Nothing in ARC Raiders announces itself quite like the Frigate. A minute into the raid, the clouds split open and a mothership the size of a town block drifts down over the map, trailing Reclaimer drones and raining blue laser fire on anyone caught beneath it. Then comes the part that still feels surreal: you can climb aboard.
The Frigate is one of only two places in the game where Amplification Modules drop, and it is the only known source of the Frigate Inductor needed for the Research Station. That means you will be farming it sooner or later. This guide gathers everything the community has pieced together so far: what the Frigate is, where it appears, how to board it, how the Power Core puzzle works, where every core is located, and what to grab once the Cargo finally comes down.
ARC Raiders Frigate Guide (Frozen Trail Update)
Frozen Trail (Update 2.0) landed on October 8, 2026 as the biggest patch since launch, and the Frigate arrived with it as a brand new map condition rather than a standard ARC boss. It rotates through most of the map pool, runs on an hourly schedule like the other conditions, and strips out key rooms, Raider Hatches, and Free Loadouts while it is active. Embark has confirmed it as an intended source for Amplification Modules, and a world-first team has already found the Cargo at the front of the ship, so the full loop from boarding to extraction is now known.
Still, this is day-one content and a few details are being refined by the hour. With that in mind, let's start at the beginning and look at what the Frigate actually is.
What Is the Frigate in ARC Raiders
The Frigate is a giant airborne ARC ship that flies in over the map roughly 30 seconds to a minute after the raid starts. Instead of shooting it from the ground, Raiders ride Reclaimer drones up to the hull, climb through vents, cross the wings, and work inward and upward toward the top deck. It is effectively a vertical mini-map stacked on top of the regular one.
Symmetrical layout
The ship is mirrored down the middle. Both sides have the same vents, the same breach containers, the same fire rooms, and the same Power Cores. Learn one half and you have learned the whole thing.
Who you'll be fighting
Expect Hydra turrets at nearly every stage, plus Rocketeers, Vaporizers, and swarms of smaller drones. The ship itself is hostile too: the cannon underneath carpet-bombs the ground, wind on the upper deck pushes you toward ledges, and the fire rooms vent flames on a timer.
Two linked quests from Celeste
Boarding the Frigate: find a way onto the ship, then damage a Hydra, a Vaporizer, and a Rocketeer.
Disrupting the Frigate: destroy 3 Power Cores on top of the ship, access the Cargo, loot the Cargo, and destroy 3 Hydras.
Finishing the first quest opens the second, and the second is where the real puzzle lives. Before you can solve it, though, you have to find a raid where the ship actually shows up.
Where & How to Find the Frigate
Check the map condition screen
The Frigate is a map condition, not a random spawn. Open the destination screen and look for the "ARC Frigate" tag beneath a map. It cycles on roughly an hourly timer, so if it isn't up right now, wait for the rotation.
Confirmed maps
Players have seen the condition on Blue Gate, Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, Riven Tides, and Pendola Pass. It appears across most of the pool rather than only on the new map.
Read the condition details before you queue
Click into the condition and note the restrictions:
No locked key doors on the map
No Raider Hatches
Decreased overall loot value on the ground
Free Loadouts disabled
These rules exist because you are not meant to play the regular map during this condition. Everyone is supposed to board the ship. Looting the surface just nerfs your own run, and since hatches are gone, you will extract through a normal exit at the end, which can get hectic if your bag is heavy.
Solo queue is the friendliest way to learn it
Multiple players reported that solo lobbies turn into near-PvE cooperation, with strangers sharing ammo and working the levers together. Trio lobbies are more organized but also more cutthroat. If you are learning the route, solos is the gentler classroom.
Once you have found an active Frigate raid, the next question is what to pack.
How to Complete the Frigate Mission
Step 1: Prepare the Right Loadout
Augment and shield
Run a Looting Augment, Mk II at minimum and Mk III if you can afford it. The extra safe pockets matter because death comes from PvP, ARC, and plain falling. Bring the best shield you can, and consider a second shield in your inventory, since the first one will likely break.
Weapon choice
You want something ammo-efficient against ARC at close to medium range. The new Bantam is the budget pick: Tian Wen sells up to three per day for 11,400 coins, and its fast hip-fire shreds the glowing coils on Power Cores faster than an Anvil. If you have the budget, a Hullcracker with a large stock of rockets simply deletes everything on the ship.
Ammo, and more ammo
Five stacks is the floor. Eight stacks is comfortable. You will be shooting Power Cores, Hydras, Rocketeers, and drones nonstop, and players were begging strangers for ammo on launch day. Over-pack and share.
Utility and healing
Herbal Bandages and Shield Rechargers in quantity
A Defibrillator to revive teammates or helpful randoms
Showstoppers, Blaze Grenades, or Trigger Grenades for heavy ARC
A Grappling Hook or Snap Hook, kept in a safe pocket
The hook is the single most useful item on the ship. It skips jumping puzzles, reels you against the wind on the top deck, and gets you back to the drone port when the exit ledges misbehave.
With your kit sorted, it is time to actually get on the ship.
Step 2: Board the Frigate
Approach the rear of the ship
Head toward the back of the Frigate, the side with the pointed ends where smaller Reclaimer drones are flying down and back up. On the way, watch the ground for blue lasers. Those are targeting lines for the belly cannon, and the blasts have a large AoE. They are easy to dodge if you keep moving but will hit you if you stand near one.
Disrupt a Reclaimer
Find a Reclaimer that has landed, climb on top, and use the Disrupt interaction on its sensor. A shield deploys around the platform, blocking both the bombardment and nearby ARC fire, and the drone carries you up to the drone port at the back bottom of the ship. More than one Raider can ride the same platform.
Enter through the vents
At the dock, jump off and run into the vent ahead. There are two vents per side. They spit you out onto the wing, where the first breach containers are waiting. First come, first served, so move quickly.
Step 3: Loot the Wings and Reach the Elevator
Along each wing you will find round breach containers that hold the good stuff, including Amplification Modules and ARC Data Modules. Four of them sit on the lower level before the elevator, and the mirrored wing has the same set.
About halfway up the wing, a hole on the inner side leads to the open courtyard in the middle of the ship. A narrow corridor crosses it. It looks terrifying, but trust your footing.
Step 4: Power Core 1 (Courtyard Corridor)
At the far end of that corridor, opposite the elevator, sits the first Power Core. Melee does nothing here. Shoot the red sections until they explode. Destroying cores opens vents and rooms on the higher decks, so every one you pop expands the loot available to the whole lobby.
Step 5: Operate the Elevator
Return to the elevator. There are two buttons, one on each side, both showing red lights. Two Raiders must hold both buttons at once while a third stands on the platform. Release together and the elevator rises. The Raider on top then presses a single button to bring everyone else up. A Grappling Hook or Snap Hook lets you skip this entirely.
Step 6: Clear the Hydras and Expose Power Core 2 (Central Ring)
Two Hydras spawn on either side of the entryway at the top. Rush them: at point-blank range they cannot hit you, so circle and melee or hip-fire them down. Their drops are just light ammo and ARC armor, so don't waste time looting them. Watch for Raiders outside your squad doing the same, since their melee will damage you.
Around the big ring in the middle are three "Move Up" panels. Three Raiders must press all three at the same time. Doing so raises the large central Power Core and spawns two more Hydras. Kill the turrets first, then destroy the three orange coils on the core.
Step 7: Power Cores 3 and 4 (Upper Left and Right)
Once the central core is gone, look up. Two smaller Power Cores sit high on the left and right sides of the room. They are mirrored and can be shot from the bottom platform. Do it from down here. The top deck is chaos, and this is the safest angle you will get. If you are taking fire from Rocketeers or Vaporizers while doing this, the wall behind the vent near the central ring is excellent cover.
Step 8: Climb to the Top Deck
Shoot the yellow nodes
On one side of the room, three yellow nodes pop out platforms when shot. Clear any ARC first, because the climb leaves you fully exposed.
The two-button platform
At the top of the first platforms is a button someone must hold down. If they release it, the platform drops and whoever is standing on it dies. The Raider who jumps up locks it in place with a second button. Only trust someone reliable with this.
Zigzag upward
Shoot the next yellow node at the bottom, hit the next button to release the platform above, then jump back and up. Repeat the zigzag to the roof. Breach containers line the route and share the same loot pool as the others. Alternatively, follow the wing all the way to its tip instead of turning inward, and a tunnel leads straight to the roof.
Step 9: Power Cores 5 and 6 (Fire Rooms)
On the top deck, turn right and you will find a fire room with more breach containers. When the lights go red, flames sweep the room, just like the Harvester, and wind shoves you toward them. The air pressure also stops you from re-entering while the fire is on.
The fix is to breach the Power Core in the inner corner of the room the moment the fire dies down. Three players have just enough time to run in and breach it. Shoot the exposed orange coils (roughly four mags solo, two each with a partner) and the flames and wind shut off for good. Clear the core first, then loot in peace. The opposite side of the deck has an identical room and core.
Step 10: Power Cores 7 and 8 and the Cargo (Front of the Ship)
Stay on top of the ship and head toward the front. A final platform drops you into the bow section, where two more Hydras and two more Power Cores wait. Destroy all of them, then interact with the crowbar-style levers on the sides. The platform in the middle lowers all the way to the ground with you riding it.
That platform is the Frigate's Cargo. It has 12 loot spots per side, 24 in total, and looting it completes Disrupting the Frigate.
Step 11: Extract Safely
If you came down with the Cargo, you are already on the surface. Head to a normal extraction point.
If you need to leave from the ship itself, you reverse the route: back down the platforms, down the elevator, around the wing, and down to the drone port at the rear. The vent cannot be climbed back through, so follow the drop-and-slide path and do a running jump onto the side ledge, which is a little buggy right now. Hop on a Reclaimer, disrupt it, and it carries you back to the ground. Then walk to an extraction and get out before the lobby converges on you.
All of that effort is for one reason, so let's look at what the ship actually pays out.
What Loot To Get from the Frigate
Amplification Modules (Mk I to Mk V)
The headline reward. Amplification Modules are required to craft the new Amplified tier of weapons, and they drop only from the Frigate's breach containers and from inside the fallen Emperor on Pendola Pass. The Marks correspond to weapon rarity, with Mk V confirmed from Frigate hull ports. Move one into your safe pocket the instant you find it.
Frigate Inductor
A new Legendary material tied to the Research Station, needed for its Level 4 upgrade. It appears in the Cargo loot spots, so finishing the full puzzle is the way to farm it.
ARC Data Module and Frigate Diagnostic Node
Both are new research items in ARC Raiders that show up in the round breach containers. Their exact uses are still being mapped, but they are rare and worth every slot.
ARC parts and materials
Every container also drops a pile of ARC components, armor pieces, and crafting materials. The fire rooms in particular are dense with ARC parts once their cores are disabled.
Where the containers are, in order
Wing vents: four breach containers before the elevator, per side
Elevator area: one small loot point
Jumping puzzle: several containers on the platform walls
Top deck corridors and vents: multiple containers on the way to the fire rooms
Fire rooms: around three containers each, plus the core
Cargo: 24 loot spots split across two sides
What not to bother with
Hydra wrecks drop light ammo and ARC armor only. Surface loot is reduced during the condition. Spend your time on the ship.
More Tips for the Frigate
Treat the lobby as temporary allies. The puzzle needs three people for the levers and two for the elevator, and the Cargo has enough slots for everyone.
Pop Power Cores 3 and 4 from the bottom platform before you ever climb.
Disable each fire room core before looting inside it.
Never trust a stranger on the platform button unless you have to.
Over-pack ammo and medical items, then over-pack again.
Stash Amplification Modules and Frigate Inductors in safe pockets immediately.
The Frigate is still brand new and the community is learning more every day. If you find a shortcut, a hidden container, or a faster way off the ship, share it. For now, grab your hook, fill your bag with heavy ammo, and go board the biggest thing ARC Raiders has ever put in the sky.
