Active Matter First Raid Guide: Loadout, Looting and Extracting

Your first Active Matter raid should be a PvE run where you carry almost nothing you care about. You drop into a quantum-unstable zone, loot containers, put anything worth keeping into a safe container, and extract before the zone collapses. If you die, everything you were carrying that is neither in a safe container nor flagged as personal is gone. That is the entire game in one sentence, and every rule below follows from it.

The order players actually hit the questions

What to load out

The Standard edition already ships a usable kit, and it is deliberate: five weapon sets, one weapon modification set, ten equipment sets and six ammunition sets, all listed on the Steam Standard Edition description. Concretely, that is:

• Weapons - 3x SOK-94 Vepr carbine, 3x MB590 shotgun, 10x MP5 submachine gun, 10x M9 pistol, 10x combat knife.
• Modification - 3x Scope PSO AK 4.0x.
• Equipment - 10x small safe container, 5x Beacon (respawn), 10x small backpack, 10x small pouch, 5x small magazine pouches, 10x Tactical PASGT helmet, 5x steel armor plate (L), 50x steel armor plate (S), 10x flashlight, 10x first aid kit.
• Ammunition - 15x AKM magazine, 60x MP5 magazine, 20x M9 magazine, plus 7.62x39mm, 12 Gauge and 9x19mm boxes.

Three items in that list carry the run:

1. The safe container. This is the only thing protecting gear from a death. Anything not in it is loot you are willing to lose.
2. The Beacon. The Standard kit gives you five respawn beacons. The official description calls it Beacon (respawn). Read what that means before you burn one.
3. The small pouch. The developers have been explicit that pouches are being developed as specialised inventory distinct from the backpack, which remains the general-purpose container. Small pouches are cheap and they are not the same thing as a bigger backpack.

Why start in PvE

There is a dedicated PvE mode, and the official design intent is that you can pick whichever format you are comfortable with. The reason to use it first is not that PvPvE is unfair, it is that learning a raid and learning a firefight at the same time is how people lose their first week.

One structural detail catches people out. Some locations are built exclusively for PvPvE, some for PvP, and some exclusively for PvE, according to the official FAQ. The map you liked in PvE may not exist in the mode you want, so check the raid selection before you queue. Isolated Raids and all their variants are available at any time; Open Raids rotate, and the developers said outright that they are balancing short queue times against a diluted player pool, which means an Open Raid you want today may not be running tomorrow.

Inside the raid: loot, secure, extract

The loop itself is simple and the pressure is real. You harvest Active Matter and loot the zone, and the zone stops existing at the end, taking everything still inside with it. Active Matter comes from three sources: killing Active Matter-transformed creatures, taking it from other players, and picking it up from clusters in the world.

Three habits prevent most early losses:

• Loot containers, not corpses, first. A death in the first two minutes with a full inventory is the expensive way to learn.
• Move to the safe container the moment you find a real upgrade. Not at the end of the raid. At the moment.
• Leave before you are ready to leave. The extract decision is the skill in this game, and the whole extraction loop guide is about making it on purpose rather than at the last second.

There is also a softer death system to understand. The SOS signal you can call when dead was controversial in testing because it revealed your position; in the September 7 Q&A the developers confirmed they have adjusted it so it no longer reveals the exact position of the deceased. It is not a guaranteed rescue.

Back at the Shelter: Replicator and Refiner

Your Shelter is the only place you are safe. That is stated on the official game page without softening: you are safe only in your shelter. Everything that matters between raids happens there.

The Replicator is the reason to keep playing after a raid goes badly. Active Matter can pull objects from other timelines into the zones, and at your base you can use it to replicate specific items recovered from those realities. In other words, a raid where you die with nothing can still feed the system that builds your next loadout.

The Refiner is the other half of the bench. Both systems were reworked ahead of launch, and as of the September 4 update (0.4.0.62) both the Replicator and the Refiner moved into the Workshop. Since 0.4.0.156 the fusion recipes live in their own Workshop tab, with the show-fusion-recipes-on-blueprints toggle removed so each tab shows only its own recipes, and fusion now costs a partial amount of Active Matter.

The shotgun trap, and the other classic losses

The shotgun problem in this game is a spread problem, and the developers have been patching it. Patch 0.4.0.156 reduced shotgun sway both when hip-firing and while aiming. The same patch fixed an issue preventing the TOZ-B from reloading in Open Raids. That combination is the trap: a shotgun that drifts off target while you hip-fire, in a raid type where the TOZ-B would not reload, is how a first raid ends with a body full of shells and no gun.

The shotgun-versus-TOZ discussion circulates on the r/ActiveMatter beginner threads. Those threads are behind Reddit's bot check and could not be read directly during the research for this page, so rather than repeat a quote nobody can verify, the fix above is taken from the official patch notes where it is documented.

The other losses that are entirely avoidable:

• Looting when you should be extracting. Every extra minute inside the zone is a chance to lose everything not secured.
• Treating the backpack as the pouch. They are being developed as different systems. Check what goes where before you fill a raid.
• Ignoring Distorted threat locations. 0.4.0.132 intensified danger in them, so a location that was a warm-up last month is not one now.
• Attributing footsteps you cannot hear to the game. Footstep audibility and directional audio are known weak points the team is still working on. Assume you hear less than you should and plan accordingly.

What 0.4.0.156 changed for a new player

If you are playing today, the current patch is 0.4.0.156, shipped September 26, 2026. The changes that matter most on a first run:

• Active Matter yields went up sharply - 3-4x from Shy Girls, and approximately 10x from Alpha Mimics and Alpha Flowermen.
• Shotgun sway reduced when hip-firing and aiming.
• The TOZ-B reload bug in Open Raids was fixed.
• Raid variant selection changed - the Random variant option was removed from the raid selection menu, and a Rotation option was added for Isolated raids that automatically changes the variant after each visit.
• Creating a new Personal Timeline can now preserve some property, and items left in the Shelter stay where they are, though the developers warn weapons and equipment left that way can become decorative and unusable in loadouts.
• Fusion now costs a partial amount of Active Matter and lives in its own Workshop tab.

Official source: Update 0.4.0.156, September 26, 2026 - the full changelog for the patch this guide is written against.

FAQ

What do I take on my first raid?

The Standard starter kit, unchanged. Keep a safe container, keep beacons, and carry nothing you would mind losing.

What happens if I die in a raid?

You lose all weapons and equipment that were not placed in a safe container and are not personal gear. That rule is printed on the Steam store page itself.

Should I start in PvE or PvPvE?

PvE. Learn the map and the extract timing first. Solo works too, though the developers describe solo as more hardcore than co-op.

What does the Replicator actually do?

It replicates specific items pulled in from other timelines, using Active Matter, so you can rebuild an arsenal at base instead of relying on one good raid.

What is Prime and do I lose it?

Prime is the special currency from daily contracts. It buys Credits, Monolith access levels, secure containers and respawn beacons. It does not reset after a Harmonization, and it is the one resource a self-wipe does not return to your stash.

Is it worth waiting for a patch before I start?

No. Update 0.4.0.156 made the early game more generous on Active Matter and fixed the shotgun reload issue, and the team ships updates most days. Check the patch notes page before you read any older guide.

Related Guides

• Active Matter editions and price - the starter kit comes from your edition.
• Active Matter crossplay - set your queue before your first match.
• Active Matter system requirements - confirm the machine before you install.
• Active Matter guide hub - the day-one overview.