How do you kill a Wasp in Arc Raiders?

Shoot two of its four thrusters. A Wasp has 110 health and no armor, so light ammo is enough, and the moment to fire is the brief hover it does after painting you with its red targeting laser. Once two thrusters are gone it loses control of its flight, and every collision with the environment does heavy damage, so the crash finishes the job for you.

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

The four thrusters. The in-game codex describes them as exposed and unarmored, and you only need to destroy two of them to bring the drone down. Do not stop at one, because a Wasp missing a single thruster flies more erratically and becomes harder to hit, not easier. One community database also lists an optical sensor as a weak point, but no other source repeats that.

What ammo is best against a Wasp in Arc Raiders?

Light ammo. The Wasp is an exception to the usual rule that ammo type decides how well you penetrate ARC armor, because it has no armor to penetrate at all. It also drops Light Ammo when it dies, so killing Wasps with light is close to self-sustaining. Save your heavy rounds for the armored machines that actually need them.

How much health and XP is a Wasp worth in Arc Raiders?

A Wasp has 110 health and no armor. Destroying one awards 100 XP, and scavenging the chassis afterwards awards another 200 XP, for 300 total if you take the time to loot it. No source publishes per-shot damage, thruster hitpoints, or a time-to-kill figure for this machine, so 110 is total health and nothing more.

Where do Wasps spawn in Arc Raiders?

Outdoors and in the air, on most maps, in tidy patrols of 2 to 3 that often include a Hornet. They are topside units and are rarely found indoors or in confined spaces. No source gives a verified per-map spawn table, so outdoor areas on most maps is the honest answer. A Snitch can also call additional Wasps in from orbit, which is a second, non-patrol way to meet them.

Are Wasps worth fighting in Arc Raiders?

Usually yes. They die to two thruster hits with cheap ammo they then refund, they are worth 300 XP with the chassis scavenged, and they drop ARC Alloy, ARC Powercell, Simple Gun Parts and the Wasp Driver used in crafting. Skipping is fine on a quiet or key-focused run, since a sprinting Raider can outrun one and gunfire pulls in more ARC. If the patrol includes a Hornet, kill the Hornet first.

Arc Raiders Wasp Guide: Weak Point, Ammo and When to Skip

The Wasp is the first ARC most Raiders fight. Break two of its four thrusters and it crashes, light ammo is enough, and stopping at one makes it harder to hit.

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

What a Wasp is

The small flying drone you fight first, the most common ARC in the game and present in nearly every encounter, rated 2 out of 10 for difficulty by RATWATCH. Four thrusters, a light frame, twin machine guns on the front.

Health is 110 and armor is None. That second value is the whole reason a Wasp dies so easily. Destroying one is 100 XP and scavenging the chassis afterwards is another 200, so a Wasp you actually loot is worth 300.

How you know one is nearby

Wasps patrol in tidy groups of 2 to 3, often with a Hornet along and sometimes with Fireflies. The in-game codex calls them "the first line of security for ARC's probing and extraction operations" and says they "seem drawn to areas with regular Raider activity."

They are noise reactive: fire a gun and nearby Wasps fly toward the sound, so your first shot is a beacon for the rest of the patrol. Their scanning is imperfect too: the codex notes they sometimes mistake humanoid statues for Raiders, so one shooting at nothing has not necessarily seen you.

How it attacks

The sequence is consistent:

It paints you with a red targeting laser.
It hovers for a moment to stabilize its aim.
It fires a short burst of light projectiles, then repositions.

It fires in bursts rather than a constant stream and will chase you if you leave, though a sprinting Raider can outrun one. Once engaged its flight turns erratic, which is what makes a fragile machine annoying to hit.

That hover is the window the whole fight turns on. It is the one predictable pause in an otherwise erratic flight path, and it lands right before it shoots you.

Where to shoot: two of the four thrusters

The thrusters are the weak point and every reliable source agrees. The codex: "The Wasp's thrusters are exposed and unarmored, giving practiced Raiders a surefire way to send them crashing down."

You do not need all four. Break two and the drone loses control and tumbles, and the environment finishes it, because with the thrusters gone every collision does heavy damage. Bring a Wasp down from enough height and the crash alone is the kill.

The method:

Break line of sight first, using cover or foliage.
Wait for the red laser and the hover that follows it.
Put two thrusters down inside that window.

Half a job is worse than none. One thruster gone makes the Wasp fly more erratically, so it gets harder to hit, not easier. Take the second one in the same window rather than trading a few rounds and ducking back into cover.

What to bring

Light ammo, the exception to the usual ARC rule. Ammo type normally decides how well you punch through ARC armor and light barely scratches the armored machines, but the Wasp has no armor at all, nothing to penetrate. Multiple guides say the same: light ammo handles it fine, and two propellers with any type of ammo is enough.

It also drops Light Ammo, so killing Wasps with light is close to self-sustaining. Spending heavy on a 110 HP unarmored drone is spending your anti-Bastion round on the cheapest target on the map.

Fast-firing weapons help, since thrusters are small moving targets, and shotguns work when a patrol bunches up. Names that come up repeatedly: Ferro, Anvil, Hullcracker, Il Toro, Tempest. A Seeker Grenade can take one out outright, and a Lure Grenade buys time to leave a swarm. Build the rest of the kit in the loadout planner.

Where you will meet them

Outdoors, in the sky, on most maps. Wasps are topside patrols, rarely found indoors or in confined spaces, so expect them over open ground and near other ARC activity. Riven Tides is one zone named as holding several. No source gives a verified per-map spawn table, so treat "outdoor areas on most maps" as the answer, and our map pages cover the six current ones.

Wasps also arrive on demand. A Snitch can call more of them down from orbit, so a Snitch you fail to kill quickly is itself a Wasp spawn.

Wasp Husks are a different thing entirely: static salvage, not live enemies. They are old, half-buried ARC remains you breach for materials rather than fight, and they are one of the three First Wave Husk types alongside Rocketeer and Baron. Separately, Wasp Drivers can be scavenged straight out of the ARC debris at Dam Battlegrounds' Old Battlefield without shooting anything.

The single biggest mistake

Dumping rounds into center mass while it still has full mobility. Every body shot lands on a target that is still moving unpredictably, while every thruster shot takes that movement away.

Three smaller versions of the same error:

Stopping at one thruster. One down makes it harder to finish. Commit or leave it alone.
Opening loudly next to the patrol. Shooting one Wasp near its group turns a single kill into a group fight.
Fighting a swarm in open terrain with nothing to break the laser and no thruster focus.

Worth fighting, or worth leaving

Usually worth fighting. 110 HP, no armor, two thruster hits, ammo it refunds on death, and 300 XP with the chassis scavenged. The drops are useful: ARC Alloy, ARC Powercell, Light Ammo, Simple Gun Parts, ARC Synthetic Resin, ARC Thermo Lining, and the Wasp Driver.

The Driver is the reason to bother. The codex says the drone's innards are fairly simple, but "its central drive and power unit are worth tearing out," used as a makeshift explosive or in more advanced crafting. Check what it is worth in Keep or Sell or the item database.

When to leave: a Wasp does not force the fight. You can outrun one, gunfire brings company, and on a quiet or key-focused run, skipping costs nothing but the loot. If you do engage a patrol with a Hornet in it, kill the Hornet first: 200 HP, armor on its forward thrusters, and a stun. The Wasps are the cheaper problem.

What the AI does here, and does not

Embark's machine learning does not fly the Wasp. Martin Singh-Blom, Machine Learning Research Lead at Embark Studios, has said the learning is "strictly for locomotion" and that "for drones, we don't need that since we can use traditional control systems."

The physics underneath is real, though. Thruster loss is simulated destabilization rather than a canned death animation, not a scripted death sequence, which is why the flight goes wild once a thruster is gone and why the collisions afterwards do the killing. More in how Arc Raiders AI works.

What is not confirmed

No damage figures anywhere: no per-shot damage, no thruster hitpoints, no time to kill, no thruster versus body multiplier. 110 is total health, nothing else.
No verified per-map spawn list, including whether Wasps spawn on Stella Montis.
One guide says to shoot the body instead of the thrusters, alone against every other source. One database adds an optical sensor as a weak point, also alone.
Whether a grounded Wasp recovers or self-destructs. One source mentions it, nothing corroborates it.
Exact detection and engagement ranges, published by one database and repeated by nobody.

Embark's news archive carries no article introducing the Wasp, while Firefly and Comet got one when they were added, so it reads as base-game content. Call that an inference, not a citation. More machines in the guides index.

ArcRaidersAI.com is a fan-made companion site, not affiliated with or endorsed by Embark Studios.

Frequently asked questions

How do you kill a Wasp in Arc Raiders?: Shoot two of its four thrusters. A Wasp has 110 health and no armor, so light ammo is enough, and the moment to fire is the brief hover it does after painting you with its red targeting laser. Once two thrusters are gone it loses control of its flight, and every collision with the environment does heavy damage, so the crash finishes the job for you.
What is the Wasp's weak point in Arc Raiders?: The four thrusters. The in-game codex describes them as exposed and unarmored, and you only need to destroy two of them to bring the drone down. Do not stop at one, because a Wasp missing a single thruster flies more erratically and becomes harder to hit, not easier. One community database also lists an optical sensor as a weak point, but no other source repeats that.
What ammo is best against a Wasp in Arc Raiders?: Light ammo. The Wasp is an exception to the usual rule that ammo type decides how well you penetrate ARC armor, because it has no armor to penetrate at all. It also drops Light Ammo when it dies, so killing Wasps with light is close to self-sustaining. Save your heavy rounds for the armored machines that actually need them.
How much health and XP is a Wasp worth in Arc Raiders?: A Wasp has 110 health and no armor. Destroying one awards 100 XP, and scavenging the chassis afterwards awards another 200 XP, for 300 total if you take the time to loot it. No source publishes per-shot damage, thruster hitpoints, or a time-to-kill figure for this machine, so 110 is total health and nothing more.
Where do Wasps spawn in Arc Raiders?: Outdoors and in the air, on most maps, in tidy patrols of 2 to 3 that often include a Hornet. They are topside units and are rarely found indoors or in confined spaces. No source gives a verified per-map spawn table, so outdoor areas on most maps is the honest answer. A Snitch can also call additional Wasps in from orbit, which is a second, non-patrol way to meet them.
Are Wasps worth fighting in Arc Raiders?: Usually yes. They die to two thruster hits with cheap ammo they then refund, they are worth 300 XP with the chassis scavenged, and they drop ARC Alloy, ARC Powercell, Simple Gun Parts and the Wasp Driver used in crafting. Skipping is fine on a quiet or key-focused run, since a sprinting Raider can outrun one and gunfire pulls in more ARC. If the patrol includes a Hornet, kill the Hornet first.