People obsess over whatever primary is "meta" this week, but you'll notice pretty fast that ARC Raiders punishes anyone who treats a pistol like an afterthought. Half the time you're swapping gadgets, healing, or just stuck on a bad angle. That's why I keep circling back to one sidearm with a chunky 22‑round magazine: it buys you time. If you're still sorting your
ARC Raiders Items and a squad starts collapsing on your cover, those extra rounds matter more than a fancy rifle you can't reload safely.
Why the 22-round pistol keeps you alive
Mag size is the headline, sure, but the real win is how forgiving the gun feels in messy fights. You can miss a couple shots, track a strafing target, and still finish the job without that awful mid-spray click. It's also perfect for those moments when you down someone and they hit that surrender state. A lot of players waste their premium rounds out of habit. Don't. Swap to the pistol, tap them out, move on. It's quicker than rummaging for ammo later, and it keeps your primary ready for the next push.
Attachments that actually change the gun
This pistol scales hard with basic kit. A simple optic makes target pickup faster when you snap out of a sprint or come off a gadget wheel. Add a muzzle device and it stops feeling like a backup and starts feeling like a tool you can lean on. That matters because ARC Raiders loves to catch you mid-action: you pop a scanner, patch a bleed, or slam a medkit, and for a second you're basically a statue. A stable pistol with a big mag lets you re-enter the fight instantly instead of panicking behind cover.
Pair it with IL TORO IV for the close-range punch
For the primary, I've had the best results running the IL TORO IV pump-action shotgun, especially the uncommon one if you can roll the modifier that bumps fire rate by 50%. It turns close quarters into simple math: peek, blast, step back. If they survive and try to drift out to mid-range, that's when the pistol takes over. Quick swap, keep pressure, no time for them to heal. The only catch is logistics. You've got to loot like you mean it—shells and standard pistol ammo—because going dry on either one is how a "good run" turns into a long walk back to the lobby.
Keeping the loadout running under pressure
I try to treat ammo like a timer, not a resource you'll "find later." Top off whenever there's a quiet pocket, even if it feels boring. Keep your shotgun for doorways and tight stairs, and let the 22-round pistol handle the awkward distances and clean finishers. Once you get used to that rhythm, your survivability jumps, and you start extracting more often with gear that actually matters—especially if you're hunting parts for an
ARC Raiders Moded Weapon build.
