The mysterious ARC present in Arc Raiders is made up of several lethal machines equipped with all manner of weapons: machine guns, missiles, kinetic energy, electricity, or just crushing you with their physical bulk.
They have already wiped out most of humanity, and those that are left, especially those going above ground like Raiders, have to deal with the threat of them at all times. One wrong move, and a Bastion or Bombardier can slaughter a whole group in minutes. These enemies have to be eliminated, though – for Speranza, for humanity, to retake the planet, and for the precious materials they contain.
How To Destroy Bastions And Get Bastion Cells
Bastions are massive, tick-shaped ARC machines with black-gray plating, and they come equipped with a powerful machine gun capable of ripping through your shield and health in seconds, even if you’ve got a Medium or Heavy one.
Unlike their Bombardier brethren, Bastions don’t come with any additional allies and instead rely solely on line-of-sight to see you, and their machine gun is their only weapon.
Try to eliminate any smaller enemies nearby first, such as Wasps and Hornets, as Bastions often have at least one near them, and the loud gunfire can often attract them and make the fight much harder.
Once aggro’d onto you, a Bastion will fire its machine gun at you for several seconds while attempting to circle your location if you’re in cover. If you’re not in cover, they’ll take a more direct path toward you, but they still tend to try and circle wherever you are.
Whatever method you use to fight them, the best strategy to survive and kill the Bastion is to find good cover, such as the rocket parts outside the Rocket Assembly on Spaceport, inside a building without windows or with ones you can crouch under, or a building with at least two exits that you can go between.
Bastion and other ARC enemies can manage to shoot through even tiny gaps, so be careful you aren’t accidentally standing in front of a window, a gap between machinery, or any other empty sections.
Start by throwing or deploying any explosives you have at Bastion, focusing on the main body or the back panel, so you can do as much damage to it as possible. If aimed properly or if you’ve got at least six or more, you can often destroy the Bastion with just those.
When or if you run out of explosives, pull out your best weapon with ARC Armor Penetration and begin aiming for the yellow leg joints to try and cripple the Basion and do significant damage to it.
For daring players, it’s possible to climb on top of a Bastion and either shoot or melee it to death, as it can’t attack you if you’re on top of it.
This can be done by climbing onto it, but it’s far easier to do so after you’ve stunned the Bastion with a grenade, or it’s been pre-disabled with a lightning strike on a map having an Electromagnetic Storm.
Doing enough damage to the Bastion will cause it to explode and kill it, leaving behind a pile of debris, all of which can be looted for materials like ARC Alloy, ARC Circuits, and Medium Gun Parts.
Bastion Cells, their unique loot, are most commonly found in the debris from the main body and legs, and each piece has a chance to drop one cell. On average, you’ll get between three to four Bastion Cells, but it’s possible to get upwards of six if you’re lucky and the smaller debris also drops them.
Bastion Cells are primarily used to upgrade your Gear Bench to Level III, but they can also be sold for 5,000 Credits per cell, or they can be recycled into two ARC Alloy and two Advanced Mechanical Components per cell.
Bastion Locations
Bastions can appear on every map in certain locations, but you’ll find them on Spaceport, The Blue Gate, and Buried City most consistently. Dam Battleground has a slightly lower chance of spawning more difficult enemies on it, outside Leapers and Rocketeers.
|
Map |
Bastion Spawning Spots |
|---|---|
|
Dam Battleground |
North of the Hydroponic Dome Complex Left of the Testing Annex |
|
Buried City |
On the street outside the Hospital. Piazza Arbusto Outside of Town Hall |
|
Spaceport |
Outside of Rocket Assembly Between Vehicle Maintenance and Container Storage Outside the West and East Hangars Outside Launch Towers |
|
The Blue Gate |
Inside the tunnels beneath the Headhouse Near the Outer Gates Outside the Maintenance Bunker |
How To Destroy A Bombardier And Get Bombardier Cells
The Bombardier is the Bastion’s more dangerous cousin. It has a similar shape and weak points, but is white and light blue instead of black, and it comes equipped with an incredibly accurate canon and two unique, flying allies called Spotters.
Bombardiers prefer to stay at range and use their cannon to shoot at you, similar to the Rocketeer, while their Spotters will fly around and attempt to locate you.
Spotters periodically respawn as you destroy them, but they don’t do any damage, nor will they attack you, so they’re easy to take out in a few shots with most weapons.
When a Spotter notices you, it will shine a yellow laser on you and tell the Bombardier your exact location for it to aim at, so you must take cover in a building with a closed ceiling. Anything without a ceiling or openings in the roof can be fired through, and the Bombardier can easily thread its missiles through small gaps.
Overall, the Bombardier won’t move too much due to its massive range, and it will mostly rely on its Spotters to pinpoint your location, but you can easily shoot down the Spotters to make it more difficult for them to find you.
Find a relatively safe location with a ceiling, multiple exits, and as few windows as possible, such as the apartments in Piazza Rosa in the Buried City, and start by tossing any explosives at the Bombardier you have, especially Trigger Nades, Blaze Nades, or Wolfpacks.
If you’re fighting the Bombardier that spawns on the top level of the Parking Garage in Buried City, you can toss Trigger Nades onto it, then drop to the level below and detonate them safely from beneath.
When you run out of explosives, swap to your weapons with ARC Armor Penetration and begin shooting at its weak points. This fight is very similar to fighting a Bastion, and the same strategies can apply here.
Take out any Spotters that approach as they spawn back in, and duck back into cover the second you get hit, as two shots can deplete your shield entirely and kill you with a Light Shield equipped, while having a Medium and Heavy Shield allows you to take about three and four hits, respectively.
Similar to the Bastion again, there are a couple of seconds of downtime in between the Bombardier’s shots that you can take advantage of, and it’s your best time to try and destroy its weak points.
When destroyed, the Bombardier will collapse into several piles of debris, including the main body and legs, and any leg pieces you’ve blown off while hitting its leg joints.
The Bombardier Cells most commonly spawn in the main body and legs, just like the Bastion, and you’ll also generally end up with three to four of them on average. If you’re lucky, the leg pieces will also have some, and you can get around six.
Bombardier Cells are primarily used to upgrade your Refiner to Level III, and like the Bastion Cell, they can be sold for 5,000 Credits per cell, or they can be recycled into two ARC Alloy and two Advanced Mechanical Components.
Bombardier Locations
Bombardiers and Bastions tend to spawn in some of the same spots, but the Bombardier has some exclusive spawning locations and is more common on the Buried City and The Blue Gate than on the other two maps.
|
Map |
Bombardier Spawning Spots |
|---|---|
|
Dam Battleground |
North of the Hydroponic Dome Complex |
|
Buried City |
On the street outside the Hospital On top of the Parking Garage Near Piazza Roma |
|
Spaceport |
Near the West Elevator. Outside the Shipping Warehouse |
|
The Blue Gate |
Trapper’s Glade Inside the Checkpoint Ruins near the Ridgeline Outside the Warehouse Complex |
Bastion And Bombardier Weak Points
Bastions and Bombardiers both have the same six weak spots you’ll want to target: the yellow joints on all four of its legs, the more exposed yellow canister on its back side, near the very bottom of its body, and a barrel-shaped part hidden by the yellow canister.
These points have less armor on them, so they’re more susceptible to damage from weapons with low ARC Armor Penetration, like the Burletta. Destroying the canister on its back will also expose its sixth weak point, the inner mechanism that takes the most damage out of all parts.
Destroying the leg joints will break pieces of its legs off, crippling it and hindering its ability to walk around, and if any of the leg joints or the canister are broken, it will stun it for a couple of seconds and give you time to do some free damage without getting shot at.
Blown off leg pieces from Bastions can be looted for materials like Advanced ARC Powercells and ARC Powercells, but only the main leg parts and the body itself have Bastion Cells. Searching them for loot will still give you EXP.
Hitting the back panel does more damage to it than if you aim for the leg joints or the main body, but it’s also the most difficult spot to aim for unless multiple players are fighting the Bastion or Bombardier at one time, or you’re using a Jolt Mine, Showstopper, or Lure Grenade to distract or stun it.
Best Weapons For Fighting Bastions And Bombardiers
As Bastions and Bombardiers are incredibly similar, the same weapons can work against both of them. Since they lack unarmored or armored rotors you can target, you’ll want weapons with at least Moderate ARC Armor Penetration to do significant damage to them, especially if you aren’t targeting their weak points or can’t get to them easily.
Heavy Fuse Nades and Explosive Mines also work, but they’re a bit more dangerous to use due to the Heavy Fuse Nades rolling and the Explosive Mines’ need to manually deploy them, which takes a couple of seconds.
If you have access to explosives, either ones you’ve looted or ones you can craft at an Explosives Station, destroying a Bastion or Bombardier is much easier, as its slow speed, large size, and being ground-based make it extremely susceptible to most explosives. Any can work, but the best to use are:
- The Wolfpack, an incredibly strong and ARC-specific explosive that does a ton of damage.
- Trigger Nades, a very accurate and powerful alternative to the Wolfpack. Their recipe is unlocked by completing the quest, Sparks Fly.
- Blaze Grenades do great damage to its leg joints, and it will often sit in them for the majority of its duration.
- Snap Nades aren’t as accurate as Trigger Nades, but they still do good damage and are relatively easy to hit a Bastion or Bombardier with.
The Osprey can also work by sniping them from afar, but the Bastion’s great accuracy and range mean it can often hit you from afar, and this applies to the Bombardier as well if you don’t have ceiling cover.
For guns, you have several good options to bring against them:
|
Moderate Armor Penetration |
Strong Armor Penetration |
Very Strong Armor Penetration |
|
Arpeggio Venator Renegade Osprey Torrente Rattler |
Anvil Bettina Ferro |
Hullcracker |
Overall, the two cheapest options to use are the Ferro and the Anvil. The Ferro is easily crafted at a Workbench or Gunsmith Station, while you can purchase up to three Anvils per day from Tian Wen for 15,000 Credits each if you don’t have the blueprint.
The Heavy Ammo they need is easily craftable at a Workbench with Metal Parts and Chemicals, and they have similar damage and range stats, with the main difference being that the Anvil has six shots while the Ferro has one.
If you lack explosives at all, you’ll need around 160 Heavy Ammo to kill a Bastion with an Anvil if you’re focusing on its weak points, and you’ll likely need a second gun as a backup.
They do great damage to their weak points, and they have the armor penetration to still do decent damage even if you’re targeting its body or eye, so you’ll be doing more consistent damage overall instead of needing to wait for it to turn around to reach its back panel or get a good visual on its legs.
If you have the credits to purchase one from Tian Wen – or multiple over a few days, as it’s limited to one per day – and can craft or purchase Launcher Ammo from her as well, the Hullcracker is the best weapon to use as far as sheer damage numbers go.
It has the best ARC armor penetration of any weapon in the game, and a few shots can tear through a Bastion or Bombardier, leaving it heavily damaged or even dead if you hit its exposed back panel.
Best Items To Bring When Fighting Bastions And Bombardiers
Any time you plan to fight a stronger ARC enemy, it’s important to be prepared for the heavy damage it can output and potentially dealing with hostile players.
The base loadout you should bring is five Shield Rechargers, five Bandages, and five Herbal Bandages, but when dealing with an enemy like the Bastion or Bombardier, the best option to bring is:
- Ten Shield Rechargers, as your shield is overall the most important to keep up, and the Bastion’s gun tears through it easily.
- Ten Bandages of any kind, or around six Sterilized Bandages, to make sure you can keep your health up.
- A few Adrenaline Shots, as they fully restore your stamina and increase your stamina regeneration briefly, and are incredibly useful if you get caught out of cover or need stamina for a few more dodgerolls.
- A Defibrillator or two, as even if you’re solo, it can help anyone who helps you out with the fight.
- Around six Trigger Nades, Snap Nades, or Blaze Grenades, and between three to four Wolfpacks if you’re bringing them instead.
Vita Shots and Vita Spray work perfectly fine, but since they’re more difficult to craft and find, it can be more cost-effective to use the cheaper, less effective items.
You’ll need a Level II Gear Bench to make Rare Augments, and the best medical items, such as Herbal Bandages, are crafted at either a Level II or a Level III Medical Bench.
Any Shield is better than none against Bastions and Bombardiers, but you’ll want to go for Medium at least if possible, since it offers better protection, and the Augments it works with offer helpful perks, such as the Tactical MK. 2’s ability to drop a smoke grenade when your shield breaks.
