Quick answer: Recycle only when you need the materials. We compared Sell value with recycle output for 127 recyclable items on the ARC Raiders Wiki: selling pays more on 119, 6 tie, and only the Rocketeer Driver and Wasp Driver pay more recycled. Of all 131 items the wiki classes as Recyclable, 64 still have a live use, so hold those. The other 67 are safe to clear. Trinkets cannot be recycled, so sell them once any Scrappy, quest or Soul's Offering need is covered.
A post on r/ArcRaiders this week asked the question most stashes eventually ask: do you really need this many basic materials? The screenshot showed 405 Metal Parts and 473 Chemicals. The honest answer is no, and the numbers below show why.
"What to recycle" splits into three separate decisions: what is worth more as Coins, what you still need whole, and which junk gives the material you are short of. This guide answers all three, using the ARC Raiders Wiki loot table and its recipe data as of November 2, 2026, after Live Update 2.3.0. Counts cover items the wiki classes as Recyclable; weapons and other gear can also be recycled but are not ranked here.
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How does recycling work in ARC Raiders?
Recycling breaks one item into crafting materials. The in-game text on many of these items, such as the Rocketeer Driver, is plain about it: "Can be recycled into crafting materials." Inside a raid, the action is salvaging, and it is a weaker version.
All 122 compared items with a salvage recipe return less value salvaged than recycled, and five Glitched ARC items cannot be salvaged at all. A Water Filter recycles into 3 Canister and 2 Rubber Parts, but salvages into only 2 Canister. Outputs can differ too: a Fried Motherboard recycles into Electrical Components and Plastic Parts, while salvaging gives 5 Wires.
So carry junk home if you have the weight to spare. The exception is the Road Warrior skill, which the wiki's Skills page says "allows you to recycle at full efficiency while in a round."
Is it better to sell or recycle in ARC Raiders?
Sell, almost every time. We valued each recycle output at its own Sell price, then compared that total with selling the item whole:
- 119 items pay more if you sell them
- 6 items tie exactly: Broken Guidance System, Geiger Counter, Humidifier, Radio, Rusted Shut Medical Kit and Water Filter
- 2 items pay more recycled: Rocketeer Driver and Wasp Driver
- 4 items could not be compared because the wiki is missing a price or recipe
The usual penalty is small: across the 119 items where selling wins, the median loss is 150 Coins. That matters because it means recycling is rarely a disaster. It is just a fee you pay for materials, so pay it when you want the materials and not out of habit. Some items carry a much bigger fee:
| Item | Sell | Recycle value | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocketeer Driver | 3,000 | 4,100 | +1,100 |
| Wasp Driver | 640 | 840 | +200 |
| Epoxy Bucket | 1,000 | 400 | −600 |
| Radio Relay | 3,000 | 2,000 | −1,000 |
| Assessor Matrix | 5,000 | 3,670 | −1,330 |
| Glitched ARC Circuitry | 5,000 | 3,950 | −1,050 |
| Vaporizer Regulator | 6,000 | 3,750 | −2,250 |
| Turbine Compressor | 5,000 | 2,000 | −3,000 |
Do not chase the two winners yet. Both drivers are Workshop, quest and Trophy Display items, so recycle them only once those needs are covered. For the highest Coin returns per kilogram, use our best items to sell list.
What should you never recycle in ARC Raiders?
Anything still on a Workshop upgrade. Of the 131 recyclable items, 29 are Workshop requirements, and they are the expensive mistakes because the ARC-sourced ones have to be hunted again. Hold these until the station level is built:
| Station | Recyclable items required |
|---|---|
| Gunsmith 2 | Wasp Driver ×8, Rusted Tools ×3 |
| Gunsmith 3 | Sentinel Firing Core ×4, Rusted Gear ×3 |
| Gear Bench 2 | Hornet Driver ×5, Power Cable ×3 |
| Gear Bench 3 | Bastion Cell ×6, Industrial Battery ×3 |
| Explosives Station 2 | Pop Trigger ×5 |
| Explosives Station 3 | Rocketeer Driver ×3, Laboratory Reagents ×3 |
| Medical Lab 2 | Tick Pod ×8, Cracked Bioscanner ×2 |
| Medical Lab 3 | Surveyor Vault ×5, Rusted Shut Medical Kit ×3 |
| Refiner 2 | Fireball Burner ×8, Toaster ×3 |
| Refiner 3 | Bombardier Cell ×6, Motor ×3 |
| Research Station 1 | Mini Pump ×3 |
| Research Station 2 | Skulker Targeter ×5 |
| Research Station 3 | Bully Fragmenter ×6, Differential Microphone ×3 |
| Research Station 4 | Thermal Shaker ×3 |
| Utility Station 2 | Snitch Scanner ×6, Damaged Heat Sink ×2 |
| Utility Station 3 | Leaper Pulse Unit ×4, Fried Motherboard ×3 |
| Scrappy 2 | Dog Collar ×1 |
Once a station is maxed, its items drop off this list unless they appear in the sections below.
Which items do quests and research still need?
This is where most recycle lists go wrong, because a wiki's "uses" column leaves out recipes. A Turbine Compressor looks like pure sale loot until you remember it crafts the Powered Descender. These items are worth holding for quests:
| Quest | Items to hold |
|---|---|
| To The Skies | ARC Performance Steel, ARC Synthetic Resin, ARC Thermo Lining, Pop Trigger |
| The Trifecta | Hornet Driver ×2, Snitch Scanner ×2, Wasp Driver ×2 |
| Wires Crossed | Sentinel Firing Core, Snitch Scanner, Surveyor Vault |
| Nothing Ventured | Comet Igniter ×3, Rocketeer Driver ×3 |
| Test Case | Fireball Burner, Firefly Burner, Hornet Driver |
| Snap And Salvage | Flow Controller, Magnetron |
| With a View | Ion Sputter, Rotary Encoder |
| The League | Bicycle Pump, Deflated Football |
| Nothing Gained | Queen Reactor, Matriarch Reactor |
| Single-item quests | Bastion Cell (Settled in Full), Bombardier Cell (Bombing Run), Bully Fragmenter (Bait, Fetch, Blast), Comet Igniter (Collision Course), Industrial Battery ×3 (Taking Stock), Leaper Pulse Unit (Into The Fray), Portable TV (Movie Night), Rocketeer Driver (Out of the Shadows), Spotter Relay (Combat Recon, Ruins And Reverberations), Surveyor Vault (Mixed Signals) |
Research is the second trap. The Research Station charges items on top of Research Points, so keep these until the blueprint you want is unlocked:
| Item | What it buys or crafts |
|---|---|
| Rusty ARC Steel | Compensator II, Extended Barrel II, Muzzle Brake II, Shotgun Choke II and Silencer I blueprints (×5 each), Barricade Kit (×3) |
| Dried-Out ARC Resin | Extended Light, Medium and Shotgun Mag II blueprints (×5 each) |
| ARC Flex Rubber | Angled Grip II, Stable Stock II and Vertical Grip II blueprints (×5 each) |
| ARC Performance Steel | Silencer II blueprint (×5) |
| Steel Cable | Yank Grenade blueprint (×8), Tether Launcher blueprint (×3), Snap Hook and Zipline crafts |
| Household Cleaner | Gas Mine (×3) and Smoke Grenade (×1) blueprints |
| Cooling Fan | Powered Descender (×2) and Torrente (×1) blueprints |
| Cooling Coil | Compensator II and Silencer I blueprints (×1 each) |
| Unusable Weapon | Light, Medium and Heavy Gun Parts blueprints, Tether Launcher blueprint (×1 each) |
| Broken Guidance System, Microscope, Radio | Tagging Grenade, Vita Shot and Trigger 'Nade blueprints (×2 each) |
| Camera Lens, Rubber Pad | Osprey and Stable Stock II blueprints (×1 each); Camera Lens also crafts the Advanced Camera |
| Turbine Compressor | Powered Descender craft, Trailblazer blueprint |
| Vaporizer Regulator, Shredder Gyro | Dolabra craft (×2 and ×3); Shredder Gyro also buys the Il Toro blueprint (×5) |
| Queen and Matriarch Reactors | Equalizer and Jupiter crafts (Queen), Aphelion craft (Matriarch) |
Two live projects also claim items. Trophy Display is listed as ongoing and wants Rusted Bolts, Expired Respirator, Spotter Relay and most ARC drivers and cells, in amounts from 3 to 20. Soul's Offering runs until November 16 and needs Expired Respirator and Insulation Roll from this group. Check its stage list before clearing your stash, because it also needs trinkets you would normally sell.
Old Expedition requirements are the one thing to ignore. They still show on the wiki, but Embark said the fifth Expedition "will be the last one until early 2027", and nothing confirms the same items will return.
ARC Raiders - Materials
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What is safe to recycle or sell?
These 67 items have no current Workshop, quest, project, blueprint or crafting use in the wiki data. Clear them freely. Sell them for Coins, or recycle them when the next section says they are the material you want.
| Sell value | Safe items |
|---|---|
| 3,500–5,000 | Assessor Matrix, Glitched ARC Circuitry, Spectrum Analyzer |
| 3,000 | Frequency Modulation Box, Glitched ARC Light Ring, Mini Centrifuge, Radio Relay, Sample Cleaner, Signal Amplifier, Spectrometer, Telemetry Transceiver |
| 2,000 | Broken Handheld Radio, Glitched ARC Phased Array, Rocket Thruster, Ruined Accordion, Spring Cushion, Turbo Pump |
| 1,000 | Alarm Clock, ARC Coolant, Broken Flashlight, Broken Taser, Coolant, Damaged Leaper Pulse Unit, Damaged Rocketeer Driver, Epoxy Bucket, Garlic Press, Glitched ARC Transmitter, Headphones, Humidifier, Industrial Charger, Industrial Magnet, Polluted Air Filter, Power Bank, Projector, Remote Control, Ripped Safety Vest, Ruined Emperor Beacon, Ruined Riot Shield, Thermostat, Water Filter, Water Pump |
| 640–659 | Burned ARC Circuitry, Candle Holder, Damaged ARC Motion Core, Damaged Hornet Driver, Damaged Snitch Scanner, Degraded ARC Rubber, Diving Goggles, Frying Pan, Glitched ARC Power Converter, Ice Cream Scooper, Impure ARC Coolant, Metal Brackets, Ruined Baton, Ruined Handcuffs, Ruined Parachute, Ruined Tactical Vest, Tattered ARC Lining, Tattered Clothes, Torn Blanket |
| Under 300 | Crumpled Plastic Bottle, Damaged ARC Powercell, Damaged Fireball Burner, Damaged Tick Pod, Damaged Wasp Driver, Number Plate, Ruined Augment |
Trinkets are simpler still. All 59 cannot be recycled, so they only ever turn into Coins, apart from a few that feed Scrappy, a quest or Soul's Offering. The wiki shows no recycle recipe for Ruined Emperor Beacon or Damaged Snitch Scanner, so treat those two as sell-only.
What should you recycle for springs, sensors and other materials?
When you are short on one material, recycle from the safe list first so you never burn a quest item. These are the best safe sources for each material by yield per item:
| Material you need | Best safe sources |
|---|---|
| Steel Spring | Ruined Accordion (3), Spring Cushion (2) |
| Wires | Broken Handheld Radio, Broken Taser, Power Bank, Projector (2 each) |
| Sensors | Broken Handheld Radio (3), Radio Relay (2), Glitched ARC Phased Array (2) |
| Magnet | Industrial Magnet (2), Ripped Safety Vest (1), Ruined Tactical Vest (1) |
| Electrical Components | Sample Cleaner (2), Signal Amplifier (2), Glitched ARC Transmitter (1) |
| Mechanical Components | Turbo Pump (1) |
| Advanced Electrical Components | Telemetry Transceiver, Spectrometer, Glitched ARC Light Ring (1 each) |
| Advanced Mechanical Components | Mini Centrifuge, Assessor Matrix (1 each) |
| Battery | Broken Flashlight, Broken Taser, Power Bank (2 each) |
| ARC Alloy | Damaged Leaper Pulse Unit, Damaged Rocketeer Driver (3 each) |
| Oil | Turbo Pump (3) |
| Canister | Water Filter (3), Mini Centrifuge (2) |
| Processor | Alarm Clock, Projector, Telemetry Transceiver (1 each) |
| Speaker Component | Radio Relay (2), Headphones (1) |
| Metal Parts | Garlic Press (12), Frying Pan, Candle Holder (8 each) |
| Fabric | Torn Blanket, Tattered ARC Lining (12 each) |
| Rubber Parts | Ruined Accordion (18), Diving Goggles (12) |
| Chemicals | ARC Coolant (16), Impure ARC Coolant (12) |
| Plastic Parts | Ruined Riot Shield (10) |
A Broken Handheld Radio is the standout. It gives both 2 Wires and 3 Sensors, and recycling costs you just 100 Coins against its 2,000 Sell value.
How many basic materials should you keep?
Far fewer than most stashes hold. Add up every level of every Workshop station in the wiki's data and the totals are small:
| Basic material | Total for all Workshop upgrades | Stacks of 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Metal Parts | 80 | 2 |
| Fabric | 80 | 2 |
| Plastic Parts | 75 | 2 |
| Chemicals | 50 | 1 |
| Planks | 35 | 1 |
| Rubber Parts | 30 | 1 |
Crafting ammo and consumables burns more over time, but the screenshot's 405 Metal Parts is still five times everything the Workshop will ever ask for. That pile fills 9 stash slots, and Embark's Frozen Trail 2.0 notes put the cap at: "The new maximum (without Expedition rewards or acquired Nomadic Envoy space) is 328 slots."
A common player rule works well here: sell each basic material down to about three stacks, and turn spare Chemicals into grenades. Applied to that screenshot, selling down to 150 of each frees 255 Metal Parts and 323 Chemicals, worth 35,275 Coins and 13 stash slots between them.
Rather skip the stash sorting? timesaver.gg can deliver the exact materials or blueprints you are missing.
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- ARC Raiders Blueprints — skip the Research Station item costs
- Soul's Offering Boost — all stages done before the project ends
FAQ
Is it worth recycling items in ARC Raiders? Only for materials you need right now. Selling beat recycling on 119 of the 127 items we could compare, with a median loss of 150 Coins on those 119.
What should I not recycle in ARC Raiders? Anything on a Workshop upgrade, an unfinished quest, Trophy Display, Soul's Offering, or a blueprint you still want. That covers 64 of the 131 recyclable items, including every intact ARC driver and cell.
What is safe to recycle in ARC Raiders? The 67 items in the safe table above, such as Garlic Press, Torn Blanket, Broken Taser and Ruined Accordion. They have no current use in the wiki's Workshop, quest, project or recipe data.
Should I recycle or sell trinkets? Sell them. Trinkets cannot be recycled, so check them against Scrappy and Soul's Offering, then take the Coins.
Is salvaging the same as recycling? No. Salvaging happens in a raid and returned less value than recycling on all 122 compared items that have a salvage recipe, while five Glitched ARC items cannot be salvaged. The Road Warrior skill is the way around that penalty.
How do I get more Sensors or Wires quickly? Recycle Broken Handheld Radios for both, then use our materials farming guide to find more electronics.
