What is the fastest way to kill a Tick in Arc Raiders?

Melee it. The Tick has no armor plating and the lowest health value on the ARC roster, and one hit from a Raider Tool destroys it, so a gun only spends ammo you will want later. Melee is also quieter, which matters because Ticks spawn indoors in groups and gunfire pulls other ARC and nearby Raiders into the room with you.

Does the Tick have a weak point in Arc Raiders?

No. ARC weak points are the matte, bright yellow spots that exist because the surrounding armored plating needs Moderate ARC armor penetration or better to damage, and the Tick's armor field reads None, so neither mechanic applies to it. The whole machine is the target and any weapon or ammo type works. One database claims a single unnamed weak point, but every other source says there is none.

How do you get a Tick off you in Arc Raiders?

Hold the interact button to dislodge it. A latched Tick drains your health and your shield at the same time rather than stripping the shield first, so removing it fast is the whole job. Dislodging does not kill it: the Tick runs along the ground to escape and can lunge at you again, so finish it with a melee swing once it is off.

Where do Ticks spawn in Arc Raiders?

Indoors, overhead, and dormant until you walk under them. Ticks spawn on ceilings, in rafters and on walls inside buildings, often near corners and entryways, and they wait motionless rather than patrolling. Scan the walls and ceiling with your crosshair as you enter a room instead of sweeping the floor, and expect a group rather than a single machine.

What does a Tick drop in Arc Raiders?

A Tick can drop ARC Powercell, ARC Alloy, Tick Pod, ARC Flex Rubber and ARC Thermo Lining. The Tick Pod is the one worth going out of your way for, because it is a unique Tick-only drop used to upgrade the Medical Lab. Killing one also pays 50 XP for the destroy and 100 XP for the scavenging core.

Do Ticks explode in Arc Raiders?

Sources disagree, so this is genuinely unsettled. Three community databases describe a Tick detonating, either on your head or when it dies, while the community wiki and several guide outlets describe a drain-until-removed attack with no explosion at all. Play around the confirmed behaviour, which is the latch and the drain, and treat a detonation as possible rather than expected.

Arc Raiders Tick Guide: Weak Point, Melee Kill and Spawns

How to kill the Tick in Arc Raiders. No armor, no weak point, one melee swing. The sound it makes before it lunges, and how to shake one off your head.

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

What a Tick is

A small, spider-like ARC machine that leaps at Raiders. The community wiki gives its armor field as None and its health as 10. One other database lists 50 health instead, so treat 10 as the best-sourced figure rather than a settled one.

It is predominantly an indoor machine. It spawns dormant and overhead, on ceilings, in rafters, crawling along walls. It does not patrol. It waits motionless until a Raider passes underneath, then launches itself at that Raider's head.

Which patch introduced it is not documented anywhere. Official news posts announce Firefly and Comet as new ARC enemies, there is no equivalent post for the Tick, and the wiki carries no version history for it. Probably a launch machine, but no source says so, so this page will not claim it.

How you know one is in the room

Sound comes first. A Tick is usually heard before it is seen: the tapping of its legs and robotic chirps. Treat that as the cue to look up.

The second sound is the one that matters. In its aggressive state, the Tick makes a robotic shuffling noise immediately before it lunges. The shuffle means a lunge is coming.

The visual check is a habit rather than a skill. As you step into a building, run your crosshair along the walls and ceiling instead of the floor, and check corners and entryways.

Assume more than one. Sources agree Ticks attack in small groups and that indoor spawns are always groups. No source gives a reliable count, so plan for several and not for a specific number. Individually a Tick is trivial. A room full of them is a different problem.

The attack, and how to get one off

The lunge targets your head. On a hit the Tick latches on and drains health and shield at the same time, not shield first and health after. It keeps draining until you remove it.

Removal is holding the interact button. That is all the wiki specifies. It is claimed elsewhere that the dislodge animation locks you out of shooting, sprinting and dodging. I could not verify that on any source page, so do not plan around it.

Dislodging is not killing. Once off, the Tick runs along the ground to get clear and can lunge at you again. Finish it before you move on.

Movement is the real counter. One guide's rule is to start beelining the moment you hear one, on the reasoning that a Tick cannot commit to a grab if it cannot identify where you are going. Standing still is what makes you easy to latch onto.

One open disagreement: whether Ticks detonate. Three sources describe a Tick exploding, on your head or on death. The community wiki and six guide outlets describe a drain-until-removed attack with no explosion at all. Unresolved, so treat an explosion as possible and never as the plan.

Where to shoot it

Nowhere in particular, and that is the useful answer. ARC weak points are the matte, bright yellow spots, and armored plating is the shiny, dark gray covering that needs Moderate ARC armor penetration or better to damage. The Tick has neither. Its armor field reads None, so there is no yellow spot to find and no plating to punch through. The whole machine is the weak point.

One database claims the Tick has a weak point but does not name or locate it. Every other source says there is none, and that is the position this page takes. The rest of the roster, where weak points do matter, is in the guides library, and how ARC machines move is covered on the ARC AI hub.

What to bring

Nothing special, which is the point. The ammo ladder that governs the rest of the roster does not apply here. Rounds below Moderate ARC armor penetration bounce off armored plating, which is why Light ammo is the wrong pick against most armored ARC and Heavy is the efficient one. The Tick is exactly where that rule stops mattering: with no plating, nothing bounces off it and every weapon class hurts it. The wiki's line on unarmored targets is that all weapons are semi-effective, with Moderate penetration or above still the most effective, but against a machine this fragile that distinction does not survive contact. Recommended ammo is listed as Light, Medium or melee.

The intended answer is melee. A Raider Tool destroys a Tick in one hit, which is why the wiki frames melee as the ammo-saving option. The loadout planner covers the rest of the kit.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Shooting it.

The ammo is the smaller cost. The real cost is noise. You have just fired a gun indoors, standing still, in a building that spawns Ticks in groups, which pulls other ARC and any nearby Raiders toward the spot you should not be occupying. A melee swing is quiet, free and one hit.

The two runner-up mistakes are not scanning the ceiling on the way in, and standing still while one is already inbound.

Is it worth fighting

Yes, for loot, not for threat. The Tick sits at the floor of the game's difficulty range: one outlet calls it the weakest enemy variation and more of an annoyance than an actual threat, and difficulty ratings run 2 out of 10 and Easy 1 of 5.

The reason to kill them is the drop table: ARC Powercell, ARC Alloy, Tick Pod, ARC Flex Rubber and ARC Thermo Lining. The Tick Pod is the one that matters, a unique Tick-only drop used to upgrade the Medical Lab. Ticks are also a reliable early-game source of crafting material, and they pay 50 XP for the destroy plus 100 for the scavenging core. Run the drops through keep or sell or look them up in the item database.

The standing advice for ARC machines is to avoid a fight unless there is a specific unavoidable reason. For the Tick, the Tick Pod is that reason. The other is the recurring Destroy Ticks weekly trial, harder than the Tick's weakness suggests, because a high score means constantly evading them rather than trading.

Farming and spawns

The farm route named by one guide is Seed Vault and Cultural Archives, connected by a corridor, so you can move between them quickly. Both hold a large number of Ticks and both respawn reasonably quickly when no other Raiders are present. Cultural Archives also holds Fireballs, Pops and Shredders, and Seed Vault also holds Sentinels, so neither is quiet. That guide names the POIs but not the map, so check the map pages before committing a run to it.

One database lists Tick spawns on Dam Battlegrounds, The Spaceport, The Blue Gate, Buried City, Stella Montis Lower and Stella Montis Upper. That is a single uncorroborated source and the wiki carries no map field for the Tick at all, so treat it as a lead rather than a spawn table. The environment detail is what holds up across sources: indoors, on walls and ceilings, in rafters, near corners and entryways.

This is a fan-made companion site, not affiliated with Embark Studios. Everything above comes from the community wiki and community guide outlets, no official Embark source describes the Tick, and every point where sources disagree is flagged.

Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest way to kill a Tick in Arc Raiders?: Melee it. The Tick has no armor plating and the lowest health value on the ARC roster, and one hit from a Raider Tool destroys it, so a gun only spends ammo you will want later. Melee is also quieter, which matters because Ticks spawn indoors in groups and gunfire pulls other ARC and nearby Raiders into the room with you.
Does the Tick have a weak point in Arc Raiders?: No. ARC weak points are the matte, bright yellow spots that exist because the surrounding armored plating needs Moderate ARC armor penetration or better to damage, and the Tick's armor field reads None, so neither mechanic applies to it. The whole machine is the target and any weapon or ammo type works. One database claims a single unnamed weak point, but every other source says there is none.
How do you get a Tick off you in Arc Raiders?: Hold the interact button to dislodge it. A latched Tick drains your health and your shield at the same time rather than stripping the shield first, so removing it fast is the whole job. Dislodging does not kill it: the Tick runs along the ground to escape and can lunge at you again, so finish it with a melee swing once it is off.
Where do Ticks spawn in Arc Raiders?: Indoors, overhead, and dormant until you walk under them. Ticks spawn on ceilings, in rafters and on walls inside buildings, often near corners and entryways, and they wait motionless rather than patrolling. Scan the walls and ceiling with your crosshair as you enter a room instead of sweeping the floor, and expect a group rather than a single machine.
What does a Tick drop in Arc Raiders?: A Tick can drop ARC Powercell, ARC Alloy, Tick Pod, ARC Flex Rubber and ARC Thermo Lining. The Tick Pod is the one worth going out of your way for, because it is a unique Tick-only drop used to upgrade the Medical Lab. Killing one also pays 50 XP for the destroy and 100 XP for the scavenging core.
Do Ticks explode in Arc Raiders?: Sources disagree, so this is genuinely unsettled. Three community databases describe a Tick detonating, either on your head or when it dies, while the community wiki and several guide outlets describe a drain-until-removed attack with no explosion at all. Play around the confirmed behaviour, which is the latch and the drain, and treat a detonation as possible rather than expected.