Earning XP for simple upgrades is one of the coolest and most unique additions Arc Raiders brings to the extraction genre. I'll admit, I'm surprised by how much a permanent upgrade feature feels at home in a space that's usually all about temporary upgrades like new, stronger gear that you'll inevitably lose.
That said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. As great as a skill tree is, it's not ideal that you can't respec, especially when so many of the perk descriptions are vague, and some are even misleading. If you're anything like me, you've been lulled into the Mobility tree to become the Flash, only to realise that half the skills—mainly the later ones—don't work like you think they would based on what you're told in-game. The only solution? Build a caravan over the next few weeks to retire your raider in the first Expedition Project.
In testing by content creator 'Archaic', the Hero Leap, Calming Stroll, Slip & Slide, Effortless Roll, and Sturdy Ankles skills don't provide much benefit at all and offer depressing diminishing returns. My friends and I have noticed similar results, too.
- Hero Leap: This perk increases your sprint dodge roll distance, which is a useful tactic to avoid gunfire or escape from a shootout. The issue is that it provides heavy diminishing returns. The difference between the standard roll and 3/5 Heroic Leap is pretty big, but maxing this skill out is far from worthwhile.
- Calming Stroll: This 15-point capstone skill causes your stamina to regenerate as fast as it would while standing still, but while walking. Sounds strong, right? While it's not useless, take note that it only triggers while walking and not jogging, which is the standard movement speed. In other words, you have to hold the walk key on your keyboard, or presumably tilt the stick a tiny amount on a controller. Plus, Calming Stroll doesn't trigger while aiming. In practice, this means that you'll regenerate stamina faster, sure, but you'll have to walk incredibly slowly, which isn't often a valuable trade-off.
- Slip & Slide: This skill lets you slide further and faster, which is great on paper for evading enemies (especially Arcs like Rocketeers). Whether it's working as intended or is currently bugged, I'm not sure, but the slide boosts are inconsistent at best. No matter how many points you invest, sliding down stairs, hills, or even on flat ground is seemingly the same speed no matter your investment, though you will go ever so slightly further. Again, it's not worth five points.
- Effortless Roll: Dodge rolls cost less stamina, though the difference is incredibly minimal overall and gives diminishing returns. There's little reason to spend more than one point on this perk, let alone five.
- Sturdy Ankles: This reduces fall damage, so it's worth picking up. However, the difference between investment tiers is very, very low. If you were going to die from the drop itself or a potshot from a player after landing, Sturdy Ankles won't save you. Like Effortless Roll, don't invest more than three points in this perk.
In most of these cases, you're better off avoiding the skill altogether or spending just a point or two to grab the most impactful bonus. Saving these points will let you sink them into the Survival tree, which unlocks new features like in-round crafting and the ability to breach locked containers that are much more worthwhile. Plus, lots of the passives in the Survival and Conditioning trees are more potent and consistent than the Mobility skills above, anyhow.
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