If you have been diving into Arc Raiders recently, you already know that survival is only half the battle. During special limited-time events, the real goal shifts toward racking up Merits. This event currency is your golden ticket to advancing through reward tracks and unlocking exclusive premium loot.



The fundamental rule of the event is straightforward: 100 In-Game XP converts directly into 1 Merit. However, there is a catch—this conversion only triggers upon a successful extraction. If you go MIA, your hard-earned XP won't do anything for your event track. Because your success depends entirely on making it out alive, maximizing your gains requires changing up your usual gameplay loop.



How to Earn Merits Efficiently

To maximize your Merit pool, you need to alter your typical strategy. Forget chasing down every player squad you see; standard player hunts give you zeroMerits and burn through precious raid time. Instead, you want to prioritize safe, high-XP yielding activities.



The Container-Opening Trick

This is easily one of the fastest, safest ways to cheese XP without risking your life. Opening containers gives you an instant chunk of XP, and you receive that XP the exact millisecond the "looting noise" finishes—right before the loot UI actually opens on your screen. Because of this, you can immediately close the screen and sprint to the next box without wasting any time managing your inventory. Even better, containers that have already been cleaned out by other squads still grant you full XP when you open them.



Target Ship Models

Keep your eyes peeled for valuable trinkets while exploring maps like the Buried City. Specifically, look out for toy sailboat trinkets spawned on tables, shelves, and desks. Successfully extracting with these items grants a massive boost to your event progress. Finding and extracting with gold boats alone will drop an extra 250 Merits straight into your extraction pool.



Farm Large ARC Bosses

If looting quietly isn't your style and you prefer heavy combat, load into runs featuring massive world bosses like the Matriarch or Harvester. Because Merits are heavily calculated based on total damage dealt to ARC units, hitting these giant bullet-sponges with high-capacity weapons like the Hullcracker can easily net you over 220 Merits in a single, swift 10-minute run.



Avoid PvP Scrimmages

As mentioned before, hunting other Raiders is a waste of time if your goal is event progression. If you run into another squad engaging a major ARC unit, hold your fire and cooperate with them to rapidly burn the boss down. Both squads will receive full credit for the damage dealt, creating a win-win scenario for everyone's event progression.



How to Spend Merits

If you are looking for a traditional vendor storefront to spend your hard-earned Merits, you won't find one. Instead, Merits function identically to a Battle Pass progression system.



Automatic Progression: You don't have to manually buy anything. As you successfully extract with Merits, they automatically fill a progress bar visible on the left side of your main menu screen.



Linear Unlocks: Rewards must be unlocked in a strict, chronological order. You cannot skip tiers or pick and choose what to buy first. For example, in the Shared Watch event, a new reward unlocks automatically for every 50 Merits accumulated, up to a total cap of 1,050 Merits.



Event Materials Donation: During certain event phases, you can dump excess basic materials into community-wide goals (such as contributing to Stella Montis) via a dedicated menu. Doing this allows you to rapidly clear your initial Merit tiers up to a fixed cap without even needing to drop into a raid.



Key Rewards to Look For

Progressing through the track offers a healthy mix of seasonal cosmetics and high-utility gameplay blueprints that permanently expand your arsenal. Keep an eye out for these milestones:



Raider Tokens: Premium currency bundles are scattered across multiple reward tiers. Save these up to purchase permanent items from the in-game cash shop later.



Weapon and Utility Blueprints: These are highly coveted crafting recipes that directly impact your utility in the field, such as the Vita Spray healing variant, powerful combat mines, and custom tactical grenades.



Exclusive Cosmetics: Limited-edition cosmetic drops, including the rugged Slugger armor variant, unique backpack charms, face paints, and custom emotes to show off in the tunnels.