-and-stack system.
Instead, your Trials progress is measured in a very specific way that rewards strong single-run performances.
When you’re in a raid, actions tied to your Trials (for example, dealing damage to flying ARC enemies, destroying Pops, or harvesting plants) will generate points for that Trial.
But these points only count if you extract successfully. If you die, disconnect, or fail to exfil, your Trial progress for that raid effectively doesn’t register.
That extraction requirement is why Trials can feel punishing to casual players because you can do everything correctly during the raid, but if you don’t escape, the Trial score will not apply.
Do Trials Points Stack from Multiple Raids?
More importantly, Trials points don’t stack from match to match, since the system only counts your best score per Trial.
So instead of building a big number through many smaller attempts, each Trial feels like a weekly high score challenge.
For example, if one raid gets you 5,000 plant harvest points, and the next raid gives you only 4,000, you don’t climb to 9,000 total.
Your tracked score for that Trial stays at 5,000, because 4,000 didn’t beat your best.
The only way to increase your leaderboard total is to extract with a run that beats your personal best in one (or more) of those Trials. In short, Trials reward quality raids, not just quantity.
What Are the Trials Ranks in Arc Raiders?
Trials link directly to ARC Raiders’ ranking ladder because once your weekly points are logged, you enter a leaderboard where your rank is determined by your total score, based on your best performance in all five Trials.
ARC Raiders features a full rank chain that begins with Rookie I, Rookie II, Rookie III, then climbs through Tryhard I–III, Wildcard I–III, and Daredevil I–III, followed by higher-end status ranks like Hotshot, and ultimately Cantina Legend, which is generally treated as an elite placement rank for top performers.
This ranking structure is why Trials still feel competitive even if you’re not aiming for the top 1%, since the ladder resets weekly and your placement rises or stalls based on how efficiently you improve your Trial scores.
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