Arc Raiders Deal Damage to Shredders Trial Guide

A hovering death sphere with a 360-degree shrapnel attack and the navigational aggression of a parking enforcement officer is now your weekly grind. Congratulations. This guide will help you not die before you extract.

3-STAR THRESHOLD: 4,000 points under normal conditions. Six Shredders damaged. During Night Raid: three. Check the event timer before loading in: ignoring it costs you half your score output and your dignity simultaneously.

What You’re Fighting

The Shredder is a medium-heavy ARC unit that excels at closing distance in corridors and making you regret every life choice that led to this moment. It fires three waves of shrapnel in a burst pattern: the first two will kill you, and the third is just mockery. It pauses to charge up a larger cone blast. That pause is the only moment it’s being polite to you.

Its weak spot is the blue thruster on the underside, not the glowing eye. The eye is armor. Embark specifically patched out eye-cheese after the Cold Snap update, presumably because too many players were succeeding. Aim at the thrusters or accept that you’re doing 30% of the damage you should be.

DO NOT use light ammo. SMGs, pistols: the Shredder does not care. Its armor plating is functionally indifferent to your optimism.

How Scoring Works

Each Shredder damaged earns you 1.8 points per 1 damage dealt: and a flat ~693 points per Shredder under standard conditions. Stack the Night Raid event modifier and that flat figure doubles to 1,386 per unit. The Trial is exclusively tied to Stella Montis: don’t bother looking for Shredders anywhere else unless the current season has expanded spawns.

Condition	Per Shredder	Needed for 3-Star
Standard	~693 pts	6 Shredders
Night Raid (2x)	~1,386 pts	3 Shredders
Leaderboard chasing	Every single one	Extract only when forced

Weekly trial score farming at the top end means chaining the entire map and leaving only when the arc orbiter says you physically must. If your goal is simply three stars, find six and go home like a reasonable human.

Loadout

Primary

The Hullcracker is the correct answer. Two to three shots aimed at the thrusters kills a Shredder without you needing to dance around cover like a nervous intern. The Anvil works and costs less gear value: expect 10 to 18 shots to body, significantly fewer to thrusters. The Ferro penetrates heavy armor effectively. All of these use heavy ammo. Medium ammo (Renegade, Venator) is a tolerable compromise. Light ammo is a character flaw.

Grenades

Three Snap Blast Grenades stuck to a Shredder kill it outright: the single most reliable solo method. Five Light Impact Grenades thrown directly at the base will either kill it or send it into severe structural distress. Throw grenades during the charge animation. That’s its vulnerable window. Wasting grenades on idle Shredders while they’re moving is how you run out at the worst possible time.

Support

Item	Purpose	Required?
Adrenaline Shots	Stamina for repositioning. Never be out.	Yes
Healing	Shrapnel happens to everyone.	Yes
Smoke / Shield	Useful if a player decides you look like a target.	Optional
Zipline / Snap Hook	Movement. Only relevant if you’re chasing leaderboard.	No
Jolt Mine	Place in doorway. Shredder walks through. Free stun.	Optional

Spawn Locations

Shredder spawn locations Stella Montis are consistent across runs. High-density zones are:

• Lobby (Ground Floor): Two confirmed spawns. Open architecture. Also where other raiders camp balconies waiting for you.
• Assembly & Assembly Workshop: Reliable. Tight corridors mean the Shredder is very happy and you are not.
• Cargo Docks A & B: Multiple spawns. Rotate through both.
• Culture Archives: Three typical spawns. Start here or finish here depending on your entry point.
• Robotic Sandbox: High ARC density. Shredders respawn on rotation.
• Seed Vault / Medical: Worth sweeping between main zones.

Recommended Route (Solo)

Culture Archives. Lobby. Assembly. Sandbox. Cargo Docks. Repeat

Start between Archives and Lobby depending on your spawn. The route loops: no dead ends, no backtracking, no excuses.

Fighting Them Without Dying

The Shredder shrapnel attack counter is simple once you know it: the burst fires in three waves. By the time wave three begins, you can already peek from cover to shoot. It does not hit you at the end of the third wave: it hits at the start. Count to three, peek, fire. Repeat until it stops moving.

Use doors. A closed door between you and an active Shredder blocks its attacks completely, resets its aggro, and lets you reposition without a scratch. This is not a bug. Use it gratuitously.

During the charge animation: the pause before its large cone blast: throw everything you have at its thrusters. Grenades, bullets, regrets. That window is the most efficient damage window in the encounter. Missing it is a personal failure.

PvP note: A friendly lobby is worth actual time. PvP firefights interrupt rotations and cost trial score. If someone is not shooting you, leave them alone. If someone is shooting you, the Lure Grenade exists for a reason: redirect Shredder aggro onto them and run.

Night Raid: The Only Modifier That Matters

The Stella Montis Night Raid event applies a 2x multiplier to every Shredder you damage. Three stars drops from six Shredders to three. This is not a minor bonus: it is the difference between a leisurely stroll and doing twice the work for identical rewards. Check the event timer before every single session. If Night Raid is active, you load in immediately. If it is not, you load in anyway because you still have a trial to complete, but the suffering is proportionally greater.

Score Maximization

Max score Shredders ARC Raiders trial runs require you to damage: not necessarily kill: every Shredder on the map, then loop back through respawned zones before extraction. You are not racing. You are farming. The distinction matters.

• Do not kill Shredders with one grenade stack and move on. Damage them, let the score register, finish them with weapons for additional points-per-damage.
• Turrets will ruin a rotation. Eliminate or avoid them. They are not worth the time they cost.
• Pops and Ticks: kill them only if they are directly obstructing you. They score minimally. Hunting them is nostalgia for people who don’t want good scores.
• Extract with shield recharged and weapon reloaded. The last thing you need is to die at Lobby Metro with 47,000 points because you forgot to reload.

The solo Shredder trial strategy is not complicated: find them, shoot thrusters, use cover, loop the map, do not die, extract. The Hullcracker runs dry around the end of a full rotation: keep the Anvil or a heavy weapon as backup. You will need it.

Quick Reference

Situation	What To Do
Shredder is charging up	Get behind cover. Immediately.
After wave 3 starts	Peek and shoot. Not after: during.
Out of Hullcracker ammo	Anvil to thrusters. Slower, same result.
Hostile raider nearby	Lure Grenade. Walk away. Let the Shredder handle it.
Shredder in doorway	Jolt Mine first, then close in. It’s stunned. You’re not.
Night Raid active	Load in. Immediately. Stop reading this.
Stamina depleted	Never let this happen. Use Adrenaline Shots.

The best weapon for Shredder Arc Raiders is whichever heavy weapon you can afford to bring and have the accuracy to aim at thrusters. Hullcracker is optimal. Anvil is sufficient. Anything using light ammo is a tourism decision, not a combat one.

One final note on the Arc Raiders weekly trial tips that most guides politely omit: stamina management loses more runs than bad loadouts. A Shredder catching you while stamina-depleted in a hallway is not bad luck: it is a predictable outcome of not carrying enough Adrenaline Shots. Never be out of stamina. The video evidence is abundant and consistently humiliating.