ARC Raiders Frigate Guide: Board, Cores and Cargo Loot

The Frigate is the ARC warship that arrived with Frozen Trail, and it is the hardest thing you can do in a raid right now. This ARC Raiders Frigate guide walks through how to board it, how to beat the Hydra, which Power Cores to break, how to release the cargo and how to leave with Amplification Modules, the material every Amplified weapon needs.

What the Frigate is and when it shows up

The Frigate is a huge flying ARC ship that patrols the Rust Belt. Embark added it in the Frozen Trail 2.0 update on October 8, 2026 as a new map condition, next to Redirection, and described it as a place full of rare tech that Speranza has never seen. You cannot shoot it down from the ground. You climb aboard and take it apart from the inside.

Because it is a map condition, it does not appear in every raid. Open Map Selection and look for ARC Frigate under a map's name before you deploy. Players have boarded it on Pendola Pass, Dam Battlegrounds and Buried City, so it is not tied to the new map. Once it arrives it holds one position for the whole raid, which gives you time to clear it, but the full route takes most of a raid. Head for it as soon as you land instead of looting the far side of the map first.

How to board the Frigate

You do not climb the hull from the ground. The way up is the Reclaimers: round ARC platforms that travel between the surface and the underside of the ship. They do not shoot at you, but the Frigate's own heavy gun underneath does, so approach from an angle and do not stand under the ship for long.

1. Find the platforms. Go to the back of the Frigate and watch for round Reclaimers moving down to the ground.
2. Step on top. Climb onto one while it is low and stand on the disc.
3. Use Disrupt on its centre. This is the breach-style interaction that sends the platform back up.
4. Ride it to the hull. Step off once it docks, and the objective changes to finding a way on top of the ship.
5. Watch the boarding point. Other squads use the same platforms, so clear the area first. A rider on a slow platform is an easy target.

Embark lists one boarding bug as a known issue: a Reclaimer can occasionally fail to dock in the right spot, and vaulting onto one can push you off. If your platform stops short, wait for the next one rather than jumping.

The Frigate route, step by step

Every stage you open spawns more ARC, so clear as you go and keep the squad together. This is the order that works for most squads:

1. The first lift. Its buttons must be pressed at the same time, so two or three Raiders stand on them together. A Snap Hook or Grappling Hook can skip it.
2. Hydras on the deck. Several Hydras rise out of the deck, two at first and more after, with Rocketeers and Vaporizers joining in. A destroyed Hydra stays down.
3. Yellow targets. Shoot the small yellow targets on the walls. When a side is cleared, its wall folds out into steps to the next level, and the opened compartments hold loot too.
4. The central Power Core. Three Move Up panels sit around the big ring in the middle. With a Raider on each, a large core rises. Destroy everything on it.
5. Every other Power Core. Shielded coils sit along both sides and in the corners. Activate one, then focus fire on it together, ideally from above once the ARC below calm down.
6. The small core at the bottom. When all cores seem done and nothing happens, look for a red-lit hatch that drops into a chamber with one last small core. Breaking it opens the bottom of the ship.
7. Release the cargo. The cargo hangs in the bottom middle. Open the red panels (two Raiders at once), break the core inside, then two Raiders use the release panels on opposite sides at the same time, repeating until it lets go.
8. Ride it down and loot. Stand on the cargo as it drops. It lands somewhere on the map, and every round container on it can be breached and searched.

How to beat the Hydra

The Hydra is a stationary turret built from three stacked sections, and each section can pick its own target. Embark calls it a multi-tasking squad killer that guards both the Frigate and the Emperor. It cannot chase you, but it punishes anyone who stands still in its line of fire.

1. Spread out. Never stack the whole squad behind one piece of cover. Attacking from different angles splits its fire.
2. Peek and hide. Deal damage in short bursts and step back into hard cover before the next volley.
3. Kill the adds first. Rocketeers, Vaporizers and fire-starting Fireflies on the deck are what usually down Raiders, not the Hydra alone.
4. Bring armor-breaking damage. Frozen Trail reworked explosive damage against ARC: explosives such as the Hullcracker now deal over 50% more to armor plates and around 30% less to fragile parts. Use them on plating, then switch to precise fire on weak points.
5. Do not loot it. A dead Hydra drops little of value, so keep moving.

Frigate loot and Amplification Modules

The prize is the Amplification Module, the material that turns a weapon into its Amplified version at your Outpost. The Frigate and the fallen Emperor on Pendola Pass are the only places that drop them, which is why this activity is worth the risk. Modules come in five marks that match weapon rarity:

Modules are not only at the end of the route. Players report round Breach and Search ports set into recessed hatches all over the hull, and any of them can roll a module, along with ARC parts and other high-tier ARC loot. Since 2.3.0, areas further inside have a higher chance of the better rolls, so the containers near where you board are the weakest. On busy lobbies the hull ports get emptied fast, which is one more reason to start early.

New to Amplification itself? Our ARC Raiders Outpost guide explains how the Outpost unlocks the fifth weapon tier and the Research Bench.

Best loadout for the Frigate

This is endgame content, so bring a real kit and more of everything than a normal loot run. Most squads that reach the cargo say they ran low on ammo, not health.

1. Armor damage: the Hullcracker or the Jupiter. Both work well on Hydra plating and core armor after the Frozen Trail changes.
2. Lots of ammo: carry spare stacks. Energy Clips and Launcher Ammo now have a daily purchase limit at traders, so stock up over several days.
3. Mobility: a Grappling Hook for the vertical interior, or a Snap Hook for short bursts. Frozen Trail cut the Snap Hook to 18 m range with a higher power cost and faster wear, so do not count on chaining it.
4. Shields and healing: two shields if you can and plenty of heals. The Heavy Shield's base charge went up from 80 to 90 in 2.3.0.
5. Defibrillators: one per Raider. A fall or a Hydra volley can drop a teammate instantly.
6. A big backpack: the cargo alone holds a dozen containers.

Squad up, team up or stay out

Three Raiders is the practical minimum, since the lift, the central core and the cargo all need players on panels at the same time. Solo and duo players can still board and loot the hull ports, but finishing the route means working with strangers. Proximity chat and a friendly wave go a long way, because other squads on board have the same problem. Just stay ready to fight anyway: once the cargo is open, temporary allies can turn into competitors.

If you want the Emperor instead, remember the key. In 2.3.0 Embark lowered the chance of the Emperor Key blueprint dropping from Redirection pods, so crafting a key now takes longer than it did at launch.

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Related guides: read the ARC Raiders map conditions guide to see how the rotation works, plan your attachments with the ARC Raiders best attachments guide, and make room for the haul with the ARC Raiders stash upgrades guide. For services, see ARC Raiders Frigate Boarding and ARC Raiders Amplified Weapons.