Bobcat IV in Arc Raiders PvP is a nasty close-range SMG, shreds shields fast, loves tight angles and flanks, and rewards aggressive aim-heavy players who live for quick pushes and brutal room clears.

If you have been in Arc Raiders PvP for more than a few matches, you have probably seen one gun popping up in every kill feed: the Bobcat IV. It looks like just another twitchy SMG at first, but once you unlock the higher tier upgrades it stops feeling like a random bullet hose and starts feeling like a proper tool you can trust in every messy close fight, almost like the gear you chase on sites such as U4GM when you want a real edge. You sprint into a cramped corridor, hold the trigger for a second or two, and enemies just disappear before they have time to swap to their panic shotgun.

Why The Bobcat IV Feels Different

The big jump with the Bobcat IV is how it fixes the basic version's worst habits. At tier 1 the recoil is all over the place, so you end up dragging your mouse against the kick and still losing duels you should win. Once you hit the tier IV path though, that 50% reduced shot dispersion and the 45% cut to horizontal recoil change everything. You are not wrestling the gun any more, you are just following heads. The 40% quicker reload does more work than it sounds too, because you are constantly taking 1v2s or diving into third-party scraps and you cannot afford to sit in a reload animation. It keeps the same 66.7 cycle rate, but with the extra control it feels like all of those rounds are actually landing where you mean them to.

Handling, Time-To-Kill And Playstyle

When you put the Bobcat IV next to the Stitcher or the Kettle, it just feels more honest for aggressive players. It chews through light shields fast, and if you manage the vertical climb instead of full-spraying, you can drop a heavy raider in about 14 to 16 rounds. The agility stat at around 73.1 really matches that playstyle. You are slide-cancelling through doorways, stutter stepping around cover, taking tiny shoulder peeks, not posting up like you are on a rooftop with a marksman rifle. The low stealth value is the tradeoff. People will hear and see you coming, so if you stand still pre-firing a lane, you are just giving the enemy free info and probably a free headshot.

Attachments And Secondary Weapons

The worst thing you can do is run this gun with the stock 20-round magazine. You burn that mag down in a blink, and if you clip an extra target or miss a few shots you are reloading at the worst possible moment. Extended light mags are almost mandatory so you can chain kills without that dead air between fights. A vertical grip helps a lot as well, because even though the horizontal kick is much better at tier IV, the vertical climb will still punish you if you panic-spray. Since the effective range tops out at roughly 44 metres, you really need a backup that covers the longer angles. A Renegade shotgun works if you like staying in the brawl, while an Anvil marksman rifle lets you hold the long sightlines and then swap to the Bobcat once someone finally closes the gap.

Where The Bobcat IV Shines On The Map

Map choice and route planning matter more with the Bobcat IV than people think. If you try to beam players across the bridges at the Dam, you are going to waste ammo and lose to anyone on a proper rifle. Stick to the cluttered routes, stacked interiors and Spaceport hangars where you can break line of sight every few seconds and reset fights on your terms. The weapon is crafted at Gunsmith 1 with some advanced mechanical parts, so it is not exactly out of reach, and once you have it built and tuned you start to understand why so many high-level players lean on it as their go-to close range answer, especially if they are also picking up strong ARC Raiders Accounts to round out their loadouts.