ARC Raiders Has Damage Drop-Off — I Tested the Real Ranges

ARC Raiders does have weapon damage drop-off, and it is much more complicated than one simple 200 meter rule. I tested damage drop-off ranges in ARC Raiders across multiple weapon and ammo types, including light ammo, medium ammo, heavy ammo, energy weapons, shotguns, Hullcracker, Equalizer, Jupiter, Osprey, Hairpin, Anvil, Ferro, Venator, Il Toro, Vulcano, Aphelion, and Extended Barrel. The main test method was shooting large ARC enemies from different ranges, pinging the distance, and using the ARC damage XP pop-up to calculate real damage. Against large ARC, the game gives 2 XP for every 1 damage, which makes PvE testing much cleaner than PvP testing. In this ARC Raiders damage drop-off guide, I explain: Whether ARC Raiders has damage drop-off How weapon range works in ARC Raiders Light ammo damage drop-off range Medium ammo damage drop-off range Heavy ammo damage drop-off range Why Osprey and Venator share the same drop-off behavior Why Anvil keeps full damage farther than Osprey Jupiter damage drop-off range Aphelion damage drop-off range Equalizer’s weird 200 meter range limit Shotgun damage drop-off for Il Toro and Vulcano Why pellet spread matters more than drop-off for shotguns Why Hullcracker does not seem to have normal damage drop-off How Extended Barrel changes damage fall-off distance Why PvE damage drop-off matters more than PvP drop-off Why fighting ARC from too far away can waste a lot of damage Basic ammo drop-off results from my testing: Light ammo: Full damage until around 130 meters, then damage drops between 130 and 150 meters. Past 150 meters, damage is reduced by around 40%. Medium ammo: Full damage until around 150 meters, then damage drops between 150 and 170 meters. Past 170 meters, damage is reduced by around 40%. Heavy ammo: Full damage until around 180 meters, then damage drops between 180 and 200 meters. Past 200 meters, damage is reduced by around 40%. Some weapons are much stranger. Equalizer keeps full damage until around 100 meters, then drops to around 50% damage by roughly 185–200 meters, but past 200 meters the beam appears to stop hitting completely. That means Equalizer can effectively have 100% damage loss past its range limit. Shotguns are different again. Il Toro starts losing damage around 20 meters and seems to reach maximum drop-off around 45 meters, but at that point pellet spread is usually the bigger problem, especially against players and smaller ARC. This video also explains why damage drop-off is not always the reason your ARC damage numbers look strange. ARC body parts have different multipliers. Cores and power cells can take bonus damage, while some non-armored parts can take reduced damage, like the Turbine’s silver top rim, which only takes 40% damage. For PvP, damage drop-off usually does not matter in most normal fights because players are very hard to hit at 140, 170, or 200 meters. The main exception is long-range sniping. But for PvE, damage drop-off matters a lot because ARC enemies like Queen, Matriarch, Rocketeer, Turbine, Bastion, and Bombardier are huge targets and often safest to fight from range. If you are fighting big ARC in ARC Raiders, knowing your weapon’s effective range can save you a lot of ammo. A 40%, 50%, or even 100% damage reduction is usually not worth getting just a few extra meters of safety. #ARCRaiders #ARCRaidersGuide #ARCRaidersTips #ARCRaidersDamage #DamageDropoff #WeaponGuide #ARCRaidersWeapons #ARCRaidersPvE #ARCRaidersPvP #GamingGuide #ExtractionShooter