ARC Raiders Skulker Enemy Guide – How to Kill It and Get Skulker Targeters

TL;DR:

• The Skulker is a new ARC enemy added to Pendola Pass in the Frozen Trail update (October 8, 2026).
• It’s the opposite of the Bully — a patient, hit-and-run ambush unit that keeps its distance and strikes from unexpected angles.
• It shrinks down low when moving, making it hard to track, and blends into the snowy terrain of Pendola Pass.
• Unlike most ARC enemies, the Skulker has no single dominant weak point — instead, target its thrusters to slow it down and its tail-mounted weapon to cut off its damage output.
• Killing a Skulker drops a Skulker Targeter — a deployable turret that attacks nearby enemies and players within a 25-metre range.
• There are 14 Skulker spawn locations across Pendola Pass — the most of any new Frozen Trail enemy.
• The Hullcracker can one-shot a Skulker under the right conditions — it’s worth bringing one if you’re farming them.

If the Bully is the enemy that kills you because you underestimated how aggressive it is, the Skulker is the one that kills you because you lost track of it. Embark designed these two as direct opposites — the Bully charges and never gives ground, the Skulker hangs back, waits, fires from a surprising angle, and retreats before you can respond. This guide covers everything confirmed about the Skulker in ARC Raiders, including how it attacks, how to reliably kill it, and how to use the Skulker Targeter it drops.

What Is the Skulker in ARC Raiders?

What Is the Skulker in ARC Raiders

The Skulker is a new ARC machine introduced in the Frozen Trail 2.0 update, exclusive to Pendola Pass. Embark officially describes it as the counterpart to the Bully — where the Bully closes distance and applies constant pressure, the Skulker keeps its distance and looks for openings to fire precise shots before slipping away.

In terms of threat level among the three new Frozen Trail enemies, the Skulker is the lightest in terms of raw armor — but it’s arguably the most disorienting to deal with because of how it moves and repositions. It’s the kind of enemy that punishes tunnel vision, and it’s never where you expect it to be after the first time it shoots at you.

There are 14 Skulker spawn locations on Pendola Pass — more than the Bully (8 spawns) or the Hydra (8 spawns). You will run into these regularly on the map.

How the Skulker Attacks

The Skulker’s entire design revolves around making itself hard to hit while still being dangerous. Here’s what to expect from it in a fight:

• Low profile movement: When the Skulker moves, it shrinks down close to the ground. This makes it noticeably harder to track and easier to lose, especially across Pendola Pass’s snow-covered terrain where it blends into the environment.
• Precise ranged attacks: The Skulker keeps its distance and fires accurate shots using its tail-mounted scorpion-like rifle. It’s not spraying — it picks its shots and waits for a clean line on you.
• Hit-and-run repositioning: After firing, it disengages and shifts position. If you lose track of it at this point, it will reappear from a completely different angle. A retreating Skulker is not a Skulker that’s done fighting — it’s resetting for the next shot.
• Ambush from unexpected positions: It prefers sweet spots around the map where it can get an angle on you without you having line-of-sight in return. The environmental awareness it requires is higher than most ARC enemies in the game.

When a Skulker accompanies a Bully — which happens often — the intended dynamic is clear: the Bully demands your immediate attention in front of you while the Skulker sets up angles on your flanks and back. Don’t let it get behind you.

Skulker Weak Points – Where to Aim

The Skulker is unusual among ARC enemies in that it doesn’t have one dominant direct weak point that dramatically changes the fight the way the Bully’s leg joints do. Its armor is classified as light, which means it takes damage more readily than heavier ARC units. However, two components are worth prioritising:

• Thrusters: The thrusters are what give the Skulker its mobility and repositioning capability. Damaging the spherical leg/thruster components slows its movement, makes follow-up shots easier to land, and limits its ability to flank quickly. If the Skulker is giving you trouble staying on target, attacking the thrusters first changes the dynamic of the fight in your favour.
• Tail-mounted weapon (scorpion rifle): Destroying the weapon it uses to shoot at you will cut off its damage output and give you a window to finish it without taking return fire. This is particularly useful at close range where its attacks hit harder.

Outside these two components, the Skulker just requires enough sustained damage to drop. The fight isn’t about perfect weak-point targeting — it’s about not losing track of it long enough to put rounds into it.

How to Kill the Skulker in ARC Raiders

The Core Rule: Never Lose Visual on It

Embark’s own description of the Skulker’s design makes the strategy clear: keep an eye on it. A Skulker you can see is a Skulker you can shoot. A Skulker you’ve lost sight of is setting up its next ambush. This is the whole fight. Everything else is secondary to maintaining visual on the enemy from the moment it appears to the moment it’s dead.

When it retreats, don’t assume it’s done. It will reappear from another angle. Stay aware of its last known direction, and reposition yourself to a spot where you control more sight lines before it resets.

Solo Strategy

One-on-one, the Skulker is the most manageable of the three new Frozen Trail enemies. Stay calm, hold an angle where you can see its approach, and commit to finishing the kill once you engage. The biggest mistake in a solo Skulker fight is starting the engagement and then letting it reset by losing track of it. If it retreats and you lose visual, stop and listen for audio cues before moving — repositioning blindly is how you walk into its next shot.

For enclosed spaces, pushing aggressively once you’ve located it denies the distance it wants and takes its precision shooting out of the equation. Up close its attacks hit harder, but you remove its preferred combat range.

Squad Strategy

In a squad, the key is never letting a Skulker sneak into a flanking position while the team is engaged with something else. Keep at least one player watching angles that aren’t directly in front of the squad, especially if a Bully is also in the fight. The Skulker is specifically designed to punish the moment a squad pivots to deal with a different threat.

If you spot an exposed Skulker while dealing with other enemies, attack it from cover when you have the angle — don’t break your positioning to chase it. A damaged Skulker that retreats is less of a priority than one that’s setting up on your flank undetected.

One confirmed warning: A deployed Skulker Targeter has been reported to also target the player who deployed it in some circumstances. Be mindful of placement — more on this in the Targeter section below.

Best Weapons to Use Against the Skulker

Because the Skulker’s armor is lighter than the Bully and other heavy ARC units, weapon choice is more flexible. The main challenge isn’t penetrating its armor — it’s landing shots on something that moves erratically and low to the ground. That said, some options stand out:

• Hullcracker – Can one-shot the Skulker under certain conditions. If you’re bringing one for Bully encounters anyway, it works extremely well against Skulkers too. The burst damage cuts through before it can reposition.
• Tempest – A recommended option based on player testing. Works well for tracking an agile, low-profile target at range. Pairing it with Muzzle Brake II, Angled Grip II, Extended Medium Mag III, and Stable Stock II is the confirmed best-performing setup.
• Standard accurate rifles and semi-autos – Any weapon that rewards precise individual shots over spray is a reasonable choice. The Skulker’s light armor doesn’t demand specialty ARC penetration rounds the way the Bully does, so a solid mid-range weapon you’re comfortable with lands shots consistently.

Explosives are less efficient here than against the Bully — the Skulker moves too much for area damage to connect reliably, and you’ll often waste the throw. Save those for the heavier ARC units.

For weapon progression generally, our weapon upgrade guide and ARC Motion Core farming guide cover what you need for higher-tier builds.

Where to Find the Skulker on Pendola Pass

Skulkers roam across Pendola Pass and are the most frequently spawning of the three new Frozen Trail enemies — 14 spawn locations confirmed across the map. They can appear throughout most areas of the map, so encountering one mid-loot-run is expected rather than exceptional.

A few things worth knowing:

• Their snow-coloured exterior makes them legitimately harder to spot on Pendola Pass’s terrain than they would be on any other map. The camouflage isn’t just visual flavour — it’s a practical advantage for the enemy.
• They commonly appear alongside Bullies, so rarely fight in a clean one-on-one unless you actively separate them.
• Skulkers can appear during Frozen Trail weekly trials depending on your active objectives — keep this in mind when planning which areas to run.

For a full breakdown of Pendola Pass’s districts, best loot routes, and Gondola extraction points, our Pendola Pass map guide has everything laid out. And for more context on how ARC enemy encounters interact with the expedition system, our expeditions and wipe system guide is worth a read.

How to Get Skulker Targeters

What Is the Skulker Targeter?

The Skulker Targeter is an Uncommon-tier item that drops from killing a Skulker. Every Skulker kill has a chance to produce one, so farming them means farming Skulker encounters consistently across Pendola Pass runs.

It has two functions:

• As a deployable turret: Slot it for quick use and drop it on the ground during combat. It automatically targets any nearby ARC enemies or Raiders within a 25-metre radius, dealing 9 damage per hit. Not a fight-winner on its own, but a useful piece of defensive pressure — especially near Gondola extraction points where enemies and rival players converge.
• As a crafting material: Like most ARC-dropped items, the Skulker Targeter is expected to factor into crafting for upcoming quests, Projects, and seasonal events as the Frozen Trail season develops. The pattern with ARC drops in this game consistently follows that path, so hold onto a stockpile rather than deploying every single one.

Skulker Targeter Deployment Warning

It’s been reported in the field that a deployed Skulker Targeter can turn on and attack the player who placed it. This is not guaranteed behaviour, but it’s been documented enough to be worth noting. Be deliberate about where you place it — put it where it covers enemy approaches, not directly across areas your squad is moving through or looting in. A poorly placed Targeter is a waste at best and a hazard at worst.

For managing what you extract after a Skulker farming run, our guide on recycling and selling items and the safe pockets guide cover how to protect your drops and make smart inventory decisions before hitting the Gondola.

Skulker vs. Bully – Quick Comparison

If you’re heading into Pendola Pass and want to know how to prioritise threats:

• The Bully demands your immediate attention — it’s loud, aggressive, and in your face. Fight it from cover, target the leg joints, and stay elevated. Full breakdown in our Bully enemy guide.
• The Skulker demands your situational awareness — it’s quiet, patient, and off to the side. Fight it by never losing visual, commit when you have the angle, and finish it before it resets.
• When both appear together, the Bully is the bait and the Skulker is the real danger. Don’t get so locked on the Bully that the Skulker slips into your blind spot.

For preparation before your Pendola Pass runs, our ARC Raiders survival tips guide, best skills to unlock first, and max level XP farming guide are all solid reads. ARC Raiders is available on PlayStation and Xbox alongside PC.

ARC Raiders Skulker FAQ