You feel it when a raid drags on longer than you expected. You are running out of heals, grenades are used, extraction is camped, and you can only stare at a pile of raw materials you can’t do anything useful with. That’s exactly where ARC Raiders‘ Traveling Tinkerer can turn things around. The skill is a survival unlock that lets you turn scraps into solutions when topside, without having to crawl back to Speranza.
I unlocked Traveling Tinkerer during mid-game progression when free-loadout runs became my main way to farm. From then on, my raids aren’t all or nothing trips anymore. I can adapt, recover, and even escape situations that should’ve ended the run. In this guide, I will explain how the Traveling Tinkerer skill works in ARC Raiders, how to unlock it, and all the field items you can craft with it.
ARC Raiders Traveling Tinkerer Skill Overview
Traveling Tinkerer is a Survival-tree skill placed in the middle that expands the field crafting options topside. The earlier Survival node In-Round Crafting lets you make basic bandages and shield rechargers, but Traveling Tinkerer unlocks a second tier of craftable items and opens the door to traps, utility tools, strong healing, and the valuable item: the Raider Hatch Key.
This skill doesn’t reduce material costs or give special recipes. Everything you craft with it uses the same materials you’d use back at a workbench. Crafting recipes are similar to the ones used in Speranza, with the only difference being where and when you can use them.
How to Unlock ARC Raiders Traveling Tinkerer
To unlock Traveling Tinkerer, open the Raider menu from the main screen and click the bottom-right icon to head to the Skill Tree. Select the Survival category and invest points until the mid-tier node becomes available. The skill requires one skill point to unlock, but you have to spend a big chunk of skill points in Survival first.
This is the complete unlock path for Traveling Tinkerer:
- Invest points into the Survival skill tree to progress until you unlock base In-Round Crafting.
- Spend enough total points in the tree to open the second tier.
- Unlock branch gate skills: Good As New and Suffer In Silence.
- Once the conditions are met, Traveling Tinkerer will be selected in the skill tree.
Items You Can Craft With Traveling Tinkerer
With the skill, you get more crafting options up your sleeves, and it even helps a lot to survive the tough late-game runs in ARC Raiders. After Traveling Tinkerer is unlocked, the following items can be crafted during a raid, using standard workshop recipes:
- Noisemaker
- Blaze Grenade Trap
- Smoke Grenade Trap
- Lure Grenade Trap
- Gas Grenade Trap
- Light Impact Grenade
- Li’l Smoke Grenade
- Flame Spray
- Fruit Mix
- Agave Juice
- Adrenaline Shot
- Herbal Bandage
- Raider Hatch Key
You can field-craft a wide range of items as long as you have the right materials. These include noise tools, grenade traps, healing items, stimulants, and keys. Traps follow a simple logic: take a grenade and combine it with a wire to turn it into an area control tool. Healing items need fabrics and plants you find topside. The more advanced crafts pull from mid-tier electronics.
If you can craft one Raider Hatch Key during a raid, you don’t need to bring an extract option. With Sensors and an Advanced Electrical Component in hand, you can turn them into a sudden escape route. I’ve played multiple runs in which the single craft saved a full loot inventory when an exit point turned bad for me. Herbal Bandages are other valuable healing sources. They are more powerful than basic bandages and let you survive through ARC fights or frequent PvP encounters.
Traveling Tinkerer works well during free kit runs. You can start easy, take selective fights, and build the survival tools as you go. It also pairs fine with advanced Survival perks like Security Breach or loot-specific skills that increase material intake. The more you find, the more choices you get. Though the skill doesn’t allow you to craft ammo. Ammunition must be stocked up before you deploy, or you can loot it from enemies and ARC units on the spot. Further, Traveling Tinkerer does not reduce the cost required for craft, improve item quality, or guarantee access to rare components. You still depend completely on what you find in the raid.
