Most people would agree that the Hairpin, a suppressed single-action pistol, is far from being one of the best guns in Arc Raiders. In fact, it’s the worst at basically anything other than being remarkably cheap and pretty quiet. I’d bet that most players have either never used it or just once and never again.
So, never in a million years did I imagine some brave soul would take on not just a Queen, but the top-of-the-food-chain Matriarch. These new machines are the biggest and baddest yet, with massive cannons, gas mortars, and a shield. Oh, and they can summon waves of all the other annoying robots like Rocketeers, Bastions, and Leapers.
In short, it’s a tough fight that I wouldn’t recommend you take on without the best gear in the game and other players to back you up. Well, unless you’re content creator The Gaming Merchant, of course.
Taking in nothing but three Level 4 Hairpins, 1,200 bullets, and a handful of medical supplies and lure grenades, they defiantly sought out the Matriarch. After finding a good spot, they started to plink away at the Matriarch’s weak knee joints, one shot at a time.
It turns out that this loadout was somehow overkill, too, as 14 minutes and 650 bullets later, and not even one of the three Hairpins broken, the Matriarch was eventually felled.
It’s not an entirely fair test since other players did end up joining the fight and quite a bit of the damage came from using lure grenades against the Matriarch, but The Gaming Merchant finished the round with just under 9,000 damage dealt to it. Considering they were using a very slow suppressed pistol with no armour penetration, I’d say that’s pretty good going.
Nevertheless, the lesson is that you don’t need legendary or epic weapons to kill Arc Raiders’ toughest enemies so long as you’ve got enough determination and patience. Plus, I’ve a newfound appreciation for the Hairpin—it’s surprisingly efficient.
Since it does more damage per bullet (1,000 damage per magazine) than other common weapons like the Stitcher, The Gaming Merchant was in the fight for way longer than the other raiders that came to help and inevitably ran out of ammo. You can see a few players awkwardly standing around waiting for the Hairpin hero to carry them to victory at around the 12-minute mark.
Despite this insight, I still don’t think I’ll ever attempt to kill a Matriarch with the Hairpin. Anvils are only slightly harder to come by, pack more of a punch, and don’t require you to focus exclusively on unarmoured weak points to deal damage.
Arc Raiders Field Depots: Where to find 'emArc Raiders Field Crates: How to use 'emArc Raiders Greasing Her Palms: CartographerArc Raiders A Reveal in Ruins: Buried City pharmaciesArc Raiders The Root of the Matter: Room with a viewArc Raiders Armored Transports: Loot patrol carsArc Raiders best skills: Survive the surfaceArc Raiders best weapons: Just don’t lose themArc Raiders Expeditions: Retire your Raider
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