If you want to climb the ARC Raiders Trials leaderboard fast, the single biggest lever isn't your loadout — it's the map you queue into. Each of the five weekly challenges has a "home" map where the objective spawns thickest, the routes are shortest, and your points-per-minute go through the roof. Pick wrong and you'll burn three raids chasing 1,000 points; pick right and you'll clear all three reward tiers in a run or two.
This guide breaks down the best maps for every Trials challenge type in Season 4, the two map conditions that quietly multiply your score, the fastest 3-star routes, and where a Trials carry makes sense if you just want the rewards without grinding the same objective for hours. Every fact here is checked against the official ARC Raiders Wiki — not secondary trackers.
Quick answer (TLDR): Trials gives you 5 weekly challenges, and rewards unlock at 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,000 points (Uncommon → Rare → Epic). Map choice decides your score: for Open ARC Probes, queue The Spaceport → Dam Battlegrounds → Blue Gate (big open sightlines to spot smoke plumes), and always prioritise runs with the Electromagnetic Storm or Prospecting Probes map condition active — probes spawn in clusters of three and each gives triple searches. Points only bank when you extract alive; dying wipes everything you earned that raid. Read on for the best map per challenge and the fastest route to 3 stars.
How Do ARC Raiders Trials Actually Work?
Before the map picks, lock in the rules — most lost points come from misunderstanding these, not from bad aim.
- You get 5 challenges per week. Per the official wiki: "Raiders are given 5 Trials Challenges every week," viewable in the Trials menu. Each challenge tracks a specific action (open probes, damage Bastions, search lockers, etc.).
- Points only count if you extract. Your tally for each challenge is banked on a successful extraction. Die topside and every Trial point from that raid is gone — this is the #1 score-killer.
- Only your best run per challenge is kept. You can't grind the same challenge across ten raids and stack the totals; the game keeps your single highest score per challenge, so each attempt has to beat your previous best.
- Reward tiers: hitting 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 points on a challenge rewards a random Uncommon, Rare, and Epic item or blueprint respectively, claimable once per tier per week.
- Ranks & leaderboard: once you score a single point in a week you're slotted into a division of 100 Raiders at your rank. There are 14 ranks across five tiers — Rookie, Tryhard, Wildcard, Daredevil, Hotshot — with Cantina Legend reserved for the global Top 100. Finish high in your division for a promotion; bottom out and you're demoted.
That's the whole engine. Now the part that actually moves your score: where you play.
Why Does Map Choice Decide Your Trials Score?
Every Trials challenge rewards volume — how many probes you open, how much damage you deal, how many lockers you search before you extract. So your score is really a function of objective density × time alive. The right map maximises both: more of the thing you need to interact with, packed closer together, with terrain that lets you see and reach it fast.
That's why a "Search Lockers" week feels effortless on a dense interior map and miserable on a sprawling open one — same challenge, double the points, just from the queue. Below is the per-challenge breakdown.
What Are the Best Maps for Every Trials Challenge?
Here's the quick-reference table, then the detail on the challenges that matter most. ARC Raiders currently runs six live maps — Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, The Spaceport, Blue Gate, Stella Montis, and Riven Tides — and the right pick swings hard by objective.
| Challenge type | Best map(s) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Open ARC Probes | The Spaceport → Dam Battlegrounds → Blue Gate | Big open sightlines to spot crashed-probe smoke plumes fast |
| Damage Snitches / Bastions | Dam Battlegrounds, Stella Montis | High ARC machine density; consistent patrols to farm |
| Search Lockers / containers | Buried City, The Spaceport | Dense interiors packed with lootable POIs |
| Deliver carriables | Dam Battlegrounds (balanced routes) | Short objective-to-extract paths, fewer dead ends |
| Melee damage / Harvest plants | Lower-tier maps (Dam, Buried City) | Safer to farm slow objectives without endgame PvP heat |
Open ARC Probes — the highest-ceiling challenge
This is the score challenge people obsess over, and for good reason: a single great Probe run can clear all three reward tiers. The map hierarchy is The Spaceport > Dam Battlegrounds > Blue Gate. Both Spaceport and Blue Gate have large open areas, which matters because crashed ARC Probes release a black plume of smoke you can spot from distance — open sightlines mean you find the next probe in seconds instead of wandering.
But the real multiplier isn't the map, it's the map condition (see the next section). Standing probes have three compartments — that's three searches, three times the points, from one probe.
Damage challenges (Snitches, Bastions) — go where the machines are
Damage-based challenges reward sustained uptime against ARC enemies, so you want high machine density and predictable patrols. Dam Battlegrounds is the reliable all-levels pick — balanced loot, steady ARC presence, and you won't get instantly stomped by endgame squads. If you're kitted and confident, Stella Montis (the Level 25+ endgame zone) packs the highest-value loot alongside tough endgame ARC, so you can double-dip damage points and rewards — at the cost of brutal PvP.
Search & delivery challenges — density and short routes
"Search Lockers" and container-style challenges are about POI density: queue interior-heavy maps like Buried City and The Spaceport where lockers cluster tightly so you're searching, not sprinting. For "Deliver carriables," prioritise short objective-to-extract routes — Dam Battlegrounds' balanced layout keeps the carry path clean, and remember that the points only land when you extract with the carriable, so route safety beats raw speed.
Which Map Conditions Multiply Your Trials Score?
This is the part most players miss, and it's the difference between a chore and an assembly line. Two map conditions turn the Open ARC Probes challenge into a points firehose:
- Electromagnetic (EM) Storm — the single best condition for probe farming. Probes spawn in clusters of three, Couriers are more common, and the storm's poor visibility means PvP players are less likely to find and kill you. Lower risk, higher volume. One experienced Raider on r/ArcRaiders summed up the trade-off: the crashed probes during a storm "don't make as much noise and don't spawn ARC when you breach them" — safer searches, fewer interruptions.
- Prospecting Probes — a minor map condition that pops on every map except Stella Montis. While active, standing probes spawn continuously, each with three compartments to search. It's an objective-density cheat code for the Open ARC Probes challenge.
The trade-off, as the same community thread noted, is risk vs. ceiling: the storm route is "less risky for sure, just less potential score" than chasing the loudest, ARC-spawning probes out in the open. If you're farming for the 3,000-point Epic tier and can fight, go loud; if you just want the 1,000/2,000 tiers safely, queue the storm and farm clusters.
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What's the Fastest Route to 3 Stars Each Week?
A repeatable weekly loop that consistently hits all five challenges:
- Open the Trials menu first. Read all five challenges before you queue — your map choice depends entirely on what's listed. Don't drop in blind.
- Bucket the challenges by map. Group challenges that share a best map (e.g. Probes + a damage challenge both favour open maps) so you can knock out two per raid.
- Check the active map condition. If EM Storm or Prospecting Probes is live and you have a Probe challenge, drop everything and farm it — those windows are your biggest points-per-minute.
- Play for the extract, not the kill. Points bank only on extraction. A safe 1,800-point run beats a greedy 3,000-point run that ends in a death and a zero.
- Beat your own best, then move on. Since only your top run per challenge counts, once a challenge is maxed for the week, stop feeding it and pivot to the next.
Quick gear note
You don't need legendaries to farm Trials — for probe and search challenges a light, fast loadout (mobility over firepower) wins, since you're racing volume, not winning duels. For damage challenges, bring whatever reliably strips ARC armor. If you're short on blueprints or materials to kit up, ARC Raiders Blueprints and Materials get you battle-ready without the farm.
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ARC Raiders Trials FAQ
What is the best map for the Open ARC Probes Trial? The Spaceport is the top pick, followed by Dam Battlegrounds and Blue Gate. All three have large open areas that make it easy to spot the black smoke plumes crashed ARC Probes release, so you find your next objective faster.
Does dying cancel my Trials points? Yes. Your points for each challenge are only banked when you extract successfully. If you die topside, every Trial point you earned that raid is lost — extraction safety is the most important Trials skill.
How many points do I need for the best Trials rewards? Rewards unlock at 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 points on a challenge, granting a random Uncommon, Rare, and Epic item or blueprint respectively. Each tier can be claimed once per challenge per week.
What is Prospecting Probes and why does it matter? Prospecting Probes is a minor map condition (active on every map except Stella Montis) that spawns standing probes continuously. Each probe has three compartments to search, so it triples your Open ARC Probes points — it's the best window to farm that challenge.
Can I farm the same challenge across multiple raids to stack points? No. The game keeps only your best single run per challenge, so each attempt has to beat your previous best. Aim for one strong run rather than many small ones.
How many ranks are there in ARC Raiders Trials? There are 14 ranks across five tiers — Rookie, Tryhard, Wildcard, Daredevil, and Hotshot — with Cantina Legend reserved for the global Top 100.
Final Word
In ARC Raiders Trials, the leaderboard rewards the Raiders who queue smart, not just the ones who shoot straight. Read your five weekly challenges first, match each to its best map, ride the EM Storm and Prospecting Probes windows when they appear, and — above all — extract alive so your points actually count. Do that and 3 stars across the board is a couple of focused runs, not a weekend grind. And when the grind isn't worth your time, timesaver.gg clears it for you.
