ARC Raiders Squad Roles & Comms Guide — Scout, Medic, Heavy, Sniper

Squad Role Quick Reference

Why Roles Beat Equal Loadouts

Three Raiders running identical loadouts is the most common squad mistake. Identical loadouts means the squad has no asymmetric advantage — it's just three solos sharing a comms channel. Role-differentiated squads create coverage that no individual player can produce: a scout sees first, a medic keeps the squad alive longer, a heavy out-damages any single opponent, and a sniper resolves engagements before they close to risky range.

The coverage compounds. A scout's early detection lets the heavy pre-aim the engagement angle. The heavy's burst damage opens kills the sniper can finish from cover. The medic's healing keeps both alive long enough to extract loaded. Take any role out and the others lose the multiplier. A squad without a scout fights blind. A squad without a medic loses sustained engagements. A squad without a heavy can't hold positions. A squad without a sniper loses long-range trades to better-positioned opponents.

The practical compromise: in a three-player squad, drop the sniper and have one player double as scout/marksman with a scoped AR. In a four-player squad, run all four roles. Don't try to cover all four roles with three players running identical kits — pick the three roles that match your map and accept that you're trading away the fourth role's coverage.

Scout — Forward Eyes and Audio

The scout's job is information, not damage. Scout loadouts prioritize movement speed (light armor), audio capability (gear that improves hearing range where available), and a versatile primary that covers CQB without being heavy. The scout takes point in formation, pies corners first, and listens at chokepoints before the squad commits to crossing them.

Scouts produce most of the squad's value in callouts, not kills. A scout who reports 'two Raiders, north building, mid-tier kit, moving east' lets the rest of the squad set up the engagement on favorable terms. A scout who tries to engage solo and dies removes both the scout role and any tactical setup that scout's callouts would have produced. Discipline matters more than aggression in this role — the scout's job ends at the callout, not the kill.

Scout loadout details: light-to-mid armor with matched helmet, AR or compact SMG primary, suppressed pistol secondary (the suppressor lets the scout finish a single target without alerting the area), audio gear if available, smoke grenades for solo disengage, and a small-to-medium backpack to preserve movement speed. The scout often extracts with less loot than the rest of the squad because their role consumes time on map without filling bag space — accept this as the cost of the role.

Medic — The Squad's Lifeline

The medic carries the squad's healing consumables and applies them efficiently. This is not glamorous work, but it is the single most-overlooked role in pick-up squads, and the absence of a dedicated medic is the most common reason squads lose drawn-out engagements. A medic with four trauma kits and two adrenaline shots can keep three teammates fighting through engagements that an unhealed squad would have lost to attrition.

Medics need to position behind the heavy but ahead of the sniper — close enough to reach wounded teammates quickly, far enough back to avoid being the first target in an engagement. Medic loadouts run mid-tier armor with a focus on mobility (you need to reach downed teammates fast), an AR primary for general engagement support, and an SMG secondary for the inevitable surprise CQB when you're moving between teammates.

The medic also manages the squad's consumable economy. After a fight, the medic decides who gets healed first based on remaining HP and tactical importance — the heavy fighting on point heals before the sniper holding overwatch. After extraction, the medic tracks team consumable usage so the next raid's loadouts are correctly resourced. This admin overhead is part of the role and frequently neglected by improvising medics.

Heavy — Frontline Firepower

The heavy carries the squad's primary damage output and the most armor. Heavy loadouts run high-tier armor with matched helmet, an AR with extended mag and AP rounds, a CQB secondary, and the squad's anti-armor consumables. The heavy's job is to absorb the first contact in any engagement and put down sustained suppressing fire while the rest of the squad sets up flanking angles.

The heavy's position is mid-formation, behind the scout but able to push forward quickly when contact is made. Heavies should not be on point because their weight slows reaction speed when a surprise engagement opens. They also should not be in the rear because their job is frontline engagement, not overwatch. The mid-formation anchor position lets the heavy commit forward on engagement and fall back to defensive positions when the squad needs to break contact.

Heavies are the squad's most expensive insurance loadout, which means heavy wipes hurt the most. The compensation is that heavies survive longer in sustained engagements than any other role, which justifies the cost across many runs. Match heavy gear to the map's threat level — a heavy running premium gear on a routine farm is wasted insurance; the same heavy on a Dam Battlegrounds objective contest pays off across the heavier fights that map produces.

Sniper / Designated Marksman — Overwatch and Long Range

The sniper resolves engagements at distance before they close to risky range. Sniper loadouts run mid armor (lighter than heavy to enable repositioning), a precision rifle or scoped AR primary, a compact SMG secondary for the inevitable close-range surprises, and elevation-priority positioning. The sniper's job is overwatch — covering the squad's movement, picking off isolated targets, and providing ranged callouts the scout can't make from forward positions.

Snipers need to reposition more often than they realize. A static sniper position becomes a known sniper position within one or two shots, and other Raider squads will route flanking moves on it. Plan two or three sniper positions per major engagement zone and rotate between them as the fight develops. Static snipers get flanked; mobile snipers stay alive.

In a three-player squad without a dedicated sniper, the heavy or scout doubles as designated marksman with a scoped AR. The scoped AR gives functional overwatch capability without committing to a precision rifle's CQB liability. This is the compromise pick for three-player squads — full sniper role drops out, but the marksman capability is preserved well enough for typical engagement ranges.

Callout Vocabulary — Direction, Distance, Target

• Direction first: 'north,' 'east,' 'behind,' 'south-east,' or relative to a landmark ('building on our left'). Always lead with direction so the squad knows where to look.
• Distance second: meters or relative ('40m,' 'close,' 'far'). Distance shapes weapon choice and target priority.
• Target third: type and count ('two Raiders,' 'one Heavy ARC,' 'sniper holding'). Identify what the squad is dealing with.
• Status flags: 'loaded' or 'light' for player targets to indicate loot value; 'wounded' or 'fresh' for injury state.
• Confidence tags: 'confirmed' versus 'suspected.' Don't over-commit the squad on suspected sightings.
• Action requests: 'pushing' (you're committing), 'holding' (you're waiting), 'bailing' (you're disengaging). Tell the squad what you're doing so they react correctly.
• Brevity wins: '2 raiders north 40m loaded' is better than 'I think I see maybe two raiders to the north about 40 meters they look like they have a lot of loot.'

Comms Cadence — When to Speak

Verdict: The most common comms mistake is silence during quiet periods. Squad audio discipline depends on hearing teammates' status regularly — silence creates uncertainty about whether teammates are alive, aware, and on plan. Light pings every 30–60 seconds during quiet periods keep the squad synchronized without flooding the channel. During engagements, restrict comms to critical info only — long callouts during fights distract from aim.

Formation Patterns by Map Type

1. Indoor / residential: tight diamond — scout point, heavy and medic mid abreast, sniper rear. Tight diamond preserves audio coverage and lets the heavy push forward quickly on contact.
2. Industrial mixed terrain: loose diamond — same role positions but wider spacing to prevent grenade and AoE consolidation. Wider spacing also lets the sniper find elevated positions without breaking squad cohesion.
3. Open exterior: line abreast or wedge — heavy and medic in line, scout slightly forward on a flank, sniper holding rear elevation. Open terrain favors mutual fire support over tight formations.
4. Extraction approach: bunker pattern — scout approaches alone, reports clear, squad collapses on extraction in staggered cover. The scout's solo approach catches camping squads before the rest of the squad commits.
5. Disengage: leapfrog — heavy holds while medic and sniper move, then medic and sniper hold while heavy moves. Continuous cover during withdrawal prevents the squad from being chased.

Extraction Coordination

Extractions are where uncoordinated squads die. The right pattern: the scout approaches the extraction zone alone, listens for 30 seconds, and reports clear or contested. If clear, the squad collapses on extraction in staggered cover — heavy first to establish a defensive position, medic second to top off any HP from the run, sniper third holding overwatch on the most likely approach angle. Activate extraction beacon last, after the cover positions are set.

If the scout reports contested, the squad does not push the extraction. Pivot to secondary extraction immediately. Sunk-cost thinking — 'we already spent time getting to this extraction' — is the most common cause of squad wipes at extraction. The traversal time to the alternate is always cheaper than the wipe cost of a contested fight at a beacon extraction.

Post-extraction, debrief briefly. Who used what consumables? Which role ran short on supplies? Which formation worked and which didn't? Five minutes of debrief after a session compounds into significantly better squad performance over time. Squads that skip debrief repeat the same mistakes raid after raid.

Common Squad Coordination Mistakes

• Deploying without defined roles — three identical loadouts produce three solos sharing a comms channel.
• Silence during quiet periods — teammates lose track of each other's status and position.
• Long callouts during active engagements — distract from aim and target tracking.
• Sniper holding the same position for too long — flanking squads route on known sniper positions.
• Medic positioned too far forward — can't reach wounded teammates fast enough.
• Heavy on point — heavy weight slows reaction speed; scout should always be forward.
• Pushing contested extractions instead of pivoting to secondary — sunk-cost thinking wipes more squads than any other single mistake.