Weapon Stencils are ARC Raiders’ cosmetic skin system (a digital rattle-can for your favorite shooter) that lets you coat your weapons in custom camos and, in higher rarities, attach unique 3D ornaments to your frames. A Stencil adds the paint permanently to your collection, but you’ll need Stencil Parts (the special crafting material that pays for the paint job) to apply color on your guns. Since any decorated weapon you bring into a raid can be looted by rival raiders if you fall, you’ll want to be smart about how you farm these parts and manage the fancy gear so you won’t be draining your stash now and then. Here’s everything you need to know to find, learn, and apply weapon Stencils topside.
How to Get Stencils in ARC Raiders
There are 14 Stencils available in the collection ledger of ARC Raiders, and you can acquire them in a few different ways:
- Topside Containers: Nine Stencils drop as loose loot from random world containers across the Rust Belt in Commercial, Residential, and Industrial POIs inside office recycle bins, breakroom crates, and residential dressers. Scavenge containers across the maps, including Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Blue Gate, Pendola Pass, and Stella Montis.
- The Frozen Trail Rewards Pass: Five Stencils are earned from the Premium tier of the seasonal track, including the Fortuna skin for the Anvil and the Canto II pattern.
- Shop Bundles: Premium cosmetic packs in the Speranza store contain exclusive gun patterns like the Frozen Trail Collector Set that nets you the Dragon’s Breath Stencil.
After you loot a weapon Stencil topside and safely extract back to Sprenza, open your inventory, right-click the item, and select Learn and consume. It will consume the item to stash that camo in your Stencils collection (where nobody can take it away from you), which you can review anytime in the Stencils tab of the Blueprints section under your Workshop.
Where to Find Stencil Parts
Just so you know, learning a Stencil doesn’t mean you get to use the skin for free. You’ll need Stencil Parts to paint a Stencil on your weapon, and these happen to be Epic crafting materials. Depending on skin rarity, you will need anywhere from 2 to 7 Stencil Parts to use one camo. Epic patterns like Tortoise cost seven parts, while Dusty Camo only requires four.
- Residential Hotspots: Places like Ruby Residence on Dam Battlegrounds and apartment buildings in Buried City have the highest drop rates, and you better check ’em.
- Commercial POIs: Check office blocks, cash registers, and break rooms in the shopping plazas on Blue Gate and Pendola Pass.
- Filing Cabinets & Waste Bins: Blue recycling containers, green trash bins, and metal desk drawers often drop Stencil Parts other than basic office junk.
How to Apply Stencils to Your Weapons in ARC Raiders
Stencils are weapon-specific, so check its description first to verify which firearm models support the cosmetic.
- Open your Stash or Loadout and find the weapon you want to paint.
- Right click the gun and choose Inspect, or select the Stencils tab under the repair options.
- Select from the list of unlocked Stencils to preview the finish on your firearm.
- Confirm the prompt to consume the required number of Stencil Parts and apply the skin.
Before burning your hard earned parts, keep a few things in mind about how these mechanics work. Every Stencil mentions which guns it fits in the tooltip, so Tortoise only applies to the Anvil and Rattler, while Dusty Camo is compatible with a wide selection including the Il Toro, Burletta, Torrente, Stiletto, Rattler, and Tempest.
Further, your Stencil binds to that specific firearm, not your account. If you bite the dust topside, your custom weapon will drop in your death crate for whoever loots it. You’ll keep the recipe unlocked, but painting a replacement gun will cost fresh parts. Last but not least, once you skin a weapon, you cannot strip it back to the bare metal frame. You can always paint over it with a different Stencil, but that original stock look is gone for good.
