How do you kill a Snitch in Arc Raiders?

Shoot the unarmored thrusters, which read as white plating around the body, instead of the center mass. Destroying two of them takes away its ability to fly and drops it to the ground. The Embark-supported wiki recommends a weapon firing Medium or Heavy ammo, and guides name the Ferro and the Anvil as fast picks. Do it before the third call in its sequence begins, because that is the point where reinforcements are guaranteed.

What happens when a Snitch spots you in Arc Raiders?

It begins a series of calls and tries to flee while making them. Reinforcements are only guaranteed to appear once the third call starts, so the first two calls are your window to destroy it. What arrives is flying ARC dropped in from orbit, specifically Wasps and Hornets. The Snitch itself is unarmed and cannot damage you directly.

What is the weak point on a Snitch in Arc Raiders?

The wiki lists its weakness as its thrusters, which carry no armor, plus a ring of vulnerable white panels on its underside. Two destroyed thrusters ground the drone, and every source agrees on that number. The total thruster count is disputed, with the Embark-supported wiki saying four and Fextralife and Screen Rant saying three, so aim rather than count. A thruster-crippled Snitch flies erratically and is harder to hit, so killing it outright is better than crippling it.

Can you hide from a Snitch in Arc Raiders?

Yes. Its scanner is line-of-sight based and the drone needs continuous vision to complete a scan, so crouching behind cover to break that line works. Sources disagree on whether heavy foliage counts, with the wiki saying it may be enough and other guides recommending solid cover with no gaps. It does not react to sound and will not track you if you shoot at it from a distance and miss.

Is the Snitch Scanner worth keeping in Arc Raiders?

Keep it if you have crafting or quest goals. Six Snitch Scanners are required to upgrade Utility Station 1 to Utility Station 2, and two are required for The Trifecta quest. It is an Uncommon throwable that calls reinforcements onto anything they read as a threat near where it lands, which makes it usable against other Raiders. It sells for 1,000 coins and recycles into Electrical Components and ARC Alloy, one of each.

Where do Snitches spawn in Arc Raiders?

Written guides list Dam Battlegrounds, The Spaceport, The Blue Gate and Buried City, with the area around the Dam Control Tower named as the most reliable specific spot. That list likely predates the newer maps, and community map data suggests Riven Tides has them too. No complete, trustworthy per-map spawn list has been published, and nobody has confirmed whether spawns are fixed points or randomized per raid.

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

The Snitch is unarmed, but it calls ARC down from orbit. Kill it before its third call, aim for the unarmored thrusters, and know when to just stay hidden.

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

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slug: arc-raiders-snitch-guide

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

description: "The Snitch is unarmed, but it calls ARC down from orbit. Kill it before its third call, aim for the unarmored thrusters, and know when to just stay hidden."

category: arc-enemies

keywords:

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arc raiders snitch weak point
arc raiders snitch thrusters
does the snitch call reinforcements
best ammo for snitch arc raiders
arc raiders snitch scanner
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published: 2026-08-03

updated: 2026-08-03

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The Snitch does not shoot at you. It finds you, tells the rest of the ARC where you are, and calls flying reinforcements down from orbit while it runs. The community wiki that Embark supports calls it a small, unarmed reconnaissance drone that "diligently searches the environment for Raider activity." Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal, before launch: "if they spot a Raider out in the open they will call in reinforcements. Make sure to stay hidden or take them out quick."

How you know one is close

Its wide-angle scanner projects a visible beam that the wiki describes as resembling a spotlight. That beam is the drone looking, and it works on line of sight. Fextralife's page notes the drone requires continuous vision to complete a scan, so crouching behind something solid to break that line is the counter.

Sources disagree on cover: the Embark-supported wiki says heavy foliage may be enough, TheGamer says solid cover only, not bushes or debris with obvious gaps. Take the stricter read.

It does not react to sound, and will not track you if you shoot from a distance and miss.

What happens when it spots you

It starts a series of calls, and it runs while it makes them. The most important line on this page is from the wiki: "Reinforcements are only guaranteed to appear after the Snitch begins the third in its series of calls."

Read that wording literally, because it is the only wording anyone has. The third call is the point of no return. Killing it before then removes the guarantee, and every guide treats the first two calls as the window, but no source states that an early kill means nothing arrives. Treat it as your best odds, not a promise.

Let it reach the third and you get flying ARC, Wasps and Hornets, dropped in from orbit.

The Snitch is unarmed and cannot damage you. Losing this fight costs you reinforcements and noise, not health.

Wiki stats: 158 health, no armor, weakness thrusters, ability Summon ARC. Destroying one gives +100 XP, scavenging its core +200.

Where to shoot it

The thrusters. The wiki lists Weakness: Thrusters outright and calls them unarmored. They read as white plating around the body, and TheGamer's instruction is to break the white plating holding the rotors in place.

Two is the number that matters. Screen Rant and GamingBolt both say destroying two thrusters takes away its ability to fly and drops it to the ground. The Embark-supported wiki puts it more loosely, saying multiple thrusters in any combination will destabilize it.
Guide sites describe a second soft spot on the underside, a ring of white panels. That one is not in the Embark-supported wiki, so weigh it accordingly.
The total thruster count is disputed. The Embark-supported wiki says four. Fextralife, Screen Rant and other guides say three. Nobody disputes that two grounds it, so aim instead of counting.

A crippled Snitch is harder to finish, not easier. Per the wiki, "Snitches become significantly harder to hit when their thrusters are destroyed, as their flight becomes erratic and unpredictable." Destabilizing one sends it spiraling, and each collision does heavy damage with a high chance of finishing it, but you are chasing a flailing target while the call sequence runs.

What to bring

The wiki's recommendation: "A few well-placed shots with a Weapon that fires Medium or Heavy Ammo is usually enough to destroy a Snitch before it begins calling for reinforcements."

Screen Rant names the Ferro specifically, for destroying a Snitch thruster in one hit.
Another guide pairs the Anvil with the Ferro as the quick-removal picks.
Broadly, light ammo barely scratches ARC machines, medium has moderate penetration, heavy shreds them.

One honest caveat: the wiki lists this machine's armor as None, which is normally the case where penetration stops mattering, yet the medium and heavy recommendation still stands in every source. Nobody explains why, and nobody tests whether light ammo finishes one inside the window, so treat light as untested rather than ruled out. Ammo classes are broken down in the loadout builder.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Emptying a magazine into the center body instead of the weak points. Guides describe the failure the same way: shots wasted on the body, then the clock runs out.

Two variants: engaging without the range to finish, since Snitches often fly high and short-range weapons do little, and closing distance for a cleaner shot, which raises your chance of being detected at all.

When to kill it, and when to walk away

All three are defensible, and the sources treat it as a choice.

Kill it to keep the fight small. The in-game Codex calls the Snitch a high-priority target for Raiders who want to avoid escalating encounters.
Avoid it if you can. Screen Rant's advice is to avoid detection by them altogether.
Bait it on purpose for the loot. The Codex notes some Raiders deliberately aggravate one to harvest Wasp and Hornet Drivers. TheGamer's caution is fair: not recommended unless you are prepared for what lands.

What it drops

ARC Powercell, ARC Alloy, ARC Synthetic Resin, ARC Thermo Lining, Sensors, and the Snitch Scanner.

The Scanner is the real reason to farm one. It is an Uncommon throwable that triggers on being thrown, calling in reinforcements that target any perceived threats in its vicinity, which makes it usable against other Raiders. Six are required to upgrade Utility Station 1 to Utility Station 2, two for The Trifecta quest. It weighs 0.75, sells for 1,000 coins, and recycles into Electrical Components and ARC Alloy, one of each. Check keep or sell first.

Where it shows up

Written guides list four maps: Dam Battlegrounds, The Spaceport, The Blue Gate and Buried City. The Dam Control Tower is the one specific spot a guide names as reliable.

Treat that as incomplete rather than wrong. It predates the newer maps, and community markers point at Riven Tides having Snitches while showing none on three of those four, which reads like missing data rather than absence. Zone breakdowns live on the map pages.

What nobody has confirmed

The length of the call window. Every source says kill it before the third call, none gives a duration or an on-screen indicator to read.
Whether reinforcements can still arrive if you kill it during the first two calls. Sources only say the third call makes them guaranteed.
How many reinforcements arrive, and whether that scales with map, difficulty or squad size.
Whether breaking line of sight mid-sequence cancels the call or only pauses it.
Its exact thruster count, detection range, scan cone, patrol altitude and speed.
Whether variants exist, and whether it has ever been patched. It shipped at launch, but its wiki page has no history section and no patch note naming a Snitch change was found.

One myth worth putting down: the Snitch is not driven by Embark's reinforcement-learning locomotion. Martin Singh-Blom of Embark said that work is "strictly for locomotion," then: "For drones, we don't need that since we can use traditional control systems." It applies to legged machines like Leapers and Bastions. A spiraling Snitch is flight failure, a separate system. More on the ARC AI hub.

This is a fan-made companion site, not affiliated with Embark Studios. Sources: the community wiki, in-game Codex text, an official Embark post dated October 13, 2025, a developer interview and published guides.

Frequently asked questions

How do you kill a Snitch in Arc Raiders?: Shoot the unarmored thrusters, which read as white plating around the body, instead of the center mass. Destroying two of them takes away its ability to fly and drops it to the ground. The Embark-supported wiki recommends a weapon firing Medium or Heavy ammo, and guides name the Ferro and the Anvil as fast picks. Do it before the third call in its sequence begins, because that is the point where reinforcements are guaranteed.
What happens when a Snitch spots you in Arc Raiders?: It begins a series of calls and tries to flee while making them. Reinforcements are only guaranteed to appear once the third call starts, so the first two calls are your window to destroy it. What arrives is flying ARC dropped in from orbit, specifically Wasps and Hornets. The Snitch itself is unarmed and cannot damage you directly.
What is the weak point on a Snitch in Arc Raiders?: The wiki lists its weakness as its thrusters, which carry no armor, plus a ring of vulnerable white panels on its underside. Two destroyed thrusters ground the drone, and every source agrees on that number. The total thruster count is disputed, with the Embark-supported wiki saying four and Fextralife and Screen Rant saying three, so aim rather than count. A thruster-crippled Snitch flies erratically and is harder to hit, so killing it outright is better than crippling it.
Can you hide from a Snitch in Arc Raiders?: Yes. Its scanner is line-of-sight based and the drone needs continuous vision to complete a scan, so crouching behind cover to break that line works. Sources disagree on whether heavy foliage counts, with the wiki saying it may be enough and other guides recommending solid cover with no gaps. It does not react to sound and will not track you if you shoot at it from a distance and miss.
Is the Snitch Scanner worth keeping in Arc Raiders?: Keep it if you have crafting or quest goals. Six Snitch Scanners are required to upgrade Utility Station 1 to Utility Station 2, and two are required for The Trifecta quest. It is an Uncommon throwable that calls reinforcements onto anything they read as a threat near where it lands, which makes it usable against other Raiders. It sells for 1,000 coins and recycles into Electrical Components and ARC Alloy, one of each.
Where do Snitches spawn in Arc Raiders?: Written guides list Dam Battlegrounds, The Spaceport, The Blue Gate and Buried City, with the area around the Dam Control Tower named as the most reliable specific spot. That list likely predates the newer maps, and community map data suggests Riven Tides has them too. No complete, trustworthy per-map spawn list has been published, and nobody has confirmed whether spawns are fixed points or randomized per raid.