ARC Raiders Weapon Tier List: Best Guns After Frozen Trail 2.0

Frozen Trail 2.0 is the biggest content drop ARC Raiders has had since launch, and it didn't just add a map. Embark Studios quietly reshuffled the weapon meta along with it: one former staple got pushed up a rarity bracket, a mid-tier pick picked up a real buff against armor, and two brand-new guns walked in through the Outpost's new Amplified Weapons system. This tier list ranks every gun that matters right now, based on the official Frozen Trail 2.0 patch notes and the balance pass that shipped alongside it. It's our opinion, built from what Embark has actually confirmed changed — not a leaderboard of community win rates, which haven't caught up to the patch yet.

01What Frozen Trail 2.0 Changed for Weapons

Before ranking anything, it's worth knowing exactly what moved. Embark's patch notes confirm a handful of concrete changes that ripple through every tier below:

• Anvil was bumped from Green to Blue rarity, its Splitter mod was converted into an Amplified-only upgrade, and its Tech Mod slot was removed outright — a straight nerf to accessibility even before you weigh the stats.
• Bantam is the new uncommon hand cannon that inherits the budget-pick role the Anvil used to fill.
• Jupiter had a bug fixed where damage was doubling against ARC parts behind its target, and in the same pass it was made stronger against armor and slightly weaker against weak spots — a deliberate trade-off, not a pure buff.
• Explosives and the Hullcracker now deal over 50% more damage to ARC armor plates, but around 30% less to fragile parts.
• Dolabra had a bug fixed that let it finally destroy the Harvester's yellow weak points.
• Vaporizer had its multi-target laser adjusted to telegraph more clearly, giving ARC units a cleaner dodge window against it.
• Heavy Shield durability decay dropped from 0.20 to 0.15 and its movement penalty eased from 15% to 10%, making armored loadouts less punishing to run.
• Snap Hook range was cut from 20m to 18m and its durability and power costs both went up, a quiet nerf to mobility tech.

Layer that on top of the earlier balance pass that already nerfed the Stitcher, Kettle and Venator while buffing the Jupiter's handling and the Aphelion's reload and recoil, and you get a meta that looks noticeably different from the one Raiders were running a month ago.

02S-Tier: The Guns to Run First

These are the picks that benefit most from the current patch, whether through a direct buff, a role nobody else fills as well, or simply surviving the nerf wave untouched.

• Aphelion — The earlier balance pass cut its reload from 4.5s to 3.5s, shaved 0.2s off its time between shots, halved its vertical recoil and improved ADS settle speed by roughly 35%. Nothing in Frozen Trail 2.0 touched it, so it walks into the new patch as the best all-around rifle in the game.
• Jupiter — Already buffed for handling (faster ADS zoom, quicker equip and unequip), Jupiter now also hits ARC armor harder thanks to the fixed damage-propagation bug and the deliberate anti-armor retune. With Pendola Pass throwing armored ARC units at you constantly, this is the rifle built for the moment.
• Hullcracker — The explosive damage buff against ARC armor plates (over 50%) makes this the go-to answer for the Frigate's heavier escorts and anything else wearing plating. The tradeoff against fragile parts barely matters when you're picking it specifically for armored targets.

03A-Tier: Still Excellent

Nothing here got a headline change in Frozen Trail 2.0, but these guns were strong before the patch and nothing has displaced them.

• Dolabra — The bug fix that lets it actually destroy the Harvester's weak points removes its one real blind spot. It was already a strong pick for precision work; now it has no bad matchups against that specific enemy.
• Vaporizer — The clearer dodge window is a nerf against players who stand still, but against ARC enemies that can't juke, Vaporizer's multi-target laser is still one of the best tools for clearing a group fast.
• Venator — Took a headshot-multiplier and base-damage cut in the prior balance pass (2.5x down to 2x, 9 down to 8 damage), but the numbers were high enough before the nerf that it remains a reliable mid-range option even after the trim.

04B-Tier: Solid But Situational

These guns work, but they ask you to build around them rather than slotting in anywhere.

• Kettle — Base damage dropped from 10 to 8.5 in the earlier patch. It's still a fine close-range option, but it no longer one-shots the way it used to, so treat it as a backup rather than your primary loadout anchor.
• Stitcher — Hit with the heaviest nerf of the bunch: headshot multiplier down from 2.5x to 1.75x, base damage down from 7 to 6.5, and dispersion up roughly 50%. It still has a place if you're running an aggressive, high-mobility build, but its ceiling dropped noticeably.
• Snap Hook (traversal, not a weapon, but worth flagging here) — Range down to 18m with higher durability and power costs. Still useful for repositioning in Pendola Pass's verticality, just don't expect the same reach you had before.

05C-Tier: Weapons That Fell Behind

• Anvil — This is the clearest demotion in the patch. Raising it from Green to Blue rarity means it's harder to get in the first place, losing the Tech Mod slot cuts into its customization, and folding the Splitter into an Amplified-only upgrade means you need to invest in the new system just to get back what used to be a basic mod. It's not unusable, but it's no longer the easy early-game pickup it was.

None of this means the Anvil is dead weight. Once you've unlocked an Outpost and funneled Amplified Fragments into it, the Amplified Anvil gets its Splitter back as an upgrade option rather than a basic mod, which closes most of the gap. The issue is purely accessibility: what used to be a Green-rarity pickup you could grab in your first few raids is now a Blue-rarity investment that competes with Bantam and Stiletto for the same early loadout slot, and right now those two newcomers are the easier route to a working hand cannon.

06Where the New Bantam, Stiletto and Amplified Weapons Fit

Bantam steps directly into the role the Anvil vacated as the new uncommon hand cannon, and Stiletto rounds out the Frozen Trail weapon additions alongside it. Embark's patch notes confirm both exist and confirm the new Amplified Weapons system — upgraded via Amplified Fragments earned around the map — but don't publish exact damage or handling numbers for either gun. Unconfirmed: where Bantam and Stiletto land relative to the ranked list above is still an early read until enough Raiders have put hours into them on live servers; treat any specific tier placement you see for these two right now as provisional.

What is confirmed is the shape of the new progression: the Amplified system adds a fifth quality tier with branching upgrade paths, unlocked through the new Outpost once you've completed the unlocking project. If you're chasing an S-tier loadout, that Outpost investment is no longer optional busywork — it's the only way to access upgrades like the Anvil's old Splitter mod going forward.

That same Outpost unlock also gates the revamped Skill Tree's end-of-branch picks, where you can now take up to two of three skills once you clear a skill-point requirement, instead of being locked into a single linear choice. Pair an Amplified weapon with the right end-of-branch skill and the gap between an S-tier gun and a B-tier one run with better support tech starts to close — which is exactly why it's worth treating progression and weapon tier as one decision instead of two.

Climb to an S-Tier Loadout

1. 1Run a few early raids focused on looting rather than fighting — Pendola Pass's Dynamic Loot Zones mean the gun blueprints you need can show up in different areas each raid.Raid 1-2
2. 2Complete the unlocking project to open a research station at your Outpost. This is the gateway to the Amplified Weapons system and the upgrades locked behind it.~30 min
3. 3Hold onto Amplified Fragments instead of spending them immediately — you'll want enough to push your S-tier pick, like Jupiter or Hullcracker, to its fifth quality tier.Ongoing
4. 4Once you have the fragments, upgrade your chosen weapon at the Outpost and choose the branching upgrade path that matches your playstyle.5 min
5. 5Reset your Skill Tree if needed and take advantage of the new end-of-branch choice between up to two of three skills to support your weapon pick.5 min
6. 6Take your upgraded loadout into a raid specifically looking for armored ARC units or the Frigate's escorts — that's where the Frozen Trail 2.0 anti-armor buffs show up most.Raid 3+

07How Long This Tier List Should Hold Up

Embark has been running on a fewer-but-bigger update cadence this year, which means Frozen Trail 2.0 is meant to be the backbone of the meta for a while rather than a quick stopgap before the next patch. The confirmed changes above — the Anvil demotion, the Jupiter and Hullcracker anti-armor buffs, and the Aphelion and Jupiter handling improvements from the prior pass — are all stable, dev-confirmed numbers, so the S- and A-tier calls here should hold until Embark ships another balance pass. The open question is purely Bantam and Stiletto, and that's a gap that closes with time in Pendola Pass, not with another patch note.

Embark's Frozen Trail First Look, originally streamed September 23, 2026, ahead of the October 8 launch.

For the full context on what Pendola Pass adds on top of the weapon changes — the new map, the Bully, Skulker and Hydra enemy types, and the Outpost and Skill Tree overhaul — Embark's own Frozen Trail First Look walks through the systems in more detail than the patch notes alone.