ARC Raiders Traders: What Each NPC Sells and Trust

Traders are the backbone of ARC Raiders progression. Between raids you return to Speranza to trade with NPCs, craft from materials, and take contracts. Completing a trader’s contracts builds trust, which unlocks better-quality rewards and items for purchase. The five traders each cover a distinct need.

Tian Wen

The starter trader. Supplies beginning weapons, basic attachments, and ammunition. Early on this is where most of your loadout comes from, so keep its contracts moving.

Lance

Focused on medical equipment and resistance items. If your deaths trace to running out of healing mid-raid, Lance is where you shore that up.

Apollo

Provides gadgets and explosive devices. Grenades, mines, and utility throws that let you handle ARC swarms or break a stalemate come from here.

Shani

Speranza’s head of security. Sells the Raider Hatch Key plus security gear, augments, weapon mods, and medical items. Because the hatch key is your safety-net extraction, Shani is worth visiting on a schedule — the hatch key guide covers the cost (9,000 coins) and level gate (level 12, one per 24 hours).

Celeste

Trades crafting items for seeds, feeding the long-term crafting loop rather than immediate combat power.

Trust and unlocks

Each trader’s contracts are a chain: finishing one set opens the next, often gated by reputation tier or account progression. Claim completed rewards promptly so follow-up quests appear, and review quest text before deploying so you do not enter the wrong map.

Where to spend first

Early on, keep Tian Wen contracts moving for your baseline kit and use Lance to stop death-by-empty-medkit. A useful habit is to craft at the workbenches rather than buy finished items directly from traders whenever the materials are already in your stash — it is usually cheaper and teaches you the crafting chain. The skill tree and rarity tiers determine what you can actually use what you buy.