The best weapon against getting downed by another player in Arc Raiders is actually psychological warfare

Every now and then, you'll make a mistake in Arc Raiders. Maybe you underestimated a jump, overestimated your ability to take on a gaggle of arcs (I think the plural noun might be "a DDOS?"), or maybe you came across another raider and decided that shooting it out was the best possible way forward.

Getting into a shoot-out if you're in squads isn't necessarily a death sentence, especially if you have some seasoned raiders on your side, but it can usually get pretty messy if you're in solos. I'm telling you this from experience. And at times like this, when you're fighting multiple people or are crawling on the floor, desperately heading for a hatch or extract, there are only a few ways to beg for the mercy of others.

Asking nicely may work once and a while, but chances are if they downed you, they don't care much about manners. So you have a couple of options: One, get real depressed. I'm talking about "channelling the shrimp from Shark Tale" type tragic storytelling. I've actually had some luck trauma dumping about how long a year it's been, and how few things bring me joy anymore—people usually leave me to crawl away or even give me a defib. I always reward them with some loot.

One such example occurred when I decided to jump into a solo Stella Montis run (of course). I didn't have the chance to find anything particularly useful, but I had taken in my beloved Vulcano and couldn't bear the thought of losing it.

Not long after I spawned, I heard gunfire coming from a room adjacent to the one I was in. Before I could say anything, a hailstorm of bullets was raining down on me. After the dust settled, I was on the floor near another raider who was also downed. They were taken out without a word uttered between them, but when a couple of raiders turned my way, I began to plead for mercy.

Turns out the guy who died next to me started randomly shooting raiders, so he was hunted down by some brave players who tried to make sure no one else got hurt. Well, amid the chaos, I did. Luckily, it didn't take too much convincing for them to guide me to an extract, but talking about how it's been a tough winter so far definitely sped up the process.

The second option is bribery. Yes, once they kill you, the aggressor will be able to loot your corpse, but if you have an augment, they won't be able to get a hold of the best item, which you should have stashed away in your safe pocket. You can tell them that if they spare you, you'll hand over something grand like a rare blueprint or a pink weapon.

"But what if I don't have one of those?" I hear you ask. That's the best part, you can lie! Now it may seem pretty disingenuous, but come on, they downed you, you don't owe them anything. It may be nice to drop the best thing you have, though, as you head for the hills, just to try and sweeten the deal.

Whatever nefarious means you use to stay alive after you die in Arc Raiders, do it. Getting downed isn't the end, far from it, you can get revived with a defib, healed by a good samaritan, or use the best augment around to keep you up until you reach an extract or hatch. There are no wrong answers when it comes to preserving your loot.