What is the Hornet's weak point in Arc Raiders?

The two rear thrusters are the weak point. They carry no armor, so they take full damage from any ammo type, while the front thrusters are plated and need Heavy ammo or a very precise shot. The in-game codex says the same thing from the other direction: reaching the front thrusters through the armor "takes a steady hand and skilled shot." Flank the Hornet or bait it into a turn so its back swings toward you.

How do you kill a Hornet in Arc Raiders?

Flank it and destroy the unarmored rear thrusters with Medium or Heavy ammo. Hornet flight is physically simulated, so losing multiple thrusters destabilizes the drone rather than triggering a death animation, and every collision with the environment after that does heavy damage to it. Dexerto reports that taking out both rear thrusters usually ends with the Hornet crashing and self destructing on impact. Stay out from under a spiraling one, because it sprays on the way down.

What ammo do you need for a Hornet in Arc Raiders?

Medium ammo to the rear thrusters is the standard approach, and the wiki recommends Medium or Heavy for this machine overall. The rear is unarmored, so any ammo type damages it, but the armored front plate bounces anything below Moderate ARC Armor Penetration, which makes Light ammo close to useless against it. GameBrief reports the Ferro, a Heavy ammo battle rifle, strips Hornet armor in 2 to 3 shots at the rear against 5 or more from other rifles.

Where do Hornets spawn in Arc Raiders?

The community spawn tracker maps 33 Hornet spawn points across five maps: Blue Gate with 10, Spaceport with 9, Dam Battlegrounds with 6, Buried City with 5, and Stella Montis with 3. Riven Tides is not on that list, though GameBrief describes Riven Tides patrols that include two Hornets, so that map is unresolved. Hornets guard infrastructure rather than roaming, so look for them around probing sites, machines and other strategic points.

Is the Hornet a Wasp in Arc Raiders?

No source calls the Hornet a Wasp variant, so the safe description is that it is the Wasp's heavier armored counterpart and frequent escort. The two are separate machines that patrol together, and the Wasp codex mentions Wasps flying in tidy patrols with the occasional Hornet. The in-game Hornet codex only draws an analogy between them, noting that damaging its thrusters grounds it the way it does a Wasp. Fextralife describes the Hornet as the bigger of the two, with heavy plates on its front side and an electric shock weapon that stuns.

Is the Hornet worth fighting in Arc Raiders?

Usually yes, because of the Hornet Driver. That rare drop feeds the Showstopper and Surge Coil blueprints at Explosives Station 3, takes the Gear Bench from level 1 to 2 at 5 of them, appears in the Test Case and The Trifecta quests, and can be thrown to stun nearby ARC and Raiders for a short duration. The argument for skipping one is never ammo economy, since Hornets drop Medium Ammo reliably. It is that a Hornet is rarely alone, so engaging it pulls the Wasps or the larger machine it is escorting.

Arc Raiders Hornet Guide: Weak Points, Ammo and When to Run

The Hornet is the Wasp's armored escort: red laser lock, slow stun round, plated front. Where to shoot it, what ammo to bring, and when to leave it.

Category: ARC Machines, Every Enemy · Updated 2026-08-03

---

slug: arc-raiders-hornet-guide

title: "Arc Raiders Hornet Guide: Weak Points, Ammo and When to Run"

description: "The Hornet is the Wasp's armored escort: red laser lock, slow stun round, plated front. Where to shoot it, what ammo to bring, and when to leave it."

category: arc-enemies

keywords:

arc raiders hornet
how to kill hornet arc raiders
hornet weak point
arc raiders hornet weak spot
hornet driver arc raiders
hornet spawn locations arc raiders
best ammo for hornet arc raiders
arc raiders hornet vs wasp

published: 2026-08-03

updated: 2026-08-03

---

The Hornet is the armored escort of the Wasp patrol. Small flying drone, four thrusters, heavy plating across the front, and an electric shock weapon that stuns and damages what it hits. The wiki lists it at 200 health with a Light armor class. The in-game codex calls it "an enhanced patrol unit, working with Wasps to neutralize immediate and potential threats to probing sites and other machines."

Ratings disagree. arcraidersmap.app calls it a medium-class drone and GameBrief rates its threat Medium, while Dexerto rates it High. Medium class, high threat is the honest summary.

How you know one is there

It almost never appears alone. It patrols with Wasps and Fireflies, or escorts a larger ground ARC. The Wasp codex confirms the pairing from the other side: Wasps fly "in tidy patrols with other Wasps and the occasional Hornet."
It guards things instead of wandering. The codex has it protecting probing sites and other machines, and Fextralife places it patrolling important strategic areas Topside. TheGamer takes the looser view that Hornets turn up anywhere.
The red targeting laser means it has you. The wiki has the Hornet aiming that laser once it enters combat mode, so treat it as a shot already committed.

How it attacks

It locks on with the red laser, holds for a beat (arcraidersmap.app puts the warning at roughly a second, Fextralife says a couple of seconds), then fires a single slow moving electric round that both stuns and damages. Fextralife adds that those electrical beams burn through Shields quickly, so a full shield bar is less of a cushion than usual.

The round is slow and telegraphed, so keep moving between shots and put something solid between you and the laser. The damage is not the real cost anyway. A stun in a Hornet fight is rarely just a Hornet fight, because whatever it was escorting is still shooting at you.

Where to shoot it

The front is plated. The rear is not.

Rear thrusters: unarmored, and any ammo type will damage them. The wiki adds the qualifier worth knowing: all weapons are semi-effective against unarmored plating, and rounds at Moderate ARC Armor Penetration or above are still the most effective. This is the kill.
Front thrusters: heavily armored. The codex says reaching them "takes a steady hand and skilled shot."
Read the surfaces. Across all ARC, weak points render bright yellow, unarmored plating matte white, armored plating shiny dark gray. Shoot yellow and white.

Get that angle by flanking, or by baiting a turn and firing as its back swings toward you.

Breaking thrusters does something better than playing a death animation. Hornet flight is physically simulated, so per the wiki, destroying multiple thrusters "destabilizes the drone, causing it to lose control of its flight," and in that state every collision with the environment inflicts heavy damage. TheGamer describes hitting the back two to send it spiraling across the field, and Dexerto says two thrusters gone usually ends in a crash and a self destruct. Fextralife puts it the same way, that destroying two of its thrusters renders it virtually helpless. Do not stand under a spiraling one, it sprays on the way down, and it is close to helpless once grounded.

Worth flagging: The Game Post calls the rear a tough angle in a live fight and recommends breaking the front plating, then killing two thrusters on one side. That is a minority position against five sources that say flank, and nobody publishes timings either way. Everyone agrees where the armor is.

None of this is machine learning. Embark's ML lead has said drones use traditional control systems and that the learned locomotion applies to legged robots. More on that in our AI section.

What to bring

Ammo type decides whether you are hurting this thing. Rounds below Moderate ARC Armor Penetration bounce off armored plating, so Light ammo into a Hornet's face does close to nothing while it charges its stun.

Rear thrusters: any ammo type gets through. Medium is the standard answer, and the wiki recommends Medium or Heavy for this machine generally. GameBrief reports the Ferro, a Heavy ammo battle rifle, strips Hornet armor in 2 to 3 shots at the rear, against 5 or more from other rifles.
Front plate: Heavy ammo strips the armor fastest, then you shoot through to what is behind it.
Medium ammo weapons: Rattler, Arpeggio, Canto, Renegade, Venator, Torrente, Osprey, Tempest.
Heavy ammo weapons: Ferro, Anvil, Bettina.
Light ammo weapons (Kettle, Stitcher, Bobcat, Hairpin, Burletta) are rear only, and even there Medium or Heavy does the work faster. Build around that in loadouts.

Where it spawns

The community spawn tracker maps 33 Hornet spawn points across five maps:

Blue Gate: 10
Spaceport: 9
Dam Battlegrounds: 6
Buried City: 5
Stella Montis: 3

Riven Tides is not on that list, but GameBrief describes Riven Tides patrols holding four Wasps, two Hornets and two Fireflies, so treat that map as unresolved. The tracker publishes per-map counts, not named locations. Maps.

Is it worth killing

Yes, for the Hornet Driver rather than the common materials.

Drops: ARC Powercell (Common), Medium Ammo (Common), ARC Alloy (Uncommon), Simple Gun Parts (Uncommon), Hornet Driver (Rare). The wiki also lists ARC Performance Steel and ARC Synthetic Resin. Destroying one is 150 XP, scavenging the chassis another 250.

What the Driver is for:

Showstopper and Surge Coil blueprints at Explosives Station 3
5 of them to take the Gear Bench from level 1 to 2
Quests: Test Case wants 1, The Trifecta wants 2
15 for the Trophy Display project
It can be thrown to stun nearby ARC and Raiders for a short duration, so the part that makes this machine annoying becomes a stun grenade you use on everything else

Ammo economy is not an argument against fighting one, since destroyed Hornets yield Medium Ammo reliably. Check items and keep or sell before dumping a Driver at a vendor.

When to leave it

fdaytalk puts Hornets third in target priority, behind Snitches and Rocketeers. Kill the caller and the artillery first, then take the escort. Walk away when you cannot reach the rear without stepping into the rest of the patrol, or when you are carrying Light ammo only. Dexerto notes the mixed group is fast and hard to hit. The wiki's answer for a swarm that will not disengage is a Lure Grenade.

What we could not confirm

Which patch added it. No source states it. Shrouded Sky 1.17.0 on February 24, 2026 changed it ("Hornets now keep their upper armor after being destroyed, making the lootable piece easier to distinguish from Wasps"), so it predates February 2026, and no patch we checked announces it as new. That points at a launch machine without proving it.
Whether it spawns on Riven Tides, and the named spawn spots inside any map.
Whether the crash needs the rear thrusters specifically. Sources agree two thrusters is the threshold and that the rear ones are the reachable pair, but none of them say front hits do not count toward it.
Hard numbers. No damage figure, stun duration, projectile speed or time to kill is published for the Hornet's own attack beyond the 200 health, the XP values and GameBrief's Ferro shot count. Armor penetration per ammo type is described in words only, very weak to very strong with Moderate as the bounce threshold.

Arc Raiders AI is a fan-made companion site and is not affiliated with Embark Studios.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Hornet's weak point in Arc Raiders?: The two rear thrusters are the weak point. They carry no armor, so they take full damage from any ammo type, while the front thrusters are plated and need Heavy ammo or a very precise shot. The in-game codex says the same thing from the other direction: reaching the front thrusters through the armor "takes a steady hand and skilled shot." Flank the Hornet or bait it into a turn so its back swings toward you.
How do you kill a Hornet in Arc Raiders?: Flank it and destroy the unarmored rear thrusters with Medium or Heavy ammo. Hornet flight is physically simulated, so losing multiple thrusters destabilizes the drone rather than triggering a death animation, and every collision with the environment after that does heavy damage to it. Dexerto reports that taking out both rear thrusters usually ends with the Hornet crashing and self destructing on impact. Stay out from under a spiraling one, because it sprays on the way down.
What ammo do you need for a Hornet in Arc Raiders?: Medium ammo to the rear thrusters is the standard approach, and the wiki recommends Medium or Heavy for this machine overall. The rear is unarmored, so any ammo type damages it, but the armored front plate bounces anything below Moderate ARC Armor Penetration, which makes Light ammo close to useless against it. GameBrief reports the Ferro, a Heavy ammo battle rifle, strips Hornet armor in 2 to 3 shots at the rear against 5 or more from other rifles.
Where do Hornets spawn in Arc Raiders?: The community spawn tracker maps 33 Hornet spawn points across five maps: Blue Gate with 10, Spaceport with 9, Dam Battlegrounds with 6, Buried City with 5, and Stella Montis with 3. Riven Tides is not on that list, though GameBrief describes Riven Tides patrols that include two Hornets, so that map is unresolved. Hornets guard infrastructure rather than roaming, so look for them around probing sites, machines and other strategic points.
Is the Hornet a Wasp in Arc Raiders?: No source calls the Hornet a Wasp variant, so the safe description is that it is the Wasp's heavier armored counterpart and frequent escort. The two are separate machines that patrol together, and the Wasp codex mentions Wasps flying in tidy patrols with the occasional Hornet. The in-game Hornet codex only draws an analogy between them, noting that damaging its thrusters grounds it the way it does a Wasp. Fextralife describes the Hornet as the bigger of the two, with heavy plates on its front side and an electric shock weapon that stuns.
Is the Hornet worth fighting in Arc Raiders?: Usually yes, because of the Hornet Driver. That rare drop feeds the Showstopper and Surge Coil blueprints at Explosives Station 3, takes the Gear Bench from level 1 to 2 at 5 of them, appears in the Test Case and The Trifecta quests, and can be thrown to stun nearby ARC and Raiders for a short duration. The argument for skipping one is never ammo economy, since Hornets drop Medium Ammo reliably. It is that a Hornet is rarely alone, so engaging it pulls the Wasps or the larger machine it is escorting.