Hey Raiders, Elias here from Rivalsector.com. In the brutal loot-and-extract world of ARC Raiders, every single piece of gear in your loadout matters. Your choice of weapon is often the only thing standing between you and a lobby wipe, a dead squad, and a long, sad walk back to Speranza with empty pockets. We spend all our time grinding for the Anvil, the Bettina, or a kitted-out Rattler.
And then, there’s the Hairpin.
I’m going to be blunt, because out on a raid, there’s no time for anything else: The Hairpin is, for me, an F-tier combat weapon. It’s a gun I would not trust to win a 1v1 against an angry ARC, let alone a geared-up enemy player.
I’ve seen the debates. I’ve seen the “rat run” videos. I’ve heard the arguments that I just “don’t get it.” So, I decided to give this gun a serious, honest-to-goodness try. I’ve crafted it, upgraded it, and run it. And my conclusion is the same, but with a critical asterisk. It’s an F-tier weapon, but it might just be an S-tier tool.
So, let’s do a full-on guide. Let’s break down why this gun fails so hard in a fight, and what its one, hyper-specific, and surprisingly useful purpose actually is.
The Stats: Why the Hairpin Fails in a Fight
On paper, the Hairpin looks like a classic stealth pistol. It’s a “Common” rarity weapon, holds 8 rounds of Light Ammo, and, most importantly, comes with a built-in silencer. This is its entire selling point. You get total silence without ever having to find or craft a valuable suppressor mod.
But the moment you get into a fight, you discover its two fatal flaws.
- The Fire Rate is Agonizing: This gun is not semi-automatic. It’s a single-action, or slide-action, pistol. This means after every single shot, your character has to manually work the slide. The thwack-shlick sound is cool, but in a PvP firefight, the time between your first and second shot is an eternity. If an enemy starts strafing, you are going to miss, and they will melt you before you can fire again.
- It Has No Armor Penetration: The in-game stat for ARC Armor Penetration is “Very Weak.” I need to translate this for you: it means “zero.” You will empty an entire 8-round magazine into an armored ARC bot and it will barely scratch the paint. In PvP, this is just as bad. Player shields laugh off Hairpin rounds, meaning you have to break their shields and then plink away at their health, all with that glacial fire rate.
Here’s a look at the base stats and what they really mean for you.
| Stat | Hairpin I (Base) | My Real-World Analysis |
| Damage | 20 | This number is a lie. It’s 20 damage if you hit an unarmored target. |
| Fire Rate | 9 | Horrible. This is the stat that makes it F-tier for combat. |
| Range | ~39m | Actually decent. It’s accurate enough for its true job. |
| Magazine Size | 8 Rounds | A good size, but you’ll need all 8 for a single unarmored enemy. |
| Ammo Type | Light Ammo | A huge plus. Ammo is cheap and plentiful. |
| ARC Armor Pen | Very Weak | This is its second fatal flaw. Do not shoot armored bots with this. |
| Stealth | 70 | This is its one S-tier stat. It is completely silent. |
In a game where the Anvil and Ferro can drop targets in 1-2 shots, bringing a gun that requires 5, 6, or 7 hits is a death sentence. It has no place on any ARC Raiders best weapons list when it comes to raw killing power.
The Upgrade Path: Can You Polish a… Hairpin?
Okay, so the base gun is bad. What about upgrading it? The game must know the fire rate is a problem, right?
Yes, it does. The entire upgrade path for the Hairpin is a desperate attempt to fix its one, glaring weakness. The good news? It is unbelievably, dirt-cheap to upgrade. This is the key to its secret role.
Here is the full crafting and upgrade recipe from Tier I to Tier IV.
- Craft Hairpin I: 2x Metal Parts, 5x Plastic Parts
- Upgrade to Hairpin II: Hairpin I + 8x Metal Parts
- Upgrade to Hairpin III: Hairpin II + 6x Metal Parts, 1x Simple Gun Parts
- Upgrade to Hairpin IV: Hairpin III + 1x Mechanical Components, 1x Simple Gun Parts
Let’s soak that in. The total cost to get a max-tier Hairpin IV is:
- 16x Metal Parts
- 5x Plastic Parts
- 2x Simple Gun Parts
- 1x Mechanical Components
This is, effectively, free. You can get these materials in a single 10-minute run. You spend more resources crafting a single blue-tier weapon.
So, what do you get for this pocket change? You get fire rate.
- Hairpin II Perks: +10% Fire Rate, +13% Reduced Reload Time
- Hairpin III Perks: +20% Fire Rate, +26% Reduced Reload Time
- Hairpin IV Perks: +30% Fire Rate, +40% Reduced Reload Time
A fully upgraded Hairpin IV feels much better. The action is snappier, the reload is faster. But here’s the hard truth: it doesn’t fix the damage or the armor penetration. You’ve just turned a gun that is non-functional into a gun that is barely functional. You’ve put a slightly better engine in a car with no wheels. It’s still not a combat weapon.
The Real Guide: How to Use the F-Tier Weapon
So why does this gun even exist? I’ve run it, I’ve failed with it, and I’ve finally found its home.
The Hairpin is not a weapon. It is a utility tool for “Rat Runs.”
This is the key. You do not bring a Hairpin to fight. You bring a Hairpin specifically to avoid fighting. Its job is to get you in, let you loot silently, and get you out, all while costing you nothing. This is the ultimate budget-run loadout.
Here is my step-by-step guide to using the Hairpin correctly.
- Equip for Silence: Your loadout is a Hairpin and nothing else. Maybe a melee weapon. Your goal is to have zero gear-fear. You are risking nothing.
- Identify Your Targets: You are not looking for ARCs. You are not looking for players. You are looking for cameras, alarms, and metal detectors. This is the Hairpin’s #1 job. You can silently clear an entire high-loot building of all its security from a distance. No alarms, no noise, no alerting nearby squads.
- Pest Control ONLY: The only enemies you are cleared to engage are the small, unarmored ones.
- Ticks: One-shot.
- Pops: One-shot.
- Snitches: You can pop their weak point from a distance before they ever scream.
- Wasps: You can hit their body and kill them.
This is pest control. You are killing the small things that make noise, so they don’t attract the big things (or other players) that you can’t kill.
- Loot and Evade: Your entire goal is to fill your backpack with high-value components, barter items, and weapon parts. The moment you hear heavy ARC footsteps or loud gunfire, you go the other way. You are a ghost.
- PvP is Not an Option: If you run into another player, you do not fight. You run. You hide. You use your silence to disengage. You will lose 100% of the time against a player with a real gun. The only, and I mean only, exception is if you are directly behind a player who is standing still, and you can land 3-4 headshots before they react. This almost never happens.
This is the Hairpin’s true power. It’s a key. It’s a tool that lets you silently bypass the game’s security systems for the cost of a few metal scraps.
My Final Verdict
The Hairpin is the most misunderstood gun in ARC Raiders. It’s a classic case of players (myself included, at first) trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We see “gun,” we think “kill.” But the Hairpin was never meant for that.
It is absolutely an F-tier weapon for combat. I will die on this hill. Taking it into a PvP fight is suicide.
But as a cheap, disposable, and silent utility tool for a dedicated stealth or “rat” run, it’s S-tier. It has a single, brilliant purpose: to let you loot in peace. It costs nothing to make, and when you extract with a backpack full of Mechanical Components and Simple Gun Parts, it has paid for itself a hundred times over.
So, stop trying to win fights with it. Craft one for cheap, stick it in your stash, and pull it out when you’re broke and just need to do a quiet, profitable loot run.
For more deep dives and guides on the gear that actually wins fights, be sure to check out our other articles in the ARC Raiders category right here on Rivalsector.com. Let me know in the comments if you’re a Hairpin believer or if you think it’s just scrap.
Stay safe out there, Raiders.
