ARC Raiders Stash Space: When It Opens and What to Keep

The problem with a full stash

A full stash does one specific kind of damage: it makes you stop looting. That sounds harmless and is not. The instinct when the stash is tight is to skip anything that is not obviously valuable, which means skipping the materials that benches actually consume. Progress stalls not because you died but because you left the metal on the floor. The fix is not more space. It is a decision rule that runs before the raid.

A keep-or-sell rule

Keep anything a bench upgrade is currently asking for. These are the only materials with a guaranteed destination. Track them so they glow in raids instead of being re-identified every time. Keep one spare kit. One. Not three. The point of a spare is that a lost raid does not end your evening, and the second and third spare are just gear you are not using. Sell the rest, especially mid-tier gear you have outgrown. Gear you are not going to wear has no value in a stash and has value as currency. The traders convert it. Bank blueprints and keys immediately. They cost almost nothing in space and everything in regret.

What the vault is for

The Expedition Vault tied to the level 25 unlock is storage for a different purpose than the stash: it exists around the expedition reset loop, where progression is deliberately rolled back in exchange for permanent gains. If you are considering an expedition, read what an expedition resets before you move anything, because the vault is the one place where “I will sort it later” is genuinely dangerous.

Space is a loadout problem too

The other half of storage is what you carry. Your augment sets inventory size, so a raid with a looting augment carries more home than a raid with a combat augment — which means the stash pressure you feel is partly a choice you made at the hideout. The augment page covers that trade. A player who never has stash trouble is usually not looting less. They are deciding earlier: two benches tracked, one spare kit, everything else sold before the next raid. The workshop order is what makes that list short enough to remember.