In ARC Raiders, Queen and Matriarch are the most frequently encountered units in boss battles, both massive mechs that require your serious attention. They are often the targets of weekly challenges, requiring you to damage or defeat them.

Defeating them will reward you with many rare materials and equipment. This is why everyone is eager to complete Queen and Matriarch damage quests. However, dealing high damage or defeating Queen and Matriarch is not an easy task.

First, you need to understand the maps and conditions where they appear. Second, you need to know which weapons are best suited for dealing high damage to them, and what strategies you and your teammates need? These questions must be clear before you begin.

This guide will provide solutions to these problems, helping you to damage Queen and Matriarch.

Basic Information

Queen

Queen appears during Harvester event on Acerra Spaceport and Dam Battlegrounds. She has a high threat level and approximately 22,000 health. She has a unique mechanic: surrounding smaller monsters will lock onto and share the damage you deal to Queen, so you must eliminate these smaller ARC units before attacking.

Queen's weaknesses are concentrated in her leg joints and head core. Defeating Queen primarily drops Queen Cores and various rare materials.

Matriarch

Matriarch only appears after meeting specific North Line ARC upgrade conditions. It typically appears in the later stages of ARC Raiders raids, posing an extremely high threat level with significantly more health than Queen. Its unique mechanic is an invincibility shield, which periodically grants it complete immunity to damage; during this time, you must cease fire and wait for the shield to disappear.

Matriarch's weak point is located in its large red core at the center of its body, making it extremely difficult to defeat. Successfully defeating Matriarch primarily yields Matriarch Cores and valuable rewards such as advanced blueprints.

Recommended Equipment

Weapons

Anvil

Anvil is a single-action pistol that uses heavy ammunition and is currently considered a top-tier all-around weapon in ARC Raiders. Anvil has strong armor penetration capabilities, making it highly effective against Matriarch's high-shield defenses.

You can obtain ARC Raiders Anvil Blueprint by completing main story missions, or find it in Red-outlined zones on maps like Medical Research and Robotic Sandbox.

Map buffs such as Electromagnetic Storm also increase the drop rate, so it's recommended to prioritize these maps. Higher-risk maps have a higher probability of dropping high-level ARC Raiders Items.

Torrent A

Torrente is a rare light machine gun that uses medium ammunition. Its core role is close-range suppression, especially effective against dense swarms of ARC drones in PvE.

Shields

Light Shield

Light Shield is a lightweight basic shield designed entirely around mobility. Its key advantage is that it doesn't reduce movement speed, allowing you to maintain maximum mobility for evasion and kiting.

Medium Shield

Medium Shield is designed to strike a balance between movement speed and defensive capabilities. Compared to Light Shield, it offers stronger protection, but at the cost of a slight movement speed penalty - reducing movement speed by 5%.

Before attempting to equip Medium Shield, you need to craft a strong Augment compatible with either Tactical MK.1 or Combat MK.1 using Lance. Most early ARC Raider Augments were only compatible with Light Shield, so you'll need to unlock the correct Augment before using Medium Shield.

Other Equipment

• Deadlines: Detonates after 6 seconds, dealing 1000 area damage, making it an efficient tool for pinpoint elimination.
• Raider Hatch Key: This key allows for silent extraction from Raider hatches on the map, without triggering alarms or attracting ARC attention, and without waiting.
• Photoelectric Cloak: Grants brief invisibility, allowing you to evade ARC detection systems and enemies.
• Snap Hook: Launching a hook allows for rapid movement and climbing, greatly enhancing mobility during operations.

In addition to ARC Raiders Items mentioned above, you'll also need to carry some medkits for emergencies.

Combat Strategy

Map selection isn't crucial when challenging Queen or Matriarch, as they are virtually everywhere. Another key piece of gear is Hullcracker, used to destroy the comet before it self-destructs, allowing you to obtain the Ignition from its core.

Since matchmaking can easily place you into already started matches (the boss may have already been defeated), a matchmaking tip is to watch the matchmaking timer at the bottom of the screen: once 45 seconds have elapsed, cancel the queue and re-match.

Repeat this process to ensure you get into a full game. If you wait longer than 45 seconds (approximately 50-60 seconds), the system will pull you into an ongoing match. Queen or Matriarch has often already fallen.

When a Matriarch takes damage in combat, it will summon a large number of ARC units, including Rocketeers, Bashes, Leapers, and Bombardiers, as well as Fireballs, Ticks, Wasps, and Hornets. This is the perfect time to use your equipped items.

Use the grappling hook when Matriarch is stationary or moving slowly. After successfully hooking it, its central core may be protected by armor. In this case, you must first use a Torent A to penetrate the armor before placing Deadlines. It is recommended to place two traps at a time; theoretically, three can be placed, but the margin for error is extremely low, and any misoperation can lead to failure.

Evacuation and Safety Precautions

After placing traps, you must quickly move away. Always maintain a safe distance of at least 10 meters from Deadlines. Being within 10 meters will result in being knocked down, potentially losing all equipment, and being forced to return to base. When jumping down from Matriarch's head, observe its direction of movement and jump in the opposite direction; otherwise, you will be stuck on its head and fail.

Upon landing, you'll typically experience a brief stagger and dizziness. During this time, Matriarch's legs move rapidly, making you easily knocked down. Therefore, immediately regain your footing and return to a safe area. After recovering health, repeat the above process - grappling hook, armor break, place Deadlines, and retreat.

Okay, that's how to easily deal high damage to Queen and Matriarch in ARC Raiders. I've verified it; the risk is extremely low. I hope this helps you.

The last update to ARC Raiders introduced new weapons and equipment for raiders, including Canto, Dolabra, and Surge Coil, exciting news for players who already own most of the existing ARC Raiders weapons.

From top-tier weapons to the most practical equipment, how do they function, in what environments are they suitable, and how do you obtain them? This guide will answer all your questions.

Legendary Shotgun - Dolabra

Dolabra is primarily used against heavily armored enemies in ARC Raiders, such as Vaporizers and Shredders. Its Aim-DDS mode fires a highly penetrating beam of energy, capable of destroying a Raider's heavy shield in just two shots, and is particularly adept at tearing through the sturdy armor of ARC units.

In the current weapon ratings, Dolabra is considered a powerful S-tier weapon. As the only energy shotgun, it boasts the longest range of its kind, making it the ultimate dream for offensive players and effectively punishing any enemy who makes a misstep. Dolabra is unique in that it features a dual-mode firing system-hip-fire and aimed-fire.

In hip-fire mode, Dolabra fires a wide-range, cone-shaped energy wave, dealing widespread damage, ideal for clearing swarms of ARC enemies at close range.

In aimed-fire mode, Dolabra concentrates its energy into a high-density laser beam, specifically designed for precise strikes against high-value targets or dealing massive damage. It's perfect for completing the recently updated Expedition Project system.

It's not suitable for long-range use and requires precise positioning in combat. Its immense power means that a mistake could be severely penalized by its slow reload speed.

Acquisition Method

Obtaining Dolabra blueprint is the only way to permanently unlock this weapon. Unlike other ARC Raiders items, it cannot be obtained from fixed locations; instead, it's tied to specific map states and powerful enemies, making it one of the hardest blueprints to acquire in the entire ARC Raiders.

Dolabra's blueprint is a random drop from ARC Assessors during Close Scrutiny map event. You need to confirm the map's status as Close Scrutiny before entering; this event rotates hourly on maps like Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, and Blue Gate.

Once a map enters Close Scrutiny event, three ARC Assessors will spawn, carrying the most valuable loot on the entire map. However, they will be surrounded by numerous ARC units, and many players will gather there to contest the loot, making it a very high-risk area.

If you want to obtain Dolabra or other rare ARC Raiders Blueprints here, you should bring comprehensive gear, such as a high-defense shield, a cloak of invisibility, a weapon with wide-area damage, and a safe pocket to take high-value items out of the match.

The Best Weapon for Close-Combat - Canto

Canto submachine gun is widely recognized by the player community as the most suitable high-damage weapon for close-combat PvP, also effective against AI. However, its strengths and weaknesses are both very pronounced.

Its strengths include extremely high close-range burst damage, resulting in very fast kill speeds at close to medium range, making it a powerful tool for PvP and eliminating humanoid AI.

It also features a unique heat sink system. The longer the trigger is held down, the faster the rate of fire, creating powerful suppressive fire in close-quarters combat.

Furthermore, it uses medium ammunition, which has greater power than weapons using light ammunition. This ammunition is relatively common in ARC Raiders matches, allowing for readily available supplies and strong sustained combat capability.

Its weaknesses are also obvious. Canto is a weapon that requires practice to master. Its recoil is significant, especially during sustained fire, making it difficult to control. If you don't fire close to the target, you'll waste a large portion of your ammunition. Therefore, you'll need to improve this situation by using short bursts and adding attachments.

Furthermore, you should upgrade your Canto to increase its magazine capacity, as Canto requires at least 19 rounds to break through an enemy equipped with a light shield, while the basic magazine only holds 18 rounds. Alternatively, you can use weapon attachments to expand the magazine.

Acquisition Method

In maps where Hurricane event is active, finding and opening First Wave Caches has a chance to yield a Canto.

It's recommended to choose Dam Battlegrounds or Blue Gate, focusing on heading straight to Raider Cache locations marked on the map. If you haven't found one after 5-8 minutes, it's advisable to evacuate and re-match.

Visibility is very low in Hurricane, so remember to rely on sound to track Caches. Hurricane Caches emit unique mechanical beeps or electrical hums, unlike the ticking sound of regular chests. This characteristic will help you locate Hurricane Caches more quickly.

Secondly, during Close Scrutiny event, Combat Supplies and weapon crates on the map have a chance to drop Canto blueprint, which can be used as an auxiliary route. This route is much more dangerous than the one mentioned above.

Best Strategic Deployment - Surge Coil

After deploying a Surge Coil around you, it will release an electric shock and briefly stun any unit near you, whether it's an ARC, an enemy player, or even yourself.

Surge Coil is excellent for blocking narrow passageways, stairwells, and other key areas; it can also provide temporary protection when reviving teammates, opening supply crates, or extracting; deploying a Surge Coil at the top of a zipline will stun enemy players during the slide and throw them off the zipline.

In PvP, it can also be hidden in doorways or blind spots, making it ideal as a deadly trap to deliver unexpected heavy damage to opponents.

Although it can deal damage, as a rare item among ARC Raiders, it has very low health, is easily destroyed, and attacks indiscriminately. Once deployed, it remains until it is destroyed. Therefore, be extremely careful when deploying it.

Acquisition Methods

Surge Coil blueprint only appears during Electromagnetic Storm map event. It's recommended to enter Dam Battlegrounds as soon as Electromagnetic Storm appears.

There is no fixed spawn point for Surge Coil on the map. You can go to Research and Administration area and Hydroponic Dome Complex. These areas have a high density of containers, increasing the probability of blueprint spawns, and may even randomly spawn Surge Coil blueprint.

Alternatively, you can collect more keys to open key rooms. After ARC Raiders Flashpoint update, the value of loot in key rooms has doubled, and the chance of finding high-level ARC Raiders Items and Blueprints is also higher.

ARC Raiders brings players one surprise after another. You are already familiar with the powerful weapons and equipment in Flashpoint update. Choose the appropriate weapons or equipment according to your needs to complete the final mission and prepare for the upcoming Riven Tides.